Having set a high standard with their initial foray into water-cooling it should be interesting to see how Corsair can improve.

Packaging

The Nautilus comes in some surprisingly small packaging. We are used to receiving water-cooling kits in much larger boxes so this was a nice surprise and made us a little more curious to see what was inside. The packaging itself gives you lots of information on the product including the key points such as low noise levels and easy install.

Turning the box over you get a few performance figures from tests against stock Intel and AMD cooling. There are also some further product specifications.

Opening the box we were initially surprised about how well packed the kit is, even the fluid bottle was bubble wrapped to ensure safe transit. Additionally each item was in its own compartment and bagged or wrapped.

After the pleasant surprise of the packing had worn off it was replaced by an initial shock of just how large the Nautilus is. It seemed to be a huge unit, however when you actually fully unbox it the product is actually reasonably sized considering the majority of the components are housed inside.

The above shot shows the main Nautilus 500 unit, contained inside are 2 fans, a reservoir and the pump. It’s about the width of a standard PC case and slightly longer than its width in terms of length. You can see the fan grill on the top with the smaller item being the hole to fill the reservoir.

Turning the unit round we find the water in and out connectors as well as the power plug and fan speed switch. The two grey sections you can see on top of the water in/out ports are quick release switches to allow for easy removal.

The next component we find in the box is the CPU bock and tubing. The Block has a highly polished copper base which comes with a protective sheet attached. You can see the polish in the picture below as it reflects the surface of the desk it is sitting on.

The tubing you can see is pre-attached to the CPU block by metal clips. This ensures that it is unlikely to come loose and also saves you time during the installation of the kit. The length of the tubing is 4ft.

Sealed away in a resealable bag are the following additional components:

Items of note here are the PCI bracket (far left) which allows you to pass the tubing through to the outside of the case as well as providing power and monitoring leads. The CPU brackets (larger items) and the various clamps and connectors.

The other two items within your box are the installation manual and cooling fluid. The manual was exceptionally well written and easy to follow; the cooling liquid is a funky green colour.