Installation

Wow, this was quite the mission. Through little fault of XSPC, but mainly a compatibility issue with my Thermaltake Armor case. For some reason the 120mm radiator would not fit where my 120mm fan sits at the back of the case. Also, when trying to mount it outside the case instead, I realized that the TT armor has mounting clips not screws, so there was no go there. I pondered and chin scratched for a bit, eventually coming up with idea to fit the radiator to my spare, front mounted HD cage which had a fan sitting on the front of it. This turned out to be quite difficult but possible.

After some serious messing about and some sliced fingers the HD cage was finally attached to the radiator and fan. However this now presented a problem because I was unable to have this radiator in the front of the case, clipped in properly, without it getting in the way of the front dust collectors. O how annoyed I was by this point. I resorted to moving the rad back slightly and by a stroke of luck just managed to get the clips hooked into the HD cage, holding the rad and fan in place.

At this stage I left I connected up the tubing to the radiator, pump and CPU block and leaving the latter outside the case, preceded with the 24 hours leak testing. For this I placed some kitchen roll around each barb to see if any moisture was picked up at all.

Fortunately when I returned the next day all was well. I then began the mandatory removal of my motherboard’s original CPU cooler mounting block, and then began attached the screws that were there to make sure that the CPU block sits on the processor nice and tightly.

This is where things got complicated. I went to place the CPU block over the mounting screws, and it simply wouldn’t fit. Needless to say I was a bit confused, but not to be defeated I whipped out a file and filed the edges until the screws fitted perfectly. Job done. Now with the heatsink sitting nicely (with a blob of AS5 to compliment the kit) and the radiator in place, all that was left to do was to stick the pump in place behind HD cage, excellent.

Now with the kit gurgling away happily inside my case I bandaged my wounds from the mounting and prepared for the testing.

NB. For the record, after showing this review to XSPC’s marketing rep, I was informed that the wrong mounting plate had been send. They were fantastic and sent out the correct mounting plate straight away, kudos to them. Their reputation was restored in my mind :).

Here are a few pictures of the kit installed in my rig: