Hardware CoolIT Domino ALC

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/cooling/2009/05/19/coolit-domino-alc/1

CoolIT's Domino ALC claims to be the final answer to low cost liquid cooling, with performance to top that of a Thermalright Ultra Extreme. Is it your next big upgrade, or more like a big wet fish?

 

Nicely balanced review there - it sounds like a rev 2.0 with customizable profiles or a slightly different set of speeds for the fan would prove interesting, maybe a molex for power and a fan header for monitoring software? S'pose you could even have an internal USB header if you were really looking for a complex interface.

 

So, the Domino ALC is not quieter than the competition, and it's prohibitively noisy when it tries to excel: anyone can strap a 40dB fan to their heatsink and claim excellent performance. Compare that to a real watercooling kit, and even at 12V the noise is lower and there's a full 10ºC difference! You'll pay 250 percent more for the privilege mind you, but when you're already paying 242 percent more than the Fenrir for two degrees, it puts things into perspective.

I'm having trouble understanding this paragraph, 250% is referring to the water cooling setup, and 242% is the Domino?*

Question mark explained, i used the price of the fenrir from the previous article, and ran the numbers and I find the domino is only 130% more expensive than the fenrir.

The Fenrir is £33.3, while the Domino £75.99

76/33=2.3030, 130% rise

 

Good read and it was good you guys published your problems with the unit.

I'd love to treat my ageing E6600 with some water but as these pre-built things aren't that great and I don't want to spend big time I guess it'll have to wait.

 

I was really considering getting one of these to cool my brothers E6600 but after the problems with the barbs you had I wouldn't even consider it. The OCZ Vanquisher he has on it ATM does the job well, he just wants water cooling because I have it but without the price lol.

 

I've wanted to register for a long time now, but laziness was doing its thing. So now I've seen a reason good enough.
I'd like to disagree with some of the statements in the review. Let me start with the price - mine costs $71 from Amazon with free shipping. From this point of view things look kinda different. Having said that - what does the review show? Only one graph at only one clock speed. Why? Temperatures tend to raise exponentially with air cooling whereas they go nearly linear with water-cooling. Give that i7 a bit more voltage, 4ghz and then show us some graphs. I bet that if you had you review at stock speed the difference in temperatures would have been even less noticable among the majority of coolers.
One thing is to have in mind indeed - it's for lazy people. It's a budget liquid cooling. I wouldn't go the water-cooling road without some first-hand experience and this solution seems rather impressive. Compatibility is great as well. Space around the socket too. And it's not like you have >600 grams of copper hanging from there.
It may be more fragile than expected but I bet that gentle installing and some extra caution would make this insignificant.
The overall score is not well deserved, IMHO. Probably there should be enthusiast and general user score.

Greetings from Bulgaria (please excuse my rubbish English)

 

Welcome to the forums and don't worry about your English, it's more than ok.

While I do agree that for $71 it is quite a bargain, it doesn't completely change at least my opinion, that is in line with what Bindi wrote in the article.
Spending more for liquid cooling is fine as long as it gives you the desired results while remaining quieter than air cooling.

The Domino seems to be an okay liquid cooling system that delivers okay results when halfway quiet but fails to deliver when really quiet.

The part where you say you should overclock it more and test again: Would you really want to run your i7 at 4GHz with this thing on low? If it reaches 54 deltaT at 3.6GHz what would it reach at 4? And I really don't think from what I've seen in the reviews that it'd cope as well as "professional" water cooling setups.

Still, finally a good first post again. They're rare these days.

 

Yes, my brain fails me, you are right

Greetings Vanu!!

But why bother for twice the price? If it's no better than air cooling and we've never had problems with reasonably heavy air coolers for years. It's a non-issue-issue.

 

Personally I think a Thermaltake setup would work better. The only all in one kit I would even contemplate buying now is the Swiftech, even though it isn't really all in one, you still need to attach the tubing and fill it which makes it great to integrate with other products e.g a GPU block and another radiator.

 

Seems to me the PC market is awash with products like this, it stretches to graphics cards, psu's, cpu's mobos etc etc.

truth is there are always going to be people who will buy a graphics card because it has 1GB GDDR2 regardless of the core, or the Q6600 because they have heard the name despite the fact there are now better options for the money. You cant blame these companies, its just too easy to whack a flashing LED on a heap of plastic junk, call it water cooling and then sell it to some plonker with an antec 900 and a GTX 250

 

Well, the Domino does have its advantages over true liquid cooling. You don't have to refill, don't have to add things against corrosion and insects, don't have to pour distilled water, don't need to occasionally have a look in the case to ensure yourself if there isn't a leak somewhere, and finally - don't have to buy a big expensive case where to put the pump, reservoir and radiator.

It does have its advantages over air coolers - after all, it's cools the i7 better with a few degrees than the competition. Show it more voltage and the gap will widen. It takes hot air out of the case, whereas the common air cooler will dissipate it all over the case, unless you buy another case fan and still - it won't leave the case right away.

Anyway, I'm not denying that there are better alternatives. I'm trying to point out the already obvious to me - it is the first all-in-one water-cooler that actually works and moreover - at a reasonable price, so the 4/10 score isn't that relevant to me.

