Cooler Master Shows Off Cooling X, a Unique Prebuilt with Whole-body Liquid Cooling

[btarunr]

Cooler Master at the 2023 International CES showed off the Cooling X, a patent-pending unique desktop PC architecture by the company where the liquid cooling of the CPU and GPU isn't confined to a couple of closed loop AIOs, but rather a giant liquid-cooling loop that even involves the side-panels of the case itself, that double up as additional heat-dissipation surfaces. Notice how some compact fanless cases use extruded-aluminium body panels that double up as heatsinks, to cool the hot components? The Cooling X re-imagines this, where instead of dissipating heat from a heatpipe, the extruded-aluminium body panels have coolant channels, so some of the heat from the liquid-cooling loop is dissipated. These panels supplement a conventional liquid-cooling radiator that's located along the rear panel, which has active ventilation. The liquid-cooling loop cools the processor and GPU.

For its compact dimensions of just 266 mm x 149 mm x 371 mm (LxWxH), the Cooling X prebuilt packs some mighty high-end hardware—an AMD Ryzen 9 5950X 16-core processor, and a Radeon RX 6800 XT GPU up to 64 GB of dual-channel DDR4-3200 memory, two 2 TB M.2 NVMe SSDs, and a homebrew 850 W 80 Plus Gold SFX power supply. For now Cooling X is just a codename, and Cooler Master intends to take this concept forward with high-performance gaming/creator prebuilt desktops sold under its own marquee.



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[FreedomEclipse]

Would be interesting to have this case in for review.

 

[Assimilator]

Nothing special about this... you can run that hardware in a NZXT H1. Maybe if CM had used components that are known power and heat hogs like Intel CPU and NVIDIA GPU, I'd be more impressed.

 

[HBSound]

I would like to see this case pulled apart.
I saw another company with this same concept based on using your own equipment.

 

[natr0n]

Already thinking about standing fan mod.

 

[Deleted member 185088]

Nothing special about this... you can run that hardware in a NZXT H1. Maybe if CM had used components that are known power and heat hogs like Intel CPU and NVIDIA GPU, I'd be more impressed.

Yeah like the new 13900ks.

 

[HBSound]

It reminds me of - https://www.regnercooling.com/product-page/cooling-system-2 - Regner Cooling System

 

[bug]

It's hard to tell from that picture alone, but it looks like another solution that doesn't care about VRMs at all.

 

[TechLurker]

This isn't exactly new, Thermaltake did similar with their SwordM and TaiChi cases from the 00s, though they didn't utilize the aluminum case as well as this, but still advertised it as helping the PC to stay cooler by having the body "absorb" some of the ambient heat and radiate it out, while the built-in AIO helped cool the CPU (and the GPU if one did early GPU WB cooling and spliced it into the line). Then there are all those massive "pure passively cooled" cases that are big chunks of extruded aluminum with copper heatpipes connecting to the CPU and GPU.

The main issue for all of those, and this case included, is the lack of cooling for the VRMs and potentially other elements such as NVMes.

 

[bug]

This isn't exactly new, Thermaltake did similar with their SwordM and TaiChi cases from the 00s, though they didn't utilize the aluminum case as well as this, but still advertised it as helping the PC to stay cooler by having the body "absorb" some of the ambient heat and radiate it out, while the built-in AIO helped cool the CPU (and the GPU if one did early GPU WB cooling and spliced it into the line). Then there are all those massive "pure passively cooled" cases that are big chunks of extruded aluminum with copper heatpipes connecting to the CPU and GPU.

The main issue for all of those, and this case included, is the lack of cooling for the VRMs (moreso the pure passively-cooled cases, while Thermaltake's cases could at least mount a fan or two blowing in and exhausting out the radiator).

Just nitpicking here, but "absorb" is the wrong word. Aluminum isn't that good at absorbing heat, it's good at conducing it. Which is fortuitous in this case (pun), as you don't want the case heating up, you want it getting rid of heat asap.

 

[Dammeron]

Aluminum isn't that good at absorbing heat, it's good at conducing it.

That's only 1 of 3 problems here. 2nd is low area of cooling fins (although those only complement the big radiator inside, which brings another question - why just not keep the internal one and ditch the other?!!!) and 3rd and most important - alloy galvanically reacts with copper/brass (even anodized one, just slower) which forces every other piece of the whole loop to be made of alloy too, lowering the performance even more!

 

[EatingDirt]

Nothing special about this... you can run that hardware in a NZXT H1. Maybe if CM had used components that are known power and heat hogs like Intel CPU and NVIDIA GPU, I'd be more impressed.

I mean, it's smaller than the NZXT H1 in both height & width. It's deeper but that's arguably the least important dimension(width takes up the most important desk space).

It's also a prebuilt, so it doesn't really 'compete' with the H1. It's just a compact high-performance prebuilt... so it competes with, whomever is in that space.

 

[trsttte]

3rd and most important - alloy galvanically reacts with copper/brass (even anodized one, just slower) which forces every other piece of the whole loop to be made of alloy too, lowering the performance even more!

With so much cooling capacity, a bit less efficiency from copper vs aluminum doesn't make much of a difference. I think it's interesting, could make for an interesting offering as a custom case instead of a pre built.

 

[robot zombie]

Just nitpicking here, but "absorb" is the wrong word. Aluminum isn't that good at absorbing heat, it's good at conducing it. Which is fortuitous in this case (pun), as you don't want the case heating up, you want it getting rid of heat asap.

Wait, theres a difference between an object absorbing heat and an object conducting it? Are we talking heat flux vs capacity? Im a bit confused by what the difference is supposed to be. Absorbtion, to me, is just a generic term for what physics calls conduction. A material that conducts heat well is not a sponge for heat, but the transfer that happens with surface to surface conduction is superficially analogous. The heat transfers from the hot surface to the cool one, like water to a dry sponge.

