The rise (and fail) of the upgradeable closed-loop cooler
After production problems caused a somewhat protracted wait for these coolers to hit the shelves. Cooler Master's Eisberg range is finally amongst us mere mortals. They were originally shown at CeBIT 2012, and in tech terms that's an eternity.
Designed in collaboration with German water cooling specialist, Alphacool, the Eisberg series consists of three different models: the straight Prestige (which is just the pump without radiator or fans), the Prestige 120L, which is the model we are looking at here, and the larger radiator-equipped Prestige 240L.
The water pump that the Prestige 120L uses is produced by Eheim and runs at a maximum of 3,600rpm, pumping around 400 litres of water per hour. It also uses something called JetStream technology to provide better injection of water inside the waterblock.Two 11mm (outer diameter) protected tubes carry the water/ethanediol mix from the copper-based pump to the radiator, then back again.
The whole radiator assembly, which includes a 120mm fan either side of the radiator itself, is fixed to your case's back panel and is a rather bulky affair. You'll need a case with a lot of space.
Eiscreme, Eiscreme!
Although the Prestige 120L is sold as a factory-filled, dosed-loop system, it can also be modified by the end user. The pump and radiator use removable compression fittings and the pump reservoir also feature a fill cap. So if you wanted to add more loops or radiators at a later date, the Prestige coolers will beable to accommodate your chiller based fantasies.
The manual isn't the most informative one we've everseen, the illustrations are far too small, but we still managed to follow it easily enough. In fact, we had the cooler installed within 20 minutes of unpacking it, which is speedy even for a closed loop system.
The two brackets that hold the pump simply slide into place on the base of the unit and, unlike most third party coolers these days, there's no motherboard back plate to worry about. That said the actual mounting screws can be a little awkward, and we had trouble with the same design on the 240L.
We'll forgive Cooler Master much of the fiddly fitting frustration for the simple fact that it has included some special thermal paste in the package called... wait for it... Eiscreme.
What we're not thanking Cooler Master for is the noise. It's just too loud, especially when the unit is being pushed to run the CPU at 100 per cent load. Even at standard clock speeds - never mind overclocked ones - the pump produces a noticeable din. But this is nowhere near as bad as the fan noise.The decibel count is so high because the fans aren't PWM models, so regardless of whether the system is at 100 per cent or idle, the fans are still spinning at 1,600rpm.
If the performance was exceptional, we could forgive it a little noise, but the Prestige 120L is outperformed by some much cheaper and simpler coolers.
It's a well thought out cooler and the added bonus of upgradeability makes it an interesting prospect for people wanting to move towards a fully liquid-cooled setup. But it's bulky, the installation process can be a bit fiddly and it could do with using PWM fans.
| Specification | |
|---|---|
| Intel Compatibility | Socket 2011 Socket 1366 Socket 1156 Socket 1155 |
| AMD Compatibility | Socket FM2 Socket FM1 Socket AM3+ Socket AM3 Socket AM2+ Socket AM2 |
| CPU Waterblock | Copper Jet stream Enhanced Bi-Directional Micro Channel CPU Water block |
| Pump | German Designed, Axial rotation, Ceramic Bearing |
| Pump Head Pressure | 2.2 Metres |
| Pump Volume | 400 Litres/Hour |
| Pump Noise | 25dBA |
| Pump Speed | 3600RPM (1950 with 9v adaptor) |
| Tubing | 10/8mm Black with Black anti kink coil |
| Radiator | 1 x 120mm 100% Copper |
| Radiator Dimensions | 156 x 124 x 30mm (without fan) |
| Fan | 2 x 1600 rpm Cooler Master Fans |
| Fan Connection | 3 Pin |
| Fan Airflow | 60.2 CFM |
| Fan Noise | 20.5 dBA |
| Special Features | All In One CPU Cooler Can be Expanded Micro Channel Technology |
| Package Contents | 1x Cooler Master Eisberg 2 x 120mm Fans Mounting Hardware Factory Filled Coolant |
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2 comments
Click here for commentsWil give this a read later tonight, been looking at at a 120mm AIO but the 240mm version caught my eye with the expandability?
ReplyIf you want a 240 with expandability then look at the swiftech H220
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