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Iceberg 1 Water Cooling Kit
Introduction
Processors are in a group called the "hot mofo's." They usually have the highest heat output of any computer component. For years we have been battling this heat with giant heatsinks and noisy fans. Recently water cooling has come out of the underground and has become a lot more mainstream than we all thought. You can buy complete water cooling kits without having to worry about leaks or other nuisances. The only downside I see is the price. A good kit can cost you over 200 bucks easily. Fortunately there are companies out there that are selling kits for under $100. Of course these kits most likely won't be great performers, but they are good for those seeking quiet cooling solutions or someone just trying to get their feet wet. ExoticPC / ColorCase was kind enough to send us the Iceberg 1 water cooling kit from Ahanix. This is a very cheap kit, but how does it perform? The Basics of Water Cooling Your basic heatsink/fan is used to transfer the heat from the CPU to the heatsink and then to the air. The fan helps circulate the air for better heat transfer. Air cooling is fine up to a point. Overclockers have to remove a lot more heat due to the higher processor speeds and most air cooling solutions do not transfer heat well enough. This is where water cooling comes in. Water transfers heat much better than air. Instead of attaching a heatsink to your CPU, you attach a water block. This is usually a hunk of metal with inlet and outlet tubes. The heat from the CPU is transferred to the water block, then to the water. The water then travels through a tube to the radiator which dissipates the heat. The cool water then goes to the pump and back to the water block. The Icerberg 1 Upon opening the box, I noticed that the entire kit was already assembled. All the tubes were attached to the block, the pump and radiator. What you get with the Iceberg 1 is: An aluminum water block A bag of screws A reservoir with a pump inside An 80mm fan Tubing A bag of other mounting hardware    The water block is constructed entirely out of aluminum. A copper water block would transfer heat better, but it would cost more and defeat the purpose of a budget water cooling kit. The bottom of the block isn't lapped too well, but you get what you pay for.   The Pump is located inside the reservoir. The water surrounding the pump will dampen any noise emitted by the pump, but the heat from the pump is transferred to the water. The pump is capable of pumping 150 GPH (gallons per hour). With a cheap kit, you get a cheap pump.     The radiator is fairly small, fitting a single 80mm fan on each side. The small size is good for mounting almost anywhere in your case, but it also means less cooling performance. A larger radiator would increase the overall performance of the kit.     The tubing included in this kit is rather small. Larger tubing would decrease flow resistance thus providing better temperatures. Installation Since everything was already connected, installation was a breeze. All you have to do is clamp the water block to the socket and mount the radiator/fan. Before installing the kit in the computer, I first filled it up with distilled water and Water Wetter. Water Wetter keeps the different metals inside the kit from corroding and keeps algae from growing. Then I placed the kit on a table and let it run overnight to check for leaks.    You would think that will a preinstalled kit, there would be no leaks. Well I was wrong. Water can leak out between the reservoir and the lid. Because of this, I did not place the reservoir inside my case. Instead I placed it to the side on a towel.   Performance Test Rig Specs AMD Athlon 1700+ DFI Lan Party KT400a 2x 256 Meg Samsung PC2100 Geforce 4 Ti4200 Sound Blaster Live! Windows XP To test the performance of the Iceberg 1, I used SiSoft Sandra's Burn In Wizard for 30 minutes. I used Motherboard Monitor to record the CPU's Idle and Load temperatures. During testing, I placed the reservoir inside the case. The case was closed during all tests. I ran idle and load tests with a single fan on the radiator (Which the Iceberg 1 came with) and 2 fans on the radiator (Added a second 80mm fan).
