So today I have a pretty cool unboxing of something that at the time of
unboxing it is not released, but by the time I release the video, it will be
released. So this is the Intel Thermal Solution RTS 2011 LC for TDP up to 130
watt. Yes, that is Intel's awesome and
like cool marketing name. And by
marketing name, I mean I mean part number for their new liquid cooler for
their LG 2011 processors. And it's not only for their LG 2011 processors.
Actually, they outline on the front of the box here, check this out, that is
good for 2011, 1366, 11, 1156, and 1155.
Now, one difference between this and competing liquid cooling solutions such
as those from Corsair or Coolit or uh
Anttech or whoever the case may be is that this one does not come with any AMD
mounting hardware. I know, right? Very
unexpected. So, we've actually got a trial cameraman with us here today. I
just thought I'd let you guys know that. And uh I saw on one of the other videos
I uploaded, you guys are already making comments on what you think of the
various camera people we're trying out. So, I'd be happy to hear your comments,
and I'm sure he'll be either happy or or
disappointed to hear your comments. And apparently, there's a CPU in here,
although I really really don't think they're all going to come with a
CPU. So, yeah, let's look at the uh
documentation that's included. First, we've got the Intel RTS 2011 LC liquid
cooling solution, which includes installation instructions and a three-year warranty. That's awesome,
actually. That's outstanding. Having a three-year warranty on a cooler like
this important. Do not fully tighten, okay, until they're all partially
engaged. That's good. These are all good instructions. Here's little diagrams
showing you what to do and what goes where and how to mount on AMD. Oh, no,
not on AMD. Never mind. No, no, this only mounts on Intel sockets. Haha.
Okay, so there you go. These are actually fairly detailed. Plug the thing
in the thing and you're done. Okay. Uh, let's look at the included mounting
accessories and whatnot. I like the environmentally friendly packaging here.
So that's all recyclable material. So this is actually different.
This looks like the probably OEM by ASET
based on Yeah. Yeah. There there's an ASICH logo right there on the back of the back plate. So you can see it's got
the 1156 1366 and 775 mounting here. And
then it looks like the way Okay. Here's the retention
ring. All right. And then what else have we got here?
Okay, we've got some thumb screws. Nice big thumb screws. So, you have the
option of either screwing them in with your fingers or screwing them in with a
Phillips head screwdriver. Got some other more different
ones. All right, we've got what look like aluminum
spacers. Okay, we've got some double-sided uh sticky pads, which are
going to prevent your motherboard from being shorted out by applying the back
plate. All right, we've got some screws. So, these are your fan mounting screws
as well as your radiator mounting screws. I'll show you how those work in a minute. We've got some Intel approved
thermal compound, which comes in a little baggie. And we have some zip
ties. Look at that. Intel includes zip ties for you. Actually, two things of thermal compound. Very nice. All right,
let's have a look at the unit itself. The first thing I want to check out is
the fan because my expectations for this fan based on how cool it looks are
pretty high. This is actually a blue fan. And you know what? Let's pause the
video for a minute and let's go check out the color. So, there you go. That's what the fan looks like when it's on.
It's pretty cool. Or as my little brother would say, super cool. Okay, so
it's got three LEDs which are all on the central hub, not on the frame like we're
used to seeing on fans. Okay, it's not
incredibly loud by any stretch of the imagination, but I think that it's
running at 100% right now because that header is not speed controlled. So,
we'll go back and we'll have a look at the unit itself. So, one of the first
things I notice about this particular guy right here is that it looks pretty
similar to the Anttech 920 in that it has uh this awesome awesome tubing. So,
look at this. I can take this tubing, I
can twist it up, and I could mount my CPU here and I could mount my tubing
like that and it would not kink. This is nice thick wall, flexible tubing, and
you should not underestimate the importance of that when you're doing a
liquid cooling setup. Tubing is
imperative to the overall performance
because if it kinks, performance will suck and if it doesn't kink, performance
will be good. It is the difference between suck and good. So, very, very
nice, very well thought out. And it's expensive, too. Bear that in mind.
Tubing is very expensive. So putting in a high quality tubing is something where
Intel is saying, "Okay, we're going to spend extra money on this unit to make
sure that it performs well in any given scenario." Another thing I noticed right
away is that it uses a thicker style radiator. This is another thing that I
cannot stress the importance of enough. Liquid cooling is not a magic bullet. It
comes down to the same basic principles of moving air and surface area. The only
reason liquid coolers perform better than air coolers is that we're able to
take that surface area, move it very efficiently away from the CPU, and then
disperse it somewhere else on something that is bigger and has more surface area
than a typical heat sink that you can put directly on a CPU socket. So, using
that thicker style radiator versus the kind that is used on something like an
H50 is definitely a good move for Intel.
Last but not least, we've got the pump and CPU block combo unit. So, you can
see here that there are actually Oh, neat. Okay, so there's actually a power
lead here. So, that's going to plug into your four pin PWM CPU header. And then
there is an additional power lead, and that is
a I can't remember whether it's male or female, but the point is that it plugs
into the fan. There you go. So, that one runs the fan. So that means that all of
the logic for controlling pump speeds as well as fan speeds is all based on the
unit itself. Here we've got a copper base, which is pretty much par for the
course. If it's using anything but copper, it's going to see slightly
degraded performance. All right. And I think that pretty much covers
everything. Oh, you know what? That looks like it lights up. Let's go back to that test bench and find out if it
does. So this is a lights on simulation of what the unit will look like. There
we've got the fan installed on the
radiator as well as the CPU block unit installed on the CPU. So you can see
both the Intel logo and the cooled by acet parts at the top actually light up
blue which looks really cool. And now let's do a lights off shot of this. And
here is our lights off look at the unit. Very very cool looking. Definitely one
of the best looking liquid coolers that I have seen to date for these pre-done
pre-filled units.