Zalman Reserator 2 Fanless Water Cooling

[PAGETITLE=Introduction] In the PC community, there are only a few names that continually come up when there are talks of cooling. One of these companies is Zalman. While their products have been widely used by overclockers, their primary focus has always been on delivering a computing experience as close to silent as possible. Founded in 1999, Zalman has grown from a manufacturer of quality mainstream cooling components to a widely respected maker of high performance coolers. Back in October, we took a long look at Zalmanâ€™s Reserator 1 V2. Throughout that review, Matt found the Reserator easy to install and it's performance to cool the system better was better than an air alternative. With the experience that Zalman gained from the original Reserator, they set out to design a more efficient water cooler but insisted on retaining the silent operation that the original design mastered. The culmination of this research and development is the aptly named Reserator 2. The Goods The Reserator 2 comes packaged in a plain brown box and is secured with a pair of shipping strips. These are either to make sure the box stays closed while in transit or to help in moving the package around. Either way, they are not coming off by themselves. With the box opened, we see the retail packaging enclosed in the original brown box. This ensures that the retail box remains presentable during shipping so it can be moved to a store shelf if needs be. Once out of the shipping box, the Reserator box is colorful and informative. Our first impression of the packaging was that it was large. Standing at roughly the same height as most PC towers, the Reserator box is large. The last picture we have of the packaging is of the thick Styrofoam shell that the hardware comes packed in. The size of the box is more to accommodate the protective shell than it is indicative of the size of the Reserator itself. Sealed with Zalman packing tape, the shell holds all of the important hardware. Once everything is out of the box, we see the tubing, along with the manual on the backside of the Styrofoam in a recessed area of the packaging. The manual is surprisingly very informative and readable in several languages. The tubing that Zalman has decided to use with the cooler is 3/8" PVC and they generously give you roughly 4 meters, or 12 feet for us Yanks. Once opened up, we see the hardware that comes with the Reserator 2. Included is a pair of feet to stabilize the unit, a bottle of Zalmanâ€™s anti-corrosion coolant, one CPU water block, one GPU water block and the hardware needed to put it all together. One interesting piece is a jumper cable to run your power supply without hooking anything up. In the past, I have just used a paper clip but not to allow anything to chance; Zalman provides this piece for you. Small but appreciated none the less. Starting with the unitâ€™s â€&oelig;feetâ€, they are milled out of aluminum and bolt onto the bottom of the Reserator to stabilize it. To protect the surface that will support the cooler, as well as reduce any vibrations that might be caused by the pump, there are rubber feet on the bottom of the feet. Being secured onto the coolers main chassis by two small screws each, the ease of installation is great. Moving onto the provided liquid, this is something that Zalman has produced themselves. The anti-corrosion coolant as they have labeled it is diluted with water and poured into the Reserator itself. Being anti-corrosive, the coolant will help prolong the life of the pump and the blue tint should certainly look good in any windowed PC case. The parts included in the kit contain everything one will need to get their Reserator installed and up and going. The only downside is that thatâ€™s it. They have provided the exact amount of screws and parts to get the hardware installed and nothing more. With the mounting screws being so small, you might want to install this on a flat surface and not a carpeted floor because if you loose one of the screws, youâ€™re out of luck. This is something that Zalman should consider including in future kits and it wouldnâ€™t cost anything at all. Also included is a PCI backing plate to route the power cable and tubing into the case, as well as the above mentioned power supply jumper and a degaussing tube. [PAGEBREAK] [PAGETITLE=Waterblocks] Included in the bundle is a pair of water blocks. One block is for the CPU while the other one is intended for, you guessed it, the GPU. Zalman also offers blocks for the motherboard chipset as well as one for your video cardâ€™s RAM. In this review, due to the limitations of the hardware, only the CPU water block will be used. More on this later though. To start off with, the CPU water block comes in its retail packaging as well. The package is colorful, informative and easy to open. Included with the block are all the necessary adapters for AMD socket 939, 940 and AM2 as well as Intelâ€™s 478 and vastly popular 775. Also included is a set of clamps to hold the tubing