[Bundymania User Review] Mora 2 / Mora 3 / Phobya Nova 1080 !

[bundymania]

Hey guys,

those of you interested in reading this roundup are probably a group of those people, that prefer their enviroment to be as silent as possible or are running a lot of up-to-date hardware that has to be cooled properly.
Normal radiators often reach their limit when cooling up-to-date hardware, especially in summer and that’s why people request bigger radiators. When the first “monster-radiators” for up to nine radiators got released, there was a lot of criticism because you couldn’t use all the performance, but it turned out that they become more and more popular. That’s why it’s no surprise that Watercool comes up with the new MO-RA 3 models, of which I want to present two of and test them against their predecessor MO-RA 2. Also competing we will find another popular radiator made by Phobya: the Nova 1080, which doesn’t have to hide when compared to the models by Watercool and can also be expanded with a lot of accessoires, but we’ll get to that later.


Let’s start with presenting the candidates:


UPDATE :

Phobya Xtreme SUPERNOVA 1260 Radiator




Phobya strikes back ! This brandnew Supernova Radiator climbs on top of the charts ! The little brother, Phobya 1080 brings a very good performance and has many fans around the world, but this one even beats the Big Mora 3 for 140mm fans !
The good thing is: You can mount 140mm or 200mm/220mm fans and both fangrills are included in the package ! There is a separate Rad Holder available, which gives this Monster a safe stand on your desk or on the floor.
Well, the performance is really impressive, because of the 6x G 1/4" Threads, even a 2- or 3 Loop Watercooling System is no problem for this big black thing !
The overall build quality is ok, but hey, Mora 3 Series looks and "feels" better at all, because of their stainless steel grill and german craftmanship.
But when you´re in the market for the BEST Radiator available when it comes to the performance, this Phobya Xtreme Supernova 1260 Radiator is the one for you !








Technical data:

Size: 460x420x46mm
Threads: 6x G 1/4"
Fins per centimeter: 5
Screw threads: M3
Weight: around 5000g
Price: 180 EUR


The Phobya Xtreme Supernova 1260 Radiator earns the GOLD AWARD for it´s awesome performance !









Watercool MO-RA 2 PRO







For those of you who didn’t know it already: MO-RA stands for “Monsterradiator” and this model was succeeded by the MO-RA 3 by now. Still I want this radiator to take part in this roundup, as a lot of units of it are around and there are probably a lot of people upgrading from this one who want to know the differences in performance to other radiators of this size.
The MO-RA2 is a radiator made out of tubes, which is, as far as I know, a kind of radiator building only used by Watercool and makes it a lot easier to get the air out of the system.

Size: 39 x 5,7 x 41.5 cm
Threads: 2x G 1/4"
Fins per centimeter: 6
Weight: ca. 5000 g
Fan size: 9x 120 mm
Pressure tested: 2 Bar
4x M4x8 mm allen screws
4x M4x20 mm spacers, steel
4x spacers
1x allen key


Price: around 120 € + fan grill around 30 €

> This radiator isn’t produced anymore! <





Phobya Xtreme NOVA 1080









Phobya continues their popular radiator series with this oversized Phobya Xtreme NOVA 1080. While their smaller models scored well in former reviews, this model doesn’t change that at all. When in factory setting, it can suck up up to nine 120mm fans with the fan grill it comes with. Other grills are also available at extra charge just like with the MO-RA3, offering mounts for 4x180mm or mounting fans on both side of the radiator. Furthermore, stands has also been made available. The user Cartago2202@HWluxx.de has also presented the 4x180mm grill before, I’ll also include a few of his pictures for illustration. But let’s get to the most important part of the Phobya Xtreme NOVA 1080: its performance. It doesn’t have to hide when tested against its competitors. The Nova 1080 performs as well as the MO-RA2 and isn’t too far behind the 120mm version of the newer MO-RA3. When it comes to build quality, you have to lower your sights when comparing, but when you look at the price, that’s around 35€ less than the cheapest MO-RA radiator, you can just ignore the slightly worse paint and the simple fan grill.
Overall, the buyer gets a product, that’s very suited for current high end systems with several graphics cards.

