Thermaltake Bigwater 745 Liquid Cooling System Review
Features of the Thermaltake Bigwater 745What's in the Box Inside the package with the Thermaltake Bigwater 745 you get the following items:
CPU Waterblock The CPU waterblock that Thermaltake uses is a acrylic topped unit with a blue LED to illuminate the block when power is on. The base of the waterblock is made from solid copper. Looking at the bottom of the waterblock, it is highly polished and had no noticeable nicks or scratches on the surface. Light machine marks were noticed on the contact surface of the block. The circular portion of the block is to ensure compatibility with Intel BTX. In addition to BTX the block is also compatible with Intel LGA775 and all AMD K8 series CPUs.
The top surface of the waterblock has the barbs for the tubing screwed into the acrylic surface. Around the top of the hose barbs are o-rings that smash down between the barb and the surface of the block to prevent leaks. To add more bling to the waterblock, a blue led illuminates the clear top making the coolant glow when the system is in use.
Coolant, Tubing, Pump & Tank The water pump and tank connect together with a simple compression type fitting, they are not screwed together at all. This struck me as a bit odd, but no leaks were noticed during use. The pump itself is rated for 400 L/hr and is nearly dead silent, Thermaltake added a blue light on top of the pump so you can tell when the pump is running. Screw holes in the base of the pump allow you to secure the pump to the bottom of your case if you desire. The pump bearings are ceramic coated for longer life.
Thermaltake used barbs with nuts to secure the tubing to the radiators, waterblock and pump/tank combo. To connect the tubing, you press it down onto the bard and then screw the nut down on top to keep the tubing in place. Tank capacity is 350cc and the tanks is marked to show high and low fluid levels. On the tank is a threaded fill cap that you can remove to add to the coolant level. The opening could be larger, it was a bit difficult to get the coolant into the tankone the tank was inside the case. The tubing is 3/8" diameter and made of a flexible material, though it is much more rigid than Tygon type tubing. The tubing is also made of a green UV reactive material so it glows nicely even under non UV light. Thermaltake also includes a 500cc bottle of coolant that is also the same UV reactive green color as the tubing. If you intend on using all of the included tubing during your install or even coming close to using all the tubing, you will need additional coolant. The tank alone can hold 350cc and when I filled my system after install I needed another 250cc to 300cc of coolant and I had about 16 inches of tubing left over. Radiators For maximum cooling capacity Thermaltake includes two radiators with the Bigwater 745. You get an external 240mm radiator and a smaller 120mm radiator that can be mounted inside the case if needed and if your case has enough room inside. If you can't squeeze the 120mm radiator inside your case, you can mount it on the rear of your case as well. The 120mm radiator's fan spins at 1300 to 2400 RPM and puts out 38.6 cfm to 93.7 cfm with a noise output from 16 to 30dB.
The larger 240mm external radiator is equipped with two stands that allow you to place it horizontally on the floor or on your desktop if wanted. The fans on the large 240mm radiator are not speed adjustable, but the fan on the 120mm radiator is speed adjustable via a fan speed controller that is included with the system and mounts in a vacant expansion slot on the rear of your case. The 240mm fan moves a max of 54.4 Cm and puts out 26dB of sound.
Thermaltake Bigwater 745 Installation Installation of the Bigwater 745 system was moderately difficult. If you decide to go with liquid cooling, this is a great system to choose. Just be sure that you are comfortable with working inside a computer case and have the correct tools for the job. You will need to remove the main board from your chassis as well as remove the heat sink/fan combo to install the CPU waterblock and support bracket on the rear of the mainboard.
Once you have the mainboard out of your chassis and the stock heat sink/fan combo off the CPU you are ready to install the bracket that goes on the back of the board to support the waterblock. This portion of the installation was a bit nerve racking for me. The board I used for this installation was the Abit AW9D-Max and it had some raised solder points right where the bracket needed to lay for proper alignment of the waterblock. However, my worry was unfounded as Thermaltake had recognized this issue and included a thick foam spacer that allows the raised solder to sink into the foam surface and allowed for proper alignment of the support bracket. Installation of this step was easy and took about 30 minutes counting removing the board and stock heatsink. Once the bracket is secured in place on the rear of the mainboard I was ready to secure the waterblock to the CPU. Four screws pass though the support bracket on the rear of the board and are what is used to secure an identical bracket on the top of the board that presses the waterblock to the CPU. It is important to note at this point that you must use the included thermal paste between the waterblock and the surface of your CPU. You should not try and reuse the thermal paste left over from the original heatsink. Once you have the thermal paste applied and the bracket aligned it is time to secure the waterblock to the top of the CPU with the top bracket and included thumb screws.
