{"video_id":"PeQX1uhb0iQ","title":"DON’T Water Cool Your PC! - IceGiant Copper Prototype","channel":"Linus Tech Tips","show":"Linus Tech Tips","published_at":"2023-05-05T14:53:29Z","duration_s":700,"segments":[{"start_s":0.08,"end_s":7.12,"text":"yeah oh my god","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":5.279,"end_s":12.559,"text":"if you want to tame the hottest gaming cpus the marketing says that you want","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":10.48,"end_s":18.88,"text":"water cooling but i'ma let you in on a little secret that's not actually true","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":15.28,"end_s":20.88,"text":"this is a thermosyphon and it is not","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":18.88,"end_s":24.16,"text":"your grandma's air cooler unless your grandma's a physicist and rides a bad","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":22.8,"end_s":27.76,"text":"ass motorcycle and reads you awesome bedtime stories","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":26.24,"end_s":31.599,"text":"about our sponsor war thunder war thunder is an online","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":1},{"start_s":29.519,"end_s":34.48,"text":"military vehicle combat game that's free to play and lots of fun learn more at","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":1},{"start_s":33.12,"end_s":37.84,"text":"the end of this video or try for free with a special sign up bonus at the link","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":1},{"start_s":36.16,"end_s":43.2,"text":"below the problem is that Intel's top of the","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":1},{"start_s":40.0,"end_s":44.399,"text":"line gaming CPU the core i9 12 900k runs","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":43.2,"end_s":50.399,"text":"so hot that even the legendary nhd15 the king","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":47.92,"end_s":54.8,"text":"of air coolers can't keep up with it i mean you could turn off performance mode","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":52.64,"end_s":60.8,"text":"or multi-core enhancement but at that point why did you pay 600 us dollars for","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":58.32,"end_s":66.88,"text":"a processor only to leave performance on the table oh and did i mention you'll","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":63.039,"end_s":69.28,"text":"still be maxing out at 95 degrees on an","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":66.88,"end_s":73.439,"text":"open-air test bench that means you're probably thermal throttling the second","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":71.28,"end_s":77.04,"text":"you close your side panel water cooling has advanced to help us","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":75.28,"end_s":81.759,"text":"tackle these ever hotter cpus in a number of ways stronger pumps more","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":79.439,"end_s":86.56,"text":"efficient cold plate designs larger radiators and by mounting them to the","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":84.32,"end_s":91.119,"text":"intake of a case we get to use the coolest air available to tackle the","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":88.72,"end_s":95.52,"text":"hottest parts of our machines but compared to traditional heat sinks even","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":93.439,"end_s":100.159,"text":"all-in-one water coolers like this one are more challenging to install","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":97.439,"end_s":104.88,"text":"expensive and they have more points of failure oh rate leaks are rare these","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":102.4,"end_s":108.96,"text":"days but a failed pump could easily put you out of commission for a while the","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":107.04,"end_s":113.04,"text":"good news is that while water cooling has been stealing all the headlines air","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":111.119,"end_s":118.799,"text":"cooling has been quietly improving in the background ice giant's first product","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":115.759,"end_s":121.119,"text":"the pro siphon elite blew us away by","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":118.799,"end_s":127.84,"text":"outperforming both this guy and 240 millimeter aio liquid coolers it","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":124.64,"end_s":131.039,"text":"works by using heat from the CPU to boil","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":127.84,"end_s":133.44,"text":"fluid inside the evaporator here that","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":131.039,"end_s":139.599,"text":"vapor makes its way to the condenser this large finned heatsink array up here","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":136.48,"end_s":141.68,"text":"where it cools liquefies and then falls","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":139.599,"end_s":146.239,"text":"back down to the evaporator creating a cooling loop with no moving parts the","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":144.319,"end_s":150.8,"text":"principle is actually similar to a heat pipe but almost simpler in a way because","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":149.2,"end_s":156.0,"text":"the liquid is moved back to the heat source by gravity rather than by","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":152.959,"end_s":158.08,"text":"capillary action thermosyphons must be","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":156.0,"end_s":163.04,"text":"mounted in the correct orientation but the upside is that they are not nearly","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":160.64,"end_s":167.92,"text":"as easily overwhelmed by a strong heat source enough about the old