The Alphacool NexXxoS Cool Answer 360 DDC/XT Liquid Cooling Kit Review
by E. Fylladitakis on October 24, 2016 9:30 AM ESTThe Alphacool Repack Reservoir
The Alphacool Repack is a reservoir designed to fit into a 5.25” external drive bay. This kit includes the DDC version of the reservoir that is designed to be joined with a Laing DDC pump. Although this particular version cannot be used with any other kind of pump, Alphacool offers several versions of this reservoir, including a simple version with compression fittings only.
The Repack is made almost entirely out of clear acrylic. The acrylic is very thick and inflexible, giving the reservoir exceptional overall mechanical strength. Alphacool installs a black metallic plate at the front of the reservoir with their logo, mainly serving as a level meter, but it can be removed if the user wishes. A metallic support plate at the rear of the reservoir is used as a support for the pump.
Two round openings for the pump’s headers and two threaded openings for compression fittings can be seen at the rear of the Repack. Note that the reservoir has internal pathways that separate the incoming and outgoing flows. The left of the compression fittings leads directly to the output of the pump, while the right fitting is for the incoming flow that leads the liquid into the reservoir. Unfortunately, there is no decoupling method for the pump, as it gets attached directly onto the metallic support plate. This transfers all of the vibrations of the pump to the reservoir and, in extension, to the case. Depending on the materials and the quality of the case, this can increase the overall noise output of the system.
The Laing DDC-1T pump
The Laing DDC-1T pump is not of Alphacool’s design. Rather the pump is a product of Goulds Water Technology, a Xylem brand, a company that specializes on commercial and industrial pumps. So that the pump could be used inside a PC, Alphacool merely attached a Molex power connector and a 3-pin tachometer sensor.
Although it looks like a very simple plastic apparatus, the DDC-1T is actually one of the best low-voltage DC pumps currently available. It utilizes a hemispherical motor that does not require shaft bearings and/or seals, significantly improving reliability and minimizing noise. The DDC-1T is also very powerful for a 10W device of this size with, according to Alphacool, a maximum discharge head of 3.7 meters and a maximum flow of 420 l/h. Goulds Water Technology states 4.5 m head and 410 l/h respectively in their specifications sheet.
The only downside of the DDC-1T is the narrow voltage operating range. This particular model can only operate with a voltage of 8V to 13.8V (12V maximum for a typical PC) and has a starting voltage of at least 9V, severely limiting its speed control capabilities. This is why Alphacool offers it with a Molex power connector; although your motherboard’s header should not have an issue powering the 10W pump, the company does not expect users to try and speed control it, as it can easily stall and stop if the supplied voltage drops under 8V, or not even start under certain situations.
Alphacool HF Brass Compression Fittings
Although the selection of proper fittings may seem like a mundane task, there are at least a few things that serious water cooling users need to be aware of. The first is the material of the fitting, as certain metals can cause serious corrosion even when using highly anti-corrosive liquid mixtures, and the second is the coloring (if present), as colors will fade very rapidly on certain materials like copper and brass.
Things get a little more complicated with compression fittings. Unlike simple barbed fittings, the compression fittings are made for tubing with a specific internal and outer diameter (ID and OD respectively). They are more convenient as this allow the user to tighten them by hand and offer more room for aesthetic interventions, but their nature requires precise machining with minimal tolerances. A poor quality compression fitting can easily become the source of leaks.
Alphacool’s HF fittings are made of brass and specifically for 13/10 mm OD/ID tubing. They are painted back with a chromating method that binds the color to the brass, preventing fading. The locking rings have a textured design for better grip. At nearly 6€ per piece, these are rather expensive, but the quality assurance is probably worth the high cost in a system that a poor quality item can cause catastrophic failures.
Alphacool Coolmove 2 Fans
Alphacool also supplies three 120 mm fans with this kit. The fans have black glossy frames and semitransparent blue blades. The blades are not flat but have jagged edges and hemispherical engravings, giving it a golf ball appearance. Their cables are sleeved using typical nylon black sleeving.
The company has rebranded the fans, hiding the OEM from the public. According to their specifications, these fans has a maximum speed of 1300 RPM and Hydro-Dynamic Bearings. It seems strange that the company decided to include a nine-blade design in a kit with a radiator this thick; fans with fewer and wider blades would have better pressure and could achieve better performance, especially at lower RPM. Alphacool however states that the XT45 is optimized for low/medium speed fans, which explains their choice.
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JoeyJoJo123 - Tuesday, October 25, 2016 - link
>The home user's typical workloads don't benefit from overclockingTypical home users aren't spending at least a thousand dollars on a custom built PC, and investing in the enthusiast platform (x99) as opposed to the standard desktop platform (H170).
>the increase in performance is marginal and not worth the effort.
My 6600k went from 3.5GHz to 4.6GHz after an overclock and minor overvoltage to ensure system stability. I don't think that's at all marginal. Additionally, many boards are coming with EZ Overclock modes if you invest in a K-series CPU + Z170 chipset motherboard. You go into the BIOS and select their preset. I started with Gigabyte's G5 Gaming's 6600k @ 4.4GHz preset and changed the multiplier from 44 to 46 and the core voltage up by +50mV. ASUS boards have a dynamic overclock function that goes through a series of reboots to find your processor's best overclock, which can change from chip to chip. It's nowhere near as hard as you make it out to be and a 31% increase in peak performance for the same money spent isn't as inconsequential as you make it out to be.
