EK H30 360 HFX Watercooling Kit Review

Testing
The EK H30 360 Watercooling Kit is installed with the following system:

Motherboard: ASRock Z77 OC Formula
Processor: Intel Core i5 3570k
Memory: Samsung Green 30nm
Storage: Plextor 128GB M3
Graphics: inno3d iChiLL GTX 680
Power: Corsair AX1200i
Cooling:
– EK Supremacy Copper/Plexi
– EK DCP 4.0
– EK Multioption Advanced 150 Reservoir
– EK HFX 360 Raditator
– 3/8″ ID tubing
– EK Compression Fittings

Testing will be conducted in the following environments:

Torture:
– Intel Burn Test
– Prime95
Gaming: Battlefield 3

RealTemp will be used to monitor all temperatures.  Idle temperature measurements are irrelevant. People overclock using different methods, with and without SpeedStep.

All four cores will be measured individually.

For gaming testing, we will reset RealTemp when the game launches and record maximum temperature once our test run concludes.

Tests are conducted at stock and then at our maximum overclock of 4.7Ghz

First up on our tests is Intel Burn Test. Using Linpack, it is one of the most severe stress testing tools available. It will generate an obscene amount of heat and therefore is good for testing cooling systems. It’s the processor equivalent to waterboarding; we take the risk, so you don’t have to! I set the stress level to Standard and to 10 passes.

ibt

Next up on our testing is Prime 95’s Small FFT. Prime 95 is not a great way to test stability unless you’re running for over 8 hours, however for a temperature test a shorter duration is more than sufficient. We ran Prime95 for 10 minutes on the Small FFT setting. This won’t generate as much heat as Intel Burn Test will, however it does give a closer indication of real-world usage.

prime

Finally, for some real-world testing, I played some BF3. I know, work is so hard! I ran the same mission three times and reset RealTemp before each run. As one of the more popular games available at the moment, BF3 is a good test of real-world performance.

bf3

I suppose I should add a note here:

Ivy Bridge is HOT. I’m not going to speculate in this review, but, it’s obscenely hot. Some people have managed to reduce these temperatures by 20-30C by removing the IHS from their chips and applying high-quality thermal paste as opposed to Intel’s stock option, which seems rather poor. I am able to delid my 3570k and reduce these temperatures; but the average user cannot. Therefore, to keep this review “real-world” and based on the average user, I have not removed the IHS from my chip.

My CPU is NOT a good chip – every chip differs and mine is “middle of the road” in terms of how well it responds to voltages. I have seen many overclocks with lower voltages than mine, yet at higher clocks. I assure you, I know how to overclock effectively.

With this in mind, please view our maximum overclock of 4700Mhz instead as maximum voltage of 1.368v. Yes, Mhz comes into play, but voltage is the real heat culprit where Ivy Bridge is concerned. Please also keep in mind that previous cooler reviews on this system have not been able to pass 4.5Ghz safely due to heat. I gained 200Mhz from using this kit. Don’t overlook it.