INTRODUCTION

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

   If you happen to be an enthusiast, hardcore gamer or even a professional chances are that one of the very first things you decide on when building a brand new system configuration is the type of CPU cooler to use. Unlike in the past today there are numerous high-end solutions available in the market for all types of users both in the form of massive dual heatsink CPU air coolers and 240/360mm AIO (All In One) liquid cooling kits. However for people who are really after the best cooling efficiency money can buy the only valid options are to opt either for a 360/420/480/520/580mm custom watercooling kit or one of the quite rare, bulky and more expensive Waterchiller/Freon systems. We may get a chance to test one or more of these Waterchiller/Freon systems really soon but until then we decided to take things a step further and instead of testing yet another ready watercooling kit we went ahead and made a custom one with parts by our friends over at Alphacool.

   Alphacool are based in Germany and are one of the biggest producers of watercooling components for the PC market. Their products are sold worldwide which is testament to the quality of products they sell and are renowned for being very high performing.

   Prior to picking up the right components to build your very own custom watercooling kit you need to take into account 3 very important things, how much available space your case has for a radiator, where in that case you can position the reservoir and whether or not you'll be using the kit to cool just the CPU or also one or more GPUs. Based on these 3 answers you will be able to choose the length and thickness of the radiator, type of reservoir (single/dual 5.25" - tube) and of course the type of water pump (basic or high-speed model). After this all that's left to complete the kit is for you to choose the proper waterblock (based on your CPU), tubing/hose (regular or clear), fittings (straight/corners) and last but not least the coolant/additive (clear or colored). For the configuration used in this review we combined the UT60 Full Copper 480mm quad radiator by Alphacool with their Dual Laing D5 reservoir, VPP655 PWM solo pump, NexXxoS XP3 Light Black Chrome waterblock and a 2500ml canister of their CKC Cape Kelvin Catcher clear coolant (we also used 4 fans, several fittings and 2m clear tubing). This may not be the best custom watercooling kit money can buy (nor is it the largest one that can fit inside the Obsidian 900D we use in our lab) but still it's an enthusiast level solution for really demanding users.

 

 

SPECIFICATIONS AND FEATURES

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

PACKAGING AND CONTENTS

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Since this is a custom kit we decided to lay down everything in their boxes without however going into detail for each one.

 

 

We did forget to unpack the extra fittings (unfortunately these are not included in any part of a custom kit) but those aside everything contained in the boxes (such as the mounting screws, Alen keys, installation instructions and some fittings) is visible in this picture.

 

 

THE KIT PART 1

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The 2446g heavy UT60 may not be the best 480mm radiator Alphacool makes currently but still it's a quad fan model that features copper fins, channels and chambers.

 

 

Much like the 56mm thick RX V360 radiator by XSPC which we had the chance to review a while back the UT60 is a 60mm thick model.

 

 

Fin quality is excellent and as you can see Alphacool has used a double row 10FPI design with their UT60 models (fins per inch).

 

 

Unfortunately the same can't be said about the steel parts of the radiator (side panels) although this shouldn't pose any issues.

 

 

The UT60 480mm has a total of 2 ports on each side (up/down/front) for superior versatility.

 

 

Yet another port is placed at the rear of the radiator (fill/drain port).

 

 

A protective plate is placed right above the fins so you don't need to worry when mounting the fans and/or the radiator.

 

 

As the name clearly states the Dual Laing D5 reservoir takes two 5.25" ODBs.

 

 

At the front the reservoir has the Alphacool logo, percentage markings and a filling straw (not the easiest to use however without the filling bottles/straws by Alphacool).

 

 

Alphacool has also placed two vertical pump spots at the rear of the Dual Laing D5 reservoir making it ideal for dual and even triple radiator configurations (perhaps even quad).

 

 

THE KIT PART 2

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The VPP655 pump is available in normal (manual RPM) and PWM versions and is currently one of the strongest ones in the market capable of pushing up to 1500 liters of water per hour (the only downside is that it uses up to 23W at max RPM).

 

 

Mounting the pump onto the reservoir is not hard (just remove the holder with the bundled Alen key, place the pump and then put it back on to secure it) and if by any chance one of these is not powerful enough to push liquid through your multi-radiator setup you can install a 2nd one on the other side.

 

 

Alphacool doesn't have a very wide range of waterblocks but we did get their best one the NexXxoS XP3 Light Black Edition (measures 67mm in length, 14mm in height and 57mm in width).

 

 

The copper base is polished but not enough to give a mirror like finish.

 

 

We didn't want to possibly affect the performance of the waterblock by opening it so we decided to use a marketing picture to showcase its interior cross-slotted structure.

 

 

Unfortunately at the time we made this configuration Alphacool fans were not available from their EU distributor so instead we chose the latest NB-eLoop fans by Phobya. These fans can spin up to 1600RPM to produce up to 61.2CFM of airflow with just 22.5dBA of noise.

 

 

These fans use a thick rubber frame which reduces vibrations almost entirely while their blades feature airflow "channels" for improved performance.

 

 

By mounting these fans the radiator thickness goes up to 85mm so do pay extra attention to that.

 

 

Oh did we mention that these are high-quality fans manufactured by the German Noiseblocker?

 

 

INSTALLATION - FINISHED LOOKS

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As always the first component we installed was the waterblock and as usual the process is very easy on the LGA2011 socket (mount the 4 bars, place the waterblock and secure it in place using the 4 springs and "thumbscrews").

