Gigabyte 3D Galaxy WC kit

[Strages]

This is a new WC'ing kit from Gigabyte. It was featured at computex and was also mentioned in Ed's write-up about Computex on the front page. A review by X-Bit Labs can be found here: http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/other/display/gigabyte-3dgalaxy.html

It looks to perform pretty much like every other WC'ing kit in it's price range (sub-$150; retails for $115): not that great when compared to high-end air. However, I'm not sure about the temps that they're getting as I don't have a prescott and don't have any thermal performance numbers to compare to. If any of you Prescott users could chime in with how this compares to your WC'ing, It'd be interesting to see how this kit stacks up.

[SewerBeing]

I'm not liking this kit, the clamps look insecure, I have no idea what that coolant it, squeezing the tubing through where a pci card goes squeezes the tubing and restricts flow. The heatsink that is actually a reservoir (can you trust a company that can't even gve the parts the proper names to give good performance?) is made of aluminum so you have mixed metals. I'm not liking this kit much.

[Strages]

Did you mean that the heatsink is actually a radiator? Because there is the "expansion tank" that is actually the reservoir. The "Heatsink" should actually be the radiator. I think that the fan over the waterblock to cool the area around the socket (MOSFETs, RAM, etc) is an interesting idea, though I don't know if it's really needed, but there shouldn't be any real downside to it.

It says that the tubing is made of polyvinylchloride - which says that's it's a vinyl-type tubing that reacts to UV (hence the chloride). This is probably the worst thing about this kit - the tubing. We all know how good vinyl tubing is :rolleyes:.

I didn't even realize the mixed metals/pci slot thing. I skimmed through the review pretty quickly to see the results. I'm about as impressed as I am with any Thermaltake product, ie "move along, nothing to see here, folks."

[deathBOB]

I like the thingy that tells you if the coolant is low. Thats a nice feature.

[Borgy]

I cant see the point of the fan on top of the waterblock
now if the block had a copper top with fins like a HSK then it might help cooling
I thought about making a top for my DD maze 3 like that but i would mean having some sharp 90' elbows

[Stratcat]

Wow, did I come to this discussion late, or what? :rolleyes:

Just happened to find it, just now, by using the search function, 'cuz I wanted to see if any OC'ers had used this product...sorry for the thread necro-resurrection.

Now, to the topic at hand:


It looks to perform pretty much like every other WC'ing kit in it's price range (sub-$150; retails for $115): not that great when compared to high-end air. However, I'm not sure about the temps that they're getting as I don't have a prescott and don't have any thermal performance numbers to compare to. If any of you Prescott users could chime in with how this compares to your WC'ing, It'd be interesting to see how this kit stacks up.I have several Prescotts on reasonably good air (Delta modded Zalman 7700cu's), and for the OC and relatively moderate overvolted Vcore used in the article, this system seems to perform reasonably well vs air. Actually somewhat better, IMO, tho I'd like to see some results at a higher Vcore, say, perhaps, on a droop-modded board running 1.5 - 1.55, to get a better perspective, and a more definitive answer.

What impresses me, tho, is that they ran the "long" version of S&M at 100% load, which is an extremely rigourous heat producer, when set to the 100% setting IME, and usually benches my Prescotts ~4 - 5*C higher than dual Priming torture testing.

I cant see the point of the fan on top of the waterblock
now if the block had a copper top with fins like a HSK then it might help cooling The fan is a feature that actual piqued my interest, and if implemented well, is a very good idea, IMO. The MOSFETs take a real beating during Prescott OC'ing, especially at higher Vcores, and FET failures have been common. I haven't had many issues, since my Zalmans very nicely fan out huge amounts of turbulent air over the FETs, and keep 'em reasonably cool. I always wondered what the issue was, when seeing so many other Presott OC peeps complaining about FET overheating probs. Only when I once temporarily ran another HSF that didn't cool the FETs, did I realize just how hot those baby's can get, and what all the fuss was about. When using H20 cpu cooling, all the cpu pwr FET cooling normally provided by the HSF is removed, leaving no prw FET cooling, except for whatever airflow is going through the case, or provided by blow holes, unless additional active cooling is provided. In addition, H20 not only removes the HSF FET cooling, but will usually allow for a slightly higher Vcore & OC, thus exasperating any FET stressing that occurs during OCing/Overvolting.

I can't comment on how cpu cooling fins on top of the waterblock may, or may not, assist in cpu cooling, but believe that adding active pwr FET cooling, when using H20, or if switching over to H20 from an HSF, is an excellent idea.

Belatedly - :shrug:

Strat