By the way: the radiator is now available in a new revision that comes with a black fan grill!







Technical data:

Size: 36 x 5 x 38.5 cm
Threads: 2x G 1/4"
Fins per centimeter: 5
Screw threads: M3
Weight: around 2745g
Price: around 90 EUR

+ fan grills for 180mm fans or additional 120mm fans

The user Cartago2202 has presented the grill for 180mm fans and the fitting radiator stands in the following link (in German):


http://www.hardwareluxx.de/community...se-751693.html


The Phobya Xtreme NOVA 1080 radiator gets the award for value for money!






And the Bronze Award for the third place in performance:











MO-RA 3 PRO (Version for up to 18x 120mm fans)








Let’s get to the successor of the successful MO-RA2 radiator, that was very popular for several years. The older versions required a grill sold at extra charge to mount fans and stands weren’t available at all. Apart from a lot of other changes, this was also addressed when Watercool released the new MO-RA3 series. But, of course, they’ve also improved the performance.


The MO-RA3 is the result of further developments based on the MO-RA2. The performance was improved and a few more features have been introduced. More than 36 m of copper pipes and 3 m² fins are in every single MO-RA3.
The coolant flows simultaneously in 80 pipes. The new, high-flow fitting-socket with three G1/4” threads also enables you to use, for example, a reservoir or a fillport directly at the radiator. While a fan grill isn’t necessary anymore, you can still buy one for visual improvements and is available in several designs and colors. The available stands are also available in clear or black.
The MO-RA3 is available in several variants, from models for 9/18 120mm fans, versions for 4x180mm fans up to the mega radiator for 9/18 140mm fans.
Just as known from the old MO-RA2, the build quality is good an d the performance outstanding. Even high-end-systems can easily be cooled with the MO-RA3.

The MO-RA3 comes with everything required to start at once. The scope of delivery includes caps to seal the unused threads, fan screws and of course also spacers to mount the radiator on the case.
Using the flexible modular design, the MO-RA3 can be customized according to your wishes. There are several fan grills, fan controllers, stands and external mounts.


Technical Data:

Material inside: Pipes copper, fins Aluminum
Material case: Steel, stainless steel
Size : 415 x 383 x 65mm
Weight: around 6000g
Pressure tested: 5 Bar
Surface: black powder painted
Threads: 6x G1/4”

Scope of delivery:

1x MO-RA3 9x120 PRO
4x Sealing caps G1/4”
4x Spacers M4x20mm
1x Set fan screws (72 pieces)
1x Manual


Price: around 150 EUR


This radiator was able to perform second best in the performance section and receives the Silver Award for this:






MO-RA 3 PRO (Version for up to 18 140mm fans)










The big brother of the MO-RA3 radiator for 120mm fans tested before offers spots for 140mm fans. As we’res testing the PRO-version right here, we can mount nine of them on each side, so up to 18 fans on one radiator. Up until now, there is only one fan grill available and the radiator only comes in one color: black, while other versions are probably coming soon. The stands for the 120mm version can conviently also be used for this version.
Because of the bigger fans and the bigger radiator size we can once again see a better performance. For those of us who can’t have a radiator big enough or who want to have the performance of their dreams, this is the fitting radiator. Before releasing this radiator, the manufacturer asked the users in their forum for voting for several sizes. This was implemented in the final version – a nice option which should be used by other manufacturers in the future – it’s always nice to be part of the development of a product while only being a consumer after all.


Technical data:

Material inside: Pipes copper, fins Aluminum
Material case: Steel, stainless steel
Size : 475 x 430 x 65mm
Weight: around 7700g
Pressure tested: 5 Bar
Surface: black powder painted
Threads: 6x G1/4”

Scope of delivery:

1x MO-RA3 9x140 PRO
4x Sealing caps G1/4”
4x Spacers M4x20mm
1x Set fan screws (72 pieces)
1x Manual

Price: around 180 EUR


The MO-RA3 Pro for up to 18 140mm fans is currently the lonely top of the radiators and receives the Gold Award because of this.