 

 

Mounting the Dual Laing D5 Reservoir is very easy although if your case only has three 5.25" ODBs you will probably not be able to use the top one (due to the thickness of the radiator with the fans).

 

 

This is how the radiator looks with the Phobya fans from the interior of the 900D (unfortunately the fans don't have any LEDs).

 

 

The 900D has four 5.25" ODBs and our test rig has a Plextor Blu-Ray on the bottom one and the Dual Laing D5 Reservoir right above. Well as you can see the radiator and the fans not only take the top one but they come very close to the reservoir (push & pull is a no go).

 

 

The kit is now mounted (nothing flashy but it gets the job done) and we're ready to see how well it does.

 

 

TEST BED

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

TESTING METHODOLOGY

 

   Testing complete water cooling kits or individual radiators is no different than testing CPU Coolers and since we want all of you to be able to compare similar products we created new and separate charts (you can still cross-compare results however since we are using the same test rig). So once again single (120/140mm) watercooling solutions are tested with the radiator mounted at the rear of our test rig while dual/triple/quad (240/260/280/360/420/480/560mm) solutions with the radiator mounted at the top. For the dBA tests complete water cooling kits or radiators with bundled fans are measured both while on idle mode or with the fan controller in the minimum setting and while on extreme load or with the fan controller all the way to the highest possible setting (PWM fans do that on their own without our intervention). Every single test takes place in a temperature controlled room of 23 degrees Celsius Ambient Temp with the help of two AC units placed diagonally inside the room. When testing complete water cooling kits we use the Arctic Silver 5 thermal paste. Finally much like when testing CPU Coolers it's very important to point out that just because a water cooling kit outperforms another when tested with our test rig (when we test complete water cooling kits) that does not necessarily mean that the same performance differences will apply 100% for other CPU models and in other situations (such as different ambient temps and system configurations).

     To successfully record the load temperatures we use the latest OCCT application for around 6-10 minutes to push the processor to its limits and after that is done and the temperatures are recorded we wait for about 10-20 minutes for the CPU to cool down and record the idle temperatures. This is done to allow time for the thermal conductive material to achieve the optimal performance level. Same procedure is then repeated with the Passmark BurnIn Test as a failsafe just in case the OCCT results are wrong. This procedure takes a lot more time than the usual peltier/thermometer tests but this way not only can we deliver real world results to our readers based on real CPUs but we can also triple check the results using a variety of programs. Last but not least the temperatures were recorded using both the latest versions of AIDA64 and RealTemp while the noise level tests (when fans exist in the bundle) are performed using a high precision ExTech HD600 Decibel Meter placed about 10-15cm above the radiator. Still although the same testing procedure applies to all units do take into consideration that unlike the official numbers which are measured in special noise isolated labs with just the fans here we also have both the rest of the cooler and the rest of the system (although all system fans are turned off when recording noise levels).

 

 

TEST RESULTS

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

CONCLUSION

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

   This custom watercooling kit features the largest radiator and highest-RPM pump we’ve ever used by any of the manufacturers we cooperate with so obviously we didn’t really expect any of the previous kits to surpass it. At the same time however I didn’t expect the Raystorm RX360 V3 kit to come so close in terms of performance not only because of the “smaller” radiator and 3 fans instead of 4 but also because of its less “impressive” pump. Still the 4 fans by Phobya are not high-RPM ones and although the UT60 line of radiators is famous for its performance with low/mid-RPM fans I’m pretty certain it would benefit from high-RPM ones (we will test it with the industrial line by Noctua pretty soon to see how much that changes things). The only slight issue we encountered with this custom kit was with the VPP655 PWM pump since pushing up to 1500 liters of water per hour may sound impressive compared to the specs other pumps have but at the same time this translates as increased noise. To be more precise although the fans alone never exceeded the 46dBA mark at full speed it’s the noise coming from the liquid pushed by the pump which boosts that number to 48.8dBA. Also it may not be very important but should you choose this reservoir by Alphacool you shouldn’t forget to purchase a filling straw since otherwise you will probably have a hard time filling it.

   Thanks to Aquatuning.de we were able to get the parts by Alphacool pretty quick and as I type these lines the entire custom kit seen in this review (from parts to tubing, fittings and coolant) can be purchased by them for no less than 475Euros. The one question that went through all our minds at the end of this review was why should people prefer such a kit when they can opt for a Waterchiller/Freon unit which will probably offer better temperatures? For once waterchiller/Freon units are not the prettiest things around and they need to be placed outside from your case but their three huge drawbacks are their size, high noise levels and extreme power consumption (anywhere from 180W for the entry level models and up to well over 400W for the high-end models). Of course these products are aimed at a much more niche market than watercooling kits and so I can’t compare their cooling efficiency but they are far from perfect. In the end it always comes down to personal preference (and demands) but we really can’t think of a reason as to why this kit would be unable to cover the needs of pretty much everyone out there (at least everyone with a large enough tower to fit this in) it gets our Platinum Award.

PROS

- Near-Excellent Build Quality
- Top Of The Charts Performance
- Noise Levels
- 480mm Radiator With 7 Ports
- Dual 5.25” Acrylic Reservoir With Dual D5 Slots
- High Performance VPP655 PWM Pump (1500l/h)
- 6x120mm Fans
- Socket Compatibility
- Easy Installation

 

CONS

- Pump Noise (Compared To the Competition)
- Radiator Size With Fans (Thickness)
- Price (For Some)