Watercooling is becoming more and more popular everyday. People are wanting to overclock their CPUs as fast as possible and with as little noise as possible. With traditional air cooling the only way to get very low temperatures is to use a high speed fan which will produce a lot of sound. The Exos is Koolance’s first self-contained PC liquid cooling system, and only one that I have seen like this. The Koolance Exos weighs about seven pounds and has dimensions of 7.25″ x 3.75″ x 18.5″ so it will fit nicely on any normal case.
The box is pretty plain, I don’t know if this is going to be the actual retail box because the Exos isn’t available anywhere yet, but it may be just like this. I opened it up to find it well packaged quiet similar to how a case would be. There is also a lot of accessories and some tubing all of which we will look at later.
The front of the Koolance Exos has two handles on it for some reason like it would be mounted in a rackmount cabinet or something but it wouldn’t be. The handles are attached to an acrylic front which has “EXOS Liquid Cooling System” underneath in white. Above the acyrlic piece there is a LED display for the temperature which can be displayed in fahrenheit or Celsius. To the right of the LED display there is a power and Accel LED. The power LED illuminated when the unit is turned on and the Accel LED lights up when in mode 3, the modes will be discussed later. To the right of the LEDs are two buttons, one is to toggle between fahrenheit and Celsius and the other is to change between mode one, two, and three.
The bottom of the Koolance Exos has 4 little indentations which you can put the rubber feet in that were provided with the system. There is also a fill hole on the bottom back corner of the unit which is where the reservoir is. You will fill up your Koolance through this hole after you get your system all connected. A funnel is provided to make the filling of this system easier, we will see this on the next page.
The back of the unit has two quick-connect valves which is where you will plug your elbow fittings into. You will use these elbows to connect your Exos to the waterblock for your system. Right above where the quick-connect valves are is a power plug, this plug connects the Exos to your power supply with a cord which will be plugged into the expansion slot interface which we will see on the next page. The side of the Exos has a long line of cutouts so that air can flow in and out of the unit to cool down the radiator.
The top of the Koolance Exos holds three 80mm fans which are all sucking air through the radiator which is housed within the body of the system. You can see that the top of the unit basically looks the same as the top of the Koolance case. Koolance has built a shroud around all three fans which basically looks like a pyramid, this is good because it will direct the air better over the radiator which means better performance. You can also see the reservoir which is on the back of the system, within this system is also the pump. Because the pump will be submerged in the water that is flowing through the system the water temperature will be a little higher because the pump will heat it a little. I’m glad that Koolance used clear plastic rather than the yellow/orange that was used on the water block which you can see on the next page.
The block that I will be using along with the Koolance Exos is the CPU-200S. The CPU-200S cooler consists of a high tolerance transparent upper shell molded over a silver-coated copper cooling plate. This block works with AMD socket 462, Intel socket 370, and Intel socket 478 CPUs and can handle up to 200w of heat. The block is sold seperatly from the Exos unit so you will be able to decide which block you want depending on how much you want to spend what kind of performance you are looking for. Koolance offers three waterblocks, the CPU-100 which is the lower end block, the CPU-200S which is the middle block, and the CPU-200G which is the top of the line block. Of course the price of each block correlates with the level of performance that it will produce so you will need to make that decision. The box of the CPU-200S block is pretty compact and I was surprised to see as much stuff inside as there is.
The top of the CPU-200S block has a yellow orange colored shell over it which you can see into. I really don’t like the color of it but what can I really do? It would be nice if Koolance offered a clear version or a better color. The bottom of the block comes with a warning sticker that acts as a shield for the base of the block so that it does not get scratched which will give you better contact with the core of the CPU. The base of the block has an excellent finish to it, not a single scratch on it at all. The only thing that was there is a little spot which basically looks like a water spot, this will not do anything though. You can also see that on the bottom of the block there are 2 little grooves which is where you can place your thermistor.
The CPU-200S comes with some two different clip mechanisms, one for socket A/370 and one for Socket 478. I like that you can use this one block for basically all newer processors because if you decide to switch CPUs you wont have to buy anything new. The block also comes with a manual, some thermal compound, and a piece of tape which you will use to attach the theristor to the block.
