UPDATE 09.07.12: 3 new watercoolers from Liquid Extasy, Alphacool and Danger Den were added !
Alphacool NexXxoS ATXP ATI 7970/50 Serie
Alphacool strikes back again ! In the last years there were not many complete new watercooling products from Alphacool, but the company from Braunschweig / Germany did a great job in their development and shows up with five different versions of the NexXxoS ATXP Fullcover watercooler. In this review I am going to test the two version with high-glossy finish (silver and black top), which are quite thin (6mm), light-weight (ca. 750g). The coolers look very nicely and come in a retail-box, which offers everything you might need for the installation including thermal grease. A slight negative aspect is, that you do not find any installation-manual, which you will have to download from the Alphacool Website. The ATXP is accurately processed and is in a few minutes installed. The thermal pads (excluding the pads for the voltage controllers) are as well accurately cut for the RAM. As the cooler follows the common operation mode, you have to apply thermal grease to the GPU. The cooler is well wrapped in bubble-foil and is delivered vacuum-packed to the customer. Especially the vacuum-packaging is a quite good idea, because it protects the copper bottom of the coolers from wetness and ugly blurs. The ground-plate is around 1mm thick and the cooling structure is 8mm broad (according to this sizes, the cooling capacity is on a good level). The Alphacool ATXP fullcover watercooler is crossfire compatible and can be as well used with a single-slot-blend, because of ist ultra-thin build. You can purchase for around 17 Euros a black aluminum backplate, which looks quite good .
The cooler does not reach the top temperature-values, but performs nevertheless good in relation to the waterflow-values. The price is another good aspect of the product, because it is the cheapest product with 80 Euros in my review. The polished tops look very flashy and the stainless-steel silver and black tops are well processed. Overall the Alphacool ATXP cooler is a nice product and i think everyone will find a design version out of the five, which you will like.
Technical Details:
Material: Copper, Stainless-steel
Size (L x B x H): 185 x 124 x 6 mm (see 17mm at the fittings)
Weight: ca. 757g
Fittings: 4x G ¼ Zoll SLI/Crossfire compatible
Compatible to ATI 7970 and 7950 graphic cards in reference layout
Scope of supply:
1x Cooler
Thermal pads
Thermal grease
Installation material
2x G ¼ Zoll Screw plugs
Price: ca. 79 EUR
Optional Backplate for ca. 17 EUR
Liquid Extasy Narrow Line ATI HD 7970 Referenz Plexi
Liquid Extasy is a producer from East-Germany, which is responsible for their current full-cover watercooler Narrow Line HD7970 with acrylic-glass top. An alternative version can be purchased with an acetal top. The cooler is well packed in a neutral box with the common installation material and a manual in German language. I am happy to tell you that the scope of supply contains as well thermal grease. The innovative Speedchannel-System (SCS) was adapted to the GPU Series in order to eliminate emission losses. The whole installation procedure is done with thermal grease, so the amount of thermal grease could have been quite more.
The cooler is nicely designed, if you take in mind that only a few companies produce watercoolers with acrylic-glass tops. Overall the processing quality is not on such a high level as the other candidates, but is still good. So please respect that Liquid Extasy is a very small company, which does not own expensive high-end machines for their production. Not surprisingly but as well important to name: The cooler is SLI-ready and can be used for Multi-GPU-Operating-Systems.
Temperature and waterflow values are on an adequate level, but do not reach the top five charts. The screws, which you will need for the assembly of the cooler, should have been a little bit shorter. Do not use high pressure and assemble at first the middle screws in the direction of a cross.
The cooler can be bought for a price of 90,00 Euros (= standard price level). The cooler is produced in Germany.
GPU - Cooler - Specifications:
Scope of supply GPU - cooler
1x Narrow Line GPU including bracket
1x Installation material
1x Thermal grease
Installation manual
GPU – cooler bracket: Mountingholes
Material GPU – cooler bottom: Copper
Threats GPU - cooler: G 1/4
Price: ca. 89 EUR
Danger Den DD-7970 Fullcover Wasserkühler
The company Danger Den is one of the greatest pioneers on the watercooling sector in the USA. The company produces for many years in the nicely Astoria/Oregon watercoolers and acrylic-glass PC cases in many versions and varieties. The design of the Fullcover GPU coolers does not subject to any great modifications. The producer focuses the functionality of high water-flow values in order to reach the lowest GPU temperatures. I suppose that someone might not like the bold design, but as well some other customer prefer that design. The bold design is definitely a unique feature of the company.
The cooler is well packed in foil and comes to you in a neutral white box.
The scope of supply contains the common installation material and the installation manual in English language. You will find as well two tubes of thermal grease, which you will definitely need, because Danger Den abdicates from thermal pads except the area of the voltage controllers.
A special feature: The cooler comes with an additional four-sided backplate of acrylic-glas with a centered DD Logo. The assembly of the backplate is done with longer screws and springs in order to regulate the contact pressure. A small part of foam is used to isolate the backplate from the graphic-card.
The processing quality of the cooler is on a good level, but the bottom of the cooler shows some slight scratches from the production procedure. The DD-7979 consists of blast cleaned copper and has an acrylic-glass top. There are no other designs planned yet. The cooler is quite massive, robust and heavy. The cooler fits very good to the graphic-card, therefore the assembly is done without any problems. Unfortunately the cooler can be not purchased in Germany yet. If you like the cooler try to check the shop www.highflow.nl. The cooler can be bought for around 90,00 Euros. If you like to have a cooler, which is optimized for high water-flow values, here you go! Customers who might focus the lowest GPU-temperatures should choose another cooler.
Delta-T / Difference GPU to Watertemp. - lower Result is better
Liter / hour
Price in Euro
Scope of supply:
Awards
Bundymania Gold Award goes to Watercool, Koolance und Aquacomputer for the High Performance and superb build quality
Silver Award goes to Swiftech and EK Waterblocks, for a good performance, and for the swiftech block for a huge amount of supply parts !
Bronze Award goes to XSPC Razor 7970 & Alphacool ATXP Kühler for a good scope of supply and good performance
The Best-Buy-for-the-Money-Award goes to the Alphacool ATXP Cooler for the best Price
Update of the conclusion:
The new coolers from Alphacool could convince me with their nice desgin and the great scope of supply. The cooler from Danger Den could reach the top position of the water-flow-rates and the cooler from Liquid Extasy showed off with a good cooling performance and nice outward apperance. Unfortunately the L.E. cooler could not reach an award, because of its processing quality and the overlong screws.