WATERCOOL Hardware Rep available! Come in and chat with me!

[WATERCOOL-Jakob]

Hey AnandTech,
I' am so happy to be here! First of all, thanks to the staff for having me, it is my honor and pleasure. So, who am I and what do I want here? My name is Jakob and I work for german watercooling manufacturer WATERCOOL You might know us from our HEATKILLER series of water blocks, or from industry's biggest and bestperforming radiator, the massive MO-RA3.
I myself have been part of the overclocking and hardware enthusiast community for years now, and I feel very privileged that I could make my hobby and passion into a job.
What do I want here? Communicate. I want to offer a low-threshold, direct channel of communication for you, the community. I will be available to answer your questions about existing products, help out with problems, and discuss current developments, both in our coummity and in our company. And now, I'm very much looking forward to meeting all of you! Let's have a great time together!

 

[guskline]

Jakob, hello. I own a MO RA3-420 Pro and it is phenomenal!😎👍

 

[aigomorla]

Welcome jakob.

I hope you enjoy your stay in our little forum.
Its not as active as XS is in liquid cooling, however we have our avid LCer's.

Let me know if you need anything, as i will try to help and accommodate you as long as its within my ability.

 

[Aristotelian]

Welcome Jakob. I am hunting for a great cpu cooler for the 10 core Broadwell-E, as well as gpu waterblocks for new pascal or polaris gpus. Thanks a lot for posting about your shop here!

LG usw

 

[WATERCOOL-Jakob]

Jakob, hello. I own a MO RA3-420 Pro and it is phenomenal!😎👍

Yeah, these guys are BEASTS. I actually have a 360 myself, combined with an Alphacool Cape Cora 1042. My PC is dead silent full passive. When the water temperature rises above 33°C, my 4 Silverstone Air Penetrator 180 start spinning. I havent breached 35°C ever, and the APs have never gone above 500rpm. Still dead silent I just love this radiator

Welcome jakob.

I hope you enjoy your stay in our little forum.
Its not as active as XS is in liquid cooling, however we have our avid LCer's.

Let me know if you need anything, as i will try to help and accommodate you as long as its within my ability.

Thanks for the warm welcome, great to finally be able to talk to you directly

Welcome Jakob. I am hunting for a great cpu cooler for the 10 core Broadwell-E, as well as gpu waterblocks for new pascal or polaris gpus. Thanks a lot for posting about your shop here!

LG usw

Broadwell-E will be on Socket 2011-3, so all our HEATKILLER IV series water blocks come with the required mounting material. I would recommend a HEATKILLER IV PRO, since it performs even better than the basic. Obviously, there aren't any waterblocks for the nextgen GPUs. I will keep you guys updated in this thread when they will be available. Might probably be within one month after the release of the GPUs themselves.

 

[guskline]

Jakob, since my MO RA3-420 Pro is set up for 9 140mm fans per side is there any retrofit WATERCOOL makes to move to 4 180-230mm fans?

 

[WATERCOOL-Jakob]

Yup, there is . Be aware that this fan grill supports all fans from 180 up to 230, so the round cutouts might not be the exact size of your fans.





I like it when the questions are so easy to be answered

 

[guskline]

Thanks Jakob, Performance PC here in the states has one in stock so I'll take a closer look. Right now I have 9 XSPC 140mm fans controlled by a 3 to 1 splitter and I have 3 channels of a fan controller controlling the speed of the fans.

I solely use the MO RA3-420 Pro for rig 2 below in my signature.

 

[WATERCOOL-Jakob]

So, people, I do have a question for you: Reservoirs!

We are currently developing our new series of reservoirs, and I wanted to know what your ideas about that topic are. I'm not only interested in your own opinion, but also in what you have read in other forums, buildlogs and so on. A few starting points for brainstormings could be:

- Overall Design: Do you prefer bay reservoirs or tube reservoirs? Do you take tubes because it's virtually the only thing on the market or because you genuinely like tubes? If you want a tube, do you want the surface plain or with a desing on it? If you could go crazy and have your dream layout, what would it be? A tube? A sphere? A cube? A pentagonal pillar?
- Material: Glass or Plexi (Acrylic glass)? Or don't you care about transparency at all and would go for, say, stainless steel?
- Size: Which diameter do you prefer? Seeing how tubing sizes went up over the years, the reservoirs also got bigger. You still want 50mm or 60mm diameter, or would you prefer bigger diameters, like maybe 80mm?
- Ports: How many ports are you actually using on a daily basis? Where are they placed, on the top or on the bottom connector terminal? On the bottom terminal, do you rather use ports facing downwards or facing sidewards? How many are useful, and when is it just overdone?
- Additional features: Riser tubes? Preinstalled LEDs? Bubbleseperators? Helixes? Just gimmicks or must have?
- Pricing range: What do you feel is a fair price for a quality product, what feels like overpricing?

