Triple radiators roundup

[HESmelaugh]

Triple-Radiator roundup

Aquatuning Germany, the sponsor for this review, graced me with quite a selection of triple-radiators that I got to test.

First, here's an overview of all the radiators I tested:

- Black Ice GT Stealth
- Black Ice GTX
- Magicool Slim Triple
- Magicool Slim Elegant
- Magicool Xtreme Triple
- Swiftech MCR320
- Thermochill PA120.3
- Watercool HTSF 360
- XSPC RX360

And here's a small gallery of all of these rads:



[/url]


Testing method

There are two main components to how I tested these radiators:

1. Heaters





The images above show the heart of my test loop. It consists of a MCP355 with an EK X-Res top, two 300W heaters and four thermal probes in the water. There are also three thermal probes measuring ambient temperature.

2. Fans
I tested several fan speeds ranging from 400rpm to 2000rpm. I used Scythe Slip Stream 500s for the low fan speeds, Nanoxias for medium fan speeds and Yate Loons for high fan speeds.

EDIT: More specifically:
Scythe Slip Stream 500 for 400rpm
Nanoxia FX-1250 for 800 and 1200rpm
Yate Loon D12SL-12H for 1600 and 2000rpm

Each test run lasts for 35 minutes and all of the temps from the last ten minutes of a run are averaged out to recieve the relevant data. A test run means the time from activating one or both of the heaters till I switch them off again. Here are the measured wattages of my heaters:
Heater #1: 289.9W
Heater #2: 283.2W

The loads seem to be very consistent.
This means that the actual heatload for my "300W" load was 289.9W and the actual load for my "600W" load was 573.1W.


Results

All the results are shown as the measured temperature difference between water- and ambient temperatures. The lower this difference, the more heat the radiator is dissipating.

289.9W:


573.1W:


As you can see, this type of graph is too chaotic with so many rads, so here is the same data in the form of bar-graphs:

289.9W:


The 400rpm runs couldn't be completed with either one of the Black Ice radiators since I had to shut the heaters off when the water temps went above 52° C. The tubes seem close to melting-point at this temperature and the pump isn't happy either.


573.1W:


With this heat load, none of the runs could be done at 400rpm so I completely omitted those. Again, the Black Ice Radiators simply can't handle this heat load with slow fans, in this case at 800rpm.


Flowrates:



Note: I've been told that the HTSF shouldn't be this restrictive so it will be cleaned and retested later on.


Quick conclusion

I really want to encourage everyone to have a close look at the data and make their own conclusions. Here are some of my thoughts:
The biggest surprise for me was the stellar performance of the Magicool Elegant radiator at low fan speeds. The radiator is half as thick as a Thermochill, RX or GTX but beats these rads hands down at 400rpm. For silent computing, this is one hell of a radiator!

To me, the XSPC RX is the best thick, highend radiator for low to medium fan speeds or any fan speeds for that matter. For more detail on this, see my separate review of the RX.

I was very disappointed with the HWLabs radiators. I really like the Black Ice style and finish, the radiators are gorgeous and solidly manufactured. So I wanted these rads to do well, but they simply didn't. It's clear that they are geared towards high-rpm-fans but even with those, they don't perform especially well. Even at 2000rpm, the Thermochill delivers equal temperatures as the GTX. And at every other fan speed, the Thermochill and other radiators clearly perform better than the Black Ice rads. More importantly, even at the high heat load and 2000rpm, the GTX beats the much cheaper MCR320 by only 1°.
So, while it's possible that the HWLabs radiators start outperforming the competition at even higher rpms than I tested, I don't see the point in them. Even if you aren't into silent computing, you shouldn't risk your hearing to get optimal temps.

Hope you enjoyed this review.

Cheers,
Shane

[faster3200]

Great review! What are those heaters? That is a pretty cool idea.

I bet if you used some 3000rpm Ultra Kaze or Deltas you would begin to see the GTX really shine, but no one runs that 24/7 so...
The Magicool Elegant results are pretty shocking. I really didn't expect that. How much do they cost?
Your results seem to confirm others but with some other rads we haven't seen before. Good job!

[Hondacity]

yeah what are those heaters?

i have more than 6 sets of fans to use on my 3 different rads

[HESmelaugh]

The heaters are "JEBO Model HT-600" designed for aquarium heating. They are meant to automatically keep the water at a target temperature but I just had to disconnect the thermal probe inside the heater to make em run full load non-stop.

I got them from eBay.

[dreamaxx]

Damn, I wish you had included the Feser 360.

[halo112358]

That magicool radiator is certainly interesting. I'd easily buy two of them and make a sandwich if they only had designed them like fullcover vga blocks with ports on both sides of the reservoir.

[HESmelaugh]

Can't get a Feser, unfortunately. Although it's certainly very close to the performance of the RX and the Thermochill.

Anyway, someone asked for the prices. All I can give you is this price comparison in Euros, as listed on Aquatuning:



I really have no clue what the prices are like in the states. As you can see, though, the Magicool Elegant rad isn't terribly expensive compared to the others.