The Koolance Exos comes with a lot of accessories which is really nice, especially for the price of this system. In the first picture is the water additive that you will put in with the water of your Koolance, a funnel to aid in the process, some velcro if you want to attach the unit to your case and a bag of a few other things. Inside of the bag are two quick-connect elbow fittings for the back of your Exos, four rubber feet, an ATX power supply jumper, and two other pieces of velcro for you to use.
The expansion slot interface has a power connector which is to connect the Exos to the computer and two springs coming out of it. These springs serve two purposes: to guide the tubing into the case while making it look professional and to keep the tubing from crimping which would slow down or prevent water from flowing. The expansion slot interface has a PCB on the other side of it which has a a four pin Molex connector for power to the system, a thermistor, two power switch jumpers, and two headers for three pin fans.
You also get two different types of tubing, the blue tubing is the main tubing which would be used from the Exos to your waterblock. If you needed more tubing for things such as other waterblocks you would use the clear tubing. I don’t really like the blue tubing because its not transparent and if you wanted to use some kind of water dye this would prevent it from glowing. So if you want to use some water dye you are going to have to pick up some clear tubing for this Exos.
I did two things before I really began to set the Koolance Exos up. I first took the ATX jumper wire and connected one end into the green wire and the other end into one of the six black wires. Jumping the ATX power connector like this will enable you to power up your system without having to turn the computer on. I really like that Koolance provided this with the setup because it’s such a simple thing that makes doing this so much easier. After I had that done I took the blue tubing and cut it in half so that I could use it to connect the Exos and block together.
Before I got started with the watercooling I needed to take off my Thermalright SLK-800 heatsink so that I could put the block on. After I had the block off I cleaned the core off with some rubbing alcohol and reapplied Arctic Silver 3 rather than using the thermal compound provided by Koolance. After I had the old heatsink removed I put the thermistor for the Koolance display into the block and then put the tape over it to keep it in place. This doesn’t really matter much to me its only for looks because this is not even going to read an accurate temperature at all because its so far away from the core. To install the block onto a socket A you need to remove the screw from the middle, put the two parts of the clip into it and hook it onto the tabs from the socket. After you have the clips in place and the block where it needs to be you will need to put the screw back into place aligning it with either the top or bottom hole, not the middle one. The middle hole is for the socket 478 clip.
After getting everything prepared and installing the block I went ahead and poped the quick-connect fittings into the back of the Exos. I really like this feature because there is really no work involved all you have to do is push them in to lock then. To release them you just have to pull up on the metal piece above the elbows and pull them out. I also installed the expansion slot interface, after which I plugged the power cord into which was also plugged into the back of the Exos above the elbows.
Attaching the tubing to the back of the Exos is really easy just unscrew the fitting which holds the tubing in place. Slide the circular fitting over the tubing so that when you plug it in it will be facing the right way. Attach the tubing to the barb on the elbow and screw the fitting back into place which will secure the tubing to the Exos. After you have done the first one do the same with the second one.
After attaching the tubing to the back of the Exos I routed it through the springs on the expansion slot interface and up to the water block. I cut off the excess tubing to that there would not be any crimping and so that it looked cleaner, sorry for the messy case. Before you attach the tubing to the waterblock take the two clamps on the block and slide them over the tubing. Once you have that done slide the tubing over the barbs on the block. Take your time because you don’t want to be so rough with it that you break something. After you have the tubing attached well take a pair of pliers and squeeze the top part of the clamp so that it tightens down onto the tubing.
Filling the Exos is really easy, you will need distilled water and the water additive that they provided. The best way to do this is to remove the plug from the bottom of the unit which and put the funnel into the fill hole. First pour in about half of the additive into the reservoir and then fill the rest with distilled water. You will also want your power supply to be plugged in so that you can turn on the pump. When the reservoir fills up with water turn on the pump so that it starts the water flowing through the system. After you turn on the pump the water level in the reservoir will drop because it will be running through the system. Continue to fill the reservoir until it is full then screw the plug back in and let the system run for about an hour so that all the air will get out of the system. While the system is running you should move around the Exos so that you will get the bubbles out of the radiator. I thought the pump and reservoir were going to be really loud because they were at first but after the air was taken out of the system it was silent.