Surprise me with your ideas and thoughts about reservoirs! And we'll see, maybe someone comes up with something we never even thought about and we'll forever be in his debt...?

 

[ReignQuake]

I love the Aqualis series reservoirs, borosilicate glass tubes with nano coating so any water droplets fall back into the loop. The reservoir looks very clean. It was one of those features I didn't know I wanted until it was released. It would be really nice to have an oleophobic coating on the outside of a reservoir in order to remove fingerprints.

Having a mount that takes vibration into account but is able to be fitted in most cases without drilling or modification sounds good. Being able to remove a D5 pump with reservoir attached easily would help, then I'd need two quick disconnects for the tubing, which I always use anyway.

Many cases have cutouts lined with rubber edges to pass wires through the rear. How about two clamps to lock into one of those things, some solid extendable arms to put the reservoir pump and top where you want it, rubber decoupling where the arms meet the combination. I'm not sure there's anywhere else to innovate here.

 

[aigomorla]

- Overall Design: Do you prefer bay reservoirs or tube reservoirs? Do you take tubes because it's virtually the only thing on the market or because you genuinely like tubes? If you want a tube, do you want the surface plain or with a desing on it? If you could go crazy and have your dream layout, what would it be? A tube? A sphere? A cube? A pentagonal pillar?
- Material: Glass or Plexi (Acrylic glass)? Or don't you care about transparency at all and would go for, say, stainless steel?
- Size: Which diameter do you prefer? Seeing how tubing sizes went up over the years, the reservoirs also got bigger. You still want 50mm or 60mm diameter, or would you prefer bigger diameters, like maybe 80mm?
- Ports: How many ports are you actually using on a daily basis? Where are they placed, on the top or on the bottom connector terminal? On the bottom terminal, do you rather use ports facing downwards or facing sidewards? How many are useful, and when is it just overdone?
- Additional features: Riser tubes? Preinstalled LEDs? Bubbleseperators? Helixes? Just gimmicks or must have?
- Pricing range: What do you feel is a fair price for a quality product, what feels like overpricing?

1. it would really depend on the project location of the res.
I like both, as both have its intended purpose.

I think a pentagon was attempted by cyberdruid and his honest comment was PITFA as you would need to make sure each corner was well bonded to prevent leaking.

I think a pentagon would be cool, however if the price tag was 200-300% more then a cylinder that would not be cool, as watercooling can get super expensive as it is.

I love how frozen's res's and phobya's can take a CCFL tube inside to light the res up. If one did a pentagon, it would be really cool if we could have a led strip or a led on the top and bottom to laminate the reservoir with possibly a frosted center piece kinda like angel eyes on BMW headlights.

2. no to glass... lol... too many risks and bad things can happen. Always assume even the most experienced will make a noob mistake... i myself am guilty of this comment even tho i have been water cooling for a very long time.... SS steel is cool, however i think a exterior polished copper would be a better route as it would give a "steam punk" look which some people are really into.

3. I am guilty of MOOR is better... so i love 80mm's however sometimes they are too big. I think the typical size is 60mm which is ideal, while 50mm is too small. 60mm would also allow compatability with other vendors in holding clips and what nots. The only 80mm res i think is by koolance.

4. i think u should make ports vary, offer a modular approach to it. Per say if a customer wants a lot of port options on the top and bottom, he can purchase a bottom part to use as the top, so. A good amount of port options would be like how they have on the koolance res's.

5. most are gimiks except the vortex canceler. Because when you have a lot of head pressure / flow, that thing can really cyclone and pull in air.

6. As i said, if something will cause the price to increase 200-300% i dont feel its "worth" it, as money can be spent on other area's for far greater bling. The res's should be competitively priced to other vendors in the same category.

I am not saying a fully bling'd out cylinder should cost as much as swiftech's micro res, but it shouldnt be that much more expensive then per say a EK cylinder or a Phobya's.

