Today we have an exclusive Cooler Master release product on the bench. The H612PWM is an ambitious attempt to take the cooling crown. We are very proud to be one of the first to have it to get an exclusive look at what could be the future of the air cooling market.

Looks like sheer size and the brutal force of 6 heat pipes is the magic behind the Cooler Master H612. The cooler was not intended for small cases but performance was the primary idea behind this design. The H612 features a 120mm fan with a clip on retention clip. The package also comes with a second set of clips and screws to enable a second fan to be installed in the rear of the cooler. This will further enhance the cooling characteristic and ability of this cooler.

The Cooler Master H612 is actually released in two different versions. The H612S and the H612PWM. The two version differ visually by the two top most fins which are silver or chrome on the H612S and black with the H612PWM. The physical difference between the two boils down the difference in fans. The H612″S” includes a single speed fan spinning at a mere 1300 RPM. The H612″PWM” however sports a variable speed fan running anywhere from 600 RPM all the way up to 2000 RPM. The model we received is the later.

The cooler does not feature the popular HDT design and instead provides a uncoated full copper base.The 6 uncoated full copper heatpipes add up to a full 1 foot in length if put together. The H612 also features a broad range of applications and installation options.

Features:

• Power Management Fan
• Fan Clips for fast and easy Fan installation
• 2nd Fan installation option
• 6 Heatpipe design
• Full copper base
• Performance Optimized
• Redesigned Heatpipe Array
• Improved Airflow

Supported Sockets:

Next: Unboxing, Packaging and Accessories

With the market for extreme PC cooling growing at a rapid rate over the past few years, we are seeing a much greater number of PC components and accessories geared to this end of the spectrum.  This goes back to the Foxconn “Quantum Force” line, which was kicked off with a killer mainboard, the BLACKOPS with features that had never been seen before.  Fast forward a few years, and now all the top manufacturers are mimicking elements from that board, and pushing forward with other innovations geared towards extreme cooling enthusiasts.

However, one area that has not seen any special attention is in the TIM (Thermal Interface Material) market, at least until now (the last time there was anything resembling this kind of enthusiast buzz over some cooling goo was when Arctic Silver hit the market). eVGA recently unleashed on the world their new TIM dubbed “Frostbite,” and for good reason.  eVGA claims this new compound is not only better for the extreme cooling crowd, but also superior for everyday users as well.  Not only that, but k|ngp|n himself is signing off on all these claims and endorsing the product for extreme cooling use.

The longtime standard-bearer for extreme cooling has been Arctic Silver’s Céramique, which k|ngp|n and many others have used it for years.  However, over the past year of so, many users have been testing alternatives.  Elmor (a top overclocker from Sweden) swears by OCZ Freeze, and there have been a number of positive reports with several other compounds as well.  Considering all the recent speculation, we needed to take a closer look at this new contender.

Next: eVGA Frostbite, a closer look…

If extreme overclocking had a name, it’d be k|ngp|n. Vince Lucido (a/k/a “k|ngp|n”) is arguably the man who got such things started in the United States. Back when most people were still gawking at the extreme ventures of a few folks pushing overclocking to new heights with water cooling, this guy started to bring the truly extreme methods of employing liquid nitrogen (LN2) to achieve even more outrageous performance. While Vince was not the first person to use LN2 too cool a computer system, he was one of the very first to experiment with cooling not only the CPU, but also GPUs and motherboards with the cryogenic liquid. Breaking world records and taking overclocking and benchmarking to the extreme is his passion, and he has done it over and over again.

Here is a brief video introduction to k|ngp|n.

When k|ngp|n got started, one of the major hurdles was how to properly cool his components with LN2. Since devices did not exist with which he could accomplish thos, he started designing and building prototype LN2 containers (“pots”) which he could mount to the computer hardware in order to apply the LN2 to effectively cool the components. He started out doing this for his own adventures, but very quickly became overwhelmed by requests from other enthusiasts seeking to buy copies of the containers he was building. Seeing a golden opportunity, in 2006, k|ngp|n founded his business kingpincooling.com (aka “KPC”) and is now mass-producing his pots for enthusiasts all over the world. And R&D has not stopped, so he has continuously reevaluated and improved his designs to perfect his containers according to user demands and the changes in computer hardware. That brings us to the subject of our review today, the new line of KPC’s LN2 containers.

The new KPC LN2 containers

Note: The CPU and GPU container internals have been blocked out at k|ngp|n’s request. The containers shown in our pictures are pre-production components, and look slightly different than the production models; please see the images on the next page for details.

Next: A closer look…

As a benchmarker, the biggest milestone you will come across is your first plunge below -100C. Liquid Nitrogen is -196C by nature, and to utilize this exotic cooling material, you need a fantastic evaporator, or more commonly known as a pot. Much like dry ice, cooling the processor down this cold will decrease impedance that opposes electron flow. This allows for a more efficient circuit, promoting greater stability and overclocking headroom.

