HydroCool200 Liquid Cooling by Corsair

It’s not often that we come across a product such as this, mainly because of where it comes from. Of all sources, a memory cooling company is behind this external water-cooling product: Corsair Micro. Corsair is a leader in the memory market, one that most all are familiar with. Why such a product from a memory company? Talking with Robert P. from Corsair about that gave me the impression that Corsair saw an opportunity to provide more than just memory. Instead, it wanted to offer a cooling product that doesn’t cost an arm and a leg, something that performs in the cost effective range.

Original Post Date: 2003

On top of that, Corsair wanted consumers to not worry about having to buy extra parts. They figured, if you’ve already spent the money, why should you have to go out and purchase a water block?  So, the block included will fit on either the AMD or P4 processors, with the brackets provided.

Mfr. Specs

• Front Panel Temperature Monitor
• 2 Stage Alarm (user defined)
• Cº and Fº Readings
• 2-Way Self Seal Connectors (seals on both ends of connector)
• Lit Flow Meter
• Dual Retention Clamps
• Self Healing Safety Fuses
• Diagnostic Mode
• Dual Mode Operation
• 1 CPU Water Block with K7/P4 Brackets (Copper block w/ silver plating)
• 2 5’ 3/8” tubing

I’m going to start out with the kit’s filling feature.  If you remember from a while back, we had reviewed the Exos External water cooling kit. It, too, has some of the features as the HydroCool200, but there was one large annoying factor: bottom filling. The kit had to be turned upside-down in order to fill the kit with water. It felt like they had everything figured out, then all the sudden “Whoops! Now where shall we place this thing?” A lot of people complained, while Corsair took notes on many of the complaints about the Exos unit.

The HydroCool200 has a top filling cap. Beyond ease of filling, there’s another benefit of top filling caps: bleeding. Once the kit is installed the kit should be run for several hours to insure that no leaks have occurred. But while the unit runs, the top cap can be removed to help the bleeding process. Bleeding a liquid cooling kit is very important, and should be made easy as well.

The water block used on the HydroCool200 is very compact, and universal. Those running AMD K7 based processors will have an installation bracket, as will those using Intel Pentium 4 processors. Corsair decided it could relieve the consumer of paying for extra blocks, and figured it would be more considerate to build a block universal for today’s processors.

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