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How We Test: Watercooling Components
One of the challenges with testing individual watercooling components lies not with the component itself, but with maintaining consistency with theremaining pieces comprising the cooling loop. For this, we’ve chosen common, dependable watercooling loop hardware which is designed to limit any specific weakness and provide us with a consistent platform in which to isolate testing components. You can find our hardware list below.
Watercooling Hardware
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Pump
Swiftech MCP50X
Reservoir
Swiftech MCP35X/MCP50X rev.2B Acrylic
Fittings
Bitspower Matte Black ½”ID x ¾” OD Compression (x6)
Radiator
XSPC EX360
Fans
Scythe Ultra Kaze 3000 RPM 120mm (x3)
Tubing
½”ID x ¾”OD clear
Coolant
Distilled Water, no additives, coolants or dyes
Our watercooling testbed loop combines excellent flow rates, high-volume fans, and a great performing radiator to focus all results on those produced by the water block samples themselves. Here's a look at the rest of our testbed hawrdware.
Testing Hardware
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Power Supply
Seasonic SS-760KM 760watt, 80 Plus Gold
Thermal Probe, Fan Controller, Logger
CrystalFontz CFA-633 w/ Dallas One Wire DS18B20 sensors (x2)
Software
Prime96 v27.9, AVX FFT length 8k, each test is 2hr continuous run
Our testing hardware closely mimics the standard Intel CPU cooler test system, with the only differences being the AMD Threadripper 1900X processor instead of the Intel i7 5930k and MSI X399 Gaming Pro Carbon AC motherboard, rather than the MSI X99S XPower AC. While this does not allow for apples-to-apples comparisons with Intel tests, the majority of the environment variables are otherwise eliminated.
Garrett Carver is a contributor for Tom’s Hardware, primarily covering thermal compound comparisons and CPU cooling reviews; both air and liquid, including multiple variations of each.
