Thermaltake have really taken it up to a even higher level during
2011 and the progress hasn’t gone unnoticed in the industry, and
progression hasn’t stopped there with the release of their new liquid
cooler, the Bigwater 760 Plus. Thermaltake have released a few water
coolers now, but non like this one, the built in all in one system
featuring a compressed and tidy design with built in coolant reservoir
combined with a attractive blue LED’s and green tubing. The Bigwater 760
Plus is Silent and powerful and is able to pump (500L/hr) providing
superb performance and reliability. So let’s take a look at this new
Bigwater and see what it hold for us.Specification
Features
- Dual 5.25” Drive Bay Design: Liquid Cooling System in-a-box to save the space in the chassis and simplifies installation.
-Front- VRTM control knob, adjusts fan speed conveniently without having to reach to the back or inside of the chassis.
-Mesh front bezel allows cool air to be accelerated into the cooling radiator to increase thermal efficiency.
-Easy to install and gain access to the unit for refill or regular system maintenance.
- Built-in Water Level Sensor With Alarm
- 12cm Motorsport Inspired Radiator:
1.Dimple Tube Technology swirls the coolant within the radiator to increase thermal transfer.
2.An all-aluminum radiator featuring expanded outer fins and tube for maximum performance.
- Pure Copper-Base Waterblock with high efficiency channel design ensures heat is removed away from the heat source for maximum thermal protection.
- Ultra-low noise fan: silent variable fan with blue LED (1600 ~ 2400rpm) – power when you need it; silence when you want it.
- High-performance Liquid Pump:
1.Silent and powerful P500 (500L/hr) pump provides superb performance and reliability.
2.Ceramic bearing design significantly extends the life-expectancy of the pump for years of worry-free operation.
- Universal Socket Compatibility & Accessory Package
1.All-in-one back-plate design, support all Intel and AMD platform
2.Universal socket support :
Intel: LGA 2011*, LGA1366, LGA1156, LGA1155, LGA775
AMD: AM3, AM2+, AM2- 3/8” UV Sensitive Water Tube: Industrial-grade material to prevent wear & tare from being clogged up or over-bending.
Bigwater 760 Plus Packaging
The box demonstrates what your setup will look like when installed
onto the motherboard. The box represents the features and specs around
the box, and has a easy carry handle on top. We don’t generally take
images of us taking products out the box unless necessary and the
security and safety of the product needed to be mentioned, and it was
here, inside everything was tightly surrounded by 3-4 inches of
polystyrene foam for the upmost structural integrity.
The back of the case shows the products features with image
representations as we will do for you clearly and show the Bigwater 760
Plus installed inside the Thermaltake Level 10 GT Chassis, Thermaltake’s
most treasured and proud asset.
Contents
The main contents and components you need to know about for the Bigwater 760 Plus include:- Main liquid cooling module
- CPU cooling block
- UV sensitive 500 c.c coolant
- Refill bottle
- ID 9.5mm (3/8”)UV sensitive water tube 400cm
- Thermal grease
- Backplate
- Hose clips
- Intel/AMD Mounting bars
- Manuals
The rest of the components are just the nuts and screws and plastic
studs they give you for installation on the motherboard. The yellow
looking paper you see is a warning sheet from Thermaltake strongly
advising you to build initial setup outside of the computer case area,
encase of leakage from the tubes if the installation process might not
have setup correctly.
Thermaltake Bigwater 760 Plus
Right out of the box and here it is, the water cooling your hoping to
dramatically change your CPU temperature forever, and put it into the
realm of chill. Water coolers always come in various shapes and sizes,
some can be extremely awkward and some such as Antec’s little 620 and
920 internal liquid coolers can be super simple and fast to install. But
we want to know how the Bigwater 760 Plus compares to both end of those
spectrums. Well I can tell you that I really like this design straight
out the box, most users don’t get to use all there drive bays, so taking
up two 5.25 inch bays at the front of your case to fit in the Bigwater
760 Plus is a great choice for both high end gaming enthusiast and even
the mid range market.
If you’re now thinking “Am I a average user, midrange or high end
gamer.” Then you’re a mid range, as you know if your high end, as your
pockets are empty and your machine lights up like the northern lights.
But you can dramatically increase your status if you add the Bigwater
760 Plus to your spec list.
The front of this new Bigwater has an open mesh grill which is an
intake vent for more airflow and cooling. Also in view are the two blue
LED lights, the top is labelled “Normal” and the bottom has a warning
“Refill” LED, to make sure your coolant/water reserve tank is always at a
safe level with its Built-in Water Level Sensor. Finally the front of the product has a fan controller ranging from low to high with the RPM range at 1600~2400 RPM.
Here we see the above view of which we can see the standard 120mm fan
encased in metal railings to keep your fingers safe. We unplug the
three molex cables for the image, they are normally all plugged in one
another. The manual doesn’t tell you to plug a molex cable into one,
but you have to do so to power the pump and radiator.
Now to the back end of the unit, of which we have the water pump
leading into the reserve tank. The in and out water outlets are covered
with a tightly sealed black rubber when un-boxing, they come off with a
few pulls on them with a tight grip. The cables leading out of the pump
area is the 3 pin fan connector.
Everything fits into this very small compact unit and due to a
reserve tank will offer better cooling than many of the smaller, other
brands models you can buy on the market right now.
This is the CPU cooling block which it is advised by Thermaltake to
setup the water cooling and get the pump going first encase of leakage,
but oddly enough the manual instructs you step by step to place the
Block on the CPU first, before attaching the pipes, which is the way we
done it.
