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The Verdict
Wel now here we are. What we saw today was impressive. There are a lot of positives yet also a number of negatives. Let's sift through them.
First off installation. It's do-able for the more experienced do-it-yourself PC builder kind of guy. It however is not a hassle free installation. Usually I build water-cooled systems within 15 to 30 mins without any guidance. This kit made me work for an hour and a half and on several occasions you'll need the manual, and that manual is an issue. There are images in there but of such small and poor quality that you hardly can see what's going on. That can definitely use improvement. The installation itself requires some skills as well.
The second negative has to be the noise levels this kit creates. An air-cooled system will make just as much noise as this kit does. The pump is resonating a lot and next to that the radiator fan is even at it's lower possible setting audible as well. Set at high... well let me just state I would not use that high setting at all. So that's definitely something you need to keep in mind if you are an audiophile.
The positives definitely outweigh the negatives though as there are many of them. First off you can pick up a kit like this for roughly 150 USD which is just a great price as the overall performance of this kit is close to high-end. Sure it's not an Asetek kit but hey those are easily 250-300 USD. This kit from Gigabyte cools down the components really well, and with a slightly better radiator & fan the kit would have been close to the high-end products.
Obviously this kit has been designed with something very important in mind, that being aesthetics. I mean just look at it! It's a really good looking water-cooling kit. The nice blue design, little blue LEDs here and there, big wide 1/2" tubing so you can see what's going on in that system, good quality water-blocks, included ram-sinks and splitters; in short it's a really complete kit and has everything you need. The blue eye is also about eye-candy. It's the most fun VGA-cooler I have ever seen and the included flow-indicator is just brilliant. The VGA cooler by the way will fit on ATi X600 and above and nVidia 6XXX and newer.
The 3D Galaxy II & Blue Eye are extremely good looking and very well performing. You need to have some skills to install this kit and should realize it makes just as much or more noise than your average air cooled PC. Other then that at 150 USD this Gigabyte kicks Giga butt at a very attractive price.
3D Galaxy II & Blue Eye Water cooling kit
Manufacurer: GigabytePrice: $150 US