Let’s take a look at all the available accessoires for the MO-RA3 series:

Watercool MO-RA3 420 Wall/Case-mount - Price: around 25 EUR
Watercool MO-RA3 Blende Classic Black - around 34 EUR
Watercool MO-RA3 Blende Classic White - around 34 EUR
Watercool MO-RA3 Blende Rhombus Stainless Steel - around 34 EUR
Watercool MO-RA3 Blende Rhombus Black - around 34 EUR
Watercool MO-RA3 Blende Rhombus White - around 34 EUR
Watercool MO-RA3 420 Blende Classic black - around 38 EUR
Watercool MO-RA3 Stand transparent - around 24 EUR
Watercool MO-RA3 Stand black - around 24 EUR


Testsystem & the way I tested:

Banchetto 101 Bench Station by Microcool
Gigabyte GA EX58 Extreme & GA-X58A-UD7 Mainboard (With special thanks to Gigabyte for providing the UD7-Board!)
Mips Fusionblock Nickel
i7 920 @4Ghz @1.40V (Bios setting)
CPU Block: Watercool Heatkiller 3.0
Cougar GX 1050 PSU
Corsair XMS3 Dominator DIMM Kit 6GB PC3-12800U CL7-7-7-20 (DDR3-1600)
2x EVGA GTX480 VGA-cards (run at stock settings)
2x Aquacomputer aquagraFX for GTX 480 (GF100) nickel plated version
Noiseblocker PL2 (120mm) and Noiseblocker PK2 (140mm) fans
Aquaero VFD
2x Laing DDC+ Pump with Aquacomputer Aquacover Dual DDC top
EK Waterblocks EK Multioption reservoir 250mm Advanced
Aquacomputer flow sensor High Flow
Koolance VL3N quick release couplings & CPC Metall quick release couplings
Masterkleer & Primochill 16/10 tubing + Perfect Seal and Bitspower fittings
3x watertemp sensors (2x T-Line, 1x in the reservoir)
1x dig. Sensor in the reservoir for calibrating
Filter by Aquacomputer
Gelid Extreme thermal paste
Innovatek Protect Ready-to-use
ArctiClean

To put maximum load at the CPU, Prime95 (small FFTs) was used in the newest version; to measure the temperatures I used the Aquasuite. These temperature measurements were done after no less than 60 minutes in 5 planned intervals of 5 minutes.

I also ran Furmark at the same time to load the EVGA GTX480 VGA-cards.


The most interesting value in this test was the difference in temperature (Delta T) of room temperature to water temperature of the water exiting the radiator. This value shows the cooling performance of the radiator very well by showing how well the radiator can use the room temperature to cool down the water. The less this difference is, the better the radiator performed. The results should easily be understandable for the interested user, so I’ll only add the values for flowrates and the values at different fan speeds.










Testresults:








Fanspeed: 600 RPM/Min.

















Difference (Delta T) from room temperature to water temperature. The less, the better.


Flowrate in Liter:




Liter / hour. The more, the better.



Final Conclusion

One thing is clear: All the radiators in this roundup offer brute cooling performance for all current and watercool systems coming up. When you decide to buy one of them, you’ll have more than enough performance for years to come and so the high price of some of them might be more understandable for a lot of you, as you won’t have to upgrade for a time.
Being a long-time watercooler with a lot of watercooling systems having gone through my hands, I know that you’ll never stick to a radiator when buying your first system. The demands increase and that’s why the first radiator will never be enough. When having been infected with the watercooling-virus, it might be a good idea to directly look at these radiators instead of buying a smaller one at first.
Espcially when looking for an especially silent working environment, these radiators are especially recommended. For example, for everyday-use, the fans on them can be deactivated and only used when the performance becomes necessary, getting another step closer to the completely silent PC.
Even when running high-end-systems in summer, letting the fans spin at slow RPM is enough when using these radiators to achieve good temperatures. The test system used here has been chosen especially with the high wattage in mind, while this amount of wattage doesn’t occur in real life, so you’ll still have a lot of reserves. Using socalled quick-release –couplings, the monster radiators can be disconnected from the PC and be taken to LAN-parties without problems or changing parts of the watercooling, for example the coolant.
Because of the several color- and size-variants and the accessoires like the stands or fan grills for fans of different sizes, the manufacturers offer a wide range of possibilities for the buyer. Furthermore, a fan-controller for the MO-RA-models has also been announced, that can be integrated into the radiators, also improving the wiring of the fans.

