SENFU Water Cooler II

Nice kit — Joe

SUMMARY: Very complete waterblock/reservoir kit, OK performance.

The good guys at Plycon were nice enough to send a sample of the latest Senfu water cooling kit, the SENFU Water Cooler II. This is a great improvement over the first products we saw from Senfu (HERE) over two years ago. The earlier kit used 2mm tubing – the latest uses 7/16″ (about 9mm) internal diameter tubing – much better.

The tubing is attached by screwing down a collar over the nipple – a very secure fit.

The base

is aluminum and flat but not polished. It looks like a casting – I think lapping could add to its performance.

Taking the plastic top off the base

reveals the copper fins inside. The inset at the bottom shows how they are soldered to the base. This is an approach I experimented with a while ago (HERE) so the Senfu piqued my interest. The top is bolted to the base with a gasket to make it watertight.

Attaching the waterblock to a CPU is very nicely done. Mounting is a very easy for Socket A and easy for P4.

The P4 mount uses the cross pieces to slip into the retention base as shown below:

You have to use a screwdriver to tighten it – the Socket A can be tightened by hand. Included with the Senfu II are the following parts:

It includes extra gaskets, screws, foam pads, thermal grease, tape and a screwdriver. All these parts ship inside the reservoir, which is kind of funny because the screwdriver is inside – if you don’t have a skinny Phillips head screwdriver, you can’t get to the screwdriver inside the reservoir because it’s screwed down, so you’re …

The reservoir

includes three 3 meter lengths of 3M Silicone tubing, which has springs inside. These allow you to bend the tubing as tightly as you’ll ever want to without kinking. It also adds some friction to the system, although the tubing is 7/16″ inside diameter.

A closer look at the reservoir top

shows the fill hole on the right and the air bleed screw on the left, between the intake/outake nipples. There is an opening on the right side

so you can snake the pump’s power cord through the reservoir. The tape included with the kit is to wrap around the wire to make it water tight. There is a little thermometer

on the side of the reservoir – a handy little touch so you can quickly see what water temps are.

Last are included self-adhesive mats & cushions and instructions in Chinese and English.

Overall, the Senfu kit is nicely done and has enough flexibility to keep it current for some time.

The Senfu was first tested on the CPU Die Simulator which gives results that are unaffected by motherboard influences. I then tested it on an Iwill KK266+, modified to read AMD’s on-die diode, and a Lucky Star P4A845D as examples of what users might see on their systems. I used a Danner 1.5 pump with a salvage radiator to round out the system.

I tested it against an older BeCooling copper block for a comparison.

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 Senfu in the lower rank of heatsink kits (Heatsink Ranking).

I really like the Senfu II waterblock for its ease of mounting and flexibility. I am surprised that the base is aluminum rather than copper and I think it partly accounts for its showing against the other kits (I must note that the pump/radiator used will make some difference).

Considering its motherboard performance and kit parts, I think the Senfu II can be a nice start to a watercooling system.

Thanks again to Plycon for sending this our way.

Email Joe