though","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":165.68,"end_s":173.36,"text":"where'd it go oh here it is let's talk about what's new ice giant just sent","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":170.879,"end_s":179.2,"text":"over a prototype thermosyphon elite with some really exciting upgrades the most","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":176.0,"end_s":182.56,"text":"obvious one is right here goodbye","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":179.2,"end_s":183.599,"text":"aluminum hello copper that was a good","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":182.56,"end_s":190.72,"text":"idea someone suggest that to them could be anyway this was done to improve","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":188.159,"end_s":195.2,"text":"heat conduction from the CPU into the thermosyphon but even more important are","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":193.68,"end_s":199.36,"text":"the boiling enhancements that they've made to the evaporator they've","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":197.2,"end_s":204.64,"text":"completely changed the layout of the fins inside here to create more surface","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":202.08,"end_s":209.12,"text":"area and they've added tiny pieces of sintered copper there as well not only","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":206.56,"end_s":214.08,"text":"do these also create more surface area for nucleation sites but these particles","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":211.76,"end_s":218.48,"text":"act as a wick to help distribute condensed liquid on the return trip","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":216.319,"end_s":222.08,"text":"sounds pretty cool but i wouldn't recommend buying one and","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":220.319,"end_s":226.4,"text":"certainly wouldn't recommend investing in ice giant apparently is undergoing a","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":224.239,"end_s":230.0,"text":"funding round right now until i have validated it for myself","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":229.12,"end_s":236.239,"text":"so we grabbed this a high-end test bench our frame from","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":233.92,"end_s":241.28,"text":"thermal grizzly more on that later and we slapped on all of our coolers testing","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":239.04,"end_s":247.84,"text":"them at around the same noise levels of a maxed out though still very quiet and","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":243.76,"end_s":249.92,"text":"hd15 that's roughly 47 decibels our og","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":247.84,"end_s":255.36,"text":"aluminum pro siphon elite was unfortunately the only cooler to thermal","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":252.72,"end_s":260.959,"text":"throttle in our 2000 sample classroom blender test disqualifying it outright","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":258.079,"end_s":267.6,"text":"but as you can see here our copper unit comes out on top beading knocked to us","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":264.0,"end_s":269.68,"text":"best by a whopping 5 degrees it was also","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":267.6,"end_s":275.68,"text":"the only cooler in our test that brought our 12 900k below 90 degrees under load","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":273.52,"end_s":279.36,"text":"admittedly this is on an open test bench where it doesn't have to contend with","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":277.36,"end_s":282.96,"text":"heat from other components swirling around it but it's still impressive","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":281.919,"end_s":286.8,"text":"however cranking things up a notch by enabling","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":285.04,"end_s":292.88,"text":"performance mode on our motherboard caused our CPU to draw another 20 to 30","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":289.28,"end_s":296.8,"text":"watts resulting in a fail result for all","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":292.88,"end_s":299.36,"text":"three of our coolers to be fair 250","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":296.8,"end_s":302.639,"text":"watts is a lot of power and if you want that kind of performance it's fair to","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":301.28,"end_s":308.16,"text":"say that you might have to make some sacrifices namely noise","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":306.08,"end_s":313.28,"text":"in an attempt to tame the beast we unlocked our ekaio and our copper","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":311.12,"end_s":318.32,"text":"prototype allowing their fans to ramp up to around 2100 RPM and then we re-ran","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":316.08,"end_s":322.24,"text":"our tests in both default and performance mode","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":319.84,"end_s":327.6,"text":"it cost us about 10 decibels in both cases but at Intel's stock power limit","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":325.68,"end_s":332.24,"text":"the copper prototype thermosyphon pulled ahead even further with a maximum","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":330.0,"end_s":335.199,"text":"package temperature of just 85 degrees celsius","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":333.44,"end_s":340.0,"text":"that's downright reasonable unfortunately it's still thermal","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":337.36,"end_s":344.24,"text":"throttled in performance mode but as our friend slave pointed out to us","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":341.68,"end_s":349.36,"text":"performance mode is a pretty ham-fisted way of optimizing your