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Case, Power Supply, Fan Reviews
  Product:     Koolance PC2-C Super Liquid Cooled Case  
  Price:     $279 (CAN) / $179 (U.S)
  Supplied By:     FrozenCPU
  Author:     Hi-TEK
  Date:     August 19th, 2002
  Rating:     star star star star star star star star star

Koolance PC2-C Super Liquid Cooled Case
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Koolance PC2-C Super Liquid Cooled Case
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The manual included with the PC2-C states that the first component for installation is to fill the system up with the Koolance mixture and bleed the system of air. I decided to take the opposite route and start with mounting the CPU-200 waterblock and chipset cooler. The first step is to install the temperature control probe into the base of the copper cold plate on the waterblock. The package includes a piece of metal tape which holds the temperature probe in place. In order to complete the assembly of the system, the following tools are required:
  • Needle nose pilers
  • Flat head screwdriver
  • Koolance 200cc cooling mixture
  • Metal hose crimps
  • 500cc of distilled water
  • Larger wire cutters
  • 3/8" O.D PVC tubing
Koolance PC2-C Super Liquid Cooled Case
Click image for larger view
Koolance PC2-C Super Liquid Cooled Case
Click image for larger view
 
The components that I will be using to test this system are an Asus AV7333 motherboard and an AMD Athlon XP 1800+ CPU. Mounting the CPU-200 waterblock is extremely easy with the CPU-100 mounting bracket. The mounting bracket uses all three of the socket retention clips on the motherboard. This provides a good guarantee that the waterblock will stay in place once installed. At the top of the CPU-100 mounting bracket is a retention screw which allows you to adjust the alignment of the waterblock. The chipset cooler requires two screws which must be mounted underneath the motherboard and secured down with chrome thumbscrews. Prior to mounting the waterblock and chipset cooler, both the CPU and Northbridge chipset were covered with a thin layer of Cooling Flow thermal compound.

Koolance PC2-C Super Liquid Cooled Case
Click image for larger view
Koolance PC2-C Super Liquid Cooled Case
Homemade bypass ATX power supply connector
 
Once the CPU-200 waterblock and chipset cooler are installed the next step is to start measuring the lengths of PVC tubing that will be required to secure all the connections for the watercooling system. I placed the motherboard inside the PC2-C case and took measurements of all the PVC tubing that would be required for installation. The PVC tubing attaches to each component and must be secured down using the metal hose crimps. One issue that I ran into during the installation process was with the amount of metal crimps provided in the package. I had six connections to join and only 4 metal hose crimps included in the package. I had to take a trip down to a local Home Depot and find suitable replacements. The metal crimps can be tightened by using a pair of needle nose pliers. The secret is to squeeze the metal crimps enough so that the PVC tubing is not damaged in the process. The circulation of water inside with system will work as follows:

Pump --> Radiator --> Waterblock --> Chipset Cooler --> Pump

FrozenCPU sells additional parts which you can add to this configuration which includes secondary chipset coolers for video card cooling and HD cooling. The final step before filling the system is to turn the system upside down, remove the fill cap and apply power to the pumps. The kit was supposed to include an bypass ATX power supply connector but unfortunately this was not included in my package. To compensate I used a paper clip and attached it to pins 4 and 6 on the 20 pin ATX power supply connector to start the pumps.

 
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