Conclusion The Iceberg 1 has its pros and cons. It has a very low price tag, was extremely easy to install, and was fairly quiet. For what the Iceberg 1 does right, it sure does have its share of cons. It does not perform better than the Aeroflow, which was a major downer. The leaky reservoir is a major problem. If you move your case at all, or if the water reaches the top of the reservoir, there is a large chance that water will leak out, possibly frying your computer. Personally, I don't see any reason to buy this kit unless you just want to get your feet wet. If you are looking for quiet, there are quiet air cooling solutions which are much cheaper and DON'T LEAK! Pros Quiet Prebuilt Cheap Cons LEAKS! Performance **UPDATE** (07/12/03) ExoticPC / ColorCase has a money back guarantee on the pre-installed kit if the unit leaks. Hopefully your unit will do better than ours did. 
Related Reviews Water Cooling February 3, 2004
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Add Comment
51 User Comments 1 - Posted by
handrail
on July 11, 2003 - 8:40 pm wow, what a POS! 5.5 was about 5 too generous in my book of references. i also love the fact that they sent a review site a leaking cooling unit. yet another piece of crap to stay away from. Thanks TTL!! :lol: 2 - Posted by
hone
on July 11, 2003 - 10:39 pm 5.5? That's a positive score. I was thinking -25/10. Definitely going to stick w/ my aero 7+. Can you guys do a comparison b/t the aeroflow and the aero 7+ oh and how much quieter is it compared to the aero 7+?
3 - Posted by
Brian
on July 12, 2003 - 12:33 am Kurtis is on vacation for about 2 more weeks and the Aero 7+ is at his house. I haven't messed with the Aero 7+ so I cannot compare.
4 - Posted by
corinthian
on July 12, 2003 - 2:53 pm I dunno, call me old fashioned... isn't water cooling just ASKING for trouble? I mean, this can hardly be the only leaky unit on the market, and it would stand to reason that many wouldn't be so courteous as to leak outside the case, but would instead do it 6 months later when you're really screwed.
5 - Posted by
Kurtis
on July 12, 2003 - 4:38 pm I agree, I am hesitant to put WC in my case... but I can replace all my parts easily over time, unlike you guys who have to pay for every single thing you get. It is really a shame that some companies sell products that can ruin your computer, and of course, take no responsibility for it.
6 - Posted by
Brian
on July 12, 2003 - 5:19 pm If you take the correct precautions, and do everything right, then you don't need to worry about leaking. I have a Swiftech water cooling kit in a computer right now, been there for a week and there are no leaks what so ever. It's basically a "you get what you pay for" deal. 7 - Posted by
roblae
on July 12, 2003 - 6:59 pm Weird that the kit was prebuilt usually those kits are in separate parts. You have to put the pump inside the reservoir and the tubing is not connected. but still you get what you paid for... not much :lol: 8 - Posted by
Brian
on July 12, 2003 - 7:46 pm I believe that ExoticPC actually puts the kit together and sells it prebuilt as an option. All I had to do was attach is to the socket and the case.
9 - Posted by
outputrotation
on July 13, 2003 - 11:38 pm You mentioned something about quieter coolers for less, which ones would you recommend checking out? The fan I have right now makes my ears bleed. 10 - Posted by
hone
on July 14, 2003 - 3:11 am well the zalman for the p4 or the aero 7+ for amd for regular heatsink fan type coolers.
