CoolerMaster Aquagate MAX review CPU liquid cooling - Introduction

No no no ... CoolerMaster Aquagate is not a conspiracy like watergate .. ehm .. wait ..water hmmm ?! So, did you guys know I'm a huge fan of water-cooling ? There are very few systems here in the office that are not water-cooled. And there's a good reason behind it really. First off, water-cooling is extremely efficient it's a very quick way to get rid off and transport heat away from the processor. That by itself has several advantages, the biggest one being the overall the temperature of your processor will go down much faster than say a traditional air cooler.

Another good reason for water-cooling is the noise level. When done right you can keep the volume of the fan on a  radiator really quiet creating a pretty inaudible experience.

Last and most certainly not least is the most simple reason of them all .. it can look freakishly cool. Water blocks can be tiny, shiny, reflective and if you use transparent tubing, just use some UV reflective coolant and insert a black-light. The result often is amazing and it's the kind of stuff gives a PC that little extra, which makes you appreciate it even more.

Is there a downside then? Of course, sure .. first off, you have water looped inside an electrically powered PC. Leaks can cause damage. But the reality .. leaks happening is a really rare thing. At least not in our experience with all the kits we tested. The second negative .. the more high-end you go, the more expensive things will get. My recommendation is simple though, more expensive kits often offer way more performance and lower volume levels. You however can save often on the sales price if you opt for a complete kit.

Really, there's a lot of rubbish available on the market. Some personal golden guru rules:

• Don't save on water-blocks the difference between plastic or a highly conductive metal design can make a pretty huge difference.
• The thinner the tubing .. the worse the kit is. Start at roughly half an inch tubing diameter.
• The smaller the radiator the worse performance will be. Dual-radiators that can fit two 120mm fans are the way to go.

So the problem is finding the right water-cooling kit. We tested quite a few in the past already and this year CoolerMaster introduced their CoolerMaster Aquagate MAX. Now if you look at the specification of that kit .. it's impressive.

This system is designed to be used inside your computer case, for a completely self-contained system. If you are looking for a liquid cooling system to use for your performance computer, the Cooler Master Aquagate Max may be just what you need. Dual 120mm radiator, excellent looking reservoir and 400 liter/h pump, nice thick tubing and a very glossy water-block. A very interesting fact is .. it's not very expensive. And oh dear .. that goes against my golden rule doesn't it ? The CoolerMaster Aquagate MAX kit as described sells at roughly 229 USD. What we'll do today is water-cool a Core 2 Quad 9770 Extreme Edition processor. The aim is obviously to see if we can reach acceptable temperature in a near silent environment, and then overclock the shitzu out of it. 4 GHz @ 1.6Volts, hey you know the deal .. this is Guru3D you know.

But hey .. have a first impression of what we are dealing with today.