>Sure there's showboating to friends and emotional self-gratification, but those aren't tangible rewards.
Rewards such as going from 90 FPS min, and 130 FPS average in a game on a 144hz Freesync monitor to a 110 FPS min and 155 FPS average is an actual tangible benefit to me. In fact, that's indicative of the extra performance I got, without having to lower a single graphical setting to achieve.
>in my opinion, it's wasteful, childish, and silly.
In my opinion, it's wasteful, childish, and silly to try to force your opinion that overclocking is against your religion on an internet site full of enthusiast PC users. You're not an enthusiast PC user that likes to overclock? Fine by me. I don't go around saying that people should always buy overclockable K-series CPUs rather than settling on a basic i5 or i3, as everyone has different use-cases. But I certainly don't really care to hear from morons who say my real world gains from overclocking a $200 processor are wasteful, childish, or silly.
Just FYI, that's the pay I get from a half-day of work. Why the hell do you care if I overclock some sand made into circuits? Why do you think you have any say in how other people spend their money?
BrokenCrayons - Tuesday, October 25, 2016 - link
<...aren't spending at least a thousand dollars...>Typical home users really do drop over 1K on their computers. It's a lot more common than you might think. I'm surprised you'd open this post with a claim about costs and then make a counter-point using a diametrically opposed perspective at the end of it.
<...went from 3.5GHz to 4.6GHz...>
The numeric value of the overclock isn't the focal point of that argument. There are a lot of other factors that contribute to a computer's capabilities. Your word processor and e-mail fetching won't dramatically change due to your efforts. Games, though entertainment and not particularly important, won't see benefits either even with very high end graphics cards as AT's recent benchmarks analyzing CPU performance have previously proven. So yes, I still feel it's not consequential and certainly not worth the effort.
<...going from 90 FPS min, and 130 FPS...>
I highly doubt there's a situation in which a framerate increase of the numbers you're expressing reasonably results solely from overclocking a CPU in the scenario you're describing.
<...don't really care to hear from morons who say...>
I'm not forcing my opinion on anyone. No one is being chained to their chair and made to read, think about, or respond to my comments. If my comments encourage the occasional person to think about computing and put it into a different perspective, then I'm happy to have done so. If that requires they go through a little discomfort during that self-analysis wherein they redirect their anguish at me in the form of name-calling, then so be it. However, that portion of your post does support my comment about how childish these sorts of things become and the sorts of people attracted to such ideas. I imagine you weren't setting out to support that portion of my argument, but I'd be remiss were I not to point it out.
<...the pay I get from a half-day of work...>
Cleverly using a response to hint at your personal wealth. Hmm...interesting.
kn00tcn - Wednesday, October 26, 2016 - link
you highly doubt there's an fps situation!? what's your problem, crysis1 for example is known to top out around 80fps on all modern gfx cards due to cpu limits that only a cpu overclock can increaseall game benchmarks that have an amd cpu against an intel cpu clearly show a drop in fps (if not average then it's the minimum) on the same gfx card
all the people talking of 60hz or 'a 1070 is overkill for 1080p' completely ignore 120+
all the singlethreaded software alone is being gimped on the more expensive platforms since those cpus are lower blocked than the regular consumer ones, so overclocking is the only way to have more cores AND stay at 4ghz
fanofanand - Tuesday, October 25, 2016 - link
Other than the minor insults and bragging about your income, this was an excellent rebuttal. I would like to see more of this type of debate/discussion. :)kn00tcn - Wednesday, October 26, 2016 - link
winningalso one key thing about E series, they are usually clocked much lower, meaning single thread performance drops, affecting tons of use cases
Death666Angel - Tuesday, October 25, 2016 - link
"but in my opinion, it's wasteful, childish, and silly."And there you lost all credibility in this discussion.
BrokenCrayons - Tuesday, October 25, 2016 - link
<And there you lost all credibility in this discussion.>Why would anyone worry about establishing credibility in a comments section under an article about a computer water cooling system? Of all the things in life there are to worry about, that seems pretty insignificant. It's a bit like worrying about what your friends think of the color of crayon you used on the birthday card you made for your parent in elementary school art class. :)
Andrew LB - Wednesday, February 8, 2017 - link
I have a roughly 30% overclock on my graphics card that is water cooled and it results in an FPS gain from 35-40 to a nice solid 60fps locked. Interesting how the moment someone makes a point which refutes your claims, out comes the condescending attitude and insults. The sign of someone who lost the argument.Samus - Monday, October 24, 2016 - link
Using a dielectric liquid helps mitigate risk of a leak, as does occasional maintenance. Just like a car, and speaking from experience, a liquid cooler leak is generally slow and can be caught before damage is done. The only time I've had a leak was after getting back from a LAN party where my case was being transported and the next morning I noticed my carpet was wet (the system had been on all night)One of the fittings was just a little lose and needed to be tightened. I lost about 60ml of coolant and it trickled over my videocard and motherboard to the bottom of my case. Since I use an inert coolant and wetter water as a deox no damage was done.
Achaios - Tuesday, October 25, 2016 - link
Ι agree with BrokenCrayons. Not to mention that squeezing more performance out of CPU's above a certain point easily achievable by Air Coolers is meaningless after 2011 and the introduction of the i5-2500k.Only component worth of liquid cooling is the GPU IMO.