Personally i would love to see the reintroduction of EL wire to these res's. Im fairly sure very creative things can be done with it to increase aesthetics without sacrificing performance.

 

[WATERCOOL-Jakob]

Hey guys, thanks for your input. I'm really digging the "vibration cancelling mount". Seems like a pretty handy idea. We will definitely look into that!
@aigomorla: What exactly do you mean with "reintroduction of EL wire to these res's"? First, I'm assuming we're talking about Electroluminescent wire, right? I have to admit I have never seen a reservoir that had those guys incorporated. What exactly are you thinking about? Where would you want this wire to be?

I'm still collecting your reservoir input, so if somebody else wishes to add something to that, please feel engouraged to share it with us. BUT... there were other big news this weekend in the hardware world: nvidia unveiled the GTX 1080 and 1070. Obviously, we all watched the event, and are all very excited to get our hands on one of those gems. As you probably know, there are no presale samples for water block manufacturers, so we have to wait till May 27th as well. But initial design ideas are floating around in the offices.
Do you guys have any specific wishes concerning the two new flagships?
Obviously, we will be doing different versions of water blocks, Nickel, copper... Right now, we are oriented towards a design leaning towards the R9 Fury X blocks design. Plain design, straight lines. Since the 1080 and 1070 will be longer than the Fury X, we will also offer XL versions similar to the much appraised 980TI XL water blocks that will cover the full PCB. We will also definitely offer our new eBC backplates for those cards, but are currently still thinking about the stainless steel versions.
And I know, I know, all of you will ask me about an ETA. All I can say is: we will get our hands on them on May 27th. And the 1080 and 1070 have absolute number one top priority in all aspects of our workshop.

 

[aigomorla]

like bmw's angel eyes, around the top or bottom to give it that "Tron" type of appearance.

Or you could have it go straight down the middle from the top to bottom.
The wiring on it would have to be thought out and well planned, but it would give the res a very unique appearance.

 

[WATERCOOL-Jakob]

Hey Friends,
just wanted to remind you: the discount code ANANDTECHWELCOME for our WATERCOOL Shop runs out in two days! So, if you wantt to update your rig with one of the best water blocks available - NOW is the time. And thanks to a cooperation with FedEx, we can ship to the US for 29,95€ (~32,82$). So better be quick before this offer is gone for good!

 

[cytoSiN]

Yeah, these guys are BEASTS. I actually have a 360 myself, combined with an Alphacool Cape Cora 1042. My PC is dead silent full passive. When the water temperature rises above 33°C, my 4 Silverstone Air Penetrator 180 start spinning. I havent breached 35°C ever, and the APs have never gone above 500rpm. Still dead silent I just love this radiator

Hi Jakob. I'm an LC newb, but I want my next build to be passive/silent full LC. Can you tell me what your build is so I can get an idea for what I'd need to go "dead silent full passive"? Thanks!

 

[WATERCOOL-Jakob]

Hey cytoSiN,
actually, I went into water cooling head over heels. I decided "well, if I want to get rid of the noisemaking part of air cooling, which is the fans, why keep them and stick them on something else? I'm going full passive!!!" I didn't know too much and improvised a few bits. Additionaly, I wanted a deskmod, but didn't have the necessary funds, so I modded my existing desk. Also, I tried a few non-regualr things, just because I wanted to... So, my first attempt was a bit of weird in many aspects. Let this please be a spoiler warning

Cooling wise, I went with a Alphacool Cape Cora HF 642 and 442, plus two spirals made from 25m copper pipe. I got all those parts from ebay. It looked like this:

It worked okay-ish. It was fine for everyday usage. I ran a Phenom II 1090t under 1,4V at 4GHz and a slightly overclocked 7870 (cant remember the clockspeeds, but it wasnt much, I didnt even fiddle with the voltage). Water temps went up to ~38°C. When stressing with prime95 and Furmark, I hit 43°C ocassionaly. I can't recommend running temperstures that high for long time usage: my tubing (11/8 Masterkleer) got so soft due to the constant heat that one tube slipped slightly off from it's compression fitting. It wasn't much, but it was enough to stop the PC from working. Luckily, after I dried everything THOROUGHLY and disassembled and reassembled the whole thing, it all worked again.