Some of you are saying that water cooling is pointless, unless the results are way better and the prices way lower. The same people would say that blonds are not cooler as brunettes, because basically - they get the job done in the same way It's a matter of personal taste, I guess. I don't mind spending a few extra $ on this cooler, and it's just because I like the idea of this inside my case. Like I don't mind buying a stunning blond a 10 euros cocktail just becaause I like the idea of her inside my bed

p.s: The fan of the Domino blows through a metal plate of holes, which may produce a whistling sound. Is it possible that the extra db noise may be coming from this? What was the noise level outside a case?

 

I can't recall a review were you guys broke something before now, especially not just when fitting it.

It sounds, and looks, like cheap expensive tat to be quite honest.

For the cost, would a metal set of barbs really be much to ask?

 

Just to be clear (representing CoolIT PR)... there are no issues with the barbs on Dominos available for sale - hence actually buying a unit from YOYOTech and bringing over to bit-tech. We also made bit-tech aware that there was an issue with the initial replacement samples and not to use them for review, basically down to a mess up in shipping direct from North America.

Also, price wise, the MAXIMUM you'll pay from a mainstream e-tailer is £77 inc VAT. The price is actually more along the lines of £68 - £74. The RRP is £74.99 inc VAT, so unsure why the price quoted is actually higher.

There are some fantastic benefits to water cooling at this level. It isn't designed for the all-out enthusiast, and we feel we made that clear from the start. But for someone who likes the idea of getting into the water cooling scene, the Domino is a great start and performs extremely well.

Granted it may cost a tad more than a similar performing air cooler, but that's not water cooling... is it! But you do get the benefits of speed control, reducing the ambient temp of your PC by exhausting heat directly out the back, taking weight off the motherboard and the added bonus of performance control, LCD screen showing coolant temps, fan speed and pump speeds and a warning system in the unlikely case of a failure.

Dell, Apple, Commodore, Cyberpower US, BFG Phobos (and the massively growing numbers of UK PC builders) can't all be wrong! Nor can over 40 other review sites and magazines who either gave the Domino an award or a glowingly positive review!

 

At the time of writing (all inc VAT):

£68.00 c3
£71.67 ccl
£71.75 microdirect
£72.95 amazon
£74.98 ebuyer
£75.99 play
£76.81 scan
£76.99 overclockers
£77.04 novatech

 

You might want to take a look at the Asetek produced water cooling system marketed by
NorthQ under the name "Siberian Tiger" .

Completely sealed water cooling system with radiator screwed onto a 12 cm fan.
I've been using it on a Phenom X4 in an Antec P182b for half a year now and
I'm very satisfied - cools as well as any air cooler, very quiet, and you
can break it only if you really, really want to...

A larger version can be found in HP's top pc the Fire-something or other.

I'm just a very satisfied user and have no affiliation with either Asetek or
NorthQ.

 

..Wow, you sound like a true PR bod.

The Dell/apple/blah/blah/blah you mentioned - They're prebuilds. I'd have thought, being in the custom cooling business, you'd know that comparing a prebuild to a homebrew is like comparing the sun to the moon. Sure, they're both in the same arena (Computers, space, respectively) but they could not be more different.

I take issue with your weight comments, too.

I wasn't under the impression any good solutions left weight on the motherboard that couldn't be either distributed appropriately, or compensated for in a tower oriented case (Lets face it, in a desktop orientated case, who cares) - Especially with the now prevalent 4-point securing methods for current AMD and Intel sockets - Even some of the older sockets.

 

Thanks. Yes, that's right. SOME of the manufacturers are using pre-builds. Pre-builds, built to the same quality and performance standards as with the CoolIT Domino. Same company, same factory, same R&D.

Cyberpower US (plus many more) and the UK PC builders however are using actual Domino A.L.C. units, again benefiting from the same build quality and performance this level of water cooling offers. Plus of course the many other underlying benefits of the Domino.

 

James: we made it quite clear at the end of the review that the Domino ALC is a different prospect:

As a product for a DIY system though, it is of questionable appeal. We're not arguing that it's no good for a 'manufactured' machine that is shipped to the consumer in one piece. We're arguing that it has no place in a market full of high performance air coolers that almost match it with much less noise and cost half the price regardless of whether it's £66 or £77 (the Titan Fenrir being the cited example here at ~£33).

 

Fine, but the main points reiterated:

1) there are no issues with the barbs at resellers.

2) the price quoted is still inaccurate.

3) The fact PC builders are using the technology plus over 40 glowing reviews with 25 awards (and counting) elsewhere is a sign that maybe the review on bit-tech doesn't quite value the Domino's true merits.

4) the Domino still offers fantastic benefits at the consumer level for those who would like to start out in water cooling or don't have the time for putting together a more high-end system.

 

lol this is why I like bit-tech.. they don't give a hoot it seems about the hype out there- the review pointed out some key points like the unit is sealed- I would want to be able to disassemble it myself.. I mean what if I wanted to move the display to a bay instead of having it inside my case.. that sort of thing would be nice and maybe enthusiasts could mod it and try different fans for example

what happened with the rep.. he seemed like a nice enough guy- I wonder if it went down like that monty python parrot skit