Manufacturer: Corsair / Delphi   Product: Hydrocool 200   Availability: Immediately   Author:   Date: 5-18-2003   Price: $220

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Out of curiosity, we set the Hydrocool unit on the floor for awhile. We expected the temperatures to rise as a result of the pump having to move the water uphill. But that was not the case at all. Because this is a closed loop system, the falling water compensates for the rising water. The result was a drop of 1.5 degrees Celsius, probably attributable to the ambient air being cooler at floor level.

There is a "turbo mode" available by depressing the appropriate button on the front panel. When it is activated, a red LED lights up and the fan speed increases. It seems to lower temperatures by a degree or two, according to the front panel display. We didn't choose to use it much, because the fan became a bit too loud.

Because I get teased quite a bit for not overclocking equipment enough in the AthlonXP forums, we thought this would be a perfect time to try a little bit of it. We are using the A-core .13 XP1700+ during the first little round of entertainment. Big thanks go out to the fine folks at Corsair for letting us use two sticks of their fine memory.

XP1700+

We had the Vcore set at 1.750 to obtain this overclock, the maximum our Asus board would allow. The temperatures according to MBM5 got up to 38C after three loops of 3D Mark 2001SE. Temps were measured at the CPU core diode. To prove this over clock's stability, as well as the following one, the system went through three loops of 3D Mark and Toast without failure.

We didn't get to the 2000Mhz we had hoped for, but we did get this chip over 1900, for an overclock of 431 MHz. If you would like to add to the teasing, feel free to drop into the thread over here.

XP2200+

Rather satisfied with what we got out of the XP1700+, we swapped in an XP2200+ to see what we could do with it.

We had the Vcore set at 1.850 to obtain this overclock, the maximum our Asus board would allow. The temperatures according to MBM5 got up to 37C after three loops of 3D Mark 2001SE with this 272MHz overclock. As before, temps were measured at the CPU core diode.

Being a PC enthusiast, hearing that Corsair was involved in building a liquid cooling solution for our PCs had me interested. Being a car guy, hearing that companies like Delphi and Bosch were involved, only added to my interest. The result of their combined effort is along the lines of what I would expect from this caliber of people, and is to be applauded.

I don't know what kind of magic is inside the quiet little Bosch pump, but I am impressed. When we first fired the system and topped off the coolant, I expected to see bubbles in the lines for quite awhile, but they were gone in a matter of seconds. It may have something to do with the self priming feature of the pump. Whatever it is, the usual waiting for lines to clear is not part of this system. Going against the trend of 120V aquarium pumps seems like a good solution, but I do wonder what kind of load it puts on the power supply. One of our forum members, scopEDog, built a system with a DC pump last year… he must be a trend setter.

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An area of concern for many will be the amount of noise this unit generates. In the normal mode it is noticeable, about what you would expect from a 38mm x 120mm fan running at half throttle. In turbo mode, it is simply loud. The extra degree or two of cooling from turbo mode doesn't seem to justify the additional noise, but the option is there nonetheless.

I wonder if the components will be sold individually and if replacement parts will become available. Why? Because not long after looking this unit over, I began designing a LianLi LAN case with all of the Hyrocool components built in. I wonder if others will be thinking the same thing. The pump, reservoir, water block, and radiator are all items which will be of interest to enthusiasts, even if they would be sold individually.

This is Corsair's first entrance into the liquid cooling market and it is a bold one, indeed. Hydrocool is full of fresh ideas and is a very well built unit. With a price tag of $220.00, it is also quite reasonable, especially when the simplicity of use is considered.

If for no other reason, this product receives our Editor's Choice Award because it will introduce many more people to the fun and efficiency of liquid cooling their PC. It does so with a level of performance we haven't seen yet from a system that is so easy to use. It does indeed make the words "plug and play" a little more realistic in the world of liquid cooled personal computing.