That is the exact reason why I switched to the MO-RA3 360: to keep my water temp under 35°C. My current radiator rig looked like this while in the making (I just realized I have no pic of the final stand):

There is the Cape Cora (I combined the two radiators into one) on the one side, and the MO-RA3 360 on the other side. There are four 180mm fans on the Mo-RA, obviously pushing the air through the MO-RA towards the Cora, so that the air around the COra is also moved a little bit. I run this as full passive up to 33°C. The the fans start spinning, and I never breached 35°or 600rpm up until now.

One last thing about the Coras: as you can see I like them a lot. But I have to mention that they are made from aluminium. If you want to use them, please educate yourself about corrossion. In short: when using aluminium and copper in the same loop, you NEED an corrossion inhibiting additive in your fluid. I personally have good experience with Innovatek Protect.

 

[WATERCOOL-Jakob]

Hey friends,
I wanted to thank you all for your input concerning the reservoirs. Not all ideas could make it into our final product. But I'm proud to give you a first glimpse right now:

Product info: HEATKILLER[FONT=&quot]®[/FONT] TUBE

Today, we can show you the first pictures of the final version of our new HEATKILLER TUBE series.

The TUBE series is a modular system of reservoirs with many options. Three standard lengths (length of tube: 100/150/200mm) are available for launch. The core piece of the reservoirs is a tube made from massive borosilicate glass. The diameter of the tube is 65mm, the wall thickness is 5mm.

The glass tube is connected to the top and the bottom via four struts on the outside made from sanded aluminum that come in black, red, blue or natural aluminum. The reservoir can be opened toolless. The huge opening in the top facilitates filling.

Additionally to the reservoirs themselves, there are also versions with preinstalled modules for integrated D5 or DDC pumps available. For smoother looks, the pump in the DDC version is fully integrated into the reservoir’s design.

The integrated anti-cyclone-inlay prevents vortexes and facilitates air bleeding. We even thought about lighting it: one of the four retaining struts of the basic version is prepared for lighting equipment. It can be equipped with a LED strip to illuminate the reservoir.

There are different possibilities for mounting the reservoir to your case. It can be simply standing upright on a foot. For mounting in vertical or even horizontal orientation, there are specially designed clamp brackets. Those can be positioned in the desired height and on all four sides of the reservoir. Integrated decoupling modules prevent the vibrations of the pump to be transferred to the case.

The reservoir can be extended as wished through a coupling module. Mounting brackets for mounting on standardized 120/140 radiators will be available. A special mounting solution for the MO-RA3 radiators will be published next week.

The first pictures show only the tubes in 100 and 150mm. You can also see the DDC version. Pictures from the 200m version will be added later on.

 

[aigomorla]

that be some eye candy jakob...

would be better if u had a LED at the top shining down or a G1/4 port where u can put a LED cap to view coolant levels in the dark.

 

[WATERCOOL-Jakob]

Well, you can put a LED strip in one of the struts, so you can illuminate the res and see coolant level. But you are right, the usual methods (like the roughed plexi cap with a 5mmRGB LED) do not work with this res.

 

[ReignQuake]

Wow, you guys really did a good job. They're different enough to stand out but very sensible at the same time. Just waiting for more GPU announcements, will look at these when building my mini-rig.

 

[WATERCOOL-Jakob]

I was asked about measurements of the whole res in another forum and figured, you guys might be interested in it too, so here they are:
Diameter tube: 65mm
Length of tube: 100/150/200mm

Additional length of top: 18.5mm
Additional lenght DDC version: 47.3mm
Additional length D5 version: 73.4mm (measured till lower edge of D5)

The combined outer measurements including the struts is always 70x70mm.

And I have pictures of the D5 version for you guys that I still owed you:

Finally, we recieved a lot of feedback of people who want additional 1/4 threads in the top. We are now presenting to versions and are interested in your opinion:
1. The bayonet catch gets one G1/4 port in the middle. It's also possible to mount a downpipe there to reduce dripping. (version 1A): Two or three G1/4Ports, but without the possibility of a downpipe.
2. The bayonet catch is discarded, and you get three G1/4 ports in a standard top, with downpipes includable.

Or don't you care about ports in the top and are just happy with the huge filling opening?