11 - Posted by
Anonymous
on July 14, 2003 - 1:57 pm The conotation from the beginning is negative... remember its a low cost ENTRY level water cooling kit. Anyone with half a brain knows that for 100.00 dollars, they are not buying the uber watercooling kit here. Your words speak volumes about just how little you know about watercooling and whats available at what price/s. Terrible article considering i own the product and got better results then you did. Did you spend 15 minutes on this report? 12 - Posted by
handrail
on July 14, 2003 - 2:16 pm well, yeah. the connotation is negative from the beginning, it didn't work. if he told us it was a great deal for $100, that it never leaked and stayed dry as a bone it would be called "lying". they aren't trying to sell used cars here. and Brian did mention from the beginning that it was a cheap, entry level cooler. but, many times cheap doesn't always mean crappy. yours works fine, his didn't...doesn't exactly mean that it is a well made work of technological art. i have a the vantec aeroflow cooler, it is cheap and works like a champ. perhaps if you read the rest of the reviews you would note the even-handed discourse TTL gives. 13 - Posted by
Anonymous
on July 14, 2003 - 3:00 pm it leaked because the tester didnt align rubber seal properly , period. hey no need to stick up for the writer... im just disagreeing with every part of the read . no debate needed 14 - Posted by
Brian
on July 14, 2003 - 3:06 pm Thanks for the very insightful input and what-not, but you are wrong. No debate needed. The kit was preinstalled; therefore it is the manufacturer's fault. I tried several times to fix the leak and it was a no go. 15 - Posted by
Anonymous
on July 14, 2003 - 3:11 pm np... hey when it quacks and walks like a duck - also noticed how open your forum is to anyone ELSE besides yourself posting a question and/or an new topic. i realize this seems like an assult to you , but what is the deal with that? 16 - Posted by
Brian
on July 14, 2003 - 3:21 pm Oh and to your first post: Your temps may seem better because you have a lower ambient temperature. The ambient temp. over here is 29*C while the case temp was 31*C. Another reason could be due to you having more case fans or a CPU that doesn't get as hot. Because no one will ever get the same exact temps with the same products due to these variations and others, you should not just look at the temps for the one product. I included the Aeroflow temps in the review to serve as a comparison. That way you get an idea of how well each item cools compared to the other. 17 - Posted by
Anonymous
on July 14, 2003 - 3:47 pm well of course and the sky is blue and air you breathe... in california with no air conditioning on two months ago(you do the math ambient temp wise) on 1700+b attained 103F. just sitting there. with my 2000+ it was at 105F in windows. With my Barton since core just that much bigger, it outweighed the fact i was at 200x11 with a native 3000Barton.= 107F . i can compare this watercooling kit with my HHC-001 ... but i dont . why would i do such a thing? 18 - Posted by
Brian
on July 14, 2003 - 3:52 pm Since you have all the other temps recorded, why not the ambient temp? It is kind of hard to do math with nothing but variables. The sky is blue? Damn, I was way off. 19 - Posted by
Anonymous
on July 14, 2003 - 3:57 pm :shock: :D :o :lol: omgoodness im still waiting on why others cant post and ... oh ya its the math .hey if your ego is on your sleave and someone new tries to post a disagreement with an article written, do you handle all of them this well? editted 20 - Posted by
Brian
on July 14, 2003 - 4:03 pm Why can't others post? You tell me because I have no idea. I believe there is a little button at the top and bottom of every page allowing someone to post. Maybe you can tell me why they DON'T post. You are apparently psychic or something. You "know" what testing I did, and you "know" that my temps are wrong. So you should "know" why they don't post. I'm thinking its's probably due to the fact that you and I are the only registered users online right now? Is that possible? So now instead of delaying your response, why don't you tell me the ambient temperature? Or should I be psychic like you and "know" this already? And I will disagree when a kid comes onto this board and makes dumb claims and accusations about something that they can't back up. When all they can do is try and mock something unrelated to the article. 21 - Posted by
Anonymous
