Coolit Domino A.L.C. Water Cooler Review

[Apoptosis]

Coolit Domino A.L.C. Water Cooler Review

CoolIT Systems noticed that well built water cooler was missing from the sub $80 market and went back to a drawing board to see if something could be designed that had the cooling performance that enthusiasts demand and a price tag that won't break the bank during these troubled economic times. After many long hours and a year in the test lab CoolIT Systems came up with the Domino A.L.C. Read on to see how this cooler performs on an Intel Core i7 platform!

With the base clock raised from 133MHz to 175MHz on the ASUS P6T Deluxe motherboard I was able to easily overclock the Intel Core i7 920 processor to 3.5GHz. Just to make sure things were 100% stable I increased the CPU Voltage in the BIOS to 1.350V, which is 0.150V more than the previous benchmark. The increased voltage and speed caused the heat sink that comes with a retail processor to max out at 100C as the system started to throttle to reduce the temperature below this critical mark. The Thermaltake BigWater 760is got the job done, but seeing load temperatures above 80C at high fan speeds isn't what I want to see. The CoolIT Domino A.L.C. with the high settings was very impressive and was just north of 61C under full load when running eight instances of Prime95!

Article Title: Coolit Domino A.L.C. Water Cooler Review
Article URL: http://www.legitreviews.com/article/854/1/
Pricing At Time of Print: $66 plus shipping at Google Shopping

[InspectahACE]

sounds like this is the thing to get after i read this..i never got into water cooling as I was too chicken but I may just try it with this..alot of the places on google show its sold out or not available..by any chance did they say when these would be readily available?

[Gomeler]

Very interesting but I'd really like to see how that system stacks up against a TRUE. I've seen 3DMark Vantage runs in excess of 4100MHz with the Core i7 920 and a decent air heatsink so they must be holding the heat well. As for the box cooler, that thing is a piece of junk but 100C? Can't say I've seen that on a Core i7 and I run 3600MHz daily on a box cooler Must be the damn frigid ambient temps I live in for sake of my components

[FZ1]

I've heard the fan is pretty loud on that cooler.

Gomeler - you should pick up the Noctua I have in my sig. Wicked quiet and my temps never got over 75 while priming @ 4GHz @ 1.34v. I have heard a lot of stories about the TRUE's base being convex.

[DX]

That is interesting. I wonder though what other ways you could possibly mount it in a case (without using screws)...... Those top rubber mounts are a big concern considering how far they let the top pull away from the case.

[Gomeler]

I've heard the fan is pretty loud on that cooler.

Gomeler - you should pick up the Noctua I have in my sig. Wicked quiet and my temps never got over 75 while priming @ 4GHz @ 1.34v. I have heard a lot of stories about the TRUE's base being convex.

Not willing to invest in another air sink, not a huge priority to me. It's usually box cooler or cascade

[prozac26]

I have the A.L.C, and so far it's better than I expected.

[Cannyone]

I was previously very interested in Swiftech's H20-120 Compact >> http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835108100. But this even less expensive and probably performs better as well. The "catch" for me is that I'll have to switch to a different case, as neither of these will work with my Cooler Master Stacker 830. The upside is that the Stacker 830 is perfectly suited to more mundane "server" duties, whereas I want to use this cooler on my gaming system... I'll just need to get a windowed sidepanel so I can see the display!

[stopthekilling77]

Looks to be a worthwhile sub-$100 upgrade for people wanting to get into watercooling. I'm just not sure I'd be willing to buy it and then go "but I want my GPU under water too..."

[gwolfman]

Looks to be a worthwhile sub-$100 upgrade for people wanting to get into watercooling. I'm just not sure I'd be willing to buy it and then go "but I want my GPU under water too..."

Agreed. Though I'm still considering this as it's fairly cheap and about the price I'd spend on a good heatpipe solution. Hmmm... Which to get? As mentioned above, I've been thinking about the Noctua one as well... Any more input anyone?

