Danger Den TDX vs Cool Cases CF1 v2

Cooling/Water Cooling by KeithSuppe @ 2004-06-28

A new revision of the Cool-Cases CF1 is put up against Danger Den?s latest high performance water block, the TDX. Which one will keep an Athlon 64 the coolest, read on to find out.

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Introduction

Cool-Cases CF-1 Rev.2 versus Danger Den TDX (water block comparison).

Madshrimps (c)
CF1 v2 on the left – TDX on the right


Recently during a forum discussion an astute observation was made concerning the evolution of water block’s and the testing thereof. To paraphrase, the state of water block design has evolved to the point, where the level of performance between quality water blocks has narrowed to within a few centigrade degrees. Where high standards are maintained among manufacturers, it seems quality is constantly improving as the performance gap shrinks. In the last several months, I've had the pleasure of testing some high quality water blocks. Among these, all very different in their design execution, the resulting temps were very close. Whenever there were major differences, those differences coincided with ambient temp fluctuations. High performance levels, once found only in independent maker's blocks, have slowly transitioned to mass production. Danger Den is an ideal example of the independent manufacturer making the transition to mass-production, while still adhering to meticulous workmanship across their product line.


The average enthusiast considering the transition to H20 cooling probably doesn't want to decipher Delta-T formulae and flow-rate charts. They simply want to know how the water block performs in the "real world." Does block-A cool better then block-B under the same conditions? I seek to answer several basic questions in this review. What is the intended design, and how does it work? How did the water block manufacturer execute the design? How do the materials used, and quality of craftsmanship manifest itself in the product's performance? And finally, what can the end-user expect for their investment?


Today we are examining two water blocks, each exemplifying different designs. First, Cool-Cases CF-1 Rev.2, is the revision to the venerable CF-1. This cooler is a popular European design, and I was very fortunate to have one of the better shops, Watercooling.de, procure this for me (thank you Florian). At the writing of this article the CF-1 Rev.2 held the top position on the CPU-Kuhler charts at both Watercoolplanet (out of 50) and Caseumbau (out of 20). Test methodology for Watercoolplanet can be found here and Caseumbau here. That position (at Watercoolplanet) is now occupied by Alphacool's NexXxos XP. Still, Cool-Cases' water blocks currently occupy several places on each of the aforementioned site's CPU-charts.

The original CF-1 (without Rev.2 part) still hold's 8th place at Watercoolplanet, and 3rd place at Caseumbau. Danger Den's TDX isn't found on either CPU-Kuhler chart. This is most likely due to the fact Danger Den is a USA based water block manufacturer. And their TDX has not been tested as yet by either site. Their RBX on the other hand, currently holds 15th place at Watercoolplanet. The TDX will certainly be up against some tough competition today.
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