This compete step took me an additional 20 minutes and was not overly difficult. After attaching the waterblock I set about trying to find a suitable location inside my Cooler Master Stacker chassis for 120mm radiator. I had hoped to install the radiator internally, but it just didn't fit. Even inside the cavernous CM Stacker 830 there just wasn't enough room for me to install the radiator. I ended up flipping the fan around per the instructions for external mount and securing the 120mm radiator on the rear of my chassis without issue. After finding the location for the 120mm radiator I started looking for a location to install the tank and pump combo. Again I had a bit of difficulty finding a suitable location inside my chassis for the tank/pump Thankfully, my Stacker has a hard drive cage that is movable and I was able to relocate the cage higher into the chassis to free up room in the bottom of the drive area for the pump and tank. Not the ideal location, but it worked.
After fitting the pump and tank I was ready to run the tubing to the components. Thermaltake recommends going from the pump to the CPU, from the CPU to the 120mm radiator, from the 120mm radiator to the 240mm radiator, and from the 240mm radiator back to tank. There is more than enough tubing to accomplish this routing scheme. You have to take care to not kink the tubing by making turns that are too sharp or cutting the tubing to short causing extra tension in the circuit. Thermal take includes a bracket to route the tubing out of your case and back in to get too and from the external radiator. The tubing was easy enough to cut and securing it was as simple as pushing it onto the barbs and then securing it with the compression nuts. Once I had the tubing installed I was ready to fill the system and check for leaks. Thanks to the odd location I ended up having to install my pump and tank, it was difficult to fill the tank with fluid. I ended up using an extra piece of tubing as a funnel to fill the tank. 500 cc of coolant is include with the Bigwater, and it just isn't enough. I mentioned before that I didn't use all of the included tubing and still ran short on coolant. This is a pretty big oversight if you ask me on Thermaltake's part. To not include enough coolant will leave many users of the system scrambling to get more. I ended up diluting mine with distilled water to have enough to complete installation of the system. Thermaltake needs to double the amount of coolant at minimum that they ship with the Bigwater 745. In total for the compete installation of the Bigwater 745 from Thermaltake took me about 2 hours from unpacking to turning the computer back on. Thermaltake Bigwater 745 Performance If you are a hardcore overclocker, liquid cooling systems from the likes of Danger Den and other manufacturers will likely offer higher performance for your needs. However, for casual overlclockers and those looking to make their systems quieter the Thermaltake Bigwater 745 is an excellent option. The heat/sink fan combo I was using prior to the Bigwater was a high performance unit from Zalman called the Fatal1ty for the LGA775 Intel Core 2 Extreme X6800 CPU I use in my system. At idle with default CPU settings on the Zalman fan my system ran 35C degrees with ambient room temps at about 80F(a bit under 27C). With the same ambient temps in the room the Thermaltake Bigwater 745 kept the Core 2 Extreme at 28C idle temp. That is a bit over one degree higher than room temp. Under full load with looping 3DMark06 runs going the Zalman fan kept the CPU at 48C. Bigwater kept the CPU at 41C under full load with the same 3DMark06 loop running. Note: All temps were taken with the Abit uGuru panel via the built in temp probes on the board.
Good performing liquid cooling system with no glaring issued during install other than not having enough coolant included. The components are of good quality and the system will work with most current CPUs. The system components are large, be prepared for creative installation and possibly having to mod your chassis to fit the system inside the case. Hardcore overclockers may want to shop elsewhere, but the majority of liquid cooling users will find the system to be great for typical needs and much better than high performance air cooling. Great performance for cost sets the Bigwater 745 apart from its peers. I4U Rating
Test System Specifications:
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