pompeytom247 Posted March 20, 2016 Report Share Posted March 20, 2016 XSPC Raystorm DDC Photon RX240 Comparison Test. Following my review of the Thermaltake Pacific RL240 water cooling kit, I thought it about time that Thermaltake Pacific RL240 was tested against the competitors in market place. First I’m going to look at the XSPC Raystorm DDC Photon RX240 V3. The XSPX Raystorm kit again includes everything ÂÂÂÂthat you will require to complete your water cooling loop. However one thing that was apparent straight away was that there was no premixed coolant supplied & for the price of this kit coming in at around £244.80 it’s a shame that £10 worth of premixed coolant has not been included. The XSPC kit once taken out of the plain brown box is of high quality, a long way from the early XSPC water cooling components. The kit includes, Raystorm CPU cooler - Acetal Photon reservoir 170 incl. Pump RX240 V3 Dual radiator (240 mm) 6x fittings G1 / 4 inch to 1/2 inch - Black Chrome 2x 120 mm fan (1,650 U / min) 2x fan grill - black Installation material for Intel and AMD 2x 3-mm blue LED (4-pin Molex connector) 1x blue 5mm LED (4-pin Molex connector) 2 m of transparent tube (inner diameter: 11 mm) 24-pin ATX Power Jumper K2 Thermal Compound compatibility: Intel LGA 775, 1150, 1155, 1156, 1366, 2011 2011 V3 AMD Socket AM2, AM2 +, AM3, AM3 +, FM1, FM2, FM2 + I’m taking a brief look at each of the XSPC Water cooling kit components, before assembly into the chassis. CPU Water block – The Raystorm is well constructed using a copper base & well CNC’d fin arrangement, the Acetal top is nicely finished & the block comes with all the necessary fitting brackets to cover all known sockets. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pompeytom247 Posted March 20, 2016 Author Report Share Posted March 20, 2016 Pump reservoir combo – is again well constructed & the pump is Laing D5 just like the Thermaltake unit. Again the speed is set to No:- 2 of the Laing D5 Vario pump which insures that the pump operation is very quiet. Radiator – The RX240 V3 Dual radiator (240 mm). I’ve used many of these in the past in water cooling systems, from the old RS radiators right up to the new RX range with no problems whatsoever. The RX240radiator uses a copper & brass core & is more than efficient in the modern water cooling world. Fittings & Hose – The fittings have come a long way since the early years of XSPC compression fitting. The Black Chrome 3/8†fittings supplied have a good finish with no blemishes during the chroming process & have a well manufactured thread making these easy to tighten. The hose supplied is 3/8†I.D & 5/8†O.D. It not Tygon by any means but is supple enough to obtain a good radius bend. Cooling Fans – The fans are of reasonable quality running at a full speed of 1650 R.P.M & XSPC offer 2x fan guards which is a good idea if you don’t want your fingers hit by the fans, but also add a slight restriction to the air flow. Using the same test rig / chassis as used for the Thermaltake Pacific RL240 test, only 4x 4.5mm holes were required to be drilled into the Thermaltake F51 chassis to mount the XSPC Pump / reservoir combo. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pompeytom247 Posted March 20, 2016 Author Report Share Posted March 20, 2016 Once the pump reservoir combo is fitted in position in the Thermaltake chassis, I’ve opted to fit the radiator again in the same layout as the Thermaltake kit. This is so I can make a comparative test for each kit or at least as close as possible. The Raystorm water block fitted very well onto the test motherboard & with the LED lighting supplied it does look pretty trick, if you like that sort of thing. After purchasing some cooling fluid that was not supplied in the kit, I’ve used XSPC’s own EC6 Non Conductive Coolant - UV Blue. The system was filled & soon bled without issue after a few times of turning the pump on & off. Testing the thermal properties - The important part of the review! Using exactly the same hardware as per the Thermaltake Pacific RL240 test previously carried out & the ambient temperature at almost the same, I set prime95 running & periodically took screen shots of the test rig temperatures below, The XSPC Raystorm DDC Photon RX240 V3 does not perform as well against the Thermaltake Pacific RL240 water cooling kit, although nothing to really split hairs over to be honest. The ambient temperature was slightly lower 1-2c than when the Thermaltake kit was tested. Next I am going to be testing an EK KIT-X240 & I think that there is not going to be much difference in performance between all three 240mm kits I’m testing, it is going to come down to cost, looks & manufacturer. Once the last report is finished, I shall make a brief conclusion to all three kits tested, performance, looks, ease of fitment & value for money. ThermalMike 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThermalMike Posted March 21, 2016 Report Share Posted March 21, 2016 Nice Review! Thanks for all the details and look forward to your final results. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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