CoolerMaster AquaGate-Mini Review

CoolerMaster AquaGate-Mini Review
Posted :: Mar 28, 2005 by Impact

CoolerMaster was kind enough to send us a review sample of their latest water-cooling system, the AuqaGate-Mini. The Mini comes in two sizes, and both of them use the same pump and waterblock, but you have the option of a 80mm radiator and fan or a 120mm radiator and fan and boasts a low pricetag ($89 MSRP), but can it stand up against a larger system?

Hardware:

Athlon XP2100+
Abit NF7-S (revision 2)
Radeon 7000 All-in-Wonder PCI
128mb Kingston PC3200
20gb Maxtor 5400rpm
Ultra 600w PSU
Generic CD-RW drive

Software:

Windows XP Home (SP1)
PCMark04
Motherboard Monitor 5
DirectX 9.0c
Windows Media Player 10
Windows Media Encoder 9
Latest ATI Drivers
NF7-S Drivers (from CD)

Note: This computer was never connected to the internet to ensure security and cleanliness.

Introduction:
When I first opened the box, my initial reaction was "That’s it?" It seemed like I was missing something. The box contained a rather large waterblock (reservoir and pump inside it), a radiator (attached to the waterblock via two hoses), the fan, and a box of screws and assorted brackets, but that's everything.

Included:
It is convenient that the waterblock, pump, and radiator all come pre-connected via hoses. The package also comes with an 80mm fan (they sent me the 80mm version), and a box of brackets. The fan has a nice potentiomer (aka "knob" or "variable resistor") attached to it, which is used to vary the speed of the fan. The white box contained all sorts of other gadgets such as brackets for fitting the block to many different chipsets (LGA775, K8, Xeon, P4, and K7 to be exact), some thermal grease, and a PCI slot cover that can be used to attach the fan knob to a PCI slot.