Cooling Aqua Computer TwinPlex Pro mini-review

Okay today I have some more information for you based on my inspection and disassembly of the TwinPlex Pro SLI Typ 1 that I received yesterday. There have been some major changes for the good in this design over the previous TwinPlex design. So here is the box you will get.











What is in the box? The cooler and nylon screws, nuts, and washers to hold it down.











The disassembled component parts. The O-rings, mounts, and acrylic tops are interchangable with the old and new style TwinPlex's. The major difference is that you will need a new size screw to convert your existing TwinPlex to the newer style. The screw dimensions are: M3 x 8 and if you are a buttonhead fancier you lose on the SLI design as the countersunk holes are to narrow to fit the wider buttonhead design in all four holes. BTW, you can buy just the block and the screws from AC if you already have a TwinPlex though if you want the SLI design you will need to buy a complete unit.











Here is a side view of the acrylic top. As you can see it has a slot milled into the top. This is what makes this design unique as it should fit under just about any video card in existence.











The following set of pics are various close-ups of the acrylic top so you can see the detail in the design.




























So lets get on to the business end of the new style Twinplex as there have been some major design and asthetic changes. Here is the new block looking at the CPU side. This the ATi style block that has the relieved material around the CPU contact surface. Who needs all that metal if the only contact surface is a tiny hunk of die for a GPU or chipset? Good riddance to those heavy TwinPlex's.










A close up view of the above pic.












Some side views here. Notice how thin the blocks are? If your really observant you might also notice something else.
















And here we have a nice close-up of the water side of the block. Paying attention here? They appear to have completely bead blasted the block. This has been shown to increase the thermal characteristics of the heat transfer. I measured the block with my dial calipers and total block thickness is only 0.1790 of an inch. The thickness of the bottom of the block over the die is about 0.035 of an inch except of course for the center part of the block.










The next set of pics show the difference between the old style and the new style blocks.















What's Hot?

• Thin design and glass beaded surfaces will give better thermal transference characteristics.

• The glass beading also helps with cutting down on visual corrosion if you are into these kinds of bling.

• Decreased use of copper makes for a less expensive product.

• This block is totally clean with not a speck of dirt or any oily contaminants seen.

• It will go on any of the hard to fit SLI boards and there shouldn't be any problems with video card clearance.

• The thinner block allows for less screw length which results in a more secure mounting.

• The blocks now do not come with fittings. This is a good thing because then you have the option of either using the standard AC fare or you can use 3rd party fittings as well.

What's Not?

• The critical cpu surface appears to be still cut with a milling cutter with no machine lapping evident. I checked the surface with a grid and it appears to be fairly flat though it is a rough surface. Running your fingernail across the surface indicates to me it is about a 125 RMS finish.

• The other issue is that a few pics back you can see that one of the grid pins was slightly bent. Some may call this nitpicking, but since it can be seen with the naked eye you think they would have at least bent it back before shipping it. I bent it back into the proper attitude with a dental probe.

• With the side mounted fittings for the acrylic GPU tops don't plan on using any straight connectors if you have ramsinks in place. You will probably need 45 or 90 degree fittings so the tubing doesn't hit the ramsinks. This is due to the copper blocks being so thin and much closer to the circuit board.

Comments:

From a modding point of view the only thing I think needs to be done is to lap the bottom of the block. Considering the relative thin metal I would suggest that you lap the block with the acrylic top attached and all the bolts down as tight as you want them to be. If you lap the block without it completely together you may risk warping it again during reassembly. Other than that this appears to be a winner in my book and Feeding Frenzy is getting one of the SLI versions and two of the GPU versions.

 

Nice review, and a nice block

 

Thanks and I hope you get something out of it.

 

Me? 1/2 Bore teh win! But yeah, if I was going AC and SLI, i'm sure this'd be my solution

 

1/2" bore? Do they make any chipset coolers for that big of a tube size?

 

Yup...well, only for the Asus A8N boards. Danger Den do a Maze4 Chipset A8N, I think they're working on one for the DFI boards aswell

 

Thanks Top Nurse, just ordered the normal Twinplex Pro for my Asus A8N.

 

Yeah, but they're real flow killers...

 

It's a good enough review, maybe it should go on the front page?

 

Found out what I wanted to know... which is that I definately want one. Along with those darned MOSFET coolers. I mean it's certainly better to have the active watercooling than the passive thing that's no longer benefitting from airflow, but I have to pay for the thing :/

That's just stupidly thin... under 5mm if I converted that right. Wow. Shows that German engineering! I'd definately like to pick one up. Not in the SLI-chipset variety (could they have made those acrylic "tubes" any thinner?) but to replace my standard Twinplex chipset block.

I have to wonder about the performance difference, but if build quality is anything to go by, it should be fairly substantial. A few degrees C anyways, and at a lower cost.

 

Thanks for the nice words on my little post, but I doubt that would be possible seeing how I posted it to the [H]ardForum as well.

 

Yeah, Danger Den, PolarFLO, Silverprop, and D-tek all made one (maybe more probs)
Although they are real flow killers it seems...

 

That's the beauty of low to moderate flow.

 

alphacool have their own version of the SLI block too

 

Bravo!

I just ordered one of these (ya know I had to go silber) and many of my questions were answered.

Do you think that this part...


can be replaced with the highlighted part here?


The pic on the very top looks like it would provide just a tad bit more mounting flexibility. I am dealing with so many unknowns with respect to the mounting of my Innovatek GPU/RAM blocks onto the DFI Expert. I am confident the Pro SLI will fit. I just want to make sure I can adjust its placement if necessary.

Again, nice job with the review.


edit: Nice pics to btw.

 

yeh I would think it could be replaced. Nice review. I heard that these are not as good coolers as people make them out to be.

 

Answered my own question...

I guess you can exchange fittings. Found a pic!

 

The mounting grills for the TwinPlex Pro are the same as the standard TwinPlex and thus are totally interchangable.

 

Please speak up....