securely around the inlet and outlet on the top of the water block itself. Along with everything else, there is also a kit of paper washers for the motherboard bolts, some Zalman thermal paste as well as the adapters to hold the waterblock down on the CPU. The waterblock itself consists of a pure copper base and a clear plastic top. The copper is coated with gold to prevent corrosion but this also gives the block an incredible look with an almost perfect mirror finish. On the inside of the block, Zalman has designed it with rows of small cube shaped towers to increase the surface area greatly. This will allow more water to flow over more area of the block, taking more heat with it as it does. As with any water block, the inlet should be in the middle with the outlet being the nozzle closer to the side. This allows the incoming water to flow directly onto the center of the CPU, presumably where the most heat is being generated, thus resulting in a better cooling effect. Flanking the center nozzle, 2 small threaded holes can be seen. These are where the mounting brackets are attached to the block itself. The following picture is a prime example of the near perfect finish that Zalman has machined the base of the waterblock to. With the tubing clamp just in front of the block, an almost perfect reflection can be seen. Kudos to Zalman for taking the effort and going the extra mile. The GPU waterblock, while not as attractive as the CPU block, is a solid piece of hardware none the less. With a blue anodized aluminum top and a silver aluminum bottom, the ZM-GWB3, as Zalman so lovingly refers to it as, fits almost every video card known to man. While not listed on their site, we cannot say with 100% certainty that this block will fit on NVIDIAâ€™s series 8 cards. Also coming in the retail packaging, the ZM-GWB3 was built for kits like this in mind. Being a GPU block, the barbs cannot come straight out of the top. This is solved with a pair of 90 degree angles that allow the user to run a line from their CPU, around the side of the video card and then into the GPU block itself. This also makes the entire setup slimmer, allowing it to fit into spaces without taking up any more slots than it has to. As we can see, there wasnâ€™t near as much attention paid to the GPU waterblock as there was to the CPU. The bottom surface is smooth, but not near as much as itâ€™s CPU cooling counterpart. While this isnâ€™t a huge deal, the difference between the two, appearance wise, is night and day. [PAGEBREAK] [PAGETITLE=The Reserator 2] As stated earlier, the Reserator 2 retains the originalâ€™s ideas, but differs in the total design. Instead of tall and cylindrical, the second version sits shorter but extends far deeper than the first one does. Sitting 17 inches deep, 14 Â½ inches tall and just 3 inches wide, the Reserator looks like a small PC tower, only much thinner. Out of the packaging, we see that the Reserator 2 is essentially just one very large heatsink. Even on the end where the pump is housed, the hollow area that acts as a reservoir has fins that extend off of the piece itself to further dissipate heat. The body of the cooler is lined with 25 small fins that stick out, each with small grooves etched in them to maximize surface area, allowing as much heat to escape as possible. As we move towards the back of the unit, we get to the area that houses the pump. The back of the Reserator is hollow and the removable top is held on by 4 small screws. To seal the lid onto the top, Zalman has used a large black o-ring. This will prevent leaks should the Reserator ever get knocked over. Glancing down into the reservoir, we can see the pump at the bottom. Rated at 150 liters per hour and with a maximum lift or just one meter, the pump is by no means a work horse but for the purpose of cooling, it should provide ample water movement. Along the bottom of the case, on either side, run 2 cords. One is a power cord that plugs into any AC wall outlet. This is obviously to power the Reserator. On the other side, there is one 2 pin standard molex cable that runs through the provided PCI slot adapter and into your case. It plugs into any free 4-pin molex connector that you have and relay to the Reserator that the PC is on and that the pump should start doing itâ€™s job. One thing that would have been nice would have been to design the Reserator with both cords on one side or the other. This would allow you to position the unit at such an angle to allow both cords to be hidden behind the tower. This isnâ€™t something to lose sleep over, but another easy thing to do to add to an already beautiful piece of hardware. Moving to the front of the Reserator, there is a small brushed aluminum button that toggles the internal blue light on and off as well as resets the internal beeper that warns of loss of water flow. Below this is a clear window with a flow meter inside. This is the easiest way to confirm that water is...

Zalman Reserator 2 Fanless Water Cooling

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