Special thanks:Thanks go out to the following companies for helping me with this roundup: Aquatuning , Phobya , www.watercool.de, EVGA , GIGABYTE , MIPS-Computer.de ,Noiseblocker , Aqua Computer , Corsair, COUGAR , www.koolance.com , www.caseking.de and the users cartago2202 (pictures) & Axelfpeace (logodesign)

[KingOfsorroW]

My mora3 4x180 couldn't handle 3x480gtx and i7 920@4+Ghz... Had to separate the cpu from loop, otherwise it was hitting 90C when simply gaming. though the fans were installed only on one side, but I doubt that it would've been much different if I added fans to another side of the rad.
Just my experience in short for those looking into the matter.
Thanks for the review

[bundymania]

This guy is running 4x OC GTX480 + 2x 5680 + Ram Watercooling with the Mora:

http://www.hardwareluxx.de/community...61-post23.html

No Problem

[KingOfsorroW]

I don't understand german.Also there are no cpu temps numbers in the link. But his ambient temps should be very low if all this is cooled by one mora. With temps below 21C all this can be made no problem like you said. But where would you find a steady 21C in a non-conditioned room? Only in a large basement I suppose.

[bundymania]

We have 21° Celsius or less ambient temp 6 month or more over the year here in Germany

I will ask scully123 for his cpu temps, maybe he will register here if he is able to write in english

His answer: he should look at the screen in the taskbar not over 60 with two six core xeons@4GHZ

[Biffa]

Nice review Bundy

Did you happen to measure the ambient temperature in your room when testing? I'd be interested in that.

Also the guy with the Dual Xeon/Quad Fermi, whats his ambient I think is a relevant question too. I'll go check out the link see what I can grasp.

Interested as both a user of Dual Xeon boxen and quad Fermi boxen

Only thing about those mahoosive raidators is I can't fit them inside a case. :p

[bundymania]

I can search for some pics with temps for you and contact via pn
The crazy guy with 4 cards had mostly ~ 21° Ambient temp

[Martinm210]

Nice work! You can never go too big with rad capacity.... Perhaps diminishing returns, but never a negative return..

[KingOfsorroW]

I can search for some pics with temps for you and contact via pn
The crazy guy with 4 cards had mostly ~ 21° Ambient temp

How did he maintain the 21C? A setup like his heats up a 15m2 room in no time...

[Martinm210]

In my experience with rad testing, it doesn't matter what the ambient temperature is...as long as it's remaining constant. A slight rise or decline in ambients is what causes problems not the actual ambient.

Buddy notes that he ran the benchmarks for 60 minutes before measurements. That should be good enough for 20C deltas and lower. The higher the delta the longer it takes as you would expect, but an hour seemed to work pretty well in my experience as well.

Only thing I would do is run my first test for a couple of hours until the room ambient rise flattens out then start testing. Rad testing is tedious and extremely time consuming. I could easily waste a weekend on one radiator.

[KingOfsorroW]

In my experience with rad testing, it doesn't matter what the ambient temperature is...as long as it's remaining constant. A slight rise or decline in ambients is what causes problems not the actual ambient.

Buddy notes that he ran the benchmarks for 60 minutes before measurements. That should be good enough for 20C deltas and lower. The higher the delta the longer it takes as you would expect, but an hour seemed to work pretty well in my experience as well.

Only thing I would do is run my first test for a couple of hours until the room ambient rise flattens out then start testing. Rad testing is tedious and extremely time consuming. I could easily waste a weekend on one radiator.