I will be using an EPoX 8K3A+ with my Athlon XP 1800+ (1.53GHz) overclocked to 1737MHz which registers as a 2100+. I will not be using the Koolance probe for this testing because the readings are so far off the actual temperature. I will be using Motherboard Monitor to get the temperature readings of the CPU. This was done by setting motherboard monitor to “Winbond Diode 2” which will read the on-die thermal diode of the XP. Like I said before I will be using Arctic Silver 3 as the thermal compound because it is the best on the market. Idle temperatures were taken while idling in the BIOS and the load temperatures were achieved by using Prime95 which put the CPU up to 100% for 15 minutes.
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Test Bed
- EPoX 8K3A+
- 1800+ Athlon XP
- 80GB Maxtor ATA133 HDD
- Corsair 512MB XMS3200
- 3DPower Geforce 3
- Cooler Master ATC-101-SX2
- Zalman 300w PSU
- Sound Blaster Live! Value
- ATi TV Wonder VE
- 10/100 NIC
- Plextor 40x12x40 CDRW
- pioneer 16x DVD
One thing I really like about the Exos is that it starts up when your computer starts up which is done through the expansion slot interface. Because your power button signal is fed through the interface and then to the motherboard both the computer and the Exos know when to start up. This is a great feature because traditional watercooling setups the pump either has to be plugged into the wall or you have to mod your power supply and hook up a relay. After turning on the computer I entered the BIOS and idled for about 15 minutes and watched the temperature screen of the BIOS because it pulls the temperature right off the onboard diode of the Athlon XP.
The idle temperature maxed out at 42 degrees Celsius. I booted up the computer and loaded up Prime95 after running that for a wile the load temperature came in at 46 degrees which isn’t bad. I also included the Koolance temperature reading, the reason there is only one temp rather than one for idle and load is because the temperature never really changed. From idle to load the temperature that is displayed on the front of the Exos really didn’t change, at most 1 degree. Yes a CPU temperature of 30 degrees Celsius is impressive and cool to show off but this is not an accurate measurement.
The Exos has the three different modes, mode one is where the fans will operate at 45% and then speed up to 100% when the temperature reach 45°C. Mode 2 is where the fans will run at 45% until 35°C, then speeds gradually increase to 100% at 40°C. Mode 3 is where the fans will run at 100% all the time. I always kept it on mode 1 because I did not want the fans speeding up to 100% because it was really loud and didn’t do a whole lot more.
Conclusion
This is my first experience with a Koolance product and it was basically what I was expecting. The best thing about this product is that it can be used with any case and the three main socket types on the market now which are socket A, 370, and 478. This Koolance Exos system also looks pretty cool and will go best with a black case, although I wouldn’t be surprised if Koolance came out with some other colors in the future.
The Exos is very quiet in mode 1 and 2 but mode 3 is much too loud for me, of course from my testing there was really no reason to use mode 3. Another thing about this setup is the expansion slot interface which allows the tubing and power to be connected along with some other nice features.
The overall cooling performance of this Exos is pretty good, there are much better watercooling setups on the market now which are also cheaper. The main reason to get this setup over another watercooling one is the ease of use. With this system there is really not that much to do; just put it on top, fill it, connect it, and your ready to go. If you are going to get this Exos you will also need to buy a block for it because it does not come with one.
Mode 3 of the Exos runs the fans at 100% speed and they are much too loud for my taste and do not change the cooling at all really so I don’t see the point in having it or using it. Another thing that I do not like is the fact that the LED tempature indicator is way off from the actual temperatures so don’t rely on it.
Overall I am pretty impressed with this unit; it has a lot to offer especially to a newcomer to watercooling. If you have never used watercooling and want something simple this is the product for you. If you are looking for the best performance DIY style you will really want something else. Overall I am going to give this Exos an 8/10, I would like to thank Sharka Corp for providing this unit for review. You can pick up this product along with most of the accessories from them.
Pros
- All in one watercooling system
- Will work with any case
- Works with socket A, 370, and 478
- Looks pretty darn cool
- Quick-connect fittings
- Quiet in mode 1 and 2
- Great expansion slot interface
- Powers on when your computer does
- Lots of accessories included
- More than enough tubing provided
- Pretty good performance
Cons
- High price, around $270
- Block not included
- Mode 3 is loud and ineffective
- Temperature display LED is inaccurate