NexXxoS XP is here
 

The Alphacool NexXxoS XP arrived.

As requested, I have not opened the block and will not open it prior to shipping to Phaestus, and it is also requested that it not be opened prior to Phaestus testing it.

Been playing with it for a while, and given it a number of mounts.

Brief summary (my opinions only):

Extremely well made. Nice and shiny all over. Made out of solid metal. Am unsure of what the middle and top plates are, but judging by the weight of the block, they would appear to be bright nickel-plated copper. Very pretty.

Cooling performance is very impressive - however the mounting mechanism is a socket tab hold down with a screw that presses onto the middle of the block above the CPU. As a result of this I have absolutely no idea how much pressure is being applied to the CPU (Athlon XP-M), but I tightened it until the block did not even wiggle against the CPU die, which means that it's very, very tight, and definitely far, far tighter than I regularly mount my blocks. I did it this tight more because I wanted to feel absolutely positive that the block was making strong contact against the CPU, and at the point where I couldn't even twist the block against the CPU, I felt safe that it wasn't going anywhere.

This is something that will probably need to be addressed prior to formal testing by Phaestus as greatly increased mounting pressure can easily result in a 1-2C difference at the sorts of heat loads I'm testing at.

I won't state my performance figures, because they are inconclusive due to the mounting pressure issue, suffice to say that I'm fairly confident that the block will compete at the highest level and give the current top-runners in Phaestus's roundup a good run for their money.

The XP comes with 1/4" BSPP threads, making it suitable to directly attach 1/2" OD barbs onto it, which is what I've gone and done, and I'll ship the block to Phaestus with the barbs attached.

Base-quality finish is MUCH better than the old HP I had. Again, a highly-reflective finish, but still some minor visual distortions present if held at an angle and viewing distant straight-edged objects. Probably not enough to present any issue other than to say that there is still a small amount of room for improvement. I hope Alphacool doesn't take offense at me saying that - it's just that after dealing with many different blocks, especially Swiftech's or Silverprop's, it is a noticable difference.

For overclocking purposes I saw what I needed to see. I'm hesitant to say more lest people think I have a conflict of interest here on this issue, and in some ways I can understand if people would think that.

I'll send the block off to Phaestus, along with an in-line strainer as well 'cos he'll need it, and let him formally review the block.

I also have a NexXxoS HP Pro here as well for AMD, and I will also be sending that to Phaestus.

Sweet. Cant wait... Man that took a really long time to get to you :D

By top runners, do you mean the cascade SS included? ;)?

No comment. I deliberately wanted to avoid giving any specific frame of reference this time around after the brouhaha last time.

I sure hope you send him the small barbs it came with. let him test it in its stock condition.


Jon

The Alphacool blocks do not come with any barbs at all. I installed the barbs as suited both Phaestus's and my setups, being 1/2" OD.

eh ?
is this the 'normal' configuration ? (i.e. how they sell/ship in Europe)

Yep it's "normal." I got my nexxxos without barbs also. None of the Alphacool blocks ship with barbs. They should come with some damn fittings for the prices they're charging people.

IIRC you choose the type of fitting when you buy so maybe you can choose no fitting at all?

lets hope canadian customs don't do their worst...

i imagine a lot of the users use various push-fit fittings....

Just what sort of problems have happened with Canadian customs service?

they stopped a couple of heatsinks from ThermalRight, revalued them, and wanted me to pay the duty and some fees associated with their charging the duty. I told them to go **** themselves and return to sender. Other than that just the normal everyday $10-50CAD charges I get to receive stuff to review. It's a crapshoot though if they happen to open it up then I'll get charged extra usually

humpf
your friends are liars ??

Quite a different scenario here in Australia. So long as it's below around $200 Aussie (~$150US), then stuff gets by customs without fuss. For while there many Australian's were buying CD's on-line from the USA, and the various US companies were aware of the Australian's custom's limits, and sending CD's over in multiple bundles, with each bundle totalling just a couple of dollars less than the cut-off.

Then the government stepped in, said that CD's were to be charged under a separate tariff cutoff (~$50 from memory), but fortunately backed it up by breaking the monopolistic practices of the record companies in Australian that were previously charging up to 150% more than the US prices (which is why the whole CD importing thing got so big in the first place).

Cathar, are you willing to comment on the shape of the XP's curve?

Actually I will run that test soon. I think that I need to retest my results with it, especially given a number of anomalies that confused me when I tested it. I suspect that my thermal sensor is not as insensitive to small block sizes and secondary cooling of the probe as I previously thought. When dealing with blocks of the same sort of size, it's been fairly consistent, but I was seeing some weird stuff going on with the XP which allowed for a large gap between the hot caps and the block, allowing for a lot of cooling air-flow to get into that region.

To be specific, the overclocking ability did not seem to match with the temperatures shown.

I now have a motherboard that reads the on-die thermal diode and am seriously considering giving that a go.

So what's up with these Alphacool blocks? I'm going to buy a Koolance Exos soon and these blocks seem to be the best of the 8mm lot. Certainly better than anything Koolance or Innovatek offer.

The major bottleneck of a koolance is the radiator, id imagine; perhaps better to address that first (or at the same time).

Any idea of the releasedate yet?

Not to get too far off topic, but the radiator is actually pretty decent. The odd thing is though, that Koolance uses 3 80mm fans instead of 2 120mm fans that would fit perfectly, while being quieter and moving more air. I'm just going to switch them out for a couple Sanyo Denki's anyway so it doesn't matter. I might swap the pump though for a more powerful submersible one and take the extra pump out.

do you know the specs on the Koolance fans ?
make, model #

Cathar, which motherboard did you get?

I had to read 5 reviews and blow up numerous screenshots, but it seems only System Cooling was diligent enough to make note of what fans were used. They are:

80mm Ruilian Science 12V 0.35A RDH8025B

Ruilian is now Xinruilian apparently and this is what their website, translated from Japanese says:

Nagao factory original model
80x80x25mm 3000rpm 30.78dB (A) largest airflow 40.81CFM
3pin pulse sensor attaching rib attaching
The Miniature Bearing make 2 ball bearings
*Long-awaited H fan appearance!

http://www2.ko-soku.co.jp/sales/fan/...n/rdh8025b.jpg

Bam. Yes sir, I do believe they're crap.

Though according to the reviews their only 28cfm fans, so maybe the Xinruilian site is a bit optimistic.

Any update on the status of these blocks?

i got my 2 days ago