CPU","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":346.32,"end_s":352.479,"text":"by tuning the 12900k operating voltage","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":349.36,"end_s":354.56,"text":"load line calibration and turbo ratios","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":352.479,"end_s":359.28,"text":"he managed to use the extra thermal headroom of the copper prototype to","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":356.479,"end_s":365.6,"text":"squeeze out even better performance than performance mode and without any thermal","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":362.24,"end_s":368.4,"text":"throttling now full disclosure splave is","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":365.6,"end_s":372.639,"text":"invested as a partner with ice giant but that also kind of speaks volumes","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":370.639,"end_s":377.199,"text":"doesn't it if it's good enough for him it's probably good enough for me and so","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":375.44,"end_s":381.919,"text":"is our new ShortCircuit hoodie check it out at lttstore.com","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":1},{"start_s":380.08,"end_s":386.319,"text":"conversation here though copper thermal siphon very legal and very cool","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":1},{"start_s":384.96,"end_s":391.919,"text":"hopefully it makes it to market without costing too much more than the old aluminum one but i feel like there's an","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":389.84,"end_s":396.639,"text":"elephant in the room what is going on with computer chips right now AMD is","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":394.4,"end_s":402.24,"text":"jacking up their power targets for am5 NVIDIA is rumored to be hitting 600 to","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":399.12,"end_s":405.36,"text":"800 watts on their upcoming 4000 series","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":402.24,"end_s":408.479,"text":"and Intel is already shipping consumer","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":405.36,"end_s":410.96,"text":"products that are basically uncoolable","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":408.479,"end_s":415.039,"text":"unless you resort to this but you just cooled it Linus with that","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":413.68,"end_s":422.56,"text":"you might say well yeah but i used a prototype cooler","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":419.28,"end_s":425.28,"text":"on an open test bench and i did a bunch","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":422.56,"end_s":429.68,"text":"of other stuff that's not reasonable for the average consumer okay first up i'm","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":427.84,"end_s":434.16,"text":"using top of the line thermal grizzly thermal paste and second i have likely","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":432.56,"end_s":439.84,"text":"voided the warranty on both my motherboard and my CPU by installing","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":436.96,"end_s":444.24,"text":"thermal grizzly's CPU contact frame that thing i alluded to before","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":441.68,"end_s":449.199,"text":"in a nutshell it's a modification to the lga 1700 socket that ensures even","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":446.8,"end_s":452.72,"text":"retention pressure on the CPU for better thermal contact we'd like to do a","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":450.88,"end_s":456.24,"text":"dedicated video on it at some point but the short version is that without it","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":1},{"start_s":454.56,"end_s":460.639,"text":"we'd likely be running five or so degrees hotter during all of our tests","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":459.28,"end_s":465.759,"text":"that means thermal throttling on the 12900k right out of the box","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":463.44,"end_s":470.479,"text":"but hold on Linus you might say there are better water coolers out there that","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":468.0,"end_s":476.4,"text":"surely would handle the 12 900k without any of this nonsense everyone knows that","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":473.28,"end_s":478.56,"text":"240 millimeter rads like this one are","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":476.4,"end_s":484.56,"text":"weak sauce now well to that i would respond a no one says weak sauce anymore","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":481.68,"end_s":490.08,"text":"come on and b we actually pulled out an ek aio elite 360 for our comparison as","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":487.52,"end_s":493.84,"text":"well and found that it performed no better than our thermal siphon a little","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":492.4,"end_s":497.599,"text":"worse actually i've never seen that before i tried to","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":495.759,"end_s":500.16,"text":"pull it off the thing but instead of unplugging it ripped right out of the","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":499.12,"end_s":507.28,"text":"fan do you need to run any more tests with this i don't think so but","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":503.84,"end_s":507.28,"text":"yeah we can fix it i","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":508.639,"end_s":514.159,"text":"now all of this modification nonsense might be a price that you're willing to","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":512.88,"end_s":518.479,"text":"pay but frankly i'm getting kind of sick of","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":516.159,"end_s":522.399,"text":"hardware manufacturers redlining their gear out of the