Building a crazy gaming rig is not something everyone can handle. One of the biggest constrains in building top of the like pc is of course cash. Depending on what you really want your system do, it could come up to be a rather expensive project. No matter what your budget is you always want to start with the CPU. CPU speed is incredibly important and well the faster the better. So once you have chosen your CPU its time to think about cooling it. Let's face it, it is crucial to keep your cpu temps as low as possible. For a gamer pc it would definitely be a challenge. Today's gamer is your average over clocker and they push their hardware to the limit on every occasion they can get. Today we are going to be taking a look newest generation of CPU cooling by Thermal Take, Water 2.0 Pro and Performer. A big thank you goes to TT for providing us with these incredible, self sustained cooling units. Water 2.0 has been designed to support a wide range of CPU sockets with focus on bringing and keeping temperatures as low as possible no matter what are the circumstances. Let's spend some time taking a look at Water 2.0. Promise not to bore you:)

About the Product

Following information is taken from the Thermal Take's web site.

Water 2.0 Pro (CLW0216)

Features

Specification

Water 2.0 Performer (CLW0215)

Features

Specifications

Water 2.0 Performer vs Water 2.0 Pro

Now that we got basic information out of the way, lets take a closer look at both models of Water 2.0 (Pro and Performer).

Closer look

Front Shot		Rear Shot

As you can see from the pictures above, Pro and Performer versions of Water 2.0 are not all that different from each other. The only way to tell them apart is to look at the specifications on the back of the packaging. But look at this beautiful packaging! I think Thermal Take did a great job putting all this together to offer a complete package for a potential buyers.

Side Shot		Pro vs Performer

On the side of the packaging we found rather extensive information about the Water 2.0 units. Both units support the same CPU socket types (Intel: LGA2011, LGA1366, LGA1156, LGA1155, LGA775 AMD: FM1, AM3+ AM3, AM2+, AM2) however, what you want to watch out for is the Radiator Thickness and Radiator Cooling Surface Area. Thermal Take is not trying to confuse people here, you can clearly see that the larger the cooling area the better performance you are going to get out of the unit. If you are planning to use a LGA 2011 socket then you might think carefully of what you really need.

Out of the box		Pro vs Performer

Both of the units come with not one but two 120 mm fans which you will use in your installation, Radiator Tank, Radiator CPU Block, a set of mounting hardware and instruction booklet. I strongly advise to take a look at the instruction booklet as it tells you what hardware you need to properly mount your new water-cooling unit. As you can see from the picture above the Pro version has a slightly bigger radiator and a bigger CPU block unit but the construction of both of these units is very solid.

Radiators		Hosing connections

The radiators are made from what looks like steel and you can clearly see that they are very well designed and tamper proof. In fact you never need to open these radiators to add liquid or anything to them. Thermal Take is using a self-sustained liquid system to take care of that problem. The hoses that are connected to and from the radiator are rubber and very thick and do not look like they are designed to come out.

CPU Block		Thermal paste compound

The CPU block is a very interesting piece of Water 2.0. The CPU block has a plastic build however it securely attaches itself to the actual copper head heat sink. The copper block already has thermal paste on it and this should work out nicely with the installation.

CPU Block connection		Hardware bag

The rubber hoses are connected to CPU block just as well as they are connected to the radiator. One thing to note here is that the connection on CPU block is allowable for the hoses to be moved left and right depending on the need. As we have mentioned earlier, Water 2.0 comes with a hardware bag which allows you to attach the CPU block to pretty much any socket out there.

LGA 2011 Mounting Hardware		Size Comparison

I strongly recommend looking at the instructional manual when assembling the unit. There are set of configurations which are differing from socket to socket and if you want a proper installation you need a right set of hardware. I have taken a picture with our motherboard and Water 2.0 Pro next to it. Pretty massive construction if you ask me.

Over the CPU		Great Clearance

For our testing of Water 2.0 Pro and Performer we are going to be using latest LGA 2011 socket with GA-x79-UD3 motherboard. The most challenging part was to get the right hardware mounting for the LGA 2011. We referred to the instructional manual and found the correct configurations in a matter of minutes. What I thought was very cool is that there is nothing you need to mount on the motherboard itself as LGA 2011 has a screw able space right on the socket.

Mounted		Rear Shot

Mounting radiator was a pretty easy. Actually the radiator itself mounts on top of the 120mm fan which itself mounts on the back side of the case. We are using Cooler Master Cosmos II case in our testing and clearance of Pro and Performer was just great. We had absolutely no issues with CPU block as it nicely fit in the proper place.