After 2 years of research, waiting, gathering hardware, blogging, and toying with dry ice, I have now crossed the line into the “big league” of extreme cooling. Liquid Nitrogen. I was originally inspired after I had the privilege of visiting an extreme overclocking event in Austin, Texas at the AMD Lonestar Campus Headquarters exactly 2 years ago to the day. I got to watch some of the best of the best overclockers such as Kingpin, Chew* and Gomeler work their magic with LN2. I wrote an article about it here.

This event also spawned a video: Xtreme Conditions ( I am in the black v-neck standing next to Chew*)

Without further ado, here comes my first Liquid Nitrogen run: inspired by overclockers, performed by overclockers.

I come equipped bearing:
-one 30L Union Carbide Laboratory Grade Dewar
-one LN2cooling.com Evaporator, one Phenom II X6 1090T BE
-one set of Mushkin Ridgeback 4GB PC3-12800
-one Gigabyte 890FXA-UD5
-one PC Power & Cooling 750 Watt “Silencer”
- two Scythe 120mm Variable CFM Fans
-one Sapphire Radeon HD 5870 1GB
-one container of dielectric grease
-one container of “no-leak” plumbing putty
-lots of neoprene bits
-and a roll of paper towel.

Board preparation and insulation was extremely similar to my DICE run preparation, which is why I have taken no pictures of this particular step this time around. However, I will post pictures from my previous prep. The only difference is I added a small amount of neoprene bits in areas where I ran out of putty.

Grease applied around the socket. The last line of defense against moisture and condensation.

Putty around the socket.

Before I post the results I just want to send out a big thanks to my benching partner Addies, as he helped find the great deal to purchase this dewar, as well as helping pitch for liquid nitrogen, helping me film, and helping me reach some great overclocking results. And I would also like to thank Aaron Schradin of LN2cooling.com for lending me this great evaporator.LN2cooling.com Evaporator

Union Carbide LD-30 30L Laboratory Grade Dewar

I was very proud of how my 890FXA-UD5 held up, as it’s already been through 3 DICE runs (Dry Ice Inception, Second Frost, and Deep Freeze). I had no condensation issues, as I used dielectric grease then layered on plumbers putty and neoprene. The LN2cooling.com pot did extremely well.

Addies and I managed to produce some decent results. Nothing special by any means, but for a first run we’re proud of the results.

Click Here For Video –

|Liquid Heaven| – |1090T X6 & 555 X2 Under Liquid

Nitrogen| – |6.6GHz+|

Anyways, enough text, time for some result screenshots. We tested Sandra as part of a competition.

6.625GHz Valid – 14th Place 1090T

Validation

10.578s SuperPi 1M – 8th Place 1090T

11m 19. 282s SuperPi 32M – 6th Place 1090T

Sandra Memory Latency – 46.2ns

Sandra Memory Bandwidth – 22.68GB/s

Thats it for results folks. My next run will include higher valids, Pifast, wPrime, and I will also bench my X4 555 BE which fully unlocks and is a better clocker than my X4 955 and X6 1090T.

A couple years ago, I put together a simple water cooling system that I dubbed FFF&FM.

• Form
• Follows
• Function
• and
• Fully
• Modular

And the name really tells you everything you need to know. It was not a pretty system, nor did it need to be….but it did work very well for cooling my HW while pretesting for more serious benching session with liquid nitrogen. Here is a link to the original forum post where I detailed the build.

FFF&FM Rev1.0 parts

The original system used two Swiftech triple 120 radiators sandwiching three 120×38mm San Ace fans. It used a single DDC style pump, and performance was excellent, especially in the winter when I could hang it out the window for some extra cool benching sessions.

FFF&FM Rev1.0

While the original system has served me well, I recently decided that I needed to correct a couple flaws with the design, and also push the performance to the limit….so with that in mind, I bring you the next generation….

Revision 2

The idea with revision 2 is to keep the original design goals, but enhance performance, and correct two flaws in the original design. What were those flaws?

1. First off, there was no reliable indication of flow, this is pretty important especially when disabling the safety mechanisms built into modern HW like we do with benching. When you tell the CPU not to throttle if it’s overheating, then if something goes wrong with the cooling system you’re liable to kill some HW. This almost occurred this past winter when I had a pump fail on the original FFF&FM and my CPU temps skyrocketed. Luckily I was running a Bloomfield CPU which has proved to be extremely durable.
2. The second flaw in the original design was the lack of pump redundancy, as I just described pump failure was a major concern in the new revision. So with the new design I knew I wanted to support two or more pumps in case one fails.
3. The last issue with the first desing was the use of thin walled tubing. I used 3/8″ ID and 1/2″ OD tubing which means the wall thickness was only 1/16″ thick. With the new system, I’ve upgraded the tubing to 3/8″ ID and 5/8″ OD which means the wall thickness is now twice the original, or 1/8″ thick. This new Primochill tubing is MUCH more kink resistant, and this is super important for a system thats continuously being reconfigured and played with.

