14 DAY TRIAL // Liquid cooling comes in two forms, the type that involves water tanks, pumps and water blocks, and the type that are fully self-sufficient, closed-loop as it were, taking up little space besides what an air cooler needs. Zalman has just released one of the latter.
Closed-loop liquid coolers are also called all-in-one liquid coolers because they ship fully assembled and can be installed just as easily as air-based coolers.
Basically, they are an entire liquid cooling system unto themselves, miniaturized, so to speak. Although one might argue that there is nothing “mini” about the Zalman Reserator MAX Dual.
The cooling system uses nanofluids, which mixes nanoparticles with fluids to decrease how much heat is carried from the water block to the radiator. It's the second time this technology is used. The first time was in the Reserator Max 3.
The Quad Radial Radiator Design must be just as important though, involving a slim fin, pure copper radiator plated with black-pearl Nickel.
In addition to aesthetic value, the Nickel increases resistance to corrosion. And when you have four radiators crammed in the room normally taken by two, you have a much better cooling performance than you otherwise would.
It's because of this that slim fins had to be used: to allow for the coolant to flow freely, even in this more compact space.
Add to that the Octa cooling path system (eight times more powerful than traditional two pipe cooling design) and there's a lot to be smug over.
Granted, there are plenty of other closed-loop liquid coolers out there, but they aren't capable of moving 90 liters of coolant per hour.
They also don't have the same lighting as this one, with blue LEDs on the water block. If you have a case with a nice enough side window, it will give your computer a pretty nice look overall.
You'll probably have to dust the interior more often than if you lacked the lights, since the dust bunnies aren't as obvious in the dark, but that's not really a sacrifice. Besides, if you buy Zalman's Reserator 3 MAX Dual (complete with ZM-STG2M high performance thermal grease in case you were wondering), you probably have enough money for a case with dust filters and everything.
Finally, the two fans of the Reserator 3 MAX Dual that disperse heat have a diameter of 120 mm and can be supplemented by two more. You can even arrange them in a push-pull configuration.