[sgayol]

Great review, thanks! A couple of nit-picky things

Labeling the pics would be nice. I've never seen a magicool rad, so I'm not sure which one is which.
Which fans were used at which speed? You detailed low, medium and high, but you did tests at 5 fan speeds so I'm not sure which fan did which speed...

That's all. Again, great job! This is great info... Makes me all the more happy I was able to pick up an RX360 for cheap!

[HESmelaugh]

Yeah, I was too lazy to lable the pics, I have to admit. Though if you know the Black Ice Rads you could have deduced that the order the pics are in is the same as the order the radiators are listed in.

Fan speeds:
Scythe Slip Stream 500 for 400rpm
Nanoxia FX-1250 for 800 and 1200rpm
Yate Loon D12SL-12H for 1600 and 2000rpm

I'll edit this info in to the original post, since I really should have specified this to begin with. Thanks for your input.

[sgayol]

Yeah, I was too lazy to lable the pics, I have to admit. Though if you know the Black Ice Rads you could have deduced that the order the pics are in is the same as the order the radiators are listed in.

I thought that was the case, but then the last two are switched

Thanks for the info

[Mech0z]

Nice review, but I would really like to see some flow measureing, not sure if you have the gear for it. But if the magicool is much more restrictive, then that kinda takes some of the cake topping of these results

[sgayol]

Does anyone have info about the end tanks on the magicool elegant? Plastic, acrylic, polycarb?

[Hondacity]

thanks for the heater information...i wonder now how my panaflos work on my

gtx360
gtx480
mcr320

i just hope those heaters are available...anyways much appreciation for the testing

[HESmelaugh]

I thought that was the case, but then the last two are switched

Thanks for the info

Damn! *Facepalm*
Corrected it.

Nice review, but I would really like to see some flow measureing, not sure if you have the gear for it. But if the magicool is much more restrictive, then that kinda takes some of the cake topping of these results

Oh yes, forgot about the flow results. Though I thought you guys weren't so keen on those anyway. I only have flowrates no pressure-drop.

Can someone tell me the proper conversion from l/h (litres per hour) to GPM? I'll add a new diagram then.

[rocket733]

From Google:
1 (liter / hour) = 0.00440286754 US gallons per minute

Thanks for the review, plenty of interesting data.

[Devil_Dog]

Does anyone have info about the end tanks on the magicool elegant? Plastic, acrylic, polycarb?

Product Details:
This is a new generation of radiators with built in reservoir! Upper and bottom chamber comprise of fine processed poly carbonate, which guaranteed a incredible good look in the inside of the radiator.

Additional, for a better cooling performance, the radiator will be electroplated complete.

Specifications:

Dimension (LxWxH): 181x 130x 35mm
Hose Connector: G1/4", (optional G3/8"and G1/2)
Weight: 420g
Material: Copper fins, complete electroplated ,
water-chamber of poly carbonate

Mounting: M3 thread

[sirheck]

Nice review.
I switched out my higher rpm fans (3 for my pa120.3) for 3 scythe fans all
800rpm for silence. My avg idle temps went from 30c to around 40c
a good 10c difference.
But i like the silence better

I will probably switch them for some higher rpm ones (maybe 1000 or 1200)
rpm fans later.

[Scubar]

Great results. Glad i will be going with the XSPC RX360, should really get rid of the unused PA120.2 i have sitting around.

[Mech0z]

Btw these magicool do they come pre cleaned? Because thats a real turnoff for me when considering PA120.3

[halo112358]

Btw these magicool do they come pre cleaned? Because thats a real turnoff for me when considering PA120.3

Is such a big issue any more? When I bought my PA120.3 a couple of years ago it was nasty inside (brand new) but the PA120.2 I bought a couple of weeks ago was pretty clean, a quick 2/3rds fill & shake with boiling water cleaned it up perfectly - no need to screw around with vinegar or other crap.

[Eddie3dfx]

Love this test. Black Ice GT is one of the thinnest radiators and look, at 2000rpm, a typical fan, you get better performance than the radiators 3x as expensive.

[NysoO]

Very nice review, interesting that you can see different numbers from review to review. Gives you a bit of perspective. Though I think the performance of the rads can vary quite a lot, depending of which types of fans that you use. The perfect review would of course include seperate tests for a lot of individual fans. I know, in the real world this would be a pain in the ass to carry out. But it sure would make it easier to choose rads according and depending on what you're looking for.

[Sadasius]

God I would never use Yates on a GTX. San Aces in push/pull or Delta's in push/pull. Thanks for the testing but I feel this was really for low end. Good rad's but cheap fans. Fans make up half the equation on heat dissipation. San Ace's have really good pressure and if you run them at 2000 rpm they are tolerable and in a push/pull configuration will put the boots to a Thermochill with the same fans. Was surprised on the low scale with Magicool however. Good rad for those here that have the hearing of dogs and can pick up a pin dropping half a block away.

[HESmelaugh]

Okay, here are the flowrates:



Note: I've been told that the HTSF shouldn't be this restrictive so I will retest it later on.

I'll add the above graph to the first post.

[theseeker]

Very interesting and thanks for the review!