on July 14, 2003 - 4:36 pm ok superstar take it easy ... my mistake . This young person got you all upset. all my cpu's reach 20-25% above whatever the ambient is ... but you know this already cause you do reviews errrr so my temp here two months ago were 75-85 F. mkay? oh btw most people who do reviews , when sent an item that is not perfect 100% dont continue with the review until Said maker can be told "hey ! how can i do a decent review with this pos you sent me"? if the rubber gasket was broken or malaligned from the factory ... God knows what else isnt the way it should be. your anger is totally misdirected at a person who knows better my reply has everything to do with the article... 22 - Posted by
Brian
on July 15, 2003 - 12:27 am That is not a quote of me, so it doesn't apply and you are taking it out of context. Had you read his whole statement, you would know that he is not being egotistical and is simply stating a fact. There is a difference in debating something, and being an asshole trying to make someone look bad. The ego thing is an example of the off topic mockery I am talking about. Ok, now talking to a company and getting new parts and fixing the problem, then posting a good review of the product is horse shit. We recieved a kit that leaked, and every person that buys that kit has a chance of recieving a leaking kit too. The readers would then see a review of a good kit that had no leaks. When in actuality the kit sucked and DID leak. As for misdirected anger, you have some problems. You are not here trying to maturely debate something, you are here to be IMmature and flame. Please go find something else to do, such as growing up and stop wasting space on the forum. The whole point of the forum is to maturely converse with fellow viewers. You, apparently are too immature to handle such a large responsibility, so I suggest you leave if you cannot clean up your act. I am willing to discuss this with you, but I really don't care to listen to some kid rant about bullshit and resort to defamation and petty mockery. 23 - Posted by
Anonymous
on July 15, 2003 - 12:57 am lemmie ask you a simple question so you know where im coming from... what if msi sent you something or better yet , what if nvidia sent you something that was similar to what Ana sent you - you would roust them the same way you did iceberg? i think not.You would have been a polite sob and called them to say ,'hi um nvidia, hi its me Brian at techlounge ... ya techlounge and well the item you sent me doesnt quite work , can you send another so i can do a proper review ..." AND no its not uncommon to call a vendor up and complain you havent received this or that from them and/or to complain that item sent was not whole/perfect. If i was a sponsor i wouldnt trust this site to making unbios'd opinions because so-an-so sent you a faulty item to test and this is how you addressed them sending you a faulty item... like, "ill just give a terrible review , that will show them not to send me faulty equipment again". How insanely arrogant You are, your site has barely any advertising and you think and talk like that ... amazing your doing this well. And you bet this is a flame towards your review, correct 100%. 24 - Posted by
Brian
on July 15, 2003 - 1:05 am Well lets thing about this for a second. This site is not run to get free stuff from sponsors. This site is not run to persuade sponsors to send us more if we give them good reviews. This site is not to "fix" crappy hardware and write a good review on it. If NVidia sent us a card that sucked, we would review it and say it sucks, regardless of what NVidia thinks and even if they decide not to send us anything else. Apparently you think we should be unethical just to keep the hardware reviews going. We don't do that. Maybe you should go visit THG, they are probably more your style. If our site goes down the hole because we don't give good reviews on crappy hardware just to please sponsors, then so be it. About the advertising bit: We don't do alot of advertising because we feel it is a waste of space. We do a little so we can pay for items to make our reviews better. We don't make profit of the site and we don't care to. This is a hobby, not a career. 25 - Posted by
Anonymous
on July 15, 2003 - 1:11 am no if something is crappy , its crappy. if a vendor sends you something that (broke in the mail, the dog chewed on,water gasket doesnt keep water out etc ... whatever) you dont try and do a reveiw about it . And i know you dont do this for free gear (even though Kurtis stated otherwise...) and of course you dont give a favorable review unless deserved. YOU SIMPLY DONT REVIEW SOMETHING THAT ISNT 100%. You cant weasel your way out of being lame , sorry. 26 - Posted by
Brian
on July 15, 2003 - 1:11 am There is a difference between disagreeing and flaming. You are flaming the review, you are flaming our site, you are flaming me. You are not trying to discuss something and fix the problem. You are just here to annoy people and make people look bad. I feel sorry for you that you must do this to boost your self esteem. It's sad really.
