PC5-1326SL Installation and Operation
CPU-340 attachment hardware includes a base plate with mounting holes for several different socket types and four threaded pins. Unfortunately, we found out upon bumping one of the pins that the threads in our sample didn’t provide much support. A mere three threads are intended to hold the pieces together, and the fit simply wasn’t tight enough. Koolance promptly sent replacement parts with the tight thread fit needed to make its design work.
Not content to wait for shipping, we decided that it would be better to simply thread some long screws all the way through the plate from the back side. Screw heads provided two advantages over threaded pins in that they positively eliminate pull-through, and that they tighten into the plate, rather than working their way out of the plate, when spring-nuts are removed.
While the replacement parts were still in transit, the water block was installed using #6-32 UNC screws of 1.75” length rather than the stock threaded pins. A later test fit of the replacement parts proved that the threaded pins functioned identically, though we still have a little more faith in the added support that ordinary screws offer.
With the cooling block attached, we installed the motherboard into the case, followed by hard drives, a power supply, and graphics cards. The only added effort was to cut the coolant lines to length and “burp” the system.
“Burping,” or removing air from the system, was as easy as filling the RP-1000SL reservoir and powering the system on. But we didn’t want any power going to the motherboard before coolant reached the CPU. Koolance includes a jumper wire and instructions for turning on an ATX power supply without having it attached to the motherboard. The pump is capable of pushing air out of the radiator, even though the radiator sits above it, but getting the coolant moving at first required us to set the pump to its highest speed.
The RP-1000SL includes separate 10-step controls for pump and fan speeds, and both controls can also be set to automatically increase cooling power as temperatures increase.
At the lowest settings, the pump is nearly silent while the fans make a low-pitched whir at a noise level typical of pre-built systems. Setting the pump to its highest-speed setting results in a high-pitched whine, which is somewhat muffled by nearby components. Fans roar quite loudly at full speed, with an estimated maximum noise output of around 47 db based on the number and type of fans included in our kit.
While the fans are somewhat noisy, the case does a surprisingly adequate job of containing internal noises such as graphics card fans, in spite of its ventilated face and back panels. The noise reduction is likely due to the non-ventilated side panels, but Koolance prefers its buyers to select from the wide range of graphics and chipset coolers the company offers.
