Corsair are well known for their excellent memory, we use it in almost all of our reviews due to its great speed, stability and complete reliability so when they mailed us to say they were releasing “Cool” we jumped at the chance to try it out. From the launch material it looked like a compact and stylish water-cooling kit, lets hope it performs as well as it looks…

The Packaging:

Cool comes packaged in a very striking box, on the front we have the logo with a few equipment shots and a little information on the fan size and CPU compatibility.

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The rear of the box gives more information on the components included in the kit…

Below you can see the documentation included with the Corsair Cool, the booklet is an information leaflet giving some tips on installation, while a nice to have its not an essential and any value is completely negated by the fact that the installation instructions are on a CD… if you’re a reviewer like me then you do more than likely have multiple PC’s lying around so you can load up the manual on one and build the kit. Most people though will have only one PC and are going to run into issues with how to access the instructions. To top things off the manual is in PDF format and Adobe Reader isn’t included on the CD, not the best start!

Components close up…

Radiator/Fans:

The Radiator included with the Corsair Cool is one similar to many water-cooling systems out there. It’s a single fan version of the Black Ice design used by companies such as Asetek in their Antarctica kits.

Attached to the radiator will be a 120mm fan, in the case of this kit the fan is made by Panflow and is a brushless design.

Pump and Reservoir:

In our opinion the pump is one of the highlights of the Corsair Cool, whilst some other water-cooling kits can cause issues with the size of the pump and where to put it, Corsair’s is tiny and will easily fit in the base of any case. One thing to note though is that the pump is not self priming so make sure you get any air bubbles out of the pump before turning it on or you will kill the pump.

The Cool reservoir is a unique design; it is manufactured in such a way that it is placed in the DVD/CD bays in your case and therefore comes with screw holes to attach just like a drive. Water enters the reservoir via the smaller chamber and leaves via the larger one. Here is a pic of the reservoir beside the 120mm fan/radiator to give you an idea of the size…

CPU water block:

The Corsair Cool CPU water block comes with some tubing already attached and secured which is a nice touch. The unit is made of metal and painted black, on the base it is copper and so will provide good heat transfer.

Below you can see the metal clamps holding the tubing securely in place and the polished copper base close up, which comes protected in a plastic film…

Other components:

The other components in the kit can be seen below, our kit contained no missing parts and so everything that was required (even thermal paste) to get us up and running (other than the water) was included.

 

Next: System Setup