Legit Reviews

AMD FX-8150 Black Editon CPU Water Cooler Review

When AMD launched the Zambezi-FX processors this week based off 'Bulldozer' core architecture the realized that these 8-core 32nm processors might need enhanced cooling. To solve this situation, AMD decided that with the FX Series CPU’s they would have an option for a retail boxed processor that includes a self contained water cooler rather than the typical air cooler. This is the first time AMD has ventured into offering a water cooling kit for the public and we have it on the test bench!

The AMD water cooling kit is very nicely made. AMD took an off the shelf cooler from Asetek that closely resembles the Antec Kuhler 920 water cooler. The changes AMD made, do make it better than the Antec H2O 920. The other changes made by AMD are mostly cosmetic branding changes and some software tweaks to the GUI and fan settings...

Article Title: AMD FX-8150 Black Edition CPU Water Cooler Review
Article URL: http://www.legitreviews.com/article/1743/1/

Hmmm not bad. I wonder what their pricepoint will be to get one of these standalone. If it is within $25 of the H100, I would probably still want the H100 for the quiet and better performance, but you have to give AMD credit for offering at least a midrange watercooling unit in the retail box to begin with. As always, thanks Bubba and LR for the lowdown!

As Shane stated in the review, they will not be selling these standalone. They will be an optional sku with the FX-8150 only!

Hm, I bought my A70 for $30 after MIR with free S/H. I see no reason why this water cooler or even the H100 would be worth 4x as much? These coolers just plain cost too much. A reasonable price for them would be @ max. $70 and not a penny more.

sbohdan wrote:Hm, I bought my A70 for $30 after MIR with free S/H. I see no reason why this water cooler or even the H100 would be worth 4x as much? These coolers just plain cost too much. A reasonable price for them would be @ max. $70 and not a penny more.

Agreed.

I wouldn't pick up their water cooler anyway. From what I could tell it only came with AMD AM3+ mounting hardware. At least with the H70/H100 (etc...) you have the hardware if you want to put the cooler in a different setup.

The A70 is a noisy cooler at full speed. The H100 and the AMD kit is dead silent. That's where that extra cost is makes it worth it. Granted you put them on high they will be just as loud, in amd case defining.

But at stock clock, or even with turbo on, the water coolers on low are silent and make the A70 sound like a hair drier. That is most important to me as my system is less than 4 feet from me in my bed. Loss of less of few degrees performance for silence.

There are other air coolers that are silent and could match temps, but the have prices close to match as well 80+

If you want a Cooler that can go between platforms then look at the H series or even the Kuhler series. But the amd kit will do AM2/3 sockets, same mounting hardware.

I just wanted to check... So if someone already has thier Motherboard installed...

Because this uses "The new mounting system is WAY stiffer and utilizes the stock backing plate."

Do you still have to take the motherboard out of the case put a mounting bracket in on the back of the motherboard.

I am avoiding these systems just because I think i am forced to take the motherboard out of the case.

Sounds like it has to come out of the case. Unless your case has the opening cut behind the CPU socket.

Welcome to the forums.

The backing plate does come loose from the board when you take the top side brackets off. So you will need access to the back of the board to hold the plate in place.

I did the install in the case, was easy but I have access to the back of the board.

hi i just built a new computer with this cpu on a ASUS Crosshair V motherboard and my fans seem to be jumping up and down by 100 rpm and also it seem like the pump is runnin at 3000 rpm to 3150 rpms constantly . was wondering if anybody knew of a way to make those rpms to run more consistently at a certain rpms and if i could adjust those rpms to any speed. i did install the driver and program that came with the cpu but doenst do the job right. so i installed the Antec software, Antec i believe made this pump for for amd process "just didnt add there name to product", and it seem to respond better. lol not sure why maybe a newer driver. but the rpms still jump up and down on fans and the pump is still running at 3000 rpm. not sure if this is normal or if im missing something lol

Antec just slaps orders the kits from Asetek and tweaks the software and the fans that come with the unit, so they basically just slap their name on the product and have no cooling engineers in the company.

Sounds like 100RPM fluciation is about right though and is nothing to be concerned with!

Nice to know that, but does the pump suppose to so high in rpms,

I'm pretty noob-er-rific when it comes to water cooling but the few setups I've had I run the pump at 100% all the time. Is the pump noise bothering you or are you just uncomfortable running it at that speed?

lol im a noob myself when it comes to water cooling. This is my first one and im so far pleased with it. Didnt know that its best to run them at 100% all times. just thought i could slow speeds down with certain temp settings. also she is very quiet, just the fans that make noise but thats still quiet compare to some fans iv installed on regular heat sinks, but there is another question maybe you or someone could answer. At the POST my computer gives me and cpu fan error even thou it works perfectly. my mother board is a Asus Crosshair Formula-z.

bubba wrote:The A70 is a noisy cooler at full speed. The H100 and the AMD kit is dead silent. That's where that extra cost is makes it worth it. Granted you put them on high they will be just as loud, in amd case defining.

But at stock clock, or even with turbo on, the water coolers on low are silent and make the A70 sound like a hair drier. That is most important to me as my system is less than 4 feet from me in my bed. Loss of less of few degrees performance for silence.

There are other air coolers that are silent and could match temps, but the have prices close to match as well 80+

If you want a Cooler that can go between platforms then look at the H series or even the Kuhler series. But the amd kit will do AM2/3 sockets, same mounting hardware.

Noisy? Maybe. I wouldn't know because I had 2 nice very quiet Enermax fans that I put it to good use with the A70
I did not use the fans that came with the cooler for 1 second. This is all you need to do (get a quiet fan) if you want silence

Well you can always change the fans for some low-noise dual ball bearing delta fans! (WFB series, i like them alot, they outperform corsair fans in every area)

By H100 you mean the H100i from what i remember the H100 sucked because it was bloody loud for a water cooler so corsair launched the H100i which now uses corsair SP fans

My motherboard is a Gigabyte and the CPU fan headers is a 4 pin header while the water cooler has a 3 pin header where do you plug the fan to that will drive both fans properly and control the speed through the software thats included?? I currently have it hooked to a 3 pin pwer connector but it appears to ne running at full speed all the time? Ant suggestions??

I usually put the pump on a fan header and set it in the BIOS to run at 100% with no power management. I then put the fans on the CPU fan header and let the motherboard automatically adjust the fan speeds based on the temperature of the processor. That is how my personal setup it done...

The official way to wire the cooler in this review is mentioned on page 3:

There are 3 wires coming from the pump housing. One is the unit’s power cable with a 3ping fan connector. The unit uses a single motherboard fan header to power the pump and fans. There is also a 12” USB cable for connecting to an internal USB header.

So, you plug the fan into the open header coming out of the pump and plug the 3-pin header into the CPU header onto the motherboard. You need to hookup the USB connector for the software to work.