Established in 2003, TAIWAN's GBU INTERNATIONAL CORP. has been dedicated on providing professional wireless networking equipments and high-quality wireless surveillance systems to the global markets. From October 2009 GBU Taiwan proudly represent Larkooler PC cooling products as the sole exporting partner. Larkooler is a new generation cooling system for desktop computers. It is designed with best cooling solution for CPU, Northbridge, Southbridge, graphic card and MOSFET. Larkooler is the most cost-effective PC cooling solution in the PC markets.



Teamed up with professional and experienced PC cooling experts, Larkooler wants to create an innovative cooling solution for all PC users. The spirit of Larkooler is : Coolness + Joy. We hope to bring tremendous fun of watercooling to all desktop PC users. Producing ultimate thermal solution is our job and our purpose is to make watercooling products affordable for everyone. We do care what users need and what we bring to the environments

Larkooler product page @ FrozenCPU.com


This review was made possible by FrozenCPU.com


The Larkooler Cooling kit

The kit comes in a very clear white box with the Larkooler slogan "Larkooler offers the best solution for the problems of noise and overheating by desktops" giving us a good idea what's it's all about. Can it live up to that? Let's dig in and examine the kit part per part.



But first some generalities:

Package is completed with Pump, 240mm radiator with fans, tubing and coolant. so everything you ever will need is included in the box.



For those that want to check out the compatibility of their motherboard and graphics card, the Larkooler engineers have pre-tested this for you. Check out the full list here : Larkooler Compatability List (.pdf)

Let's get a bit more acquainted now piece by piece.

The CPU block

The CPU block is already pre-fitted with the Intel brackets, compatible with socket 775/1156 and 1366. For the AMD compatibility you need to install another W type by just loosening 2 screws.


The cooling block ( and all other parts) has got a nice classy chrome finish


Bottom is also chrome plated, but here rises my first concern, the cooling surface is inferior to a normal waterblock, here you see the Larkooler VGA block ( same size as the CPU block ) on top of the Swiftech XT I7 block


All fittings are part of the block itself. Thus non removabale or upgradable. Tubing used will be 6/8mm, which might scare some watercooling enthusiast. The rubber protections add a nice touch of class

Nice multi socket back plate is included in the Larkooler kit. A foam protection avoids short-circuiting on the motherboard.


Here's the block fitted with the AMD bracket. Only two screws need to be removed to install these (same principle in fact for all the blocks)



The Pump

We continue to look at the parts included in the BA2-241 kit. The pump specs are :



Watercooling enthusiast again will not be impressed by these numbers, but we still have to keep in mind that this is just a 180 dollar kit which includes parts to cool all hot components of your PC. This kit is not targeted at the die hard crowd. How it will perform we will find out later on.



The pump has got 3 openings. From left to right : the refill opening, fluid-in and on the far right the fluid-out fitting. Note that the OUT is clearly on the plastic cover of the pump so you have to be a real nitwit to inverse them. No need to place a reservoir in this setup as the pump has got an integrated one.


The mounting plate got a double adhesive Velcro based to absorb the pump vibrations and to assure a solid fix. Yet due to the Velcro it's quickly removable too.

You can choose either to hook up the pump straight to the motherboard or use the Molex to 3 pin adapter for straight hookup to the PSU. The pump has got an automatic stop protection in case it should run out of fluid (due to e.g. a leakage ) However there is no min nor maximum fluid level marking on the reservoir. Manual refers there's not enough fluid if the pump get's noisy.