Computex 2007 – Day 1 Show Coverage

CoolIT Systems

CoolIT Systems yesterday announced the first product in the new Reference Series liquid cooling systems to quietly and effectively cool a Crossfire configuration of Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.s new high performance graphic card, the ATI Radeon HD 2900 XT. This factory sealed, maintenance free system was on display here at Computex in Taipei and Legit Reviews was lucky enough to be one of the first to see the new cooler.

The kit is factory sealed and is rated to handle over 400W, which is enough for a pair of overclocked Radeon HD 2900XT graphics cards. One of the reasons that this product announcement is so important to AMD and ATI is because this cooler will be one of the only ways that AMD will be able to get quad-CrossFire up and running with four Radeon HD 2900XT graphics cards. Since the upcoming AMD RD790 based motherboards support quad-CrossFire when using single slot cards using something like this cooler might be one of the few ways possible to get four Radeon 2900XT video cards on one platform!

CoolIT had a demo system with a pair of ATI Radeon HD 2900XT video cards running in CrossFire with their new Reference Series liquid cooling system that was designed for the Radeon 2900XT graphics card family. The water hoses are now made from black neoprene, which is something CoolIT is moving over to on all of their products now.

The universally compatible compact form factor fits in a dual 5 drive bay is made from stainless steel and installs in any chassis as long as there is space for the unit. The unit has the radiator on the outside and sucks air in from the front of the case. CoolIT firmly believes in pulling air in from the front and blowing it out the rear of the chassis. We questioned this design, but CoolIT said that it should only increase the case temperature a couple degrees and that it shouldn’t be a big deal as one should have enough case fans to blow the heat out the rear of the case.

The water blocks that CoolIT has designed will work on both the 512MB GDDR3 and 1GB GDDR4 ATI Radeon HD 2900 XT graphics cards and will come with full mounting hardware with a back plate, thermal pads and thermal interface material.

Here we see the cooler installed in a chassis and what the unit will look like from the outside of the chassis. The MSRP on the Reference Series Liquid Cooling for AMD high performance graphics cards is $299.99 and should start shipping in late Q3 with them reaching store shelves in early Q4. If you have a really sharp eye you would have noticed the new CoolIT FreeZone Elite TEC CPU Cooler that is pictured in the above image. This cooler will have an MSRP of $499.99 and is also due out in Q4 2007.