Introduction

I have been fidgeting around with water cooling for some time now. Our first review of a water cooling kit was the budget Ahanix Iceberg 1. If you decide to jump into water cooling, do not expect a budget kit, such as the Iceberg 1, to provide good temperatures. The cheaper kits usually don't perform much better than a much, MUCH cheaper air cooling solution. Today we will be looking at Aron's Crossover Mission 5 water cooling kit courtesy of Xoxide. This kit, another budget solution, is around $40 more than the Iceberg 1. Will it perform better than the Iceberg 1? Let's hope so...

Crossover Mission 5

I received the Mission 5 packaged well and unharmed. The product packaging was decent, using flexible foam to protect the items. Included in this kit is a CPU water block with AMD and P4 mounting hardware (Able to utilize socket mounting or screw mounting), a small radiator that fits a single 80mm fan on each side, a reservoir/pump combo, several feet of tubing, and a few elbow joints. Also included is a small, flimsy manual with roughly translated instructions.


Water Block

The water block included with this kit is constructed completely out of copper, unlike the aluminum block included with the Iceberg 1. The Inlet and Outlet connectors on the water block are at 90* angles. This isn't necessary and will restrict water flow throughout the loop. The connectors use a quick connect mechanism that will hold the tube in place using tiny metal teeth that grab hold of the tube.


The base of the block has a protective sticker on it. Removing the sticker reveals a decent lapping job.


As I mentioned before, there is hardware included for mounting the block on both AMD and P4 systems. You can use the included clips to mount the block to an AMD socket, or use the screws and bolts to mount the block to the motherboard itself. There are also 2 acrylic blocks that are used in conjunction with the stock P4 mounting system to easily mount the water block on a P4 system. The kit includes two LEDs and the proper connectors to light up the acrylic blocks.


The Radiator

The radiator included with this kit is rather small. The radiator is basically a winding copper tube with aluminum fins. The radiator can have two 80mm fans mounted on it, one on each side in a push-pull configuration. No fans were included with the kit. The radiator, unlike the water block, does not have the quick connect fittings for connecting the tubes. Instead, there is a slightly larger Silicone tube included with the kit. You must cut the Silicone tube in half, and insert the copper tubes from the radiator in one side, and the regular tube in the other side. Despite how poor the connection seems, it does a good job of staying leak free.


The Reservoir / Pump

The pump included in this kit has a cylindrical reservoir securely attached to the inlet. The pump looks very similar to the pump included with the Iceberg 1 kit. I prefer to have the pump outside of the reservoir instead of submerged like in the Iceberg 1. If the pump is submerged in the water, the heat generated by the pump is transferred into the water and will decrease the kit's efficiency of cooling the CPU. The only good thing about having a submerged pump is the water dampens any sound created by the vibrating pump. This pump is quiet enough that it wouldn't make much of a difference anyway. The only specs I could find about the pump is that it runs on 7v. The pump/reservoir uses the same quick connect fittings found on the water block.


The pump is mountable via four (4) suction cups located on the bottom of the pump. This dampens any vibrations caused by the pump, but the reservoir is another story. The reservoir has nothing to keep it from hitting the bottom of the case, thus any vibrations from the pump will cause the reservoir to rattle against the case. To counter this I decided to place a small rag underneath the reservoir to absorb all the vibrations. Problem solved.


Installation

Installing everything was a breeze. Simply cut the tubing to the desired lengths. Then connect the tubing to the water block and pump using the quick connect fittings. To attach the tubing to the radiator, you simply insert it into the larger Silicone tubing and insert the copper radiator tubes into the other end of the Silicone tubing.


No anti-corrosive agent was included with the kit, so I used some good old Water Wetter. Simply fill the reservoir and turn on the pump. Keep filling the reservoir until the entire loop is filled with water. I then placed the kit on top of some paper and let it run overnight to check for leaks.


The next morning I awoke to a leaky water block. I figured it was the quick connect fittings, so I checked those, but the water wasn't coming from there. I then thought the water could be coming from between the outlet barb and the block. I unscrewed the barb, removed the teflon tape, and applied a good layer of my own teflon tape. I then connected the kit again, and ran the kit for a few hours. Water was still leaking. I took the barb off again and applied a massive amount of teflon tape and even then, it still leaked. I then realized that the leak must have been coming from a screw hole used to mount the base of the water block to the top of the water block. I decided to take apart the block to check and see if that could be the case. I was right. Silicon goop was used to make a seal between the two copper halves. There was no Silicone to keep water from running from the inner tube to the screw hole.


We contacted Aron (the manufacturer), and soon enough, we had a new, leak free block. At least the customer service was good.

After running the kit overnight, again, I awoke to a leak free setup. Now for the testing.


Testing

I tested this kit against the Iceberg 1 on a P4 2.4C. Idle tests were run with the computer running in Windows XP for about an hour to let the temperature stabilize. Load tests were done using Prime95 for an hour. I used two Thermaltake 80mm fans for the radiator during testing.

The case temperature was within .5*C of 32*C during all testing.

PCMark02
(Show All Graphs) (Collapse Graphs)

Idle

Load

Stock

Mission 5 (2 Fans)

Mission 5 (1 Fan)

Iceberg 1 (2 Fans)

35

36

38

38

0

Temperature ( °C )

100

 

 

Idle

Load

Stock

Mission 5 (2 Fans)

Mission 5 (1 Fan)

Iceberg 1 (2 Fans)

55

50

55

51

0

Temperature ( °C )

100

 

 

The Mission 5 did perform better than the Iceberg by a few degrees. Using only one fan with this kit isn't recommended, as the load temperatures definitely get up there. Of course, both kits performed better than the stock P4 cooler during load testing. I believe a larger radiator would definitely increase the performance of this kit, and Aron does produce a kit with a 120mm radiator.

Conclusion

I was hoping that the Mission 5, being a budget kit like the Iceberg 1, wouldn't run into the same problems as the Iceberg 1. Sadly, the water block leaked, other kits won't have this problem (I hope). Thankfully, Aron has great customer service and we had a leak free block in days. Installation was extremely easy, especially with the quick connect fittings. The lack of suction cups, or other dampening device, for the reservoir will cause noise due to vibrations. Performance wise, this kit is better than the Iceberg 1, but once again, a much cheaper air cooling solution would perform better with roughly the same noise levels (depending on what fans you use with the kit).

Pros

Decent quality
Quiet cooling (if you fix reservoir vibration)
Inline pump
Quick connect fittings
Good customer service
Several mounting options

Cons

Cooling performance lacks (much better air cooling solutions)
Water block leaked (but quickly replaced)
Not worth price/performance