box to the point where","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":519.919,"end_s":526.56,"text":"we're forced to buy and install exotic modifications just to get the","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":524.24,"end_s":531.36,"text":"performance that we saw in a review i mean Intel can hide behind their default","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":529.36,"end_s":536.64,"text":"turbo behavior which does consume a lot less power but the","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":533.839,"end_s":541.92,"text":"truth is that all performance mode is doing is allowing these unlocked 12","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":539.2,"end_s":547.04,"text":"series chips to turbo at around 240 watts forever which is a behavior that","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":544.48,"end_s":550.32,"text":"Intel enables one behavior i'm okay with by the way is signing up at","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":548.399,"end_s":554.24,"text":"Floatplane.com for exclusive videos and behind the scenes like the extended cut","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":1},{"start_s":552.32,"end_s":557.839,"text":"of our call me chris collab back to until 12th gen though you","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":1},{"start_s":555.92,"end_s":562.08,"text":"shouldn't have to spend an extra several hundred dollars just to keep your 600","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":560.0,"end_s":566.0,"text":"CPU at a reasonable temperature under load but since you do it's still too","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":564.32,"end_s":571.2,"text":"early to say how much the copper thermosyphon will cost but the original","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":568.08,"end_s":573.04,"text":"was around 170 so expecting a small","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":571.2,"end_s":577.519,"text":"increase from there it's actually looking like a pretty darn good solution","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":575.2,"end_s":582.56,"text":"but it's not perfect RAM clearance is pretty good but it's","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":580.72,"end_s":586.24,"text":"going to cover up any RGB modules you might have and you can forget about","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":584.72,"end_s":589.44,"text":"installing this over top of Corsair dominator style dimms we've also","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":588.08,"end_s":593.519,"text":"complained to their team about their smooth standoffs and they're considering","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":591.44,"end_s":597.92,"text":"adding some knurling or striping to help install or remove stuck bits now that","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":596.24,"end_s":602.32,"text":"motherboards are getting so crowded around the CPU socket area another","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":599.839,"end_s":607.12,"text":"annoyance we really had to screw this thing down tight to ensure good contact","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":604.399,"end_s":611.6,"text":"that's even with the updated bracket and with the frame though it's a pretty easy","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":609.44,"end_s":614.64,"text":"to use mounting solution otherwise and finally we're hoping that the teammate","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":612.959,"end_s":618.959,"text":"ice giant can sneak i don't know what to call it but a bit more tolerance for","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":617.04,"end_s":622.64,"text":"user error into the design before it starts shipping worldwide it can be a","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":621.12,"end_s":627.279,"text":"little bit finicky to get a perfect mount on that subject i would strongly","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":625.36,"end_s":631.68,"text":"recommend against shipping your system with one of these already installed in","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":628.959,"end_s":636.399,"text":"it that is a key benefit of aio liquid coolers that can't be ignored","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":634.399,"end_s":639.68,"text":"not nearly as much weight on the socket you know what else you can't ignore our","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":638.32,"end_s":646.72,"text":"sponsor war thunder war thunder is a free to play online military vehicle combat game","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":1},{"start_s":643.44,"end_s":648.959,"text":"available on Windows mac Linux ps4 ps5","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":1},{"start_s":646.72,"end_s":652.399,"text":"xbox one xbox series x all with crossplay it features 10 playable","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":1},{"start_s":650.72,"end_s":656.48,"text":"nations and an incredible arsenal of more than 2 000 historically accurate","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":1},{"start_s":654.56,"end_s":660.399,"text":"playable tanks aircrafts and ships from the 1910s to vehicles still in service","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":1},{"start_s":658.48,"end_s":663.92,"text":"today you'll compete in massive combined arms battles on over a hundred major","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":1},{"start_s":662.16,"end_s":666.959,"text":"battlefields from world war ii to modern equivalence and war thunder's vehicles","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":1},{"start_s":665.44,"end_s":671.36,"text":"are implemented with a high level of authenticity and details so their speed","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":1},{"start_s":669.279,"end_s":674.16,"text":"armor firepower and model are as close to real life as possible