Watercooling Kit Test – Joe
SUMMARY: Inclusive kit with moderate performance.
The good guys at Titan were nice enough to send a sample of their latest watercooling kit, the TWC-A04. This kit can fit just about any CPU and GPU that’s out there. It comes nicely packed:
The first item I removed was the main control unit:
This unit can either fit into two CD ROM bays or be used externally – there are parts included in the kit to accommodate either. The back
shows fittings for the tubing, pins for the second radiator, thermistor and at the far right, the four pin power plug. The front
shows the fill port for the system, the LCD, control settings for the external fan and a control knob for the internal fan. The second radiator is a supplement to the internal radiator in the main control unit. The external radiator
features an 80 x 38 mm fan which is controlled by the base unit. The fan can be set to kick into high gear; however, the lowest temp setting is 40ºC – a tad too high for my taste.
The kit incudes two waterblocks – one for the CPU
which features mounting clips for Intel P4 and AMD Socket A and K7. Note that there is a square peg on top of the waterblock – the clips fit onto this peg to securely position the waterblock directly over the CPU; mounting force is applied over the center of the CPU – much preferred. The base is polished:
The GPU waterblock
includes two clips and also sports a screw over its center to securely hold the waterblock in place. The base
is polished as well. Finally, the kit ships with all the parts necessary for internal or external mounting:
All the kit’s parts are in plastic bags with labels – a nice touch as it keys to the instructions. Included are instructions to cover all mounting options. Overall, a very comprehensive kit.
When first turned on, it’s important to ensure that the fluid is flowing freely without any bubbles in the line. I found the easiest way to do this was to pinch the tubing a couple of times as well as rotating the waterblock and radiator. When everything is flowing freely, you should not hear any gurgling noise nor see bubbles in the tubing – run the kit at least two hours before installing it into your case.
I could not measure waterflow rate, but judging from the speed at which bubbles moved through the tubing, it’s fairly low – something on the order of 10 gph.
The Titan TWC-A04 was tested using the CPU Die Simulator. I tested with the fans all on high and then with one fan high and the other low. Fan noise was noticeable with all fans on high but not objectionably so – the case fan measured 52 dBA 8″ from its front at high – low noise; at its low setting, noise was <50 dBA - very low. The waterpump was not totally silent, I noticed a "ticking" sound, but it was quite low.
| Heatsink | Die Temp | Ambient Temp | Delta | C/W |
| Titan TWC-A04, all fans high | 48.8 C | 21.1 C | 27.7 C | 0.39 |
| Titan TWC-A04, case fan high | 50.0 C | 21.1 C | 28.9 C | 0.41 |
| Titan TWC-A04, external fan high | 50.6 C | 21.3 C | 29.3 C | 0.41 |
| Titan TWC-A04, all fans low | 51.6 C | 21.1 C | 30.4 C | 0.43 |
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 Titan TWC-A04 in the lower rank of watercooling kits tested to date (Heatsink Ranking).
Titan’s Watercooling Kit TWC-A04 is a very complete plug-and-play package; performance is moderate and not for aggressive cooling. With very tolerable fan noise, this kit is an option to consider for quiet cooling.
Thanks again to Titan for sending this our way.
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