Thermaltake Water 3.0 Closed Loop Cooler Roundup
by Dustin Sklavos on May 31, 2013 12:01 AM EST- Posted in
- Cases/Cooling/PSUs
- Thermaltake
- Water Cooling
Conclusions: Narrowing Down the Competition
Going through testing, it became increasingly clear to me what the Thermaltake Water 3.0 kits were, how to evaluate them, and ultimately which ones to recommend. We're dealing with fairly bone stock Asetek coolers, and that's not necessarily a bad thing. I've had a decent enough amount of experience with Asetek's closed loop coolers in the past that I'm not unhappy to see them, and the Arctic Cooling Accelero Hybrid even uses the thinner 120mm cooler to cool the GPU. It works admirably.
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The entry-level Thermaltake Water 3.0 Performer and its thicker sibling the Water 3.0 Pro both force me to come to one unfortunately inescapable conclusion: the fans Thermaltake is using aren't very good. Put two of them in a row and suddenly there are vibration issues, harmonic issues, and even a little bit of buzzing. These fans desperately need the control the Water 3.0 Extreme offers. That the MSRP Thermaltake is asking for these two is higher than the competition and it's pretty clear to me most users would benefit from skipping them.
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The Water 3.0 Extreme turns out to be the good egg in this bunch. While I remain unimpressed by the fans included, it's able to offer a more balanced performance and I can more easily conceive of a situation in which I would recommend it. If you can't afford the Swiftech H220, and you don't have space for the NZXT Kraken X60, the Water 3.0 Extreme will be the next best thing. The fan control software will give you fine-grained control of both thermals and acoustics and perhaps most importantly keeps the questionable 120mm fans from going off the rails.
While I still remain fairly bullish on closed loop coolers, there are increasingly only isolated cases in which I would recommend going with a 140mm or smaller radiator. If that's the scale you're operating at, you'll do just as well with Noctua's NH-U14S air cooler. If you do decide to go big, the Water 3.0 Extreme offers a decent enough performance profile but long term I'd probably consider replacing the fans, which could bring it within striking distance of the superior Swiftech H220. The NZXT Kraken X60 (or alternatively the Corsair H110) may prove to be the most ideal, but if you're on a budget and have the space to mount it, the Water 3.0 Extreme is the way to go.
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Wixman666 - Friday, May 31, 2013 - link
FIRST! OMG!kyuu - Friday, May 31, 2013 - link
Do you feel like your existence has somehow been validated by this tremendous feat?Jorgisven - Friday, May 31, 2013 - link
Please don't validate him with a response. Meanwhile, I'm wondering on product availability. Anyone able to find this or a release date?nocturna351 - Wednesday, April 16, 2014 - link
SECOND! OMG!cindywu - Friday, May 31, 2013 - link
the h80/100 pumps flow .5gpmlooks like i'll start a custom loop using my h100 as base and slowly work my way up to replacing everything. thanks for doing the research and work finding flow rates and how well the smaller pump supplies a real 240 rad.
my plans: buy a rez, next a real rad, then get the block n pump. it'll take longer and cost more than going custom straight off but i'll still have a modded h100 when im done.
again, thanks for the work. http://goo.gl/9tsYx
flyingpants1 - Friday, May 31, 2013 - link
Why?nilfisktun - Friday, May 31, 2013 - link
Im very happy with my H100i, but i replaced the fans with 2x noctua 120mm pwn fans, and it helped alot. MUCH lower noise, and my idle and load temp dropped 3-4 C´s ontop of that.Ofc it adds some expense, but i couldnt live with the noisy crap fans Corsair sold with the H100i.
pintycar - Friday, May 31, 2013 - link
Second paragraph, first line read: you're dealing with a traditional 120mm radiator in the Water 3.0 Pro, you get a double-thick 120mm radiator with the Water 3.0 Pro, and then you go back to standard thickness and double-length with the 240mm radiator in the Water 3.0 Extremewhen it should read:
you're dealing with a traditional 120mm radiator in the Water 3.0 Performer, you get a double-thick 120mm radiator with the Water 3.0 Pro, and then you go back to standard thickness and double-length with the 240mm radiator in the Water 3.0 Extreme
rms - Friday, May 31, 2013 - link
The H220 looks better with every review, no wonder it's often oosEJ257 - Friday, May 31, 2013 - link
Has anyone try to mod one of these to use a huge (like 55 gal. drum) tank of water instead of a radiator and fan? I'm not saying it's practical but it would be cool to see it done. That would be a huge heatsink.