That is not correct, to say the least. Mora3 temps are extremely dependant on ambients.

[Johnny87au]

hey bundy nice write up,I always thought the Mora2 outperformed the mora 3.. guess i was wrong .. Could you do a comparison against say 3x 360 rads, Also wonder how good 18x 1850 gts would perform using 140mm fan adapters..

[Church]

Mora3 temps might be extremely dependent on ambient temps only because such monster rads are overkill for most common cooled pc hardware, so with very low air-to-water deltas such rads bring, ambient fluctuation might differ relatively much higher. Just like with TIM tests on relatively low heat output cpu-s at stock clocks/voltage - if difference between them is less then one degree, slight ambient change might mess all the results.
At the end imho best way would be _controllable_ flat ambient temps, with eg. some kind of conditioner in room, to worry less about temp fluctuation. Or artificially introduce some insane heatdump in test loop, eg. several water heaters or alike, so that delta is brought up high even with such insane rads

[woffen]

In my experience with rad testing, it doesn't matter what the ambient temperature is...as long as it's remaining constant. A slight rise or decline in ambients is what causes problems not the actual ambient.

Buddy notes that he ran the benchmarks for 60 minutes before measurements. That should be good enough for 20C deltas and lower. The higher the delta the longer it takes as you would expect, but an hour seemed to work pretty well in my experience as well.

Only thing I would do is run my first test for a couple of hours until the room ambient rise flattens out then start testing. Rad testing is tedious and extremely time consuming. I could easily waste a weekend on one radiator.

That is not correct, to say the least. Mora3 temps are extremely dependant on ambients.

I think what Martinm210 is saying is that as long as you are testing rads the ambient does not matter as long as it stays the same. Of course the higher the ambient the higher the temps but that applies to everything. But as long as the ambient stays the same you can compare different radiators by comparing room temperature to water temperature.

[Waterlogged]

Could you do a comparison against say 3x 360 rads,

Skinnee will be doing that test up properly Johnny.

[KingOfsorroW]

Mora3 temps might be extremely dependent on ambient temps only because such monster rads are overkill for most common cooled pc hardware, so with very low air-to-water deltas such rads bring, ambient fluctuation might differ relatively much higher. Just like with TIM tests on relatively low heat output cpu-s at stock clocks/voltage - if difference between them is less then one degree, slight ambient change might mess all the results.
At the end imho best way would be _controllable_ flat ambient temps, with eg. some kind of conditioner in room, to worry less about temp fluctuation. Or artificially introduce some insane heatdump in test loop, eg. several water heaters or alike, so that delta is brought up high even with such insane rads

Mora3 is far from being an overkill for a normal 24-26C ambient temps. You have to maintain something like 21C constantly for it to become an overkill and to unleash its full potential. For a usual normal room mora3 is only good for looks as it becomes only slightly better than a nice 360rad. I'm talking here about maximum heat output not like connecting a single cpu to mora vs 360 rad. I use the mora3 to cool 3x480gtx and the temps of the graphic cards hit 70C after some time of gaming. But I must add, I use only 2x180 fans to cool it down at half of their speed and the two d5 pumps operate at their absolute minimum capacity. I am silence oriented guy if you haven't guessed yet. If I set up 4 fans put them at their max and increase the waterflow - the max temps would go down to 60C. That's at 26C ambient. If the cpu were connected to the mora it would be maxing at 90C at that moment...
Now what I'm trying to say with all those posts, a message, I'm trying to deliver (lol) - there is nothing big about mora3 unless you can provide very low ambient temps like 21C and below and that is not possible in a normal room without air-conditionning.

I think what Martinm210 is saying is that as long as you are testing rads the ambient does not matter as long as it stays the same. Of course the higher the ambient the higher the temps but that applies to everything. But as long as the ambient stays the same you can compare different radiators by comparing room temperature to water temperature.

Oh that I agree, totally.

[Johnny87au]

Skinnee will be doing that test up properly Johnny.

oh yeah? Thanks WL, any idea when hes gonna start ?

