Today CoolIT systems announced the Omni sealed liquid cooler for the new line of ATI Evergreen GPUs, such as the Radeon HD 5850 and 5870. One of the primary features they are touting is a new universal liquid plate that is meant to work on future GPUs as well as current ones.

The CoolIT OMNI system

Similar to CoolIT’s other sealed units, such as their Domino ALC CPU cooler, the OMNI looks to be a quiet, maintenance free way to enter the world of liquid cooling. No word on pricing yet, but if it’s in line with their Domino, it won’t break the bank. They will be demoing the unit live at the AMD Technical Forum in Taipei tomorrow.

Icrontic Forums member Khaos is building a new computer. I know, I know… “Big deal,” right?

Thing is, Khaos is a cooling maniac. Way back in the primordial days of short-media.com he was educating us on phase change cooling. He gave us a crazy fanbus voltmod hack, and even built his own R404A phase-change cooler back in the day. So what’s next for Ikrontik’s King of Kooling?

A gigantic, custom-fabbed radiator, and glow-in-the-dark balls… That’s what. Follow his adventures on the forums!

It seems that most enthusiasts cross the line at one time or another. It is the point when fans alone just won’t cut it any longer. I still remember my first faithful dive into liquid cooling back in 2004. I put together a custom 1/2” system and modded my old Antec tower case for a dual 120mm radiator. I was able to overclock my Athlon XP well beyond its intended specifications, and took my Radeon 9800 Pro to new limits.

A lot has changed since 2004—especially in the aircooling market. Heatsinks are bigger and more efficient than ever. One look at my recent Thermalright TRUE 120 Black review proves just how far these modern towers have come. Although certainly not as popular as aircooling, watercooling still has quite a following. It has unfortunately always been just a bit out of reach for the average enthusiast—not so much due to cost, but rather the complexity.

Thermaltake hopes to bring a higher end watercooling system to the mainstream with their ProWater 850i. They have thrown a very complete watercooling system with all of the necessities into a box, and have made it univeral enough to fit a wide variety of cases. Today we’re going to take a look at the ProWater 850i and see if it lives up to its promise. (more…)