Water 2.0 Pro		Water 2.0 Performer

Complete installation took close to 15 minutes and we had no issues with Pro or Performer what so ever.

Testing

Let's take a look at some testing data for Water 2.0 Pro and Performer. Right from the start Thermal Take tells you that Pro Will out perform Performer. I have no reason to doubt TT but how will Water 2.0 help us running newest CPU on the market at high speeds? For today's benchmarking we are going to be using prime 95 to over load our system. We will address and take measurements with trusty Core Temp and CPU-Z. What we are going to do here is take 3 readings, one in idle, one in OC idle and one under Prime 95 benchmark. Please keep in mind that both of these water cooling units were broken in for about 2 days each before we have ran our benchmarks.

Water 2.0 Pro

CPU-Z Stock Pro		Core Temp Idle Pro

First we have taken a look at Water 2.0 Pro. In idle state temperatures were relatively low. Running at about 3.6 GHz temperatures were as slow as 26C and as high as 45C. Not too bad if you ask me.

CPU-Z OC @ 4.5GHz Pro		Core Temp OC Idle @ 4.5GHz Pro

After about 20 minutes we have spiked up our i7 3960x to 4.5 GHz and the temperatures in idle state jumped just a tad. Here we saw temperatures as low as 38C and as high as 54C.

Prime 95 @ Stock Pro		Prime 95 @ 4.5 GHz Pro

When running Prime 95 at stock CPU speed things got a bit interesting but then again very much expected. Lowest temperature on cores were 34C and highest 60C. If you look at the over all number that is only increase of about 6C to get to 100% of CPU utilization. WOAH! We have repeated the same test but this time CPU was over clocked to 4.5 GHz and temperatures here were 36C for low and 71C for high. Still not bad at all.

Water 2.0 Performer.

CPU-Z Stock Performer		Core Temp Idle Performer

Looking at Water 2.0 Performer we saw very much similar numbers. In idle stock state our temperature got as low as 36C and as high as 50C. Quickly looking at the Pro at this time we can realize that the Performer runs a bit hotter.

CPU-Z OC @ 4.5GHz Performer		Core Temp OC Idle @ 4.5GHz Performer

Under the 4.5GHz OC the temps weren't too bad either. We have experienced temperatures as low as 42C and as high as 56C. Getting hotter and hotter.

Prime 95 @ Stock Performer		Prime 95 @ 4.5 GHz Performer

At stock CPU speed Performer did fairly well however not even close to Pro version of Water 2.0 In Prime 95 state we saw temps as low as 36C and as high as 60C. When we have cranked the speed up to 4.5 GHz with Prime 95 running in the background i felt like we are pushing our system to the limit. Temperatures in this benchmark were as low as 39C and as high as 73C. At this time i would like to recommend to NOT to push your system to this state with any cooler. Over clocking CPU should be done with caution so knowing what you doing is highly recommended!

Conclusion

Today we had a great opportunity to take a look at the newest line of water coolers from Thermal Take, Water 2.0 Pro and Performer. Both of these water coolers have a lot to offer and I strongly believe that they could be very much beneficial to any computer enthusiast. Are you stuck using air cooled heat sinks? Most of us are. But if you want a little more performance our of your machine, it is worth to take a look in to water cooling systems such as Water 2.0 Pro or Performer. We have found two major differences in these two version of water coolers, Pro has a bigger Radiator and Radiator Cooling Surface Area than Performer. So how would we qualify Pro vs Performer? I would recommend Pro version of Water 2.0 to heavy duty users such as gamers and hard core over clocked. Basically anyone who wants to push his/her system to the limits. As we look at our testing data Pro definitely has ability to do that. Performer version of Water 2.0 by Thermal Take should be used by general population who do not see over clocking. This doesn't necessarily mean that the Performer is not adequate for gamers however, if you feel your system is sluggish and heats up while playing say Battlefield 3, Performer will still do a great job of providing an exceptional cooling for your CPU. By providing support for many CPU sockets, Water 2.0 Pro and Performer really makes a good solution to pretty much any user. What about the pricing? Well we have looked at the pricing of Pro and Performer as well. We found out that the MSRP for these units are 94$ and 69$ respectfully. Do these unit worth the price? Absolutely! We here at UMLan would like to award Water 2.0 Pro and Performer a solid 10/10! Great product guys! Pick one up today!

Some pros we found:

Easy to use.

Very quiet and has PWM support for fans.

Closed loop/All in one cooling system.

Very low maintenance.

Easy to set up.

Some cons we found:

Doesn't come in hot pink color.