[pHaestus]

OK I am gonna chime in here with my thoughts and perhaps some optimism?

I think that if I were to start posting technical content that Les, Cathar, Bill, and co would all come out of the woodwork and the site's tech discussion would revive. I feel a little guilty for having avoided doing so.

But my hangup is that I really don't think that the testing people expect me to do is actually needed or justified. My honest opinion is that any commercial wb you pick up now is going to perform well enough that it is not the limiting factor in your cooling loop. So mounting simplicity, looks, personal preference (brand identity) and cost become the major deciding factors. It has been that way for a while. Also the waterblock designers are slowing waaay down as well. I haven't tested a waterblock in over a year, and I think I missed 2 products in that time that are of note: The cooltechnica wbs and the Swiftech Apogee.

So what I think is really needed is something quite different from high tech water cooling component testing. What people really need (when I say people I mean enthusiasts in general and not just Procooling regulars) are guides on how to best mix and match components for their needs. A well-written article that compared all of the different reservoir/filling solutions and loop placement of them would be more USEFUL than 100 more waterblock reviews. A series of reviews of commercial cooling systems and the resulting airflow/cooling in a test system would also be more useful. That old "euro vs. US cooling system contest" if it had happened was a step in the correct direction compared to where we actually ended up.

Honestly people come to this site still because they trust me and Joe to tell our real opinions on products and they have that trust because history shows us to be (mostly) qualified to give those opinions. If we transitioned to more generally of interest testing questions then I think we could still make some good progress in advancing/championing water cooling.

But I don't think I can get much enjoyment or do much good at this moment by "just" testing wbs.

comments?