27 - Posted by
Anonymous
on July 15, 2003 - 1:17 am no its really not about me , i just cant stand to see someone who should know better , doesnt. its unbecoming to the whole forum community... your review was bad. Not the fact that the product might not be to your liking ... it leaked (which you assume to be part of the equation maybe) and thought," hmm a customer might get a leaky unit so ill say just that." Its a decent unit that works better on larger die p4's etc but nooooo its a leaky pos that you cant believe was made ... unbelievable 28 - Posted by
Brian
on July 15, 2003 - 1:18 am If something broke during shipping (even though the packaging was excellent) or if my dog chewed on it (which wouldn't happen because we are responsible with the items we review) then we would not write a bad review due to those problems. Please quote where Kurtis says that he does all this for free gear. I do not believe he has said that without sarcasm or joking. You are just taking things out of context. I am not weaseling out of anything, no matter how much you want me to be. You know nothing of how we work and how we handle things. You are judging us by what you think we do because you "know better" and you "know exactly what happens and how we handle things." 29 - Posted by
Brian
on July 15, 2003 - 1:23 am Damn right the leak will lower the score. The product is defective. Many other reviews on this product have claimed other defect such as cracking of the res after a month of testing ( this is on several occasions, not just one ). And what about the performance? The kit doesn't perform well enough to spend $90 on it. If the kit is 4-5 times the price of a better performing and quiet air cooling solution, why the hell would you buy it? And you want to talk about unbelievable? How about a kid that flames me because "i am wrong" and you don't even know half the facts. That is unbelievable. 30 - Posted by
Anonymous
on July 15, 2003 - 1:26 am im not judging you (well now i am) , all i said was your review sucked basically and you got all bent out of shape acting like,"Im megloman ~ what i say is final and all bow down before me ..." and yes I friggin know Kurtis Meant to say it better , but the way he said it came out terrible and sounded so. 31 - Posted by
Brian
on July 15, 2003 - 1:41 am So if you admit you are making arguments based on things you know to be false, what is the point of arguing? Go back and read your first few posts. I am just defending my position and you are using immature tactics to try and best me. Never did I say I know all and I am not forcing my views on anyone else. I am pointing out that you are making judgements based on things you do not know. Since your arguments obviosly have no merit there is no point in you continuing. 32 - Posted by
Anonymous
on July 15, 2003 - 1:48 am im not trying to best you ... with 311 total posts , you think thats difficult to do? your review still sucked a monkeys arse and sounded like you had a bad week bofore you decided to do the review. Nothing you post can deviate from that, and thats what im hammering in to you.
33 - Posted by
Brian
on July 15, 2003 - 1:52 am What does post count have to do with this? You are just trying to make me say I'm wrong. I won't because I am not. I'm sure plenty of people hate our reviews and our site. That's fantastic. Are they here pointlessly flaming me? They have better things to do, apparently you don't. Find something to do. Something productive would be great.
34 - Posted by
Anonymous
on July 15, 2003 - 1:55 am ill tell you why your wrong , ive been waiting for a long time so here goes. Its CALLED TORQUE SEQUENCE, YOU NEED TO TORQUE THE BOLTS IN A PARTICULAR ORDER OR IT WILL LEAK EVERY TIME . You say you tried to fix leak and whatever? Bull because anyone who works with watercooling ALOT know this simple auto technique. So ya in every way imaginable, your wrong Brian... yes it does happen and you are wrong today. 35 - Posted by
Brian
on July 15, 2003 - 2:03 am WOW! YOUR AMAZING. YOUR COMPLETELY RIGHT! That's probably because I did it already. Thanks for the breaking news Mr. Obvious. Once again you are just arguing based on what I am supposedly not doing. Key word here is supposedly. 36 - Posted by
Anonymous
on July 15, 2003 - 2:04 am did you actually say this ? the mere fact you say this tells me im not the only one to object to something at this site...
37 - Posted by
Anonymous
on July 15, 2003 - 2:05 am then what ? you could not align the small detailed item like the gasket? and i could ? what makes me so special mr reviewer? 38 - Posted by
Brian
on July 15, 2003 - 2:07 am Because your ignorant. For that reason and more, don't expect me to reply. I'll ban you for flaming but I'm sure you'll be back just to "hammer it into me."
