Test Results -

Before we get onto that there are a few things I need to add:

There is a LOAD of thermal data from the tests on these blocks, in the order of 260,000 temp readings. It took 3 days working around 10 hours a day to get the data boiled down, organized, cleaned up, formatted, and then graphed.  Also the graphing itself was a long process.  There is a fine line between data overload, and not enough data. I think in this review I have gone over the line, but this will offer different people the data they are looking for. Unlike most reviews on the web, I am not writing it to show you  "This one ROCKS buy it from xxxxxx", I am showing you how different designs handle heat loads.   If you came looking for a simple "XXXX Block was the best", Sorry... you will need to read a lil deeper to figure that one out on this review :)

I never have and never will cater to the lowest common denominator, so before you email me complaining that the review is overly complex, please remember that I planned it that way.

Due to the high bandwidth nature of the Graphs I am limiting it to 2 block results per page. Don't want the Modem people waiting 3 weeks for the images to load on one page ;)

Cool-Computers Socket Cooler -

For the blocks design, I was overly impressed. I was thinking that the lack of water passages or internal surface area would kill this blocks chances.   Keep in mind, this block had an almost sand blasted type finish to it from its casting so the bottom was flat, but no where near mirror like smooth. As you read on you will see that for its design it's doing pretty impressive.

These are some additional temp readings that were taken by hand every 5 minutes from a DigiDoc 5.  This will give you some back ground to what the testing conditions were when I was testing the block. You can see what the coolant temp was, what the DD5's intake air sensor was reading and also what the exhaust sensor was reading.  The reason for the higher initial reading is there was no air or coolant moving through the system yet.

This was an interesting and highly anticipated test. Does flow rate matter??  one blanket response for all blocks wont work, since each block has its own lil quirks with how it gets rid of the heat.  Some blocks that are out there claim to need high flow rates, or perform "better".  is it True? Well you can see that dropping the flow rate over 100GPH  the temp was only up by 2DegC... not what I would call a big heat up.

The reason the flow was only 158Gph at its max was due to the hose used, fittings, flow meter, everything in line. I ran some other tests with the flow meter and its simply that 3/8" hose doesn't allow for much more than that without getting into some serious pressure. Running 3/4" was easily able to give out a ton more flow.   The smooth low surface area aspects of this block would demand a higher flow rate as its less efficient with its contact to the water.   Lets move on to the next blocks.

Leufken Tech Copper Cooler -

This block is another that amazes me.  With all the new CNC milled designs, high flow rate, low resistance, high surface area blocks being built and sold, this old school cross drilled copper block did DAMN good compared to them!  As you will see later 40.32C is not a bad average temp!

This was also encouraging to see.  One of the benefits of having this data is you can see if the heat is actually making it to the cooling system or if the block just isn't doing its job. Here you can see the nice "Stair Case" escalation in tops across the board ( except for intake of course).   This shows that the block was doing a good job of getting the heat to the coolant. If you saw the coolant and exhaust temps stay flat, you would know that the block isn't doing anything and you prolly just smoked a core.

The top level in the dynamic flow tests is always the max that the pump can move through the block.  Its interesting that this block was a bit less than the Cool-Computers block even though it has more space inside.  This could also be due to added turbulence, or resistance in the block.   It shows with a flow drop of -110GPH form its original point that the temps went up 1.7C which isn't too bad either.  In some extended tests I ran the temps never went up much more than that. It seems in order to reach a critically low flow rate for a 100watt heat source you need to get well below 10GPH. Of course this is all different when you talk about a Pelt or a 400 watt heat source.

More Results