MODTHEBOX.COM - Canada's Premier Case Modding Source - Reviews - Corsair HydroCool 200 External Liquid Cooling System Review

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The included 12V DC centrifugal pump is manufactured by Bosch and neatly located in front of the reservoir. The pump is capable of pushing 120 Gallons per hour and is extremely small in size. A thick rubber brace is connected to the pump to absorb any vibrations. The inlet and outlets of the pump are much larger and use approximately 3/4" ID tubing and fittings. Firmly attached to the right side of the chassis is a double pass flat tube aluminum radiator. A small shroud accommodates a 120mm x 38mm fan that is used to blow cool air through the radiator and out the side, which in turn cools the liquid. Both sides of the radiator feature a large fine finned surface area for maximum cooling and 3/8" ID barbs. The attached fan is connected to the PCB and is designed to work at 1700 RPM in Normal mode, or 2600 RPM in Turbo mode, both of which can be selected via the front control panel.

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The slot interface board is connected to a PCI style slot cover and is responsible for providing power, tube routing, power relay and temperature readings. A 15-Pin D-Sub connection resides at the rear which interfaces to the rear Corsair HydroCool 200 unit. A set of mounting hardware for both the Socket 462 A and Socket 478 platforms is included in the package. The Intel mounting mechanism uses a brace type housing coupled with mounting clips. The AMD clipping mechanism uses all 6 lugs and features a tool-less thumb grip for installing the water block.

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The included water block is dubbed "cool block" and measures a mere 2" (W) x 2" (H) x 1/4" (D) which makes it extremely small in comparison to other water blocks currently on the market. The cool block is constructed from a nickel-plated copper and incorporates a micro channel design on the interior. According to the user manual, the tubing can be connected to either barb which leads us to believe that the interior structure of the cool block is symmetrical. A ten foot length of 1/4" ID Polyurethane Ether grade tubing comes pre-attached to the water block. While the interior tubing used is 3/8" ID, the use of quick release valves bring the exterior tubing size down. The inlet and outlet are positioned center stage at opposite edges of the water block. A small temperature probe is attached to the top of the cool block which connects to the slot interface card and displays temperatures on the Corsair HydroCool 200 LCD display. The base of the cool block appears to be nicely flat and has been machined to produce adequate reflections. As proven in the past with other water blocks evaluated here at MTB, a reflective base doesn’t necessarily mean a flat one.