39 - Posted by
corinthian
on July 15, 2003 - 9:39 am OK, boys... let's lighten up a little, here. Righteous indignation only goes so far. This is Brian's board, and he will run it how he wants. That is his choice. I read it. That is my choice. If he starts doing shit I don't like, I will stop reading it. Your time is your currency, spend it where you like... I don't know what you call it, I call it capitalism. 40 - Posted by
caniswolfie
on July 15, 2003 - 9:45 am Yeah, this isn't getting anywhere, how about agree to disagree. I read this board cause I like it and I don't see any problems personally about what happens here.
41 - Posted by
handrail
on July 15, 2003 - 10:02 am sweet jumpin' jebus on a pogo stick!! get over it. i get different readings from what TTL gets all the time. i have also purchased equipment based on their reviews. what they write isn't holy law, it's opinion. and, i think between the two of them, they have enough tech smarts to install a cooling block properly. they weren't making a personal attack on your special little piece of equipment. it didn't work. i'm glad that they did a review on it and it was junk. and, since you seem able to read only this one particular review, kurtis and brian do give bad reviews to stuff that doesn't work, regardless of the manufacturer. we call this fair reporting. try clicking on link bar on the left under REVIEWS. then read. if you are having trouble with the bigger words, go here: http://www.hop.com you want positive reviews all the time, go to tom's. although, you seem more suited to hardOCP to me. they are a bunch of whiney lamers too. not that i think you will be able to respond to this in a during the workday. maybe during a studyhall you can fit in a response, or during recess. 42 - Posted by
Brian
on July 15, 2003 - 5:26 pm Yeah, I got a little carried away with arguing. It was the first real dumb person on the board, and I gotta argue at least once! :-P 43 - Posted by
handrail
on July 16, 2003 - 8:25 am i think you held your own, slugger.
44 - Posted by
Brian
on July 16, 2003 - 12:01 pm Oh, and if anyone finds cursing offensive please let me know. I don't want to offend anyone if possible.
45 - Posted by
Kurtis
on July 21, 2003 - 4:34 pm what was that all about, what is your problem? I was simply saying that manufacturers should not sell faulty products like the Iceberq since the customers that buy them depend on it working or all their stuff is ruined. I didn't insult anyone saying I can get free stuff or something and you can't... that wasn't what I meant at all and I think everyone but you knows it. Noone else took offense to that bc everyone here knows me, you need to calm down and stop being so defensive. If a pre-installed product if faulty, we will give it a bad review, end of story.
46 - Posted by
Kurtis
on July 21, 2003 - 4:42 pm My virgin ears, they are bleeding... hehe. And btw, what we say IS in fact holy law :wink:
47 - Posted by
handrail
on July 21, 2003 - 5:11 pm yes your Popeness. i will buy the aero 7+, as so sayethed by the tech lounge. amen 48 - Posted by
Kurtis
on July 21, 2003 - 6:45 pm lols, bring me my Popemobile
49 - Posted by
ok then
on July 28, 2003 - 2:08 pm I red the original review,and then red the posts about the article. Now i re-read the origianl article and notice it has been changed and re-written... was re-write done because that mad guy was sorta right ? thanks TL 50 - Posted by
Kurtis
on July 28, 2003 - 2:17 pm i don't believe it has been changed or re-written. My partner, Brian, did the review, so I may be wrong though. What seems different to you? To answer your question, no, the guy that posted before was not partially correct. This is a poor kit by any standards, leak or no leak. Even without the leak, you still get very poor performance, air cooling gets better results. With that being the case, there is no way you can justify purchasing this kit.
51 - Posted by
Brian
on July 28, 2003 - 3:31 pm I only made one alteration to the review and that was to note Color Case's money back guarantee. The review was not rewritten, nothing else was changed and nothing else will be changed. The "mad poster" said the article had been changed in an email to me, and nothing had changed. You seem suspiciously similar to the "mad poster" since you two are the only ones that have this idea that the article was changed.
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