Sorry, just pickin nits. I think I know what you're saying. Due to its lower relative density, it has a lower heat capacity in spite of rapidly taking on heat transfer. So unless you are constantly pumping it with lots of heat, it will lose its heat/reach equilibrium faster than steel or copper. A suitably large panel would take and dissipate the heat too quickly to reach a high temperature itself.

Am I correct here, or is there something else Im missing?

 

[cvaldes]

Nothing special about this... you can run that hardware in a NZXT H1. Maybe if CM had used components that are known power and heat hogs like Intel CPU and NVIDIA GPU, I'd be more impressed.

There are several considerable differences between the Cooling X and the NZXT H1 (whether it be V1 or V2).

Only the CPU in the H1 gets the AIO treatment. The H1 AIO is technically a 140mm unit but the pump is located in the middle of the radiator (not in the waterblock head), thus cutting down some of the cooling capacity. Real world performance brings it closer to a conventional 120mm AIO.

More importantly the H1 does not offer liquid cooling for the GPU. The graphics card compartment is separate and made possible by a short 90 degree PCIe extension cable. This compartment is pretty narrow so it cannot accommodate 3-slot graphics cards. The V1 model really could only support 2-slot cards like Turing FE cards. So basically you have a graphics card with a conventional air-cooled stock heatsink blowing around hot air inside the chassis. This does not promote desirable GPU thermals.

The Cooling X proposes a liquid cooling loop for both the CPU and GPU. That's a MAJOR difference that cannot be ignored.

You can hack up GPU liquid cooling for the H1 if you move most of the cooling elements (radiator, fans, pump) outside the case. This is actually achievable because the back panel grill on the H1 has perforations that conveniently accommodate the 105mm screw spacing for a 240mm radiator.

 

[Upgrayedd]

@Xex360 Or any unlocked zen4 chip. Literally anyone of them. Cause y'kno.. they're built with 95C in mind but 115C as the ceiling.

 

[JAB Creations]

How many hard drive bays? Not all of us sit around only playing video games all day and we also all don't want a NAS.

 

[claes]

Itx is not for you my friend

 

[Veseleil]

How many hard drive bays? Not all of us sit around only playing video games all day and we also all don't want a NAS.

Prepare to be boarded...

 

[bug]

Wait, theres a difference between an object absorbing heat and an object conducting it? Are we talking heat flux vs capacity? Im a bit confused by what the difference is supposed to be. Absorbtion, to me, is just a generic term for what physics calls conduction. A material that conducts heat well is not a sponge for heat, but the transfer that happens with surface to surface conduction is superficially analogous. The heat transfers from the hot surface to the cool one, like water to a dry sponge.

Sorry, just pickin nits. I think I know what you're saying. Due to its lower relative density, it has a lower heat capacity in spite of rapidly taking on heat transfer. So unless you are constantly pumping it with lots of heat, it will lose its heat/reach equilibrium faster than steel or copper. A suitably large panel would take and dissipate the heat too quickly to reach a high temperature itself.

Am I correct here, or is there something else Im missing?

There is a difference. Each material has a capacity to store heat and a capacity to move heat from hot towards cold. Copper, for example, can store more heat than aluminum can, but aluminum will move heat away faster.

There are different measure units for both of them:

Thermal conductivity and resistivity - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Heat capacity - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[trsttte]

Copper, for example, can store more heat than aluminum can, but aluminum will move heat away faster.

I believe you got those reversed there

 

[robot zombie]

The way I understand it, aluminum has a much higher absolute heat capacity, meaning it takes more heat (pure joules/watts/whatever) to raise the temperature. Take two heatsinks, one of each material, taking up the same mass, cooling the same part over the same stretch of time. The copper one will be much hotter, because it has a significantly lower heat capacity and thus will start to reach higher temperatures sooner. Copper also has MUCH better thermal conductivity, also contributing to it heating up faster. Because of this, even though it is hotter, it's also still transferring more heat overall.

The reason the aluminum seems not to hold onto as much heat is because it's considerably less dense and in a PC, sizes are limited. So an aluminum cooling part might actually seem to lose its heat faster when it is actually just transferring less heat for its size. A copper cooler of the same size would serve as a much larger reservoir, to the point where it might actually heat up slower, even though it is transferring heat faster, because it has that much more mass to spread it across. It's like, which heats and cools faster between a steel thimble, and a steel girder? The aluminum still has an overall lower heat flux between it and the source of heat, compared to a copper part with the same contact surface area and mass. However, that is to say that if you heat two chunks of copper and aluminum that are equal in mass to the same temperature, the copper should indeed cool down quicker, because it's holding onto less heat energy than the aluminum at that temperature, and transfers heat quicker.

I always figured that was why people say copper is always the more ideal material for cooling. It's just also more expensive, and impractical for some parts, such as case panels. Compared to steel, aluminum is still miles better. A computer case made out of all copper sheeting would be bitchin, though.

 

[A Computer Guy]

Why can't they just make an entire side panel a rad instead and strap on 4 RGB 200mm fans?
One of the 4 dead spots (where a fan center sits) can be where the pump can be embedded into the rad.
One of the 4 dead spots (where a fan center sits) can be the reservoir.
One of the 4 dead spots (where a fan center sits) can be a flow indicator.
One of the 4 dead spots (where a fan center sits) can be temp/flow display.

 

[thesmokingman]

Why can't they just make an entire side panel a rad instead?

That would be too logical.

 

[claes]

It’s too small for 200mm fans friends. The side panels act as reservoirs.

For its compact dimensions of just 266 mm x 149 mm x 371 mm (LxWxH)