120mm Water Cooler Round Up Part 2 – Looking Inside

Disassembly of the All-In-One Water Cooler

Last week we looked at of four all-in-one water coolers and found the performance results were quite similar, as were the coolers. With this thought, and some comments made, we started to wonder how similar the coolers really were. Remember, mom always said its whats on the inside that counts.

So I got to do something that I have wanted to do for a while, cut up some coolers and see how they are made! First step was cutting the pump/water block from the radiators and drain the coolant. I always knew there wasn’t much in the way of coolant in one of these kits. The Cooler Master Seidon 120M had about cup of what looks to be standard ethylene glycol, green dye and all, similar to what some use in custom cooling loops. The Scythe and Zalman LQ315 both have about cup of non-toxic propylene glycol but dye free with corrosion inhibitors added in. The Zalman Resorator Max had only about cup of what Zalman calls Nano Fluid; but smells and looks a lot like ethylene glycol that has been dyed blue.

Now lets take a closer look at each one at a time.