ECO A.L.C. ECO-R120 CPU Cooler Review

The stock cooler included with retail-packaged CPUs represents the manufacturer's best efforts to provide a cooler that will keep the processor within its temperature limits at stock clock speeds, all for the lowest cost. But if you want to overclock your system, you're going to need an aftermarket cooler. The ideal cooler would be inexpensive, quiet, easy to install, and keep your CPU icy cold under all loads and conditions. But of course, in the real world it's always a balancing act among these various parameters. CoolIT Systems' new ECO A.L.C. ECO-R120 CPU cooler aims to balance these requirements by offering an easy-to-install sealed liquid cooling system for your CPU. Using both stock and high-speed fans, Benchmark Reviews compares it to the top air coolers and the Corsair H50 liquid cooling system on an overclocked and overvolted Intel Core i7-920 processor.

Aftermarket CPU coolers have changed a lot in the past few years: they've morphed from relatively simple finned blocks of metal with fixed-speed fans to elaborate heat-pipe designs with PWM-controlled fans; sometimes outfitted with multiple fans. Since enthusiasts often have windowed cases, manufacturers have started paying more attention to the appearance of their products, with elaborate fin designs, LED lighting, liberal use of polished copper, and colorful plastic shrouds. Some vendors carefully machine away part of the heat sink base so that the heat pipes have direct contact with the CPU, and each new variance in design is touted as the Next Great Thing.

Although sealed, pre-filled liquid cooling systems have been available for a few years - primarily as OEM components. The introduction of the Corsair H50 thrust this type of heat sink into the consumer spotlight last year. Offering performance competitive with high end air coolers of the time, low noise, and a reasonable price (for water cooling), it was inevitable that it would spawn competition.

CoolIT Systems is no stranger to liquid cooling systems, but many of their previous offerings have occasionally been expensive, high-end systems using Peltier-chilled coolant and elaborate pumping and electrical systems. The new ECO A.L.C. (Advanced Liquid Cooling) system competes directly with the Corsair H50 as well as high-end air cooling solutions.

About CoolIT Systems

For years, CoolIT has been working with leaders in the computer industry to research, design, and provide an affordable new cooling product that provides a comprehensive solution for end users while exceeding high OEM standards. This carefully designed and patented technology unleashes the full potential of a PC, providing superior cooling performance while reducing system level noise and improving reliability of vital components. This small, but potent, pre-assembled product can also be easily installed inside any standard chassis. The CoolIT MTEC Technology can be found in the top names in performance computing like Dell, Alienware, Velocity Micro, MAINGEAR, Hypersonic, Biohazard, Ultra, Ultraforce, Systemax, BFG, Commodore Gaming, War Machine and Shuttle.

Aside from the current product offering, there are several additional products poised for release in the coming months to service the demanding cooling requirements of high performance video cards, multi-processor computers, and servers.

Features & Specifications

CoolIT CPU FHE (Fluid Heat Exchanger)
Copper Micro-Channel

Universal Retention System
Out of the box support provided for Intel 775, 1156, 1366 and AMD AM2, AM2+, AM3 sockets.

CoolIT Proprietary Pump
Quiet, compact, long life CFF1 pump
Ceramic bearing
Life Cycle: 50,000 Hours MTTF

CoolIT Coolant
CoolIT Systems low toxicity with anticorrosion/anti fungal additives

CoolIT Radiator
Custom engineered for low noise high heat dissipation

CoolIT Fan
High reliability, Quiet 12V
Speed: 1800 RPM MAX

CoolIT CPU Thermal Grease
CoolIT Systems Pro A.T.C.
(Advanced Thermal Compound)

CoolIT 2 Year Manufacturer Warranty

Closer Look: ECO-R120 CPU Cooler

The retail box for the CoolIT ECO A.L.C. ECO-R120 cooler is refreshingly free of science-fiction themes, dragons, lighting bolts, and nubile women. Instead, it's a small, plain white box whose every surface is covered with diagrams and specifications for the cooler. The front and back of the box are shown below.

Aside from the cooler, the box contains the mounting hardware for Intel Socket 775, Socket 1156, and Socket 1366, as well as the parts required for AM2, AM2+, and AM3 sockets for you AMD fans. The back plates are plastic rather than metal and have double-sided tape to hold them in place during installation.

