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| CPU Waterblock |
| Where are the penguins? |
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| right hole |
center hole |
left hole |
The first of the three water blocks we took a look at was the Asetek Antarctica CPU Cooler. By sporting a solid copper base, interchangeable Plexiglas top and three 1/2" push fittings, this cooler offers not only versatility, but should allow easy movement of water throughout the block. The center of the three fittings is shaped slightly different (note the center picture above). Instead of being a round hole, Asetek has shaped it in such away that when water passes through it, the water is accelerated, thus moving quicker through the block as a whole. In turn, the large openings of the left and right fittings are designed to minimize flow restriction and will allow the water to freely exit the block.
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| bottom with protective cover |
unscrewing the base |
water block dismantled |
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| copper plate |
copper plate |
Dismantling the water block was fairly simple. By simply removing the four screws, using the provided Allen Key, the copper base separated from the Plexiglas top with minimal effort. In the bottom two pictures above you can easily see the raised ridges in the center of the plate where the middle 1/2" fitting sprays water. Once the water moves through the groves it pools in the slightly depressed areas of the plate where it is then forced up and out of the block, through the two other fittings, via the "fresh" incoming water. Also note the smooth milling job Asetek has done on the copper plate. Though it is not a complete mirror finish, it is nicely polished, thus minimizing the chance of air-bubbles/pockets forming which would decrease the cooling capability of the block.
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| VPU and Chipset Waterblock |
| Keeping the rest of the system cool |
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| right side |
water channels |
Just like the CPU Cooler, the VPU block is comprised of a solid copper base with a clean Plexiglas top. Located at the top right edge of the block the intake and output 1/2" fittings can be found. While this block does not come with any interchangeable Plexiglas plates, the cooler will fit any NVIDIA/GeForce and ATI/Radeon AGP card. Unfortunately we did not have any PCI Express Cards to install the cooler onto at the time of testing, but the hardware which Asetek provides should allow attachment to most standard sized video cards currently in production (in addition, we do recommend installing a 3rd party memory cooling solution if using a newer video card as the memory runs very warm).
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| right side |
water channels |
Continuing the trend of its two predecessors, the chipset cooler is comprised of the same materials and sports the same 1/2" fittings. Supplied with enough variance of hardware to attach to most mainstream motherboards, users should have little to no problem installing this water block, regardless of their motherboard's chipset.
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