Self-Contained Water Coolers: Xigmatek AIO vs. Evercool Silver Knight
by Wesley Fink on July 10, 2007 2:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Cases/Cooling/PSUs
Evercool Silver Knight
Evercool is a Top 5 Cooling Products manufacturer based in Taiwan. Manufacturing is at their facility in Guang Dong, China. The Evercool product line consists of air and water coolers for processors and video cards, fans, hard drive coolers, notebook chill pads, system cooling solutions, and peripheral cooling specialty items. The company was founded in 1992 in Taipei. Evercool opened the China manufacturing plant in 1997. Today Evercool employs 1200 at its Taipei R&D facility and its Guang Dong ISO9001 manufacturing plant.
The Silver Knight was first shown at CES this year and today it can be found for sale at many web etailers such as Newegg. The Silver Knight was originally introduced at a retail price of $59.95. A quick check of the web found it available $45 to $50 from several etailers. This is certainly competitive with the top-line air coolers.
Judging from the size of the silver, black, and red Silver Knight package, you would never guess this is a water cooling system. More correctly it is a hybrid water and air cooling system about the size of a heatsink tower.
Inside the box is a ready-to-mount Silver Knight system, along with the mounting accessories for mounting on an Intel socket 775 or an AMD socket 754/939/940. We also tried the clip on several AM2 boards. The clip is a triple lug design that fits fine on recent flat side AM2 mounting cages. However some AM2 mounts have curved sides and these might require some modification to the clip for proper mounting. Evercool also includes a small syringe of thermal compound. Installation instructions are on the box and prominently displayed at the Evercool website.
The Silver Knight cooler is rather strange looking. The knight's "helmet" top looks more like an alien space ship than a helmet to us. While the cooling core is 8mm copper pipes and aluminum cooling fins, much of the shroud, fan, pump, and cover are plastic.
The standard size 92mm fan blows air through the cooler much like other heatpipe towers, and the 12-pole magnetic pump with a clear housing on the side circulates an antifreeze-like liquid through the 8mm copper pipes. Consider this a heatpipe tower with active circulation for the heatpipes. The clear plastic reservoir and motor on the side glow a soft blue during operation of the Silver Knight.
Mounting is simple and very secure with either 775 or AMD. However, you will have to remove the motherboard and mount the cooler to the motherboard before remounting the motherboard. The hex wrench included for tightening screws barely fits between the cooler top and the screws. It's a tight fit, but not impossible. We ended up hand-tightening the spring screws first and using the hex for the final tightening. The installation is solid and cannot be moved around. That is very good since the cooler weighs in at 960g, which is over 2 pounds.
On AMD the Silver Knight is ready for attaching with an included AMD clip. On the 775 you must first screw on two plates to extend the footprint of the Evercool.
A bottom plate with long attached screws passes through the motherboard, the cooler is placed on the screws, and the cooler is held in place with spring-loaded screws. The completed install is very stable.
Specifications
Our test system is Intel socket 775, but the Silver Knight will also mount on any recent AMD socket as well. While the manufacturer only specifies AMD socket 754/939/940 compatibility, we had no problem installing the cooler on socket AM2 with recent mounts that feature flat sides and a single connecting lug on each side. The Evercool kit includes the clip for mounting to existing AMD sockets, and the back plate, adapter plates, and spring-loaded screws for an Intel socket 775 install.
The Evercool appears to be a very large cooler, but the water pump and fan overhang at a higher level than many heatpipe towers. This makes mounting much easier than you might expect. The Silver Knight cleared all components on our test EVGA 680i. The EVGA 680i is a difficult to fit board due to the copper-finned heatsink and fan cooling the Northbridge. Installation was also an easy task on the ASUS Striker and ASUS Commando, and on the two new P35 ASUS boards - the P5K Deluxe and P5K3 Deluxe.
Evercool is a Top 5 Cooling Products manufacturer based in Taiwan. Manufacturing is at their facility in Guang Dong, China. The Evercool product line consists of air and water coolers for processors and video cards, fans, hard drive coolers, notebook chill pads, system cooling solutions, and peripheral cooling specialty items. The company was founded in 1992 in Taipei. Evercool opened the China manufacturing plant in 1997. Today Evercool employs 1200 at its Taipei R&D facility and its Guang Dong ISO9001 manufacturing plant.
