14 DAY TRIAL // Motherboard water cooling modules show up a bit less frequently than those for, say, CPUs and graphics cards, but there's a good reason for that, and companies like, in this case, Bitspower don't seem to mind that it makes their rare products more special.
Basically, water blocks for motherboards aren't interchangeable. They only work for one motherboard, which means the motherboard must really be awesome in order to prompt the making of such a cooling module.
One of the mainboards that, apparently, is awesome enough for something like that is ASUS Maximum VI Impact.
Surprising, since this is one of those very, very small platforms that only HTPC lovers will ever actually get: mini-ITX.
The name of new water cooling implement is ASUS P8Z77-I Deluxe. It is a full-cover water block with a base made of C1100 copper and a hi-quality acrylic top cover.
Bitspower chose the U.S.C design here (Unibody Style Construction Design). This concept defines a single solid block that covers all the parts on a motherboard that generate major heat.
That means the Z87 chipset, the CPU socket and the vertical VRM (voltage regulation module).
Bitspower is also offering a choice between the base material: nickel plating or bare copper. Add to that the ICE Black or Clear acrylic tops and there are quite a few potential combinations here.
Either way, the water block allows a lot of coolant (water from a reservoir) to flow through it, regardless of which of the four colors end up covering it.
Finally, the Bitspower Maximus VI Impact full-cover motherboard water block ships with the standard mounting screws and accessories, a backup o-ring, and a 2.5 grams syringe of Arctic Matrix thermal compound.
All in all, it's remarkable that Bitspower has managed to make everything work, given that those four SATA ports aren't exactly located in the most ideal of places.
