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Z4 Waterblock


Date
: 10/17/01 – 11:03:09 PM

Author
:

Category
: Cooling

Page 1 : Introduction

Manufacturer: Overclockers Hideout / CPU F/X
Price: $39.95

Introduction

It has been a while since O posted its review of the Blizzard, Overclockers Hideout’s top of the bill watercooling setup. Back then, I was very much impressed with it and I am still using it in my own rig as I write this. Although the Blizzard performs great, Scot – owner and designer of all OCH products, felt there was still room for improvement and with that the ‘Z4 Intercooler’ was born. Today I am reviewing the most essential part of the kit, namely the ‘Z4 Aqua Heat Sink’ waterblock.

Overclockers Hideout has been around for quite some time now, being one of the most innovative hardware stores on the web. If you care to find out how their latest design performs, I strongly suggest that you keep on reading as O is taking the Z4 to the max … the sky is the limit folks!

Page 2 : Specifications

Specifications

Now I already told you that this beast is called ‘Z4 Aqua Heat Sink’ but what does that mean? What’s underneath the hood, or what isn’t? Let’s see what OCH writes about their new high-end waterblock shall we?

- 13.5′ cooling channel
- superior adonized 3/8′ fittings
- CNC machining
- Stainless steel
- Comes with screws, springs, … to mount the unit

The new waterblock has a very good water channel on the inside … unlike many other waterblocks, it is not made out of a copper block that has been drilled into 4 times to create a water channel. The Z4 has a maze cooling channel, which means the water enters the block in the center and goes around in rectangles to finally reach the end of the block and flow back to the reservoir.

Fact that the water is ’shot’ in the center of the block when entering it is a very good thing … because exactly below the center of the block is the cpu core. With the water being aimed at the core, lower temps are achievable compared to blocks were the water enters at one side and leaves at the other.
After the water has hit the center spot of the Z4, it is forced into the maze which guides the water all the way through the block not leaving one dry spot. The water is than pushed out of the block and goes back to the reservoir, after passing through the radiator of course. As the speclist shows, the water goes through a 13.5′ long cooling channel … sweet huh? This design makes optimal use of the entire waterblock and should result in lower temperatures, which again results in higher overclocking results :).

In order to get the water in the block, fittings are installed onto it (d’uh!). However, the Z4 doesn’t come with fittings we saw on previous OCH blocks or on waterblocks made by other manufacturers. Instead, they opted to equip the Z4 block with brand new 3/8′ adonized amluminium fittings, which apparently are also heat dispersing. I must say that they look much better than the previous fittings and I applaud Scot for implementing them in his products.

Since everyone and their cat knows that copper guides heat better than aluminium, it is obvious that this block is made out of copper. But unlike other blocks that passed the revenue at O, the Z4 uses both copper and aluminium. There is one other waterblock out there who uses this kind of setup, and that’s the one from Swiftech.The copper that is used in the Z4 is not normal copper but a copper alloy. This means that the copper has aluminium inside, at a molecular level. In the end you get best of two worlds: the copper pulls away the heat fast from the cpu core and the aluminium quickly releases the heat to the water.



Last but not least, Overclockers Hideout includes everything in order to mount the Z4 onto your cpu. Unlike with the Z3, they are using the 4 holes around the socket to mount the block. Just put the included bolts through the board, sldie the Z4 over it, install the springs and tighten the bolts down. Although this mounting system takes more time than a clamp, it is more secure.

Page 3 : Performance

Performance

Some people are going the watercooling way because they are sick of those little 60mm whining all the time, driving them mad. Others turn to water because aircooled heatsinks just can’t deliver the results they want/need … Noise is a relative concept because some people think a Delta fan is noisy when others feel a 747 is pretty quite ;p. I could go and buy a device to measure the noise, but still it would be depending on the case, room, … there are too many variables. I do can say this about noise: I prefer the low rotating sound from a 120mm fan compared to the high pitched sounds from a ultra fast 60mm fan. So a watercooling setup with a slow 120mm fan will outperform a aircooled heatsink and be a lot better for the ears too :).

Now when it comes to performance, we can measure that. What I did was compare the Z4 to all the aircooled heatsinks we tested in our shootouts. This will give you a good view on what the Z4 can do for you.

Here is our test setup:

- IWill KK266
- AMD 1.4GHz Athlon
- 256MB Crucial PC133
- Hercules Kyro II
- NIC
- Windows 2000 + SP2 + VIA 4.33

Pretty sweet heh? As you can see the Z4 outperformed every single aircooled heatsink out there, even the big mofo’s like the Swiftech and the Vantec. And while being more quiet too! How sweet is that?
Somestimes the degrees you gain thanks to water will increase the overclocking potential of your cpu too. When you cpu boots in Windows at a given speed but crashes after a few minutes, water can get you a stable system. Of course, when the system won’t even post at a given speed, don’t expect water to change that for ya … be realistic.



All in all I am very satisfied with the performance of the Z4, as it cools very well and it outperforms the Z3 by 3 degrees. Outstanding!

Page 4 : Conclusion

Conclusion

The Z4 is Overclockers Hideout’s new top performer waterblock and they are absolutely right: it screams! It outperforms all waterblocks we have as well as all the aircooled heatsinks we ever tested … If that doesn’t do the trick nothing will. For those who want to watercool their videocard as well, OCH released a Z4 Videocard block. It looks identical to the Z4 but smaller … quality is from the same high level. If you don’t have a watercooling kit yet, you can also get the Z4 Blizzard kit that adds a radiator, 120mm fan, reservoir, pump and tubing to the list. The time that watercooling was for freaks only is long gone … time for all the others to step into our footsteps ;).

Good

- Performs excellent
- Looks great (very shiny too)
- Good price
- Secure mounting system

Bad

- More difficult to install than an aircooler heatsink

UPDATE: Overclockers Hideout is offering all readers of O a 5% discount when they buy the Z4. Just add the following code to your order: ‘OCH001SWM’. This discount will be available until 23th October so use it! Thanks to OCH!