News: HardOCP Corsair HydroCool Article

HardOCP Corsair HydroCool Article

Conclusion excerpt

Water cooling systems have come a long way from the days of home made water blocks and fish tank pumps. Having said that, watercooling enthusiasts have come to expect certain things from a watercooling kit or prebuilt watercooling unit. Having an easily serviceable set up is a must nowadays, as well is having a system that is easily interchangeable with other industry standard components like pumps and water blocks. Most wanting to watercool are looking for cutting edge performance and a cooling system that gives them room to expand, or they are looking for ease of use; many times coupled with peace and quiet…even if the cooling may only be marginally better than good air cooling. On a good day the Hydrocool 200 falls into the latter category, almost.

Looking at the Hydrocool 200 objectively, the system needs to have some design flaws addressed before it can be recommended to the performance crowd. The system would greatly benefit from a few minor tweaks but overall the Delphi CPU water block is what holds this system back. The “Microchannel Surface Technology”, while great in theory, falls short in many ways. Poor construction, less than stellar performance and a design that prevents any form of maintenance just isn’t acceptable. In the grand scheme of things, I would like to see Delphi put out another revision of this block that remedies problems we have outlined in this review. Quality control can easily address the concave mating surface of the block that should drastically improve the system’s cooling ability. Still though, you have to question the quality control of the manufacturing company that cannot machine something flat.