Liquid cooling offers great performance
for cooling your CPU but it can really be a pain to get a system put
together and of course you’ve got to worry about leaks, changing the
fluid, flushing the system etc and for the average person it’s just
not worth all of those hassles. Liquid cooling can also get very
expensive, with the waterblocks, tubing, radiators, clamps, fans and
pumps, you can easily spend a couple hundred dollars on quality
parts, and for the non-enthusiast out there they don’t want to spend
that much money on something they’ve got to put together. The liquid
cooling kits on the market today are popular because they offer a
relatively easy and inexpensive way to have some of the advantages of
liquid cooling while not being a major hassle to install, for the
most part they’re fairly easy to get up and running in your system.
Today CoolIt has introduced their new
CPU cooler called the Domino ALC, or Advanced Liquid Cooling. It’s an
inexpensive liquid cooling kit that is meant to make liquid cooling
hassle free, easy to install and readily available for the general
populous to just jump right in. The Domino is a closed system liquid
cooler, meaning you’ll never have to worry about changing fluids,
system killing leaks, or any of the problems that might arise from
other kits, or DIY solutions on the market today. The Domino ALC is
easy to install, and it offers decent cooling performance, it’s got
an LCD display on it to let you know what’s going on with the system
and an easy to access control button to quickly change fan speeds if
you need that extra cooling boost.
So read on to learn more about the
Domino ALC, I’ve got a quick unboxing video for you, along with lots
of pictures and of course testing on both C2D and C2Q processors.
Product
Name: CoolIt
Domino ALC Liquid Cooling CPU Cooler
Author: Kristofer Brozio
Tech
Specs,Features or the Basic Info:
CoolIt
Domino ALC Liquid Cooling CPU Cooler
Domino Advanced Liquid Cooling
transforms the CPU cooling industry by being the first really
affordable robust liquid cooling system that delivers superior
performance and quiet operation with multiple configurable settings.
Domino A.L.C. comes ready for extreme cooling of Intel’s latest
generation Socket 1366 and includes all hardware required for use
with Intel 775 and AMD AM2+ sockets.
Price: $79.00
The
design life is over 7 years at 50C.
– to achieve this we had to
start from scratch on the pump and incorporate a ceramic bearing pump
that could withstand high temperatures. After a tremendous amount of
effort, the goal was achieved with our new CFF1 Pump. (Compact Form
Factor Version 1)
– Water Vapor Transmission
Loss is the reason why most liquid systems require refilling. All
plastic or rubber is porous on one level or another. The liquid loss
through that material increases dramatically (depending on the
material, more than double with a 10 degree rise in temperature)
Although the material is slightly more expensive (and a little harder
to work with) the corrugated tubing you se on the Domino ensures the
most durable and lowest permeability available. The only thing
better would be hard plumbed metal tubes.
Best
Damn Thermal Interface Material ever!
– The Thermal interface
material consists of only the highest quality and most reliable
formulation. When the CoolIT Pro ATC is used with the new retention
mechanism the interface would be hard to beat. In fact when we
tested the Pro ATC vs our previous TIM, we experienced a 0.04 °C/W
improvement. (which translates to 8°C at a 200W load)
– In case it matters to anyone
the Pro ATC is warranted against pump out and dry out for over 5
years.
Retainer
– the retainer incorporates a
number of subtle features including tool run-off protection. (the
little cups on the screws) this prevents the accidental screwdriver
slip from creating havoc on the expensive motherboard components
– the calibrated springs, when
bottomed out, provide balanced pressure down onto the CPU to minimize
the bond line thickness of the TIM without violating the maximum
pressure spec’s provided by Intel and AMD.
– All bits and pieces are
captured (held together as one piece) for ease of installation.
Radiator
– This is a ground up custom
designed aluminum radiator that gives us excellent performance while
keeping the size small and the cost reasonable. When comparing the
performance of the Domino to some of the giant heat pipe solutions it
becomes a simple surface area trade off. We consciously chose to
keep the size of the Rad minimal and increase the compatibility with
many chassis models and of course minimize the mass that is being
mounted on the CPU. We have gone through some shock and vibe testing
with the assembly hitting 40G’s and passed (with screws – not the
vibration isolators that also ship with the Domino kit). I can
assure you that would not be the case for some of the large Heatpipe
solutions out there. This may not matter to the after market
enthusiast, but it certainly doesn’t hurt.
Reliability
– every single unit is leak
tested using mass spectroscopy at a high differential pressure so
that we don’t have a risk of leaking. Every joint, connection and
fill port is thoroughly inspected prior to being filled.