All of the other design goals remain, and the most important ones are performance, and the “modular” design made possible with the Koolance quick disconnects. These have made this water cooling system as useful as it is.

The build

So, I wanted to take you through a quick step-by-step build log, showing how I put the system together. The biggest part of the new system is the new Watercool radiator, which is a monstrosity designed to use 18 140mm cooling fans, nine on each side. This is the “light” version, which only allows for mounting fans on one side.

Watercool MO-RA3 front

In the picture above, the radiator is resting on the box for a Swiftech MCR-320-QP quad 120 radiator….that should give you some scale, this thing is huge! There are actually 6 fill ports, two on the front, two on the rear, and two on the top which provides tons of flexibility for your desired configuration.

Watercool MO-RA3 rear

Based on this testing I wanted to put some shrouds on the fans, and I also wanted to use some good 120mm fans, due to the lack of decent 140mm fan options. So, I decided to use a 30mm thick piece of wood as a shroud for the entire bank of fans.

pum & res position

I started by getting the board cut to the correct size at the hardware store. Then I drilled holes to mount the radiator, and positioned the pumps and reservoir to ensure the board would accommodate the desired layout. The reservoir selected for this project is the Tecnofront Challenger X1 from Italy. It has an integrated flow meter, which will be a nice visual indicator for me. The two DDC based pumps (10W OEM versions) are linked with the EK Dual DDC Turbo Top.

fan hole placement

Next, I drew out the spacing for all the fans. My goal was to have each fan placed directly over the intended location for the standard 140mm fan, to get as even a distribution of air as possible.

cutting fan holes 1

Then I slowly began cutting the fan holes, going 1/2 way through on the first side, and then finishing the cut from the opposite side.

cutting fan holes 2

After cutting all the holes, I then routed the rear side (the side facing the radiator) to help airflow spread out from the fan to cover the gaps in-between the fans.

test fit

Then, I bolted the board up to the radiator for the first time to ensure a proper fit and alignment.

res & pump placement

With the radiator mounted, I was able to trace the edges of the reservoir and pump wires to plan for proper placement of each.

res & pump cuts

Next, I made some rough cuts for the reservoir and the pump wires, and I also routed the corners of the fans intake side.

weatherstrip

I took my Dremel sanding wheel to the corners and then some good ol’fashioned elbow grease and got them nice and smooth. Now the holes are proper square with rounded corners to match the fan’s frame. Then I placed weather strip around the edges to ensure a good seal on the radiator.

final fitting

Next, I mounted the radiator for the final time; the first tube was also connected with a compression fitting to the front side of the rad.

tube routing 1

You can see here the reservoir and pumps placed in their final locations. Both are secured to the top of the radiator with double sided sticky tape.

tube routing 2

You can see the basic tube routing here, the water comes in through the lower white tube on the left (into the front radiator port, not seen), exits the radiator into the black tube on the right and goes into the reservoir, the out of the reservoir into the pumps, and out of the pumps in the upper white tube and out to the system.

tube routing 3

Another angle.

tube routing 4

And another.

fans mounted

The next step was to mount my fans, nine San Ace 120×38mm 110+CFM gems. Been really happy with these fans over the last few years and they should be perfect for this project as well. You can also see the reservoir mounted at the top.

base 1

With everything mounted up, I also wanted to create a stable base for the system. I used the leftover wood from the original board.

base 2

I used some additional scrap to make some strengthening plates to put on each side.

base 3

Another shot from the front.

fan seals

No matter how hard you try, if you don’t have the proper tools to complete your cuts perfectly, you’re never going to have perfect alignment. That’s where silicon sealant comes in.

wired and running

The last step was to wire the fans and pumps together and fill and blead the system. I have to say this Tecnofront reservoir made that job easier than with any other reservoir I’ve ever used…99% of the air bubbles were bled within a couple minutes….very impressive!

system complete

After getting everything hooked up and running, I played with a few benchmarks. But first I wanted to give you a quick sound check, and made the video below. Also notice the flow meter showing you a good indication of flow.

Results

Well, this is not a review, but I still wanted to leave you with some results. I have not spent much time with the system yet. But I did have a chance to test out a new 990X and improve my previous best 5970 Vantage score.

3D Vantage with 5970

The CPU cores reached a max temp of 72C and the GPU cores hit 47C and 43C….not bad considering the 20C ambient temp in my room at the time.

I’ll have tons more testing with this system, and I still have a few more minor improvemtnes to make (fan grills and weather protection)…but the meat and potatoes are all here, I hope you liked it and it inspires some of you.

