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The Verdict
Okay, so this article was really something. I had no idea how much time this project would take up in resources. The modification itself is pretty much do-able in a good afternoons work, but the tweaking and overclocking .. my goodness .. that takes time man. Not to mention how much the VapoChill LS costs.
So what you need to seriously consider is this: how much is overclocking worth ? Obviously in normal circumstances definitely not this amount of money. I mean the unit as used today is selling for a very precipitous 700-800 EUR. Next to that you'll have to live with a lot of noise coming from the unit and your power consumption will go up vastly also. At one point I measured just over 500 Watts power draw from the entire PC including the LS unit. So these are all points you have to keep in mind before you even slightly start to consider uber-gear like this.
The VapoChill LS is for a very small and elite group of people who live for tweaking and overclocking to the maximum, and nothing else. I spent a lot of money on this unit and I know now already that I probably will not be using it much longer. Why ? I'm not that person that lives for tweaking, and I adore silence in my office. But the fact is that if you are an uber-tweaker or master overclocker there's pretty much no better cooling solution out there on the market with which you can achieve results as displayed today for a long-term solution.
The processor we used (FX-57) is .. well was at the time 1000 USD. With water-cooling we have never been able to push it any further than roughly 2.9 GHz. It's a very difficult to overclock processor. Chilling down that CPU with the Asetek VapoChill LS way below zero degrees C did facilitate our needs 100%. We pushed the processor towards a truly amazing 3.45 GHz and that surely does offer an extensive performance boost.
I'm sorry for the language here, but once you achieve such a massive overclock you look at that rig and the only thing you can think is "yeah babe .. who's the bitch now huh ?".
Back to reality though at gaming resolution 10x7 you will be able to push out like 10-20% more performance at maximum. So again, you really need to consider whether doing a project like this is worth that kind of money.
The Asetek VapoChill LS unit itself is built very well. Installation seems difficult and sometimes a little scary for some of you. But hey .. you are a Guru3D.com reader, you tweak, alter and make case-mods right ? It should be very do-able for you. Once installed, the VapoChill LS unit is relatively easy to operate and has really nice tweaking options also. You can adjust things like the RPM of the internal fans, the amount of heat released to the mainboard with the help of the included VapoChill control Panel software which you can run within windows itself.
The Asetek VapoChill LS is the ultimate processor cooling solution, it is bizarre, it is impressive, it however comes with a very hefty price tag and a fair amount of noise. If you plan to use this for normal PC operation that noise can most certainly become annoying. Fan speeds can be throttled down to much lower levels, and it will still operate reliably yet the compressor you'll hear at all times. These are only two practical negatives I can think of. Furthermore I must applaud Astetek for making this hugely impressive kit.
This rather exquisite VapoChill LS unit is made for the elite in the tweaking community, have a look in our forums, you'll see that there are plenty of them.
Asetek VapoChill LS
Supplied by: Asetek
MSRP incl VAT : 900 EUR (seen for 650 at local e-tailers).
Hilbert.