[Waterlogged]

oh yeah? Thanks WL, any idea when hes gonna start ?

Nope.

I'm looking forward to it myself because I think it'll finally show what I've been saying all along, Mo-Ra's are nothing more than a poorly designed "convenience" package. I'm really tired of all the ppl that try to compare these triple sized rads cooling power to a single sized rad and say they are so much better, I say even up the cooling power and then try to say the same thing, you can't. /


...and very Off topic. Your sig, I know that's from Turletrax and was aimed at me, I never did respond to it. While it is true, the difference is, Intel and AMD haven't done anything of the sort while that other company has already done everything I used to about so there is a world of difference there. I work in a school and one of the many "motivational posters" that hang in many of the classrooms says "Character is what you do when you think no one else is looking. It is easy to APPEAR to have good character when others are around, but it is what you do when no one is there that really defines your character. So..., what do you do when you think no one else is looking?" I shudder to think what "they" would do.

[Church]

KingOfsorroW: low ambient temps will work for any rad used in LC. Temperature deltas (aka differences between water and air temps) will be same no matter what rad it is (of course same for each rad, not cross-between them), and no matter what ambient temps (in reasonable range of course, not below freezing point, not above boiling point ). Hearing that big rads work well only at cooler rooms sounds a bit .. weird.
- If for specific heat dump mora can give 2C delta it will give it at both 5C and 40C ambient. Same for single tripple rad if delta is 20C, it will be at both of those ambient temps. It's just that with that low deltas as those monster rads are able to provide with relatively low cooled hardware heatdump, relative to that ambient temp fluctuation if it's not kept constant, might introduce big margin of testing/measuring error.

[bundymania]

Skinnee will be doing that test up properly Johnny.

Your beloved master in all questions will do a test this year ?

[KingOfsorroW]

churchy, where did I say the mora works well only in very low temps? I said that it may be an overkill only in very low temps. And yes you followed my idea correctly - any radiator is very effective in very low temps... So nothing special about mora - it just slightly better than any 360rad and sure can't compete with two effective 360 rads with in the ambients of 19-21C. The only difference in favour of mora in that case would be noise - it would be very much less loud than the two 360rads packed with fans.

[Johnny87au]

Nope.

I'm looking forward to it myself because I think it'll finally show what I've been saying all along, Mo-Ra's are nothing more than a poorly designed "convenience" package. I'm really tired of all the ppl that try to compare these triple sized rads cooling power to a single sized rad and say they are so much better, I say even up the cooling power and then try to say the same thing, you can't. /


...and very Off topic. Your sig, I know that's from Turletrax and was aimed at me, I never did respond to it. While it is true, the difference is, Intel and AMD haven't done anything of the sort while that other company has already done everything I used to about so there is a word of difference there. I work in a school and one of the many "motivational posters" that hang in many of the classrooms says "Character is what you do when you think no one else is looking. It is easy to APPEAR to have good character when others are around, but it is what you do when no one is there that really defines your character. So..., what do you do when you think no one else is looking?" I shudder to think what "they" would do.

Nice little poetic write up there WL , yeah i couldnt agree more.. thats why im really curious as to how these perform against some triples..

[Waterlogged]

Your beloved master in all questions will do a test this year ?

So I'm lead to believe.

I am working on getting some Mora's and Nova's, as I want to know what their capabilities are.

Your wait will be coming to end, just gotta get through my current rads to test first...

It's ironic really, you also posted in that topic yet don't know this.

[bundymania]

You believe, that he will test a rad from those "evil" dudes at Aquatuning - the Nova 1080 ?
He can´t be your master after that, when getting his hands on one of those china eastar made rads, phobya labeled

[Church]

Shouldn't personal attacks better be left to PM? :/
I see rightness of both sides, waterlogged wish for objectively as possible performed tests with no room for errors and bundymania to defending his work, but it's not too enjoyable to read all over to what it has been escalated to, flaming attacks on each other. :/
Wasn't the wisest one first who stops arguing?