Corsair COOL Water Cooling

Final Thoughts

I really like Corsair’s “Cool”. They took an incredible design and tweaked it to perfection. Having installed a few water cooling units myself, it took me about 40 minutes to install this kit. I honestly believe that if Corsair had included an instruction manual instead of a CD, the whole process would take anyone about 30-40 to complete

I was impressed with both the performance and noise level of the system. The pump, as well as the Panaflo fan, both show why they are the cream of the crop in their respective fields, as they exhibited incredible performance at near silent noise levels. I do wish that Corsair had included some sort of fan controller for the 120mm Panaflo fan, as I think a slightly slower speed would show minimal performance drop while making the system run even quieter. Most people have the misconception that water cooling is some sort of miracle solution for processor cooling. There are usually two things that you need to keep in mind when using this type of cooling solution. First, your processor will drop a few degrees Celsius using water, but it is still going to generate as much heat as it would with any type of cooling. What you will see is a quicker drop in temperature from load as the combination of a copper block and water quickly removes heat away from the processor. Users also need to keep in mind that the CPU is not the only component in their system which suffers when put under excessive pressure or load. Both the motherboards chipset and video card are also susceptible to heat. Keep this in mind if you happen to purchase this cooler and really push your system. I do however want you to know that there are additional blocks coming to market for the Cool. You should shortly see blocks for the chipset as well as a universal water block for your video card, be it ATI or nVIDIA based.

What is my one big disappointment? Corsair did not implement the Swiftech quick connects. Quick connects would have made adding blocks to the cooling system much easier and cleaner. While the “Cool” is definitely an entry level cooling unit, it is equally suitable for the beginner or experienced enthusiast. Just based on its price to performance ratio alone this, this under $200 water cooling system is sure to be extremely popular and for good reason.

Legit Bottom Line

Ready to get your feet wet (Figuratively)? Corsair’s “Cool” Definitely lives up to its name.