3R System Poseidon WCL-03

August 7, 2004 admin Uncategorized 0

Kit test – Joe

SUMMARY: Entry level kit with very modest performance.

WCL-03

The good guys at 3R System Co. were nice enough to send a sample of the Poseidon WCL-03 watercooling kit. The kit features a waterblock with an aluminum base:

Base

The base is adequately finished.

The kit includes:

  1. Aluminum waterblock with integrated pump, aluminum radiator and water tank
  2. Fan bracket with low noise fan
  3. AMD / Intel P4 CPU mounting brackets and screws
  4. Thermal grease
  5. Mounting pad
  6. Manual

Key Features:

  • Magnetic Pump integrated with waterblock
  • Pump Head: 400 mm (16 inches)
  • Pump Flow Rate: 500 ml/min (about 8 gal/hr)

The kit features an integrated waterblock/pump arrangement:

Pic courtesy of 3R System

What looks like a fan is a magnetic flywheel which drives the impeller inside the waterblock. As you can see from the specs above, this is a very low flow system – about 8 gallons/hr (3R System spec); note also that the system’s head is minimal – 16 inches.

The radiator features a plenum on both sides and tubes between:

Rad

The black item on the front allows mounting the radiator to a standard 80 mm fan hole pattern.

The WCL-03 inlcudes a separate reservoir

Tank

which clips onto the top of the radiator.

The parts that ship with the kit

Parts

allow mounting options for AMD Socket A and Intel P4 CPUs.

The 80 mm radiator fan is very low noise – it turns at a leisurely 1400 rpm, with low cfms as a result

The Test

The WCL-03 were tested using the CPU Die Simulator.

Kit

Die Temp

Ambient Temp

Delta

C/W

WCL-03

64.8

24.2

40.6

0.57

Delta = CPU temp – Ambient Temp
C/W = Delta / CPU Watts

Interpreting C/W: For every watt (CPUw) that the CPU
consumes, the HSF will limit the CPU’s temperature rise to (C/W x CPUw)
plus the temperature at the HSF’s fan inlet. For example, at an ambient temp of 25 C, a C/W of 0.25 with a CPU radiating 50 watts means that CPU temp will increase 50 x 0.25 = 12.5 C over ambient temp, or 37.5 C. The lower the C/W, the better.

Die Simulator results place the Poseidon WCL-03 in the lowest rank of watercooling kits tested to date (Heatsink Ranking).

CONCLUSIONS

The WCL-03 kit tested about where I thought it would – towards the very low end of the kits tested to date – the aluminum base exerted a performance cost, as did the slow turning fan, low waterflow rate and small radiator. This is one for Mom.

Thanks again to 3R System Co. for sending it our way to check out.

Email Joe