without","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":1},{"start_s":672.64,"end_s":677.76,"text":"compromising on gameplay their damage models are realistic and dynamic adding","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":1},{"start_s":676.16,"end_s":680.72,"text":"a huge amount of depth that's rarely matched by other free-to-play games so","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":1},{"start_s":679.36,"end_s":684.88,"text":"head to the link below and start playing war thunder for free you'll also get a free bonus premium vehicle just for","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":1},{"start_s":683.76,"end_s":691.36,"text":"signing up if you guys enjoyed this video make sure to check out the 6.9 gigahertz CPU video","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":1},{"start_s":689.279,"end_s":694.24,"text":"that splave helped us out with that was a lot of fun","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":692.88,"end_s":698.0,"text":"hopefully it makes it to market without costing too much more than the old illuminate","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":696.88,"end_s":701.519,"text":"i'm gonna just snap one day","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0}],"full_text":"yeah oh my god if you want to tame the hottest gaming cpus the marketing says that you want water cooling but i'ma let you in on a little secret that's not actually true this is a thermosyphon and it is not your grandma's air cooler unless your grandma's a physicist and rides a bad ass motorcycle and reads you awesome bedtime stories about our sponsor war thunder war thunder is an online military vehicle combat game that's free to play and lots of fun learn more at the end of this video or try for free with a special sign up bonus at the link below the problem is that Intel's top of the line gaming CPU the core i9 12 900k runs so hot that even the legendary nhd15 the king of air coolers can't keep up with it i mean you could turn off performance mode or multi-core enhancement but at that point why did you pay 600 us dollars for a processor only to leave performance on the table oh and did i mention you'll still be maxing out at 95 degrees on an open-air test bench that means you're probably thermal throttling the second you close your side panel water cooling has advanced to help us tackle these ever hotter cpus in a number of ways stronger pumps more efficient cold plate designs larger radiators and by mounting them to the intake of a case we get to use the coolest air available to tackle the hottest parts of our machines but compared to traditional heat sinks even all-in-one water coolers like this one are more challenging to install expensive and they have more points of failure oh rate leaks are rare these days but a failed pump could easily put you out of commission for a while the good news is that while water cooling has been stealing all the headlines air cooling has been quietly improving in the background ice giant's first product the pro siphon elite blew us away by outperforming both this guy and 240 millimeter aio liquid coolers it works by using heat from the CPU to boil fluid inside the evaporator here that vapor makes its way to the condenser this large finned heatsink array up here where it cools liquefies and then falls back down to the evaporator creating a cooling loop with no moving parts the principle is actually similar to a heat pipe but almost simpler in a way because the liquid is moved back to the heat source by gravity rather than by capillary action thermosyphons must be mounted in the correct orientation but the upside is that they are not nearly as easily overwhelmed by a strong heat source enough about the old though where'd it go oh here it is let's talk about what's new ice giant just sent over a prototype thermosyphon elite with some really exciting upgrades the most obvious one is right here goodbye aluminum hello copper that was a good idea someone suggest that to them could be anyway this was done to improve heat conduction from the CPU into the thermosyphon but even more important are the boiling enhancements that they've made to the evaporator they've completely changed the layout of the fins inside here to create more surface area and they've added tiny pieces of sintered copper there as well not only do these also create more surface area for nucleation sites but these particles act as a wick to help distribute condensed liquid on the return trip sounds pretty cool but i wouldn't recommend buying one and certainly wouldn't recommend investing in ice giant apparently is undergoing a funding round right now until i have validated it for myself so we grabbed this a high-end test bench our frame from thermal grizzly more on that later and we slapped on all of our coolers testing them at around the same noise levels of a maxed out though still very quiet and hd15 that's roughly 47 decibels our og aluminum pro siphon elite was unfortunately the only cooler to thermal throttle in our 2000 sample classroom blender test disqualifying it outright but as you can see here our copper unit comes out on top beading knocked to us best by a whopping 5 degrees it was also the only cooler in our test that brought our 12 900k below 90 degrees under load admittedly this is on an open test bench where it doesn't have to contend with heat from other components swirling around it but it's still impressive however cranking things up a notch by enabling performance mode on our motherboard caused our CPU to draw another 20 to 30 watts resulting in a fail result for all three of our coolers to be fair 250 watts is a lot of power and if you want that kind of performance it's fair to say that you might have to make some sacrifices namely noise in an attempt to tame the beast we unlocked our ekaio and our copper prototype allowing their fans to ramp up to around 2100 RPM and then we re-ran our tests in both default and performance mode it cost us about 10 decibels in both cases but at Intel's stock power limit the copper prototype thermosyphon pulled