CoolIT Freezone

[djbbenn]

The only way to get cooler temperatures than with air coolers is to use water cooling. But how do you get cooler than a water cooler without using some form of complicated exotic cooling? The answer is not very easily, until now. CoolIT has come up with a new cooler that utilizes a means of exotic cooling, yet it's designed for ease of use for the average end-user. Today we take a look at this new cooler from CoolIT and see if it really is better than any other cooler out there.

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[macci]

Good review - not-so-good product. I would almost call this concept fairly stupid for modern high-power CPUs. It would probably be fine for a Dothan or Yonah or old Celeron 300A =)

I didnt fully understand what has the heat capacity of water (and the amount of water) to do with the cooling capacity (heat transfer capacity) of this product?
Or course if you have more water in the system it takes more time to heat up but I would assume that after the first 10-15mins (which might be needed to heat up the water / stabilize the temps) this becomes irrelevant. It all comes down to how much heat the TECs + the heatsink cooling the TECs can handle.

Overall a very interesting read
(I was supposed to test a similar unit long time ago, I thought it would not be worth it, looks like it was good that I didnt waste my time with it)

 

[pev69]

A nice review, as always at your magnificient site. However, the size of the reservoir does not per se have any effect on the long term performance of ANY cooling system! More water takes longer to heat, BUT it also takes longer to cool! The only way it would matter is if the reservoir is itself acting as a radiator (e.g. Zalman Reserator systems), then increasing its size would propably increase its radiating (cooling) surface area.

So, the reservoir size only affects the initial rate at which the system reaches its operating temperature. The long term performance is affected solely by the ratio of the effective performances of the hot and cold sides in the system.

EDIT: Ah, macci already noted about this. Sorry, I took a long time to keep my reply in editing mode

 

[djbbenn]

It would have effect on the performance of the cooler in theory, and that's why I said "I believe" with blah blah blah... It more or less buys the TECs time to cool the water more effectively. I see your guy's points very clearly and they make perfect sense and I'm not saying you're wrong, however with no significant reservoir, the hot water goes directly to the cooling blocks/TECs and there is no break for the TECs. TECs are no where near the same thing as a radiator, and this system does not use a radiator. Even if a reservoir made a 1-2C difference on a conventional water loop, it could be a lot different on a TEC based system. When the cold side of a TEC gets warmer, so does the hot side of the TEC. Right there you loose some of the maximum cooling potential of the TEC.

The only accurate way to find out is to add a reservoir, and see because this is a very debatable topic. I do plan on doing this when I get some more time. You can look at it either way, but I do think it would help, and that's why I said that in the review. I've seen larger reservoirs help on water systems before, and I don't see why it couldn't here especially where it's cooled by non-conventional methods.

 

[XooM]

djbben: see the racetrack debunking in the liquid cooling article in this site's wiki as to why the whole "give it time to cool down" idea is bogus



There are situations when reservoir size does matter; using a pond, swimming pool, or lake as a reservoir will almost certainly never reach thermal equilibrium


shame there was no comparison in the review to a water cooling rig that would run approximately the same price.

 

[WarEagleAU]

Nice informative review. Ive been seeing alot of these lately, and Ive been thinking of investing in them. At idle, the things are supremo, no doubt about it, however, it doesnt let you get a high oc like Liquid Cooling (I dont call it water cooling anymore as most systems use a cooland (antifreeze)) systems do. I paid $120 for my Koolance Exos, and it really performs about on par with this, aside from the idle (idle is like 25-27C depending on the heat and its getting hot down here and load, depending on heat, is 29-36C depending on heat here). Overall, nice read though. More information than I could have found. Id stick with Thermaltake V1000 fan cooler or liquid cooling systems like koolance, swiftech and danger den

 

[compuman]

coolant level

How often do you hav to check the coolant ? do you hav to flush it once a year or something like a car ?
game on cheerrs compu man

 

[d44ve]

there certianly cannot be much power going to the TEC's.... I wonder how much better it would do with more power going to the TEC's?

 

[djbbenn]

How often do you hav to check the coolant ? do you hav to flush it once a year or something like a car ?
game on cheerrs compu man

No need to change the coolant - It's a maintenance free unit.

d44ve -> all six TECs together pull 56 watts... so they're not overly powerful. If you get too powerful of TECs though, the system will draw far too much power and cause compatibility issues, as increase the risk of condensation.

 

[junker39]

I found this pretty interesting. I built a similar system three years ago using a homemade aluminum heat exchanger, a TEC from a 12 volt refrig, and a cheap water cooling system from Thermaltake. After refining the whole thing a few times, I had dual TECs mounted on a copper heat exchanger, using large heatsinks and three inch fans on each. The exchanger works really good transfering the heat from the water to the TEC. By using a seperate power supply for the cooling pump, fans and TECs I had no problems there. My AMD ran around 85 degrees F at full load using 3DMark2001 (I think.) I had to regulate the voltage to the TECs because of the humidity here in south Texas. At idle, the water lines would start dripping condensation in warmer weather. I tried running the lines so the water would drip into a rigged up drain pan and then to a jar but, that didn't work out real good. So, I let the TEC voltage run a little lower than design and that warmed it up enough to stop the condensation. I tried different pumps, line sizes, and fans and I just about tweaked that one out. Right now, I'm working on using eight TECs on a water supplied air conditioning sytem for the whole case. So far the only big problem has been getting the case insulated good enough so it doesn't rain inside of itself. I know it isn't going to work right but, I'll be the only one in town with an air conditioned PC. Later.

 

[SK-1]

I will have one on thursday.I also plan on doing the 120mm fan mod.

 

[TheMailMan78]

Iv been researching this all over the web and I see a lot better temps from this system. I wonder if you guys would have tested this system BEFORE you took it apart you would have gotten better temps.

I mean you guys know what your doing without a doubt but maybe you missed something on reassembly.

 

[PaulieG]

I had the Freezones little brother, the Eliminator. I will tell you that at idle the temps are awesome. Nothing like seeing an overclocked Q6600 at 9c. However, on load the temps are no better than a good air cooler.