The Silver Knight was first shown at CES this year and today it can be found for sale at many web etailers such as Newegg. The Silver Knight was originally introduced at a retail price of $59.95. A quick check of the web found it available $45 to $50 from several etailers. This is certainly competitive with the top-line air coolers.
Judging from the size of the silver, black, and red Silver Knight package, you would never guess this is a water cooling system. More correctly it is a hybrid water and air cooling system about the size of a heatsink tower.
Inside the box is a ready-to-mount Silver Knight system, along with the mounting accessories for mounting on an Intel socket 775 or an AMD socket 754/939/940. We also tried the clip on several AM2 boards. The clip is a triple lug design that fits fine on recent flat side AM2 mounting cages. However some AM2 mounts have curved sides and these might require some modification to the clip for proper mounting. Evercool also includes a small syringe of thermal compound. Installation instructions are on the box and prominently displayed at the Evercool website.
The Silver Knight cooler is rather strange looking. The knight's "helmet" top looks more like an alien space ship than a helmet to us. While the cooling core is 8mm copper pipes and aluminum cooling fins, much of the shroud, fan, pump, and cover are plastic.
The standard size 92mm fan blows air through the cooler much like other heatpipe towers, and the 12-pole magnetic pump with a clear housing on the side circulates an antifreeze-like liquid through the 8mm copper pipes. Consider this a heatpipe tower with active circulation for the heatpipes. The clear plastic reservoir and motor on the side glow a soft blue during operation of the Silver Knight.
Mounting is simple and very secure with either 775 or AMD. However, you will have to remove the motherboard and mount the cooler to the motherboard before remounting the motherboard. The hex wrench included for tightening screws barely fits between the cooler top and the screws. It's a tight fit, but not impossible. We ended up hand-tightening the spring screws first and using the hex for the final tightening. The installation is solid and cannot be moved around. That is very good since the cooler weighs in at 960g, which is over 2 pounds.
On AMD the Silver Knight is ready for attaching with an included AMD clip. On the 775 you must first screw on two plates to extend the footprint of the Evercool.
A bottom plate with long attached screws passes through the motherboard, the cooler is placed on the screws, and the cooler is held in place with spring-loaded screws. The completed install is very stable.
Specifications
Our test system is Intel socket 775, but the Silver Knight will also mount on any recent AMD socket as well. While the manufacturer only specifies AMD socket 754/939/940 compatibility, we had no problem installing the cooler on socket AM2 with recent mounts that feature flat sides and a single connecting lug on each side. The Evercool kit includes the clip for mounting to existing AMD sockets, and the back plate, adapter plates, and spring-loaded screws for an Intel socket 775 install.
| Evercool Silver Knight Specifications | ||||
| Heatsink | ||||
| Dimensions | 130(W) X 126.5(D) X 185(H)mm | |||
| Weight | 960g | |||
| Material | Copper Base and Aluminum Fins | |||
| Heatpipes | 8mm copper heatpipes | |||
| Water Pump | 12-pole Magnetic Motor | |||
| Water System | Refillable, should not require refilling for at least 2 years | |||
| Rated Voltage | DC 12V | |||
| Fan | ||||
| Fan Size | 92 x92x 25mm | |||
| Bearing Type | Ever Lubricate Bearing | |||
| Connector | 3-pin with integral High-Low Switch | |||
| Speed | Lo Speed | 1,800rpm | Hi Speed | 2,600rpm |
The Evercool appears to be a very large cooler, but the water pump and fan overhang at a higher level than many heatpipe towers. This makes mounting much easier than you might expect. The Silver Knight cleared all components on our test EVGA 680i. The EVGA 680i is a difficult to fit board due to the copper-finned heatsink and fan cooling the Northbridge. Installation was also an easy task on the ASUS Striker and ASUS Commando, and on the two new P35 ASUS boards - the P5K Deluxe and P5K3 Deluxe.