Moving on to video cards, we have a new HD6870 Hawk Edition, HD6950 Twin Frozr II, HD6970 Lightning Edition and GTX580 Lightning Edition.  Each of these cards features slightly improved versions of their coolers from the previous generation of cards, primarily having to do with the fan shrouds.  MSI decided that there was too much plastic on the fan shrouds and had them changed to use more aluminum for a firmer construction and cleaner look.

Next up we’ll take a look at MSI’s new flagship for the P67 chipset, the Big Bang Marshall.

MSI P67 Big Bang Marshall

Big Bang Marshall

Here she is, in all her glory.  MSI has gone with SFC-chokes and Hi-C caps for the P67 lineup, especially on the Marshall.  You can see how clean the socket is with the new, upgraded chokes and caps, and it’s really a visual upgrade that is also extremely functional.  The board features no less than 8 PCI-E x16 slots and utilizes a new chip from Lucid Hydra as a bridge for additional PCI-E lanes (P67 only supports 8x times 2 by default).  With up to four slots populated, users can expect full x16 support, while with all eight slots populated, each lane will default to 8x.  Slots/PCI-E lanes can also be disabled with the flip of a switch.  This feature can be useful for extreme overclocking situations.

Triple BIOS + OCGenie 2

Triple BIOS feature is also implemented with the Marshall.  With this, the user can essentially use one BIOS entirely for their tweaking and overclocking settings, while still maintaining two totally stable BIOS’ as a fail safe to prevent the user from having to clear CMOS after a failed overclocked.  This is also useful in the case of a bad BIOS flash.

OCGenie II is also included from a hardware level, allowing both beginners and advanced users easier methods of tweaking their boards to get the most out of them.  MSI is very proud of OCGenie II, and we’ll be sure to check it out in detail once we have this board in our hands for review.

The Marshall should be available by next month, or even potentially end of January for a price roughly in the $300 range.  If we could guess, we’d guess more like $350, but maybe MSI will surprise us.  Look for a review on this board from us in the future.

Next up, new AMD board?  But for what?

MSI Big Bang Conquerer

MSI has one more very interesting board on display, this time for the AMD platform.  No details were available on the board, so what I have here is entirely on my own assumptions.  The socket is AM3+, there are 6x SATA 6GBps ports, 10 Phase DrMOS PWM, OCGenie II, and what’s under those heatsinks…well…we’ll have to leave that to your imagination.

Big Bang Conquerer

Black Socket...Cool

The board is already a revision v2.0, which tells me there was some significant update to it since it’s first incarnation, but specifics I do not know, nor can I really speculate.  None the less, if this is a glimpse into the future, the future is certainly a bright one.

Thanks for reading, stay tuned for much more from CES 2011.

Introduction

Today we’re facing the launch of a brand new architecture from Intel dubbed “Sandy Bridge”.  If you haven’t seen the leaks around the net over the past few months, you haven’t been paying attention.  Everyone is excited about the potential of this new architecture, and it’s no wonder.  The rumors of nearly 5GHz with air cooling coupled with a healthy dose of architectural efficiency improvements will create a lot of happy enthusiasts.  The manufacturers in this game have not been sitting idle either, with each one cleverly seeding tons of samples to add to the pre-launch hype.

Maximus IV Extreme

My subject today is the new Asus Maximus IV Extreme, a Republic of Gamers (“ROG”) branded model which represents the top-end of the P67 offerings from Asus.  As always, they’ve managed to pack an overwhelming number of technologies and features into this product and it’s my goal to give you honest feedback based on my experience.

Asus Maximus IV Extreme

The Maximus IV Extreme motherboard represents the top-end of the Asus lineup for the P67 launch.  As such, it is a full-featured product, and unfortunately, does not conform to the standard ATX form factor as it is slightly wider at 10.6″ as opposed to the standard 9.6″ of the ATX specification.  This is fairly common among top-range boards these days and is unlikely to be an issue with any large modern case.

Maximus IV Extreme 1

The new socket, LGA1155, is the same size as the LGA1156 socket for the H55/H57/P55 platform, so all of your LGA1156 coolers should work fine for the new socket as well.

Maximus IV Extreme 2

The board layout is fairly conventional, but the socket area is a little tight (more details on that in a bit).

Maximus IV Extreme 3

The underside of the board reveals more about the quality design, with additional heat spreaders on the rear of the VRM section (with proper screws no less!).

Maximus IV Extreme 4

Next: The ASUS Maximus IV Extreme Continued…

Enjoy

Video – 5GHz Phenom II X6 1090T Cold Air

Phenom II X6 1090T

Corsair H50 Watercooler (Performs Like High End Air)

Gigabyte 890FXA-UD5

5GHz Core #1, 3000NB, 2000MHz 7-9-6 Ram

Validation

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