Amazing Passive Watercooling kit

I've decided to watercool my pc, Ive been contemplating the idea for a year! Now after many readings I've realized watercooling isnt exactly *silent* until I stumbled upon "passive watercooling". And since sweet serenity is really important to me I just loved this kit:

Im really thinking of getting it. Some of you probably read about it.. The Aquabox is what its called, Korean made, SILENT (no fans!), amazing looks, great overclocking potential (35 Degrees C maximum on a very stressed out Athlon 64 4000+!).

It has two waterblocks, one for CPU and the other you could use for a GPU or northbridge. Im gonna use it for my 3400+ hopefully to push it up to 240x12 and overclock my 3dcard which will most probably be a x800pro or xl.

Okay, I wouldnt say I'm the most knowledgable watercooler over here by any means .. So considering your expertise, what do you guys think? is it a winner or what?

The aquabox's radiator is the best reserator like design that Ive seen so far. The ratio of water thats in direct contact with the heatsink/radiator to the total amount of water is much greater than any thing else. Not to mention they do a nice top to bottom flow path. Instead of the inlet and outlet being at the same place at the bottom like in the reserator. Which a bunch of people at spcr.com have proven to be a big bottleneck by modding the inlet with some tubing to the top of a reserator and getting some good temp drops.

Only problem is the pump sucks, the waterblocks use some crappy plastic, and unless you are in Korea you'll probably never be able to buy it.

It seems to me that you could get the same if not better performance by using a copper core car radiator with a good pump for less. The issue is that of surface area. If you give enough cooling surface area, you really don't need fans to dissipate the heat provided of course that you have a pump with adequate pressure / flow. And as far as the UV reactive coolant, a $5 bottle of uv dye with a .60cents gallon of distilled water goes much further. I also am not crazy about the plastic top blocks. I prefer solid copper when possible.

voigts said:

It seems to me that you could get the same if not better performance by using a copper core car radiator with a good pump for less. The issue is that of surface area. If you give enough cooling surface area, you really don't need fans to dissipate the heat provided of course that you have a pump with adequate pressure / flow. And as far as the UV reactive coolant, a $5 bottle of uv dye with a .60cents gallon of distilled water goes much further. I also am not crazy about the plastic top blocks. I prefer solid copper when possible.

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While surface area is part of the key to passive cooling, its not the key. If all the surface area is packed close together, like in a HC, you arent going to get good performance with no fans on it.

The more dense the surface area is the more pressure you need to move air around it. Even in passive setups you are still moving air. Whether its a breeze in the house or convection.

You want the fins of whatever your radiator is to have a lot of space around them.

hmm..

1 - so you think the pump sucks - What better pump do you suggest?
2 - I admit the Waterblocks are a big drawback, I hate using plastic as much as the other guy.. a leak could prove fatal
3 - lets say I know a guy whos going to Korea and getting me one
4 - About using a copper car radiator, is it really possible to achieve the same performance *fanless*??

Sa3atsky said:

hmm..

1 - so you think the pump sucks - What better pump do you suggest?
2 - I admit the Waterblocks are a big drawback, I hate using plastic as much as the other guy.. a leak could prove fatal
3 - lets say I know a guy whos going to Korea and getting me one
4 - About using a copper car radiator, is it really possible to achieve the same performance *fanless*??

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1 - eheim 1048 would push more water and probably be quieter but its AC. mcp350 is DC but a little louder.
2 - the actual blocks arent bad, very nice finish, pin fin design is good, its the same as what the mcw5000 series was just with a plastic top. Only bad thing is that plastic is most likely goign to crack at some point in time
3 - CAN YOU GET ME ONE TOO?!?!?! Obviously Id pay. Well depending on how much it was US$. Well if you are in the US too. Eh looking at your profile Im guessing you arent
4 - No, a car radiator or heatercore performs pretty crappy with no fans. hanging a HC out a window during winter has proven pretty good though.

4 - A copper heatercore isnt big enough to dissipate enough heat. A fullsize automotive engine radiator is big enough, but the dimensions of those are measured in feet as opposed to inches

voigts said:

It seems to me that you could get the same if not better performance by using a copper core car radiator with a good pump for less. The issue is that of surface area. If you give enough cooling surface area, you really don't need fans to dissipate the heat provided of course that you have a pump with adequate pressure / flow. And as far as the UV reactive coolant, a $5 bottle of uv dye with a .60cents gallon of distilled water goes much further. I also am not crazy about the plastic top blocks. I prefer solid copper when possible.

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yes there are definetly other options but for a kit its not half bad
also i agree w/ the plastic top blocks i like metal or acetel

itchy5 said:

yes there are definetly other options but for a kit its not half bad
also i agree w/ the plastic top blocks i like metal or acetel

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So what are the options itch? From what Im making, better pump and ofcourse metal top blocks.. But really, I could just get kit and get separate metal blocks, the pump included would perform good as seen in the review it cooled the hell out of the FX..
What do you thinx?

by the time you get the kit...pay for new blocks and get a pump, you will have paid as much if not more than if you just custom built a system yourself with select parts. just my opinion. Also are you a resident of Bahrain or are you in the military? Ive been deployed to the base there many times over the years lol

Would be nice if they only sold the passive radiator for... say $100usd. And you can piece together the rest of the kit. It looks good but I wouldn't pay $275 for it.

I just went to there site. They got a lot of pictures of it, and it looks smaller than I thought.

http://www.aquabox.co.kr/bbs/zboard.php?id=SystemGallery&no=291

A gripe I got is they use those silicone (I think) end caps on the bottom of the radiator too.

hitokiri_808 said:

Would be nice if they only sold the passive radiator for... say $100usd. And you can piece together the rest of the kit. It looks good but I wouldn't pay $275 for it.

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Yeah that radiator is beautiful .. and I agree its a little bit on the expensive side

EgoMan said:

by the time you get the kit...pay for new blocks and get a pump, you will have paid as much if not more than if you just custom built a system yourself with select parts. just my opinion. Also are you a resident of Bahrain or are you in the military? Ive been deployed to the base there many times over the years lol

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Youre right about that too, it aint worth getting a kit and then replacing the parts.. and yeah I'm actually a resident, but its always cool to meet fellow oc'ers so call me up the next time youre deployed for a lanparty or somethin

Are there any other passive h20 kits I should be considering other than this one? What about a custom built one by myself..? I mean there have got to be other choices..