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#907 - Danger Den Water Box Plus and Kit |
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Written by Zach Jeffers
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Monday, 07 January 2008 |
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Page 8 of 8
Results and Conclusion:
For testing of the Danger Den Water Box Plus and Water Cooling Kit, we used the following hardware:
CPU: AMD Quad Core Phenom @ 2.6ghz
Motherboard: Asus M3A32-MVP Socket AM2+
Memory: 2gig (2 x 1gig) Corsair Dominator PC2-8500
Video: GeCube ATI x1950Pro
Hard Drives: 2 x Western Digital 2500YS RE in RAID0
Optical: Plextor PX-740UF PATA
Power Supply: Tagan BZ 1100watts
Operating System: Windows Vista Ultimate 64bit
During testing, I placed the radiator fans both pushing air out and pulling air in. This created two different temperatures as the air pushed out is the air that is also cooling the hard drives and therefore already somewhat warm. Sucking the air into the case from the outside brings cooler air in and helps cool the hard drives, then exiting out the power supply’s exhaust fan. This is a much more efficient setup, but I figured we would test both scenarios. We tested our setup at stock voltage of 1.28v and at 1.325v. The results are below:
As expected the cool air being sucked into the case creates a better method of cooling. This also helps cool the other devices behind it. As for performance, this water cooling unit performs fairly well. With such a small loop length of around 4.5-5’ with the absence of a reservoir, these temps are pretty reasonable. Also note that this kit comes with the single core block and that there is a multi-core block available that will probably perform a tad better. As for the comparison of the water cooling to air cooling; this kit has some competition from some of the larger tower coolers out there. The problem with those is that those large towers do not fit in all cases, especially the limited head space of the Water Box Plus case.
Installation of this water cooling kit was a pleasure. The clamp style retention system was a snap and they were easily removed if adjustment was needed. The tubing is soft and very pliable without feeling like it was going to kink around the motherboard tray and over the memory DIMMs. The Delrin Fillport was a wonderful addition and a recommended upgrade to the Water Box Plus Cooling Kit. This made the filling of the system during the bleed session painless.
As for the case, I would say that assembly wasn’t the easiest and quickest I have done, but not too difficult for the average builder. I would like to have seen a thumb screw type setup for the top and final side panels as they require a screw driver and lots of little nuts and bolts whenever you choose to modify your system. For a reviewer like me, that is very annoying but for the average user that opens the case every six months to blow it out, it’s not such a big deal.
There are some gripes I have with the Water Box Plus case. For one, there are no power and HDD activity LEDs. I felt shorthanded with no front USB or Audio connections. I also felt shorthanded not having 5.25” drive bay covers for when one or both 5.25” bays were not in use. The back I/O bracket seemed a bit too deep. I had to squeeze the video card’s tab between the motherboard and the back bracket. This could have just been a slight mis-alignment of the pre-drilled mounting holes on the motherboard tray, but something to look out for. The third and last gripe I have is that the third 120mm fan was not included nor was there a grill to cover the hole. I would have like to have at least seen the components protected from random objects falling into the box. On a side note, the included MCT-5 was not UV reactive so if you are looking for a UV setup, you might want to order a different liquid.
On the up side, this case has a lot of customizability. You can order panels with laser etches and in different colors. The very thick side panels make for a very sturdy case and one that doesn’t feel like it could crumble under a multi-card video solution. The oversized top panel hangs over the side panels by an additional 3/8” and has rounded corners. I thought that helped remove itself from the ‘just a box look’.
Danger Den has made a name for itself with quality high performance water cooling parts. Their venture into the acrylic case market with integrated water cooling has turned out to be a kill combination and is recommended to anybody looking to impress their friends at their next LAN party. This combination teamed up with some nice accent cold cathodes would really top it all off. It has been a pleasure working with these products and Danger Den definitely deserves a Kickass rating for their Water Box Plus acrylic cube case and the accompanying Water Box Plus Water Cooling Kit. Our thanks go out to Danger Den for their supply of the review samples and their continued support of 3dGameMan.com!
> ADDITIONAL INFO/COMMENTS IN THE FORUMS <
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Pros |
Cons |
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- Thick Sturdy Construction
- Great Temperatures
- Killer Looks
- Near Silent Operation
- Overclocking Approved
- Flexible and Expandable
- "Wow" Factor
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- No Third 120mm Fan or Grill
- No Power and HDD LEDs
- No 5.25" Bay Covers
- Tight I/O Bracket
- No HDD Cage
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