The ECO-R120 cooler itself is a pre-filled and sealed liquid cooling loop, with a pump/water block assembly permanently connected via two hoses to a radiator/fan assembly.

A nice touch: the hoses connect to the pump/water block assembly with swivel connectors. This makes it easier to arrange the hoses (which are quite stiff and springy) in your system.

The bottom of the water block/pump assembly is copper, with a thin layer of pre-applied thermal paste. The copper base plate has a light surface texture rather than the mirror finish becoming popular for some high-end air cooling products.

The mounting screws on the water block/pump assembly can be adjusted in and out to fit the backplate for the socket in use.

I found minor damage to the radiator fins (circled in red) when I opened the sealed box. While this isn't enough to affect the cooling ability of the system, CoolIT Systems should take more care in packing. Enthusiasts pay top-dollar for these products, and want their money to buy them a pristine part.

Overall, the ECO-R120 is a very compact cooler. However, the protruding tabs on the corner of the radiator interfered with the radiator/fan assembly's fit in the NZXT M59 chassis used to hold the components for this review.

At its suggested retail price, the CoolIT ECO A.L.C. comes in at the low end of water-cooling systems, but the price puts it in with high end of air coolers...not to mention the similarly-priced and very popular Corsair H50 water cooling system. How does it compare? Let's find out...

Heatsink Test Methodology

Benchmark Reviews is obsessed with testing CPU coolers, as our Cooling Section has demonstrated over the past few years. We've solicited suggestions from the enthusiast community, and received guidance from some of the most technical overclockers on the planet. As a result, our testing methodology has changed with every new edition of our Best CPU Cooler Performance series. Because of this, each article is really its own stand-alone product, and cannot be fairly compared to the others. This particular article is a perfect example of that principle, since we're using a fresh methodology. Benchmark Reviews continues to test CPU coolers using the stock included fan (whenever applicable), and then replace it with a high-output fan for re-testing.

Manufacturers are not expected to enjoy this sort of comparison, since we level the playing field for all heatsinks by replacing their included fan with a common unit which is then used for every CPU cooler tested. Many manufacturers include fans with their heatsink products, but many 'stock' fans are high-RPM units that offer great airflow at the expense of obnoxiously loud noise levels. By using the same model of cooling fan throughout our heatsink tests, we can assure our results are comparable across the board. This is one of the more significant changes we have made to our test methodology, since many of the benchmark tests we have conducted in the past have compared the total package. Ultimately we're more interested in the discovering the best possible heatsink, and we believe that you'll feel the same way.

For each test, ambient room temperature levels were maintained within one degree of fluctuation, and measured at static points beside the test equipment with a digital thermometer. The CoolIT Systems ECO A.L.C. comes with a thin layer of pre-applied thermal compound, which was used for these tests. The comparison coolers used a common Thermal Interface Material of our choosing (listed in the support equipment section below) was utilized instead. The processor received the same amount of thermal paste in every test, which covered the ICH with a thin nearly-transparent layer. The heatsink being tested was then laid down flat onto the CPU, and compressed to the motherboard using the supplied retaining mechanism. If the mounting mechanism used only two points of force, they were tightened in alternation; standard clip-style mounting with four securing points were compressed using the cross-over method. Once installed, the system was tested for a baseline reading prior to testing.

At the start of each test, the ambient room temperature was measured to track any fluctuation throughout the testing period. Lavalys EVEREST Ultimate Edition was utilized to create 100% CPU-core loads and measure each individual processor core temperatures. It's important to note that software-based temperature reading reflects the thermal output as reported from the CPU to the BIOS. For this reason, it is critically important (for us) to use the exact same software and BIOS versions throughout the entire test cycle, or the results will be incomparable. All of the units compared in our results were tested on the same motherboard using the same BIOS and software, with only the CPU-cooler product changing in each test. These readings are neither absolute nor calibrated, since every BIOS is programmed differently. Nevertheless, all results are still comparable and relative to each products in our test bed (see The Accuracy Myth section below).

