Intel 120MM Liquid Cooling Unit Unboxing & First Look Linus Tech Tips
Intel 120MM Liquid Cooling Unit Unboxing & First Look Linus Tech Tips
2011-11-13
so today I have a pretty cool unboxing
of something that at the time of
unboxing it is not released but by the
time I released the video it will be
released so this is the intel thermal
solution RTS 2011 LC 4 TDP up to 130
watt yes that is Intel's awesome and
like cool marketing name and by
marketing ami-nee
I mean part number for their new liquid
cooler for their LGA 2011 processors and
it's not only for their LGA 2011
processors actually I'm line on the
front of the box here check this out
that is good for 2011 1366 1111 56 and
1155 now one difference between this and
competing liquid cooling solutions such
as those from Corsair or kool-aid or
antic or whoever the case may be is that
this one does not come with any AMD
mounting hardware I know right very
unexpected
so we've actually got a trial cameraman
with us here today I just thought I'd
let you guys know that and I saw on one
of the other videos I uploaded you guys
are already making comments on what you
think of the various camera people we're
trying out so I'd be happy to hear your
comments and I'm sure he'll be either
happy or or disappoint to hear your
comments and apparently there's a CPU in
here although I really really don't
think they're all going to come with a
CPU so yeah let's look at the
documentation that's included at first
we've got the Intel RTS 2011 LC liquid
cooling solution which includes
installation instructions and a three
year warranty that's awesome actually
that's outstanding having a three year
warranty on a cooler like this important
do not fully tighten okay until they're
all parts to engage that's good
these are all good instructions here's
little diagram showing you what to do
what goes where and how to mount on a
and B oh no not on a penis no no this
only mounts on Intel sockets hahaha okay
so there you go these are actually
fairly detailed plug the thing in the
thing and you're done okay let's look at
the included mounting accessories and
whatnot
I like the environmentally-friendly
packaging here so that's all recyclable
material so this is actually different
this looks like the probably OAM by ace
attack based on doubt yeah there's an
ace attack logo right there on the back
of the backplate so you can see it's got
the 1156 1366 and 775 mounting here and
then it looks like the way okay here's
the retention ring all right
and then what else have we got okay
we've got some thumb screws nice big
thumb screw so you have the option of
either screwing them in with your
fingers or screen them in with a
Phillips head screwdriver got some other
more different ones all right we've got
what looked like aluminum spacers okay
we've got some double-sided sticky pads
which are going to prevent your
motherboard from being shorted out by
applying a backplate all right we've got
some screws so these are your fan
mounting screws as well as your radiator
mounting screws I'll show you how those
work in a minute
we've got some Intel approved thermal
compound which comes in a little baggie
and we have some zip ties look at that
Intel include zip ties for you actually
two things a thermal compound very nice
alright let's have a look at the unit
itself the first thing I want to check
out is the fan because my expectations
for this fan based on how cool it looks
are pretty high this is actually a blue
fan and you know what let's pause the
video for a minute let's go check out
the color so there you go that's what
the fan looks like when it's on it's
pretty cool or as my little brother
would say super COO okay so it's got
three LEDs which are all on the central
hub not on the frame like we're used to
seeing on fans okay it's not incredibly
loud by any stretch of the imagination
but I think that it's running at 100%
right now because that header is not
speed controlled so we'll go back and
we'll have a look at the unit itself so
one of the first things I notice about
this particular guy right here is that
it looks pretty similar to the enttec
920 in that it has this awesome awesome
tubing so look at this I can take this
tubing I can twist it up and I could
mount my CPU here and I could mount my
tubing like that and it would not
tink this is nice thick wall flexible
tubing and you should not underestimate
the importance of that when you're doing
a liquid cooling setup tubing is
imperative to the overall performance
because if it kinks performance will
suck and if it doesn't kink performance
will be good it is the difference
between suck and good so very very nice
very well thought-out and it's expensive
to bear that in mind
tubing is very expensive so putting in a
high quality tubing is something where
Intel is saying ok we're going to spend
extra money on this unit to make sure
that it performs well in any given
scenario another thing I noticed right
away is that it uses a thicker style
radiator this is another thing that I
cannot stress the importance of enough
liquid cooling is not a magic bullet it
comes down to the same basic principles
of moving air and surface area the only
reason liquid coolers perform better
than air coolers is that we're able to
take that surface area move it very
efficiently away from the CPU and then
disperse it somewhere else on something
that is bigger and has more surface area
than a typical heatsink that you can put
directly on a CPU socket so using that
thicker style radiator versus the kind
that is used on something like an H 50
is definitely a good move for Intel last
but not least we've got the pump and CPU
block combo unit so you can see here
that there are actually Oh neat okay so
there's actually a power lead here so
that's going to plug into your 4 pin PWM
CPU header and then there is an
additional power lead and that is a good
I can't remember whether it's male or
female but the point is that it plugs
into the fan there you go so that one
runs the fan so that means that all of
the logic for controlling pump speeds as
well as fan speeds is all based on the
unit itself here we've got a copper base
which is pretty much par for the course
if it's using anything but copper it's
going to see slightly degraded
performance all right and I think that
pretty much covers everything you know
what that looks like it lights up let's
go back to that test bench and find out
if it does so this is a lights on
simulation of what the unit will look
like there we've got the fan
installed on the radiator as well as the
CPU block unit installed on the CPU so
you can see both the Intel logo and the
pool by asset tech parts of the top
actually light up blue which looks
really cool and now let's do a light
soft shot of this and here is our lights
off look at the unit very very cool
looking definitely one of the
best-looking liquid coolers that I've
seen to date for these pre done
prefilled units
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