Overview
After we wrestle the cooler from the plastic sleeve (two separate bags next time please) and take the parts bags out of the larger bag we find a large but simple cooler, six part bags, a tube of thermal paste, and of course the manual.
One step further and we’re looking at all the materials needed for an install in all modern AMD and Intel sockets. There are also a couple of additional pieces of literature for the block installation.
Typically we would be looking closely at the fans here, but since the fans, pump, reservoir, and radiator are all enclosed in one large, sleek enclosure we’ll just move right to the cooler.
It really can’t be overstated how large this cooler is. Not only is a nice 30mm thick NexXxos 280 ST30 radiator it’s also a pair of 140mm bequiet! fans and reservoir spacing. The result is a 64mm install depth and 385mm length. Every square mm is of this cooler is doing something wonderful, but you really need to measure your case carefully before committing to this cooler. It has a larger footprint than even your typical 420mm rad.
This cooler is all business and it’s evident in the design and parts choices. At what we would call the most business end of the enclosure you’ll find the pump and reservoir. This means you also find the Inlet/Outlet ports as well as the exit for the electrical connections. The Ports are covered in sleek plastic covers while the power port has a nice thick rubber grommet.
Opposite you’ll find the fill port. Should you find you need to add or change the fluid Alphacool has you covered. We also see the back side of the bequiet! Silent Wings 3 fans here. If you aren’t familiar with bequiet!, it’s a German based company that really specializes in silent high performance cooling. The Silent Wings 3 fans are some of the best low noise high performance fans on the market. These 14mm fans tuned by Alphacool claim only 15.5dBA at 1000rpm. At that speed they push 59.5cfm of air but only create 1.08mm H2O of pressure. This static pressure is pretty low but something tells me Alphacool will have considered that and compensated for it.
In the side view of the cooler you can see it really does take up that full 64mm of mounting depth. It’s about the same as a radiator mounted with dual sided fans but you are required to mount this package all on the same side of the top or front panel.
Over the radiator space, the aluminum enclosure has a really cool hexagonal honeycomb design that should both protect the fins while also providing plenty of airflow. Although it’s a bit harder to make out due the honeycomb design, the radiator has a fin per inch count of 18. Coupled with the 30mm thick radiator this should be plenty and perfect for steady slow airflow.
For power the VP755 pump requires a molex plug directly from your power supply. A 4 pin header for both fans and the pump which also has a speed control and sensor wire meant to be plugged into the CPU_FAN header on your motherboard.
The enclosure is made of thick aluminum all around but also has plastic side covers to allow for the curved shape and windows. As mentioned, everything is in great shape save for those plastic pieces. It seems that at one point or another the enclosure was slid on the plastic side causing some light scuffing on our samples. This is evident on both the black sides and the small reservoir windows. It’s really unfortunate and we can only hope that a little more care is taken with this in the future.
The Eisbaer Extreme is a pretty serious piece of cooling equipment. The 280mm rad and VPP755 pump are plenty for a single CPU block and then some. With that in mind Alphacool has designed it as an expandable system allowing you to include all parts of your system in this loop. To help with this the unit is equipped with a pair of Alphacool quick disconnects. Offering nearly zero water loss when disconnected they make expanding your loop easier than ever. Alphacool offers QDC equipped blocks and radiators to round out your loop.
Semi matte tubing connects the enclosure to the CPU block. Measuring 465mm long with diameters of 11mm outer/8mm inner, this tubing is plenty long enough to reach your CPU from most installation positions. That length does include the installed QDCs. Both ends are threaded as G1/4 ports allowing you to really customize this unit if you choose.
Of course everything else we mentioned is fairly useless if there isn’t a good transfer of heat from the CPU into the loop. For this Alphacool leans on it’s fantastic Eisblock XPX CPU block. This is an off the shelf block and always performs up to the highest industry standards. This is the Black Edition of the Eisbaer Extreme which means we have a black top made of acetal and aluminum. Embedded in the pump top is a blue led Alphacool logo. The business end of the block is a nickel plated copper base which unfortunately had three pit marks and not so smooth machine lines. It’s about a C grade finish. The block does have that LED so there is a single wire protruding from the top side with a 3 pin connector.
Placed side by side with a 30mm thick Swiftech MCR320-QP-K you can see just how impressive the Eisbaer Extreme is. It’s also very clear that you do need a good bit of real estate to handle this guy.
