Working our way up to the reservoir, Corsair specifies in the installation manual this should be placed at the highest point in the system. I installed the reservoir in the second highest 5.52" bay which made filling and bleeding a breeze.



Onto the waterblock. The design is very similar to Swiftech's MCW6000 and with a good reason, as Corsair is working together with Swiftech on the "COOL" water cooling kit. It's not that Corsair doesn't have the wherewithal to begin manufacturing water blocks from scratch; it's simply a nonsensical approach. Out-sourcing is much more common in the technology industry then many others due to the varying levels of specialization. In fact Corsair's choice indicates they've carefully researched options available which not only offered decent performance, it does so at an affordable price. While there may be better performers out there the MCW6000 most likely represented the best ROI (Return on Investment).



I was unable to find actual internal photos of the MCW6000, or the 240-pin version used by Corsair, however; I've borrowed the diagram below from Swiftech's site. The block is described as an extruded pin design, featuring 281-pins with the entire block made from C110 copper. Copper offers superior heat transfer (or conduction) properties over many alternate metals. Do note that the Corsair "Cool" product website states 240-pins instead of Swiftech's 281. Is this a typo? Or did they get an adapted version? Some believe the lower pin count will increase flow rate thereby improving COOL's perfrmance over that of it's counterpart the MCW6000. Aspects (less flow restriction) was most likely more condusive to COOL's accompanying components, and their related placement in the system.



Corsair clearly states in their installation manual the block should be positioned with the outlet situated above the inlet. For thermal transfer paste I used Arctic Silver Ceramique, placing a rice-sized grain on the center of the A64 3500 hetaspreader. I chose Ceramique over Arctic Silver AS5 due to it's shorter set time, and due to the fact AS5 tends "adgere" to many CPUs. I've found the bond strong enough to pull CPU's from thweir socket except of course the LGA-775. This is due to catalysts used with the silver particles, and is indicative of it's excellent ability to infuse or fill every striation, and micro-pore in both CPU and heatsink/waterblock surfaces. The result is an air-tight seal which ultimately forms a bond. There's always a price to pay when using the very best, Unfortunately the combined surface area of the A64 3500+ and Corsair COOL owuld be pre-disposed for just this situation to occur. I allow the natural compression of tightening the mounting screws to set the paste as spreading can incorperate air into the mixture.



The next photo shows the system installed, and side panel removed from the SHARK case. I ran the system at LOAD alternating to IDLE, and shutting it down over several days to ensure the paste set properly. I'd also like to thank a reader whom brought to my attention I had orignally included the wrong photo's as I experimented with juxtiposing waterblock orientation placing the outlet below inlet. Thank you.



And finally with the radiator/fan in the correct (Corsair recommended) positon. As I stated earlier I tested the system several ways, each configuration for at least 48-hours to be as thorough as possible.



Test Setup and Methodology

Test System
CPU	Athlon64 3500+ Winchester .09-micron process (2.2GHz/512k L2 cache) 1.365V default Vcore (Retail)
Mainboard	DFI LanParty nF4 UTDXG (BIOS v.310)
Memory	Corsair XPERT 3200 1024MB DC(2x512mb) CL 3-2-2-5
Graphics	BFG OC 6800GT PCI-ex (370MHz Core/1000MHz Memory) nForce VGA drivers 6.6.9.3
Power Supply	Thermaltake Silent Purepower 680APD
Operating System	Windows XP SP2
CASE	Thermaltake SHARKAluminum Full Tower

Temperatures were measured using Smart Guardian on-board software which reads the A64 internal thermal diode out-put, as well as all DFI motherboard temp related diodes/thermistors. For more precise CPU measurements I re-mounted the water-block several times inserting a thermistor between the base plate and CPU surface. I placed a thermistor fed into a TTGI USA Fan Master SF-609 as close to the center of the A64 IHS (Integrated Heat Spreader) as possible, using the best (highest temp) out of three mountings. To measure water-temps a Cooper Atkins 1246-01 calibrate able thermometer was placed at the center of the water flow, so as not to be effected by ambient temp near the hose edges. Finally a Fluke-187 digital-multi-meter (accuracy +/- 1.0% + 1.0C) was used wherever feasible to measure ambient temps, and corroborate the accuracy of other temps.

To push our A64 3500+ to 100% LOAD, I used the CPU stress utility appropriately named S&M. The utility has many useful features such as an extensive voltage and temp monitoring GUI which records maximum and minimum values during its operation. I ran S&M several times through its 19-minute cycle, although I've discovered just 60-seconds would result in the maximum temp so long as the system had been running throughout the day. Regardless I ran the test through a single full 19-minute run, began a second to circumvent any AMD thermal throttling features even though they were disbaled in the DFI Lanparty nF4 UT BIOS v.310.

For our first screenshot the processor is running IDLE under default voltage/frequency settings: 200FSB/2210MHz at 1.365Vcore.



In our next screenshot the processor was pushed to LOAD and once again under default settings: 200FSB/2.2GHz at 1.375Vcore.



In our final section we determine how far we can overclock the A64 3500+ with Corsair COOL extirpating the increased heat ->