The AMD press kits came without a cooler, so the reviewers had to use whatever was available in the lab. A week later most got the rebranded Asetek AMD FX all in one liquid cooling solution on the doorstep. Let's give it a spin.
As said before it's a rebranded Asetek/Antec 920 solution. Look at it as a pimped Corsair H70 with more flexible tubing and finally software fan control out of the box.
The thick 49mm 120mm fan radiator is aided by two fans to disperse the heat dumped by the FX-8150 CPU.
The dual fan solution, so push and pull can spin at a very low 700 RPM till 2400 RPM. They are controlled by the included software. Either opt for the silent approach ( easily doable up to 4.4-4.5Ghz ), Extreme preset or adjust it yourself with your own custom profile.
Quite normal to only find the AMD mounting kit in the box. I never reviewed the Antec H²0 920 cooling kit, but the mounting has seriously improved over the first Asetek/Corsair solutions.
The included Chillcontrol software leaves hardly any option open to adjust the fan speeds. Via either one of the two preset profiles ( silent and extreme ) or via a custom user defined setting. RGB colours can be adjusted, temperatures monitored, etc...
Some shots of the features of the Chill Control software :
We throw into the bundle Corsairs Hydro 100, 240mm rad solution and Alpenföhns K2 cooler. For the 3.6 and 4.5Ghz tests we set the Corsair to Balanced mode. Allowing the unit itself to choose the fan rpm itself. For the 4.7Ghz test the Hydro 100 was set to performance mode.
Running this CPU out of the box is no problem for any solution, even the FX cooling kit at silent mode ( really inaudible ) keeps it well under 60°C. The temps are read out by Coretemp, calibrated with a 14°C offset. Calibration was done by placing a sensor near the IHS. At 4.5Ghz and 1.39 Vcore the Silent mode starts to get a hard time to keep things cool. The FX cooling solution at Extreme preset keeps in touch with the Hydro 100 and cools adequately.
At 4.7Ghz at 1.47Vcore we ditched the silent mode and went either extreme or peformance mode for the all in one liquid cooling solutions. The monstrous K2 air cooler remains totally inaudible. The Hydro 100 takes first spot with a 5°C lead over the Asetek/AMD solution.
We could conduct the entire benchsuite at 4.9Ghz with the FX liquid cooling solution. Though prime95 was another cup of tea. Take note that your results can vary, our press CPU was an ES ( Early Sample ) CPU with a low VID of 1.2625. For your info low VID usually means a hot CPU :p
Epic fail.