Since our test processor report core temperatures as a whole number and not in fractions, all test results utilize EVEREST to report averages (within the statistics panel), which gives us more precise readings. The ambient room temperature levels were all recorded and accurate to one-tenth of a degree Celsius at the time of data collection.

When each cooler is tested, Benchmark Reviews makes certain to keep the hardware settings identical across the test platform. This enables us to clearly compare the performance of each product under identical conditions. Benchmark Reviews reports the thermal difference in test result charts. For the purpose of this article, thermal difference (not the same as thermal delta) is calculated by subtracting the ambient room temperature from the recorded CPU temperature.

Intel Test System

• Processor: Intel Core i7-920 Bloomfield 2.66GHz LGA1366 130W Quad-Core Processor Model BX80601920
• Motherboard: ASUS P6T V2 Deluxe (Intel X58-Express Chipset)

Support Equipment

• Lavalys EVEREST Ultimate Edition v5.50
• MG Chemicals Heat Transfer Compound 8610-60G
• Yate Loon 120x120x25mm fan, model D12SH-12 (88 CFM advertised @ 40 dBA) 12V/0.30A
• For heat sinks without a stock fan, the Scythe 120x120x25mm fan, model SY1225SL 12LM-P (74 CFM advertised @ 27 dBA) 12V/0.18A

All of the tests in this article have been conducted using vertical motherboard orientation, positioned upright in a traditional tower computer case. Heatsinks are positioned so that heatpipe rods span horizonally, with the fan blowing air out the back of the chassis. The heat sink fans are connected directly to the power supply (rather than motherboard headers) and run at full speed during the test. At the start of our test period, the test system is powered on and EVEREST system stability tests are started with Stress CPU and Stress FPU options selected. EVEREST loads each CPU core to 100% usage, which drives the temperature to its highest point. Finally, once temperatures have sustained a plateau (no observed change in average temperatures for 5 minutes), the ending ambient room temperature and individual CPU core levels are recorded thus completing the first benchmark segment. The time to reach stable temperatures varied between 15 and 45 minutes for the heat sinks in this test.

The second test segment involves removing the stock cooling fan and replacing it with a high-output 120 mm Yate Loon D12SH-12 cooling fan, then running the same tests again.

The Accuracy Myth

All modern processors incorporate an internal thermal diode that can be read by the motherboards' BIOS. While this diode and the motherboard are not calibrated and therefore may not display the actual true temperature, the degree of accuracy is constant. This means that if the diode reports 40°C when it's actually 43°C, then it will also report 60°C when it's truly 63°C. Since the design goal of any thermal solution is to keep the CPU core within allowable temperatures, a processor's internal diode is the most valid means of comparison between different heatsinks, or thermal compounds. The diode and motherboard may be incorrect by a small margin in relation to an actual calibrated temperature sensor, but they will be consistent in their margin of error every time.

Testing and Results

I used the following heat sinks in this comparison: Prolimatech Megahalems, Scythe Mugen 2, Thermaltake Frio, Thermalright Venemous X, Titan Fenrir, Xigmatek Thor's Hammer, and of course the Corsair H50. Of the comparison coolers, the Megahalems, Venemous X, and Thor's Hammer did not come with a fan, and the Scythe SY1225SL 12LM-P 'Slip-Stream' fan was used for the "stock fan" testing. For these tests, I overclocked the Intel Core i7-920 processor to 3.8gHz, and set the CPU core voltage to 1.4 volts, leading to very high load temperatures...but that's what you need to test coolers at this level! Note that the two water coolers suggest different fan orientations: while in both cases the fan is sandwiched between the radiator and the rear of the case, Corsair recommends that the fan suck outside air into the case, while CoolIT recommends that the fan draw case air out through the radiator. We complied with these recommendations for both stock and high-speed fan testing. The charts below report the thermal difference (processor temperature vs. ambient temperature) as well as the difference in degrees Celcius from the CoolIT ECO A.L.C., in order of performance, with the best results listed first (lower is better):

Stock Fan Tests

The Thermaltake Frio places first in this test, mainly since it's the only twin-fan cooler and its fans push a combined 110 cubic feet per minute of air (according to Thermaltake). The Thermalright Venemous X, Scythe Mugen 2, and Prolimatech Megahalems are clustered a few degrees higher. The Titan Fenrir is another 4 degrees up, and the Xigmatek Thor's Hammer, Corsair H50, and CoolIT ECO A.L.C. were unable to complete the test, since I stopped the test once the reported average processor temperature exceeded 95 degrees Celcius. The thermal difference reported for these three coolers is the last recorded before the 95 degree threshold was exceeded.

