Antec has been a maker of PC cases and power supplies for years. Now Antec has stepped into the world of CPU coolers, both air and water. Today we look at the first self-contained water cooling kit, the Kuhler H2O 620. Join us as we put the Kuhler H2O 620 through the paces on our Intel Core i7 test system and see how it performs.
All in one kits are becoming more and more popular as some users want the benefit of water but either don’t want to build a custom loop or have the fear they may assemble it wrong and it leaks all over their system. The self contained all in one kits like the Kuhler H2O 620 are simple to install, maintenance free, and cost much less than its custom counterpart. The Kuhler H2O 620 costs close to the same as most high-end CPU water blocks, but not much more than the middle of the road blocks.
Great review Shane! I think Antec made a great choice to implement the fan in an exhaust config.
I have a question though. Why didn't you use an 1155 board? I'm planning to buy an 1155 board & might buy this cooler, ud4/ws revolution to be exact but I'm worried about the backplate interfering w/ the board's protruding ends of the capacitors at the back of the board. Or is there a reasonable enough space for the backplate of the cooler to not touch the protruding ends?
If the cooler is still in your possession, & you have a 1155 board sitting around, could you please have a look.
Don't have an 1155 board, only 1156 board I have is in the PC I have set up for my kids.
As for switching the test bench from 1366 to 1155 ??? dunno, I don't make the call on that one.
Looking at some images on of the Asus WS Revolution and the Gigabyte UD4 that I can find I don't see any reason why the back plate wouldn't work. The backing plate is raised up just a tad to get over the socket backing plate on the board. If the component ends are above that then there is going to be other issues besides the backing plate not clearing.
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"The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not."
-Thomas Jefferson
Thanks for the reply bubba! . Anyway, that's the picture I want to see & seem not to find. I can see that it's a bit raised from the mobo.
I think this is the cooler I'll buy rather than the corsair H60 as I think if the fan is setup as an exhaust & adding an additional high PWM CFM fan will be a better performer than the H60 for my Raven02 case!
All in one kits are becoming more and more popular as some users want the benefit of water but either don’t want to build a custom loop or have the fear they may assemble it wrong and it leaks all over their system.
I had a CoolIt Domino... which leaked all over my system! The hoses that Antec is using here look to be a major upgrade so hopefully that will prevent what happened to me from happening to others. Keep in mind that the warranty on these coolers don't cover any items that may have been damaged by leaks.
Deep in the human unconscious is a pervasive need for a logical universe that makes sense. But the real universe is always one step beyond logic.
It's not that shane doesn't have an 1155 board, we got dozens of them here at LR... It's the time it would take to re-do all the benchmarking on all the other heatsinks in order to get the charts where we want them. Unlike some sites that compare 1-2 products to what is being reviewed we try to include more than that. ;)
We'll be moving over to a Socket R or LGA2011 platform later this year as X58 will soon be replaced. I think we'll keep the CPU cooler reviews on high-end platforms as they do produce more heat and those consumers are likely to upgrade their system.
Sowser wrote:.... Keep in mind that the warranty on these coolers don't cover any items that may have been damaged by leaks.
True, but that's with any water, custom or kit. CoolIT has gotten better on the build quality since the Domino, think they learned a bit with that one.
"The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not."
-Thomas Jefferson
. Anyway, that's the picture I want to see & seem not to find. I can see that it's a bit raised from the mobo.