[stopthekilling77]

Well if you're talking about the Noctua NH-U12P heatsink/fan I highly recommend it as I put one in my dad's recording studio box. Cools exceptionally well especially considering the silent modes. (Keeps a Q9550 at 40C load OCed to 3.33GHz)

[gwolfman]

Well if you're talking about the Noctua NH-U12P heatsink/fan I highly recommend it as I put one in my dad's recording studio box. Cools exceptionally well especially considering the silent modes. (Keeps a Q9550 at 40C load OCed to 3.33GHz)

Yeah, that's the one. I'll look into it. Thanks for the recommendation.

[pjreno]

I'm giving this product one big BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO, zero stars, no eggs, 3 thumbs down. I was about to pull the trigger on a Freezone when I thought "Why not give the 80 dollar unit a try". The simple reason is you get what you pay for. Basically during install I was finishing up pulling the last rubber mount through the hole when I heard a snap. The damn tube broke right at the radiator. Their was no twisting and no forcing going on at all and it just snapped. Now I know it could have just been this unit but it is plastic all the way up and the tubes are not very flexible. If I remember correctly my Eliminator had aluminum that the tubing mounted to the radiator on.

My advice is if your serious about your system save your money and get something better built, I could be wrong but tell that to my soaking wet EVGA x58 mobo and core I7 chip.

[Apoptosis]

Can you please post pictures of what broke? I watched dozens of people compete in a contest at CES to see who could put a Domino in a system in the shorted amount of time and none broke and I've installed the one I have a few times with no problems.

[pjreno]

Can you please post pictures of what broke? I watched dozens of people compete in a contest at CES to see who could put a Domino in a system in the shorted amount of time and none broke and I've installed the one I have a few times with no problems.

The barb where it connects to the rad...pics below

I wanted to come back here and post to let everyone know I'm going to hold off on all the boos and such for now simply because Drew at CoolIt knew what broke before I even told him what broke, he said "There was a design flaw in the barb where it connects to the radiator and that is fixed now". Knowing it was a known issue bumped my confidence level in Coolit a couple of points. That combined with the good customer service that some of my clan buddies have had and I'm willing to give this thing another chance.

[Apoptosis]

man that sucks.... I'll have to take another look at that spot.

Hope they get you a new unit out ASAP

[pjreno]

So i got the new one and it appears identical. No noticeable difference however this one went in without any breakage and is running fine. I would like to add though (and this may have led to my earlier problems) that a combination of the EVGA x58 and Cooler Master CosmosS case led to me having to mount the unit upside down rather then out the back.

On the EVGA board the Northbridge cooler and the heatsink just behind the inputs were just tall enough to get in the way. The tubes going to the rad sat on the northbridge cooler and the radiator itself was pushing against that other heatsink. Along the top of the CosmosS is a rail that houses the side panel release and it was also in the way. The rail in the case may not have been a problem. Since the mounts for the Domino are not rigid it might have had enough "play" to allow me to still open my case. The parts touching my mobo however took away any slack I had and led me to remount it with the Domino fan blowing up and out...not such a big deal since I don't have a clear panel anyways to view the pretty LCD.


Now on to overclocking the core i7

[InspectahACE]

Ill have to keep a keen eye on that when I buy this...im gettin an i7 myself soon and wouldn't want the Little Mermaid swimming around it either

[Athlonite]

Man thats gotta suk bigtime
on an unrelated point this still isn't available in New Zealand so i guess i wait some more

[stev]

Great review! Enjoyed it very well.

Glad to see CoolIT taking a major standing in the market place with this cooler. Knowing some of their dealings and benchmarking of other products and an ability to learn from one of the OEM companies who has bailed out of the liquid cooling market altogether in the past year, CooIT may be the fore runner for plenty of the OEM market in the future.

It's nice to see their long life ceramic bearing water pump in production now. It should do well like the DDC pumps have done over the years.

It's a bummer about the hoses being a bit stiff.