 

[WATERCOOL-Jakob]

Hey folks, a few guys asked about water blocks for the GTX 1080 via PM. I can now officially publish the release dates for our upcoming water blocks:

Non-plated waterblocks: June 15th
Plated water blcoks: June 29th
Black eBC backplate: June 29th

The water blocks are listed in our shop as of now. Preorders are accepted as of now and will be rewarded with a 10% discount. From the respective release dates on, the full price will be charged.

And yes, our water blocks are 100% compatible with the new NVIDIA SLI bridges. Sometimes, waiting two weeks pays out

 

[Aristotelian]

Is there any chance that you could confirm whether or not your Heatkiller series of waterblocks will feature on the EVGA 1080 HydroCopper, and whether or not THOSE would be 100% compatible with the new Nvidia SLI bridges? (Bitte!)

 

[WATERCOOL-Jakob]

I have new info about the HEATKILLER® Tube series for you guys: it will be released end of June. And I brought you a couple of new pics, all from the different mounting solutions:

This is the standalone mount for placement on the ground (also visible the black struts):

This is the MO-RA3 mount:

And finally two pics from the multifunctional clamps, attached to the mounting brackets for 120mm radiators. on the second picture, you can also see the decoupling in between the two brackets:

And if you wondered about pictures or the design of the 1080 water blocks: it will be oriented towards our Fury X water blocks, with the same range of versions. Sadly, the 3D renderings are not cleared to publish, and the product pictures not taken yet, so you'll have to wait a couple days more...

Is there any chance that you could confirm whether or not your Heatkiller series of waterblocks will feature on the EVGA 1080 HydroCopper, and whether or not THOSE would be 100% compatible with the new Nvidia SLI bridges? (Bitte!)

I did not oversee this question, but I don't definitely know right now. I will get back to you with a definite answer asap

 

[WATERCOOL-Jakob]

I recieved a couple of questions in different forums, and I'm trying to keep everyone on the same level of knowledge, so I'll just answer everything everywhere Please give me a heads-up if I missed your question!

I feel like a see-through section for the actual coolant flow path coupled with a shroud on the outside makes most sense for those who want see-through blocks and also full length PCB coverage (http://shop.watercool.de/epages/WatercooleK.sf/en_GB/?ObjectPath=/Shops/WatercooleK/Products/15040 and http://shop.watercool.de/epages/WatercooleK.sf/en_GB/?ObjectPath=/Shops/WatercooleK/Products/15037, for example).

Yup, that's exactly how the 1080 blocks will look like.

How does the de-coupling work on the reservoir multifunctional clamps? Is it a 2 piece bracket with screws in the middle or something else holding them together?

I let pictures speak for themselves:

And obviously, the rubber standoffs are wide enough so that no metal parts touch ech other.

Will the HEATKILLER® waterblock be compatible to EVGA Hydrocopper or EVGA Classified? (or any other special subbrand of any manufacturer?)

In previous GTX generations, Hydrocopper-labeled cards were usually reference PCBs, Classified-labeled cards were usualy non-reference. We guarantee our HEATKILLER® block will be compatible wih any card with a reference PCB. So, presumably, it will be compatible with the Hydrocopper, but not with the Classified. Since both cards are not released yet, we obviously haven't seen a PCB with our own eyes, so we can't tell definitely. Pleasecleck with the Compatibility list BEFORE purchasing a water block.

I do have a question about two pump in series solution. Have any with a reservoir in the works? Would surely keep me interested if I were to move from a dual bay res + dual pump series setup.

We are planning on new pump tops that will be in the same design as the HEATKILLER® Tube series. There will be a Dual D5 pump top. We are not sure if it will be possible to mount it directly to the res, as with the single D5, or if it will have to be seperate from the res. We are still open for wishes concerning pump tops, though! I myself am not convinced of multi-pumps and run a rather large loop with one single DDC1+T, so: if you wish for dual pump tops, do you wish those pumps to be in serial or in paralell?


We are currently recieving a lot of questions about the mounting struts of the Tube series. When ordering from our own shop, you will be able to configure exactly that singular setup of height, colors, tops and pumps that you wish for. Through our resellers, you will only get a certain set of standard variations. We are currently trying to figure out which strut- color-variation you people would like the most. Please feel free to submit your opinion in this poll in the WATERCOOL forum. All participants that voted while being logged in with a user account to our forum will go into a draw. The winner will recieve a free HEATKILLER® Tube in desired configuration (including one mounting kit of your choosing, without a pump).