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razor2025 - Tuesday, July 10, 2007 - link
The whole "self-contained" water cooling HSF is a joke. It's basically the same design as heatpipe HSF, but use water as the thermal conductor. In which case, traditional heat-pipe design will perform far more superior than these things.The whole point of water cooling is allow a radiator MUCH larger than air cooling heatsinks to disperse the heat. Since a typical water cooling radiator have multiples times more surface area than typical air cooling heatsink, you can run a larger fan with lower RPM. With traditional water cooling, you would also have large reservoir that helps in keeping cool water running through the blocks. With "self-contained" units, you have very limited amount of water that is cycled back to the heat source. Thus, these units are nothing but creation of marketing department. It's not surprising that they weren't able to beat the heat pipe designs in term of cooling or noise.
strikeback03 - Tuesday, July 10, 2007 - link
I'd guess part of the problem with these units is they contain far too little water to be a good thermal reservoir. At this size scale the typical heatpipes probably work better, as they can tailor the fluid to change phase from liquid to gas in the anticipated operating range, and take advantage of all the energy that absorbs.n7 - Tuesday, July 10, 2007 - link
Seeing as how a few hybrid style coolers have been reviewed now, are you considering reviewing a Coolit Freezone?I realize its price tag is considerably higher, but it should best all the coolers presently tested, albeit loud at max, & pricey too.
Wesley Fink - Tuesday, July 10, 2007 - link
Yes, we have a Coolit Freezone in the lab. However, it will be several weeks before the review.n7 - Tuesday, July 10, 2007 - link
Sweet!Based on the results i had with it compared to my Big Typhoon it shouldn't have much trouble dominating at max fan speed.
The reason i didn't keep the Freezone was purely due to noise.
It was nice & quiet with the fan turned down, but then i found performance to be no better than air cooling.
Anyway, i look forward to the results with it!
Thanx.
yyrkoon - Tuesday, July 10, 2007 - link
Several new "self-contained" water coolers have shown up over the past few months. Water cooling is another passive cooling method, like air cooling. The water temperature cannot drop lower than the room temperature, where TEC and phase-change can actually chill below the ambient temperature. This is why they are referred to as active cooling.Actualy active cooling, or active whatever means to use electronics or mechanical means to do something. Passive means to use nothing of the sort (in this case, just a heatsink).
Active cooling includes, but is not limited to; a heatsink with a fan, water cooling, phase change, or anything that uses electronic or mechanical means.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_cooling#Pass...">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_cooling#Pass...
Lets get it right guys ;)
Wesley Fink - Tuesday, July 10, 2007 - link
A better description is ambient and sub-ambient cooling, which we used in describing the Vigor Monsoon II. We will make changes to our description to better describe the cooling method.asliarun - Tuesday, July 10, 2007 - link
Sorry in advance for the extremely offtopic message, but I sincerely hope that AT reads this. AT, I can understand you need to make money through advertisements, and I do bear with the extremely flashy, distracting, and bandwidth hogging ads. I do this because I respect your content enough to overlook the distraction (can't it be less distracting though??)However, the popup ads that you have started displaying take the cake! I am referring to the "Vibrant Ad" popups that popup whenever the mouse pointer moves over your double-underlined hyperlinks. It is really irritating because the popup firstly forces me to close the f**king popup, and also forces me to navigate through your page like a minefield! I literally have to zigzag my mouse pointer to avoid these landmines.
Can't you at least make the popup appear only if the user clicks on the hyperlink??
Sorry to say this, but in terms of usability, your site is currently sucking donkey right now.
A loyal reader,
asliarun
Anand Lal Shimpi - Tuesday, July 10, 2007 - link
You can disable those ads by visiting this link: http://www.anandtech.com/siteinfo.aspx?off=yes">http://www.anandtech.com/siteinfo.aspx?off=yes :)Take care,
Anand
SunAngel - Tuesday, July 10, 2007 - link
Good news! Thanks for the tip. Wouldn't it have been ironic that the very thing that made Anandtech prosper would have also been the same thing that brought it down? I actually like Anandtech and would have hate to see it lose patronage over something as silly as HTML ads. However, I can't say the same for DT. If those guys bit the dust...well, all I can say is, "Pabst Blue Ribbon for the masses." In fact, that is a suggestion. Dump them and find someone else. There are plenty out there to choose from.