– Coolant is a 25% propylene
Glycol Mixture with a very comprehensive anti-corrosion package to
ensure there will never be any performance reduction due to build-up
or inter-metallic reaction
– Factory warranty is double
what you’ll find with any competing products – 2 years.
Performance
– the entire system was
designed to deliver on the promise of liquid cooling which is not
only performance but also flexibility. When the fan runs slowly and
quietly the performance is excellent. When the fan runs faster and
louder, the performance is even more excellent. The bottom line is
that we wanted to provide a product that can be tuned easily to suit
the taste of the individual that in using it.
Safety
– It’s not ok to fail but
when you are talking about an electro-mechanical system, one day it
will. That being the case, we wanted to provide the functionality
that will let the user know when something goes wrong both on the LCD
and also with an auditory alert. Give it a try – stick a pencil in
the fan – watch what happens
Specifications:
User Interface:
-High contrast backlit LCD displaying system status and operation mode.
-Easily accessible push button for configuring operation modes and temperature scale
-Audible alarm from system status alerts
Processor Compatibility:
Intel 775/1366 and AMD AM2+
Coolant:
CoolIt Systems low toxicity with anticorrsion/antifungal additives.
Radiator:
Custom engineered fro low noise high heat dissipation
Dimension: 157x133x25mm
Weight: 228g
Fan:
High reliability, Quiet 12v
Speed: 1030 to 2550 RPM
Noise level: 19.2 db to 39.4db
Dimension: 120x120x25
Weight: 155g
Operation Modes:
Quiet*: Fan Speed @ 1030 RPM
Performance: Fan Speed @ 1500 RPM
Full: Fan Speed @ 2550 RPM
*System will automatically increase cooling performance to ensure continous protection
CPU thermal Grease:
-CoolIt Systems premium thermal interface material
CPU FHE (Fluid Heat Exchanger):
-Copper micro-channel
Dimensions: 50x50mm
Weight: 122g
Proprietary Pump:
-Compact, Long life CFF1 with ceramic bearing
Noise: <21dba
Dimension: 67x47x29mm
Weight: 57g
{mospagebreak title=Unboxing Video, and Pictures}
Unboxing Video and pictures:
So here’s the unboxing video for
you to check out, followed by pictures and comments:
The box need no explanation, it’s
got information all over it along with pictures of the unit.
Not much comes with the Domino,
just some hardware for installation and a user manual.
The Domino is a one piece unit,
there’s an LCD on the front to let you know the status of the unit,
the fan controller button is located on the side and easily
accessible.
Here’s some overview pictures, and
on the bottom of the radiator is the product tag.
Behind the side panel, where the
LCD is, you’ll find the pump and a sticker with information on it
pertaining to the fan speeds and instructions for changing speeds.
The fan comes pre-mounted with
silicone fasteners, they can be swapped out with the included screws
is the user wishes to though.
The CPU block come with thermal
grease pre-applied so I couldn’t get a picture of the block
originally, though I did switch systems and had to clean it off,
forgo to take picture though… I can tell you that it is a mirror
finished base that’s fairly smooth, though I noticed a bit of
machining marks in it, overall not bad at all though. The block comes
ready for installation on socket 1366, so you may have to move the
mounts for other sockets, this involves popping off the C-clamp,
moving the screws and putting the clamps back on, easy to do.
{mospagebreak title= Installation, Testing and Comparison}
Installation,
Testing and Comparison:
I installed the Domino on two
LGA775 systems, so as I mentioned, I had to move the screws on the
block to make it compatible, again this is easy to do. First I
installed it on my C2D 6420 based system, with Gigabyte motherboard.
No problems with the installation, though of you’ll need to remove
the motherboard from the case to do it, I didn’t have to as I’ve got my
mobo tray cut on my test system to make my life a bit easier.
Testing involved running Orthos
Stress Prime for several hours over a couple days with CoreTemp on
and logging enabled, then the temperatures were averaged out to get
the results shown in the chart. Ambient room temperature during
testing was 19C (+/- .3C). Normally I include testing with the fans
connected to Molex, CPU header and with the fan off, for this of
course I didn’t do that, only testing with the fans connected to
Molex or running at full speed was used for comparison with the
Domino.
