Thermaltake
Tide Water All in One VGA Liquid Cooling Module Review
Page 4 of 6
Review By Clay Angelly - March 21, 2006
CLOSER LOOK CONTINUED
Thermaltake provides a liquid level gauge and fill
port so that you can periodically check your fluid level and refill if
necessary. The provided documentation is strong regarding photo walkthroughs but
the actual wording/instructions are lacking a bit. The instructions are also
lacking a few details such as when you should expect a need to refill as well as
what kind of fluid to use. The assumption is that the specifics of the coolant
used isn’t critical.
Thermaltake Tide Water - Level Gauge and
Fill Port
The copper heat sink is substantial and utilizes heat pipe technology to really cool down the liquid as quickly as possible.
The fins are nice and thin resulting in a healthy number of them to dissipate the
heat.
Thermaltake Tide Water - Radiator Heat
Pipes
Thermaltake Tide Water - Radiator Heat
Pipes
One obvious question is how this unit mounts to your system. Thermaltake uses a simple solution to really keep it secure via two PCI slot "blanks". These are just solid acrylic inserts that
snugly fit into two of your free (and adjacent) PCI slots. The typical screw
mounts are also provided so you can screw it down to your case at the back plate
slots.
Thermaltake Tide Water - PCI Mounts
Two sets of mounting screws are included (one small diameter pair and one large
diameter pair) to accommodate the various mounting hole sizes on different video
cards.
Thermaltake Tide Water - Mounting Hardware
The water block is nothing spectacular but it gets the job done. The contact area is not made of copper. It also is not lapped extremely well.
It's not bad, though, as the results will soon prove.
Thermaltake Tide Water - Water Block
Surface
On the other side of the water block you'll find the typical slide mounts which allow you to easily line up your mounting screws.
