Introduction:

     Zalman has re-released one of their most innovative products with improved features dubbed the Reserator 1 Plus. The retail water cooling kit includes the main Reserator 1 Plus extruded aluminum tower, which serves as a reservoir and radiator while housing the submersible water pump, coupled with the redesigned ZM-WB3 Gold CPU water block and the ZM-GWB2 VGA water block. The kit can also be used in conjunction with the optional ZM-NWB1 Northbridge water block. This kit is designed to provide consumers who are new to the water-cooling experience and out of the box system that will provide silent operation with performance comparable to traditional air systems.

Out of box:

            The kit comes in a rather large box which contains the components packed better than anything I have seen before.

    First out of the box is approximately 13 feet of 1/2in OD super flexible silicone hose along with a very nice manual. The manual is well over 1/2 Asian but does feature great illustrations and written material well beyond the simple plug and play. Extensive drawings and dismantling procedures are also included for part replacement. All said and done it is more than you should need to get up and running.

    The CPU water block is also quite easy to install - although the bracketry does require a moments thought on assembly. After that it is all downhill - and Zalman is even nice enough to provide several extra parts and back-plates for various socketry. The water block is quite well constructed and has a nice reflective finish on the bottom.

      Zalman provides optional barbed adapters as well as the pre-installed retention nut adapters to secure the hose to the water block. I would highly recommend the pre-installed retention nut system as it is much easier to use and performs as well or better than the barbed adapters do. Installation doesn't get much easier here either - screw the mounting posts into the backplate, position the water block and retention clip, install the last two screws and you are done! As mentioned earlier Zalman provides easy mounting systems for a variety of common sockets.

    The tower itself is purely utilitarian. It stands approximately 23 inches tall and is 6 inches wide. Power is controlled via an in-line power toggle on the power cord of the unit. The top lid and base both can be unscrewed with nothing to see inside except a submersible pump mounted to the bottom plate.

   I ran this system for approximately a week on my test bed and experienced some very strange leakage with it. As a preface nothing leaked except for the white quick-disconnects installed in the base of the tower and in a nutshell nothing leaked for two days.

   On day three I noticed a few drips and drained the system. I tightened the cylindrical middle piece on the base and refilled and experienced the same very very slow leak. I drained the system again and eventually got both the white quick-disconnects unscrewed. The right one proved to be the source of the leak. There was approximately one winding of teflon tape on the threads of these and no amount of tightening would stop the leak. I ended up using about five windings of heavy duty teflon tape and that completely stopped the leak. I would suggest any consumer using this system for the first time re-teflon the base quick-disconnects.

   On a side note - do not try to use tools to unscrew or re-install the adapters. They can be finger loosened and should only be finger tightened - with proper use of teflon this is all that is required.