And just as a note, I try and use
the same thermal compound for all testing, but since the Domino came
with it’s own, it has that on it, the others for testing all have
Arctic Cooling MX-2 on them for comparison purposes. You can click
the graph for a larger view:
As you can see performance on high
is very good, but it comes at a cost, the Domino is unbearably loud
when on the high setting, at least it is for me, though I prefer a
silent as possible PC, so sound levels are relative to your own
personal preferences, but it is very loud though honestly. When on
the medium setting we see still very decent performance from the
Domino, about 6 degrees differences between high speed and medium. On
medium the fan is audible, but it’s bearable, it adds a bit of noise
to the system but not much. Now we see on low speed the Domino drops
to the bottom of the charts, but it still has very good temperatures,
way below the tolerances for the C2D6420 CPU. The OCZ Vendetta you
see there has a very loud fan, while the Domino is virtually silent
when running on low speed, and they come up with the same
temperatures virtually.
Next
up I installed the Domino in my main rig, which is a C2Q6600 based
system on an EVGA nf680i SLI board, the CPU is slightly overclocked
to 2.53GHZ and has been for a long time. Now I got the Domino a
little over a week ago, so I didn’t have much time with it, for a lot
of testing as today, December 18th is the official release date of the Domino. I’ve been using the
Noctua NH-C12P CPU Cooler since I got it for review in May of this
year, I’m very happy with the performance of it and the fact that it
is a silent cooler, so I’m comparing the Domino to the Noctua cooler.
I did run across one small problem
with the Domino, more specifically the backplate, the EVGA board has
a raised chip on the back, so I had to carve out a small section o
the backplate to make it fit correctly. Not a big deal, nor is it a
fault of the Domino, it’s more bad design on EVGAs part, I’ve run
into the same problem with most every CPU cooler I’ve used with the
board. Luckily the Domino has a backplate made of plastic and it was
easy to carve out with a utility knife, problem solved in a few
seconds.
Here’s the installation pictures:
again no problems here with the
installation, except of course for what I mentioned already, and
again it’s no fault of the Domino.
Ambient room temperature was 21C
(+/- .3C) during testing. I used Noctua NT-H1 thermal compound for
the Domino as that is what I had on the Noctua cooler.
As a side note here, I think
CoolIt might want to cut back on the amount of thermal compound they
applied. When I removed the Domino from my C2D system I found
compound under the retention bracket on the socket which required a
bit more time spent on cleanup as I had to remove the CPU to get it
all out and cleaned up.
Again I used Orthos Stress Prime
to get load on the CPU, but I used two instances of it, with affinity
set to the cores to get 100% load on the CPU. Testing was done with
the Noctua coolers fan connected to a Molex or running at full speed,
the way I always have it running. Coretemp was used to monitor and
log the temperatures, then they were averaged out to get the final
single temps.
As you can see the Domino at most
any speed beats out the Noctua NH-C12P cooler, something that
actually surprised me, especially with the Domino running at low
speed.
One small change I might make to
the Domino is adding a 3.5” or 5.25” bay fan controller to it,
it’s sort of a hassle to take the case side off every time you want
to change speeds, but really most people will just set it and forget
it most likely.
My suggestion to CoolIt would be
to incorporate some sort of dual LCD display, leave the one on the
side and add one with fan speed controller to either a 3.5” or even
a 5.25” bay device, that way the user can change speeds and monitor
the Domino at the same time easily. If you don’t have a window in
your case the LCD display is kind of pointless really, so having
something easily visible would be much more beneficial to the user
and of course make life a bit easier.
Summary
and Comments:
Overall I like the Domino, it’s a
nice hassle free, well made liquid cooling system that offers decent
performance at a good price with easy installation, it’ll be
remaining in my main rig for some time to come.
If you’re looking for a chance to
get into liquid cooling then this is it, the Domino is an inexpensive
and safe way for even the novice user to get started in liquid
cooling. It might not be a custom made system etc, but it does offer
bragging rights that you’ve got a liquid cooled computer without all
of the hassles of one or time involved in creating one.
It is very loud when running
on high, and there are a couple improvements I might make to it, but
it’s still a nice unit for someone looking to get into liquid cooling
their computer.
DragonSteelMods gives the CoolIt
Domino a 4.5 out of 5 score and our Recommended Award as well
Pros:
-Virtually silent on low, bearable
on medium
-Fairly easy installation
-Decent performance
-Nice introduction to liquid
cooling
-Liquid cooling without the
hassles
Cons:
-Very loud on high
-Have to take case side off every
time to adjust speeds
I
would like to thank CoolIt for the chance to review the Domino
ALC and
for their support of DSM.
review# 540