Informal test results CPU 350 vs Apogee GTZ

[ranker]

Don't say that...we don't want my wife to read your post and try to invade the room I have. My bench/lab is a 10'x14' room in my basement which is temperature controlled on a different zone from the other rooms in the basement. I am installing countertops around the whole room to give me more sufarce area for test fixtures and concurrent tests. My area for taking photos spills over into the basement living room because the two light tents I have are larger than I can fit in the lab.

But seriously, don't say that, she might be looking over my shoulder. And don't tell her testing isn't expensive either, she'll want her paws on my stashed testing funds.



I understand you do not know me from a hill of beans, so I respect your right to withhold judgement on me as a tester, my test reports and any biases you feel I might bring to the table. This might be a wasted attempt, but I will say it none the less...I am completely independent from any vendor, manufacturer or organization. I do not have any sponsorships or hidden agenda. What I am looking to accomplish in testing is to give back more than what I have received from the community and other testers like Martin. I am a firm beleiver in Karma, and this is my way of keeping things right.

If I have or show any sort of bias towards one particular company, my credibility as a tester and valued source of information is over. All of that hard work, time and effort is lost because I chose to have a bias in my testing. That is not to say I don't make predictions before I sit down for a test run, that is part of science in forming a hypothesis. A ritual in my testing is going back over the captured data and analyzing why my hypothesis was correct or incorrect. The biggest thing for me is learning, I always want to be learning something or I get bored.

I fully document my test equipment and methodology, I have nothing to hide or reason to withhold information. If there is ever a piece of data people want to see, I will gladly present that information. If community members want additional tests run, I do everything I can to facilitate those tests. I leaned heavily on Martin as I was dipping my toes into the test pool, and he kindly mentored me, answered goof ball questions and provided me with some critical tools to be able to test properly. If I test with a bias or favortism to a certain company, I throw away all of his time, effort and earned respect and more importantly lose the respect of the LC community.

I rambling here...but I would be glad to continue this conversation if needed.

I look forward to earning your respect and the respect of the Liquid Cooling community by my tests and my honesty.



Gabe and Stephans tests are professional lab grade tests. They have an environmental chamber, water chillers, the works. I am actually quite envious of the setup, and what they have for testing is what I am striving to have in my lab. Yes, I have rotameters, check valves, pumps, temperature sensors, large reservoirs and so on, but I can guarantee the test area used by Gabe and Stephan is first class, mine would be more like business class compared to first class. I do have most of the professional equipment, so coach didn't seem right. There is at least one community members here on XS who has been to my home several times and been in the lab while I was performing tests.

Reading some of the posts in this thread really made me worried that I am investing all of this time and fistfuls of money just for people of this community to ignore the test reports, time, learning and effort that goes into testing a particular piece of gear. I do see the independent tester and real world tests as a valuable and vital piece to the Liquid Cooling community, if I did not, I never would have taken on this endeavour.

The tests I and other community testers perform on the parts we purchase, vendor/manufacturer supplied and community member supplied samples are all fueled by what you the community wants tested and whats to see the performance results of, I would have never tested D5 tops had there not been the interest of the community.

I truly hope that the Liquid Cooling community still sees a place for and values indepedent testers. If there is anything we need more of, it would be more people testing and learning the right steps to take in performing tests with the equipment you have. With that comes the sharing of knowledge and information gained through the process. We are already doing this on a regular basis by recommending parts and debating products.

Sorry for getting a bit long winded here, I tend to stay out of the heated discussion and just be a witness. I like to stand back and take in anything I can from the discussions rather than stick my two cents in the middle of them. However, I was reading so many mixed messages I felt I had to post for some clarification.

Ah I think you took my post the wrong way Skinnee. Basically, there are only a few testers whom I know well enough for me to faithfully believe their tests without much questioning. As you've described above, they've faithfully served the community for an extended period of time without rooting for one company/product or another. Every other person that shows a test, I'll take it with a grain of salt. I won't take it for the gospel truth but rather as a general indicator of what to expect in that situation.

Like I've noted in this thread, I've taken a 1.5 year sabbatical from WC'ing and probably haven't seen your work yet. Since stand up guys like McCoffey (I love you even though I vehemently disagree on the aesthetics issue =P ) /Sig/Naekuh have vouched for you, I see no reason to question your results. However, please understand it takes sometime before I consider you the 4th apostle to join the Books of Nikhsub1, Petra, and Martin. =)

I look forward to seeing your work and appreciate any tests you do for the community!

Swiftech's pump is uber powerful, think RD-30 or so. I am assuming with the flow rates Gabe posted that his pump was MAXED out. You do realize that to get 50% more flow you would need 2.5 RD-30's? Let me ask you, who will run that much pump? What purpose would that much flow serve? If anything feed the blocks about 50% LESS and see the results.

Now onto some meaningful commentary, I have 100% confidence in skinnee... I know he will do a great job, I do believe he will more than fill Martin's shoes. And ranker, thanks for the kind words.

NP. Like I said, without your tests a few years back, I can only fear the rampant fanboism that would have descended upon these forums without legitimate data to settle the dust. I could always trust you to call a spade a spade and not get caught up with marketing hype, aesthetics, and other unimportant distractions this community often faces.

If I didn't thank you before, I'll take the time now to thank you once again for all of your contributions to the community.

Anyhow, I hope everyone appreciates the testing that was done here. I think Gabe provided this information in the most tactful way possible. He ran his tests, outlined his methodology, and left the data for us to process. While I believe end users should often include a brief conclusion, I find it much more tactful when the manufacturers leave that part out to avoid the 'MY BLOCK KICKS YOUR BLOCKS ASS" flamebaiting.

[T_Flight]

All testing and data is what separates this forum from many others I have seen.

It's no joke. People here have fun with this stuff, but they are serious when it comes to what does what, and how it performs. We all know where we are at...that goes without saying. This place has a reputation for being one of the finest watercooling sites ont he planet and it's becasue of these people and their tests. These people have aquired some very expensive equipment, and have spent I don't even wanna think how much time doing these tests, then they have to compile all the data, make it into a formatted piece that we can all read, and post it.

I don't care who does the testing. I trust it unless I was given some reason not to. I take people at their word. The people here that do testing are doing it because they have earned that respect. ALL of them have that respect from me.

[Sadasius]

I think it is awesome that Gabe posted those results to lend a hand in testing. Not many companies will do that or will just show graphs pulled from their butt's (SilenX ). Any contribution is welcome and as we know we have testers who will validate that information anyway. Gabe has shown to be trustworthy and I personally appreciate the testing done. It's nice to have companies that get involved and listen to make products better and to release new ideas and innovations like the GTZ. Thanks Gabe!