Radiator, fan and waterblock
Looking at the radiator first.
The radiator's job is simple. It's there to externally cool the warm water as it passes through its matrix. The water is pushed through the runs of copper tubing and back out to whatever you place next in the loop. Copper fins are attached to increase the total surface cooling area.
You can see the inlet and outlet, as well as the runs of tubing that make up a portion of the radiator. Surface area helps heat dissipation but, just like CPU heatsinks, a fan is required for maximum heat removal.
You can see that the radiator isn't the largest in the world. A 120mm Sunon KDE1212PMS3 fan all but obscures it from this angle of view. The fan, at 12v, produces 83 CFM @ 34 dBA. You'll see later that we have the option of reducing it to 7v. It would have been nice if you could mount the fan on either side, thereby increasing your installation options. The radiator connects to the rest of the loop via 10/12mm pushfit tubing (supplied).
The block is interesting to say the least. Asetek have gone for the maximum possible platform compatibility by specifying installation holes for three platforms. The oversized P.M.M.A top ( Poly Methyl MethaCrylate) has three separate sets of holes for Socket 478 (Pentium 4 and Celeron), Socket 462 (AMD XP / Duron) and Socket 754 for the upcoming AMD Hammer CPUs. The furthest four are for Socket 478 fittings, and these may cause logistical problems on a number of AMD boards, but as the block conforms to AMD's standards, the problem is with the board manufacturer and not the block. As we're testing on a Pentium 4 testbed, installation won't be compromised in any way.
2 10mm pushfit fittings make installation simple.
Copper-bottomed for maximum heat transfer.
The block arrived with a white sticker protecting the bottom of the block. The finish underneath was scratch-free, just as it should be. So far so good, but we need something that will push the water around the system. Enter the combined reservoir and pump.