ahead even further with a maximum package temperature of just 85 degrees celsius that's downright reasonable unfortunately it's still thermal throttled in performance mode but as our friend slave pointed out to us performance mode is a pretty ham-fisted way of optimizing your CPU by tuning the 12900k operating voltage load line calibration and turbo ratios he managed to use the extra thermal headroom of the copper prototype to squeeze out even better performance than performance mode and without any thermal throttling now full disclosure splave is invested as a partner with ice giant but that also kind of speaks volumes doesn't it if it's good enough for him it's probably good enough for me and so is our new ShortCircuit hoodie check it out at lttstore.com conversation here though copper thermal siphon very legal and very cool hopefully it makes it to market without costing too much more than the old aluminum one but i feel like there's an elephant in the room what is going on with computer chips right now AMD is jacking up their power targets for am5 NVIDIA is rumored to be hitting 600 to 800 watts on their upcoming 4000 series and Intel is already shipping consumer products that are basically uncoolable unless you resort to this but you just cooled it Linus with that you might say well yeah but i used a prototype cooler on an open test bench and i did a bunch of other stuff that's not reasonable for the average consumer okay first up i'm using top of the line thermal grizzly thermal paste and second i have likely voided the warranty on both my motherboard and my CPU by installing thermal grizzly's CPU contact frame that thing i alluded to before in a nutshell it's a modification to the lga 1700 socket that ensures even retention pressure on the CPU for better thermal contact we'd like to do a dedicated video on it at some point but the short version is that without it we'd likely be running five or so degrees hotter during all of our tests that means thermal throttling on the 12900k right out of the box but hold on Linus you might say there are better water coolers out there that surely would handle the 12 900k without any of this nonsense everyone knows that 240 millimeter rads like this one are weak sauce now well to that i would respond a no one says weak sauce anymore come on and b we actually pulled out an ek aio elite 360 for our comparison as well and found that it performed no better than our thermal siphon a little worse actually i've never seen that before i tried to pull it off the thing but instead of unplugging it ripped right out of the fan do you need to run any more tests with this i don't think so but yeah we can fix it i now all of this modification nonsense might be a price that you're willing to pay but frankly i'm getting kind of sick of hardware manufacturers redlining their gear out of the box to the point where we're forced to buy and install exotic modifications just to get the performance that we saw in a review i mean Intel can hide behind their default turbo behavior which does consume a lot less power but the truth is that all performance mode is doing is allowing these unlocked 12 series chips to turbo at around 240 watts forever which is a behavior that Intel enables one behavior i'm okay with by the way is signing up at Floatplane.com for exclusive videos and behind the scenes like the extended cut of our call me chris collab back to until 12th gen though you shouldn't have to spend an extra several hundred dollars just to keep your 600 CPU at a reasonable temperature under load but since you do it's still too early to say how much the copper thermosyphon will cost but the original was around 170 so expecting a small increase from there it's actually looking like a pretty darn good solution but it's not perfect RAM clearance is pretty good but it's going to cover up any RGB modules you might have and you can forget about installing this over top of Corsair dominator style dimms we've also complained to their team about their smooth standoffs and they're considering adding some knurling or striping to help install or remove stuck bits now that motherboards are getting so crowded around the CPU socket area another annoyance we really had to screw this thing down tight to ensure good contact that's even with the updated bracket and with the frame though it's a pretty easy to use mounting solution otherwise and finally we're hoping that the teammate ice giant can sneak i don't know what to call it but a bit more tolerance for user error into the design before it starts shipping worldwide it can be a little bit finicky to get a perfect mount on that subject i would strongly recommend against shipping your system with one of these already installed in it that is a key benefit of aio liquid coolers that can't be ignored not nearly as much weight on the socket you know what else you can't ignore our sponsor war thunder war thunder is a free to play online military vehicle combat game available on Windows mac Linux ps4 ps5 xbox one xbox series x all with crossplay it features 10 playable nations and an incredible arsenal of more than 2 000 historically accurate playable tanks aircrafts and ships from the 1910s to vehicles still in service today you'll compete in massive combined arms battles on over a hundred major battlefields from world war ii to modern equivalence and war thunder's vehicles are implemented with a high level of authenticity and details so their speed armor firepower and model are as close to real life as possible without compromising on gameplay their damage models are realistic and dynamic adding a huge amount of depth that's rarely matched by other free-to-play games so head to the link below and start playing war thunder for free you'll also get a free bonus premium vehicle just for signing up if you guys enjoyed this video make sure to check out the 6.9 gigahertz CPU video that splave helped us out with that was a lot of fun hopefully it makes it to market without costing too much more than the old illuminate i'm gonna just snap one day"}