Installation

   One of the current projects we're engaged in at the FanBus Labs is a "from scratch" watercooling effort to gather basic information and test our fabrication skills.  Once we had the project box up and running, I noticed that even though the CPU was running nice and cool, the Northbridge was hot to the touch (no doubt caused by the bump in voltage necessary to achieve a mild overclock).  A perfect situation for the Thermaltake kit to prove its worth. 

   The instruction sheet is very detailed with universal drawings combined with brief text descriptions.  You can choose from one of two retention configurations depending on your mainboard.  Our DFI board needed the spring loaded posts in lieu of the clips also included. I attached the base to the chipset with a bit of thermal paste (included), and then the blower assembly screwed into the base in standard fashion.

   Next up was the Southbridge cooler, which consists of two small rectangular heat sinks that attach side-by-side to the Southbridge chip with thermal tape.  This chipset wasn't even warm to the touch beforehand, but I'm sure it doesn't cost very much to include them in the kit and it's a nice touch.

   Initially I plugged the unit into the mainboard chassis fan header since it was close by the fan.  Everything looked great and I was ready for the function test.  "Holy cleaning lady, Batman, it sounds like someone turned on the vacuum cleaner!"  I have seen larger Thermaltake blowers that help cool the case that were nice and quiet, but this little monster was wailing like a banshee.  It is audible from clear across the room, and since one of the primary reasons for building a water-cooled box is the noise reduction, this was very disappointing.  It was easily the loudest component in the box. 

   I was reluctant to utilize the back panel fan controller, as I really didn't want the extra wiring cluttering up the inside of the case (and I have never been a big fan of inaccessible slot-installed switch panels).  However, in the interest of doing a complete review (and to regain the zen-like quality of my happily burbling custom case) I gave it a second look.  First, I took the fan controller to my bench and hooked it up to the meter to test the output voltages.  I found that the high setting registered maximum, medium cut the voltage to around 10 Volts, and the low setting hung right around 7.5 Volts.  It was a simple matter to install it in the case and connect the blower to it.  I found that the high and medium settings were too loud, but the low setting works like a champ.  For such a small blower, it moves a lot of air. 

   OK, two things:  First, this mainboard is not what you would call state of the art, and second, the original heat sink wasn't even attached with any thermal paste.  Because of these two factors, I am certain that even on the low setting, the Northbridge is running a significant amount cooler.  I confirmed this by using the universally accepted and highly scientific "Finger Method" and found the chip to be cool to the touch, a vast improvement, even if it only results in increased longevity.  I wasn't able to achieve any higher overclocks with this cooler, but that is largely because the mainboard is limited in its overclocking abilities due to the PCI clock getting way out of specs with higher FSB settings. 

   I crashed the hard drive twice before I found the sweet spot, but you can read more about that in the article coming soon on my website.  At any rate, once the blower was sipping electricity rather than gulping it down, it proved to be a good-looking, functional piece.  A little more wire management, and this portion of the project will be complete.