Bigwater 760 Plus Installation
So first off you will need to apply the Intel/AMD backplate to the
back of the motherboard, and then stick the screws through and secure in
with the plastic studs given, as you see below. A simple job which
should take a minutes or two.
Next is to take the Intel or AMD set of mounting bars and lay them on and then tighten them with the four nuts you see on top.
Furthermore is to use the Thermaltake thermal grease included to
apply to the CPU and place the Bigwater’s CPU cooling block on top, then
with the two metal T-mounting bars secure with a screwdriver, the CPU
cooling block down nice and tight on the processor, then onto the next
move.
The strong but agile tubing arrives in one long tube, you have to cut
off two correct lengths of green UV sensitive tube that is the right
size for your reference enclosure. The length of the long tubing allows
for you to do this three times over, even with a large cut off point to
setup even in the biggest of cases, and not many are the same size at
the Level 10 GT.
Important Note: Make sure you make a clean straight cut on both your tubes to avoid Leakage!
Once you have the correct length of tubing, attached the hose clips
before inserting the tubes. The hose clip are used t insure no coolant
seeps out, you can tighten the hose clip with pliers for adequate safety
precautions . Secure the tubes to the cooling block making sure they
are tight and will be leak free.
Do the same to the water pumps outlets on the Bigwater 760 Plus, as shown below.
In Operation
Follow all the previous installation up with plugging the 3 pin and
molex in and fill up the reserve tank constantly when you press the
computers power button on, as the pump will start pumping the coolant
into the pipes and fill the up, and then close off the tank with the
screw top lid.
Filling the tank only takes around 45 seconds for the pipes to fully
finished filling and the tank to be full. While in operation the 120 fan
illuminates with a cool and refreshing blue LED light, which lights up
you computer and contributes to the tubes which take on a cool green
glow.
Installation should from start to finished should only take around
25-30 minutes maximum. Now we have it installed, let’s take a look as
exactly how well the new Bigwater 760 Plus performs...
Testing and Results
Test Rig| Motherboard | Gigabyte GA-Z68AP-D3 |
| CPU | Intel core i7-2600K (3.4GHz) (4.2ghZ OC) |
| RAM | GeIL EVO Corsa CL9 2133MHz (2 x 4 GB) |
| Graphics Card | Asus ATi Radeon HD 6970 2GB |
| Hard Drive | Plextor SSD 120 GB |
| PSU | Antec HCG 750w |
| CPU Cooler | Thermaltake Bigwater 760 Plus |
Methodology
Testing CPU coolers is a fairly simple process. We boot the computer into the operating system and use Speed Fan to measure the processor’s temperature – at idle and load. The CPU cooler which gives the lowest temperature is obviously the better one in terms of cooling performance. The ‘idle’ processor state is achieved by running the system in the OS for 30 minutes with no processes running – except Windows’ needed ones. Once those 30 minutes are over, we run Speed Fan and record the CPU’s temperature. The ‘load’ state is achieved similarly to idle. However, instead of no applications running for 30 minutes, we run a utility called ‘Prime95’ with the “Torture” test running. This puts the CPU under the highest stress threshold and therefore outputs its highest possible temperatures. The temperature is recorded again, after 30 minutes and by using Speed Fan.Results
As you have seen the Bigwater 760 Plus has a fan controller on the front giving the fan a immediate RMP boost to 2400 from 1600 RPM. During testing, we turn the fan on high and it made on average about 2-3 degrees different. But of course its main purpose is to vastly increase airflow around the case making the radiator cooler as well as your other components, so it is a good addition not just a gimmick.
As you can see in the results chart we also have got the results for
both the Antec KÜHLER H2O 620 and the Antec KÜHLER H2O 920 internal
water coolers, and the Bigwater 760 Plus has trumped them. However, they
are a lot cheaper at around £45.
The big water of course has exceeded the limitation of any air
cooling on both idle and load, and while overclocked at 4.2GHz with the
popular i7-2600K gamers processor.
Conclusion
The Thermaltake Bigwater 760 Plus is a good looking tidy unit that
offers and easy and relatively quick setup. The product while running
obviously is slightly noisier than an air cooler, but not much , not
enough for your attention to be drawn to your case every second with
annoyance. The 120 blue LED lit fan really add a great effect to the
green UV sensitive tubing, making them glow allusive green from the
light passing through, among other components around your case.
The unit can however big very noisy when the fan controller is turned
up to high, this is mainly to increase airflow around the case and not
purposely meant for a instant dramatic temperature drop, although it
does takes the CPU temperature down by around 3c on average with a
i7-2600K processor.
In terms of performance for the Bigwater 760 Plus, it done great. It
took the CPU by the throat and cooled it down to a low 51c @ 3.4GHz
Stock and 64c @4.2GHz Overclocked. Water are generally used specifically
for users who tend to want a big overclock or just an overclock with
safe temperatures in general, and even though on these result charts we
have test 3 water coolers, the Thermaltake Bigwater has taken the lead
over Antec’s latest liquid cooling models sufficiently.
Although one aspect to keep in mind is the pricing of course. Both
620 and 920 on Antec’s liquid cooling models are significantly cheaper
at around £40-£50 at this time, and the Thermaltake Bigwater 760 Plus is
priced at £97/$150. However for the extra price you are getting a much
larger temperature drop.
source:www.hardwarelook.com
