Alphacool NexXxoS XP Core i7 water block review - Testing and benchmarking @ 3200 MHz

Testing and benchmarking

Now that the system is hooked up and actually working with a cooling solution, let's run some performance tests. Initial thoughts: very exciting. We set our room temperature towards roughly 21 Degrees C for an objective comparison.

Mind you that we cool, nearly passive, the Zalman Reserator XT is used here.

The setup used for Project X:

• Smooth Creations paint job+chassis
• Core i7 965
• ASUS Rampage II eXTREME x58
• 1200 Watt PSU
• Corsair Dominator DDR3 1866 MHz
• GeForce GTX 295
• Alphacool waterblock
• OCZ SSD
• WD Raptor 150 GB

And excluding small stuff like DVD-RW etc, this project is very expensive and runs over 3500 EUR.

Right after system boot up the water obviously is cool at room-temperature, the components will be slightly warmer over a longer timeframe due to the nature of water-cooling.

Core i7 965 processor @ 3200 MHz (default)

For our first test we are going to look at the cooling performance of the kit. First let's focus at non-overclocked results. Out mainboard has extra power phases and typically wattage and temperatures run a little higher than your average system.

We tested the processor both in idle (nothing to do) and 100% stressed on all four cores with Prime95 software.

• Processor clocks at 3200 MHz (~3340 in Turbo mode).
• Zalman Resorator set at LOW - our primary mission here is to achieve a noiseless environment

In an idle status we see the processor roughly hover at 31 Degrees C / 88 F. Once we stress the four CPU cores real hard, almost unnatural for the PC to do and achieve, we peak at roughly 49 Degrees C / 120 F.

The is just perfect for a high-end processor when not overclocked, with no noise at all.

* screenshots for reference only - actual temp readings where taken after 20 minutes burn in.