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Mounting hardware that won’t be used for this installation is the 80mm conversion kit. The angled aluminum
pieces mount to an 80mm fan hole using screws and rubber washers. I imagine this will do a solid job of
fastening the radiator to your case. A 120mm exhaust port will be used to mount the mount the radiator to the
Bob Slay.
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The radiator anchors solidly to the rear of the case with little effort. Equally easy is the fastening of the fan
and rubber gasket. The holes in the chrome shroud are pre-tapped making installation effortless. I would have liked
to see the inclusion of a fan grill.
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Filling of the unit is very easy thanks to the pump/reservoir combo. Simply fill the reservoir and cycle the power until
it empties into the system, then fill and repeat the process until the kit is charged. The 3-pin power plug for the
pump simplifies installation even further, as the pump can be powered using the CPU HSF header from the motherboard.
A RPM sensor reports pump operation to the bios for system monitoring.
Testing:
Cooling performance will be measured by the BIOS using Asus PC Probe. Idle and Load temperatures will be observed
after 1 hour of continuous operation. Folding @ Home will facilitate CPU load and ambient temperature is recorded at
being 21 degrees Celsius. The X2O kit will be measured against the stock HSF bundled with the Sempron 2600+ processor.
The X2O water block will also be swapped out with a Corsair COOL (Swiftech) water block. The CPU is rated at a max
heat dissipation of 62W. AMD’s Cool’n’Quiet has been disabled in the system BIOS for this test.
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Water cooling kits really have a chance to shine when cooling really hot overclocked processors. Unfortunately my
test bed could not be overclocked, nor does it generate much heat natively. The X2O kit is still able to out perform
the stock cooling solution by a wide margin (when under full load) and generates much less noise than the stock fan.
If the Corsair COOL water block can be a measure of quality and performance than the X2O is right up there, and even
edges the re-branded Swiftech product by 1 degree when on idle. This end results represent a pleasant turn out by the
XSPC product.
Observations:
The actual tested throughput of the DC400 pump was calculated at 200 l/h (52 gallons per hour) when pushing distilled
water through the whole system (water block/radiator). While typically lower than rated, 200l/h is respectable given the
quiet operation of this unit. I first attempted to install the X2O on my DFI NF2 Ultra AMD XP motherboard. It has the
mounting holes to satisfy the universal mounting bracket but the CPU Socket sits very close to the parallel port plug on
the I/O side of the motherboard. Installation could have been achieved on my Socket A setup had there been a second
aluminum riser ring to lift the mounting plate over the parallel port plug.
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Conclusion:
XSPC Performance PC Cooling delivers a solid product to the water cooling kit market. Anyone who implies that a ‘kit’
can somehow translate into a sub standard product is arguably right on occasion. XSPC turns the tide in this area;
with a history of creating high-end water cooling components, they are able to bundle a competent kit of high quality and
workmanship. The plated water block and radiator are sure to compliment any case, and the pump/reservoir takes the
work out of filling and maintenance. The X2O performs very well in my tests both thermally and acoustically and
compression fittings make installation quick and painless. Motherboard removal is guaranteed when anchoring this water
block on any platform which is a bit of a drag, but installation time remained low. Socket A compatibility is extremely
limited and customization is required if you want to affix the reservoir to your case. Overall I was pleased with the
XSPC X2O Performance PC Water Cooling Kit and award MTB's Seal of Approval with a final rating of
9 out of 10. If you have any questions regarding this
review be sure to visit the XSPC Performance PC Cooling
website for more information or discuss them in our forums.
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Pros:
- Quiet reservoir/pump combo
- Big radiator
- Everybody loves chrome
- High-end universal water block
- Compression fittings
- 120mm fan sound dampening gasket
- Good assortment of accessories
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Cons:
- Price
- No way to anchor reservoir
- Poor Socket A support
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