jmke

The Freezone Elite will definitely beat anything you can likely build to fit in anywhere near the same space by a mile - let alone any pre-built kits. But its price class puts it in a whole different realm, which is why I built such a big system to compare it to. An enthusiast is going to look at what he or she can build for a similar cost, not just what fits in the same space.

The watercooling system I compared to costs around £200 in the UK (and $320 in the US) – that's about £50 less, and it's quieter and cooler. However, every time I need to make a change, I invest twenty minutes in undoing everything, draining the loop, etc. And that's in a case that's designed for it.

It took me all of two minutes to disconnect the Freezone Elite. Of course, then it took another five to get all the pre-applied thermal paste off, then a hunt for the manual to hook it back up again when I couldn't remember which unmarked cable goes where. They may seem like minor niggles, and they are – but for almost £250 of yours or my money, you can damn well bet that I don't want to be talking about little niggles.

With the Freezone Elite, I think CoolIT has a good product...but it has a better foundation for a great product. There's a lot of potential here, but I think it's not yet realised in this particular model. With the brilliant MTEC software and controller, the great TEC performance and the incredible ease of use, it's off to a great start – but it will only ever get rid of as much heat as that CPU block can absorb.

http://www.bit-tech.net/modding/2008...eezone-elite/1

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