Yate Loon High Speed Fan Tests

This is where things get interesting. The thermal difference spread between the best and worst performers drops from 14.1 degrees to 11.3 degrees when all coolers are using the same Yate Loon fan. The Frio drops from first place to middle-of-the-pack, but that's to be expected since the Yate Loon pushes significantly less air than the Frio's stock fans. The CoolIT ECO R-120 jumps from last to third place, less than 3 degrees above the first-place Megahalem! While a number of factors affect heat sink performance, these tests show what a dramatic difference a $7 fan can make...at least when it's better than the stock fan.

Liquid Cooling Final Thoughts

Picking the right CPU cooler is rarely an easy choice, and Benchmark Reviews hopes we've made this process easier by providing information in this and other CPU cooler reviews. The market is changing rapidly enough that the top cooler of 2008 wouldn't be considered a serious contender in 2010; and manufacturers continue to asymptotically approach the theoretically ideal cooler than will bring your CPU down to ambient temperature. Water coolers add a slew of other variables to the heat sink equation: water block design, coolant flow rate, and radiator size and design all play a part.

It's important to remember that there's a reason there are so many different coolers available: not every cooler works in every situation. The top-performing Prolimatech Megahalems is available at FrozenCPUfor $64.99 (without a fan), and that's a lot to spend on a cooler considering the cooler that came with your system or processor has already been paid for. Most users, even most enthusiast users, simply don't need a cooler this capable— it would be wasted, for example, on most dual-core systems. Also, its very large size limits its applications, while the ECO A.L.C. will fit in almost any case.

The CoolIT ECO-R120 inhabits a nebulous place in the heat sink universe: it's priced with the very best air coolers, but CoolIT doesn't market it to the "extreme overclocking" crowd that might normally go for a Megahalems— although as our test results show the ECO is quite competitive with the best air coolers when fitted with a high-performance fan. Instead, it's designed to offer significantly better performance than most air coolers along with very low noise. It would be well suited, for example, for the cramped confines of an HTPC, where low noise (with the stock fan) was a primary consideration.

As I mentioned before, a number of factors affect heat sink performance, and enthusiasts will spend hours hand-lapping processors and heat sink bases and spend unnecessary amounts of money on exotic liquid metal thermal interface material. But at the end of the day, one of the single most important considerations is simply how much air you're moving over your heat sink's fins or radiator, and finding a fan that hits the right balance between noise and performance for your application will do more for your heat sink's performance than any other single factor: the Yate Loon fan used in this test is rather noisy, but witness how this $7 item moved the CoolIT ECO A.L.C.'s performance from the bottom of the charts to within spitting distance of the best coolers available. With the hundreds of 120mm fans available, it's impossible for Benchmark Reviews to test all possible fan combinations, or even a small subset of them; CoolIT Systems notes that using two fans in a "push-pull" configuration is a supported configuration, so there's lots of room for experimentation here.

Enthusiasts buy water coolers like this trying to strike a balance between performance and noise, or perhaps just because it's cool to be able to say your system's "water cooled." What the ECO R-120 brings to the party is sheer versatility: its small size and performance headroom (depending on the fans used) make it one of the most broadly applicable CPU cooling solutions available.

CoolIT ECO-R120 Conclusion

"Real" water cooling enthusiasts— those who build their own systems from components, choosing the pumps, reserviors, and radiators separately and sneer at tubing smaller than 1/2" internal diameter— will dismiss the A.L.C. It's unimpressive looking when compared to a dual-loop system with IR-reactive coolant in transparent pipes, running through multiple radiators, and simply too small to be worth serious consideration. And, obviously, the ECO isn't the way to go if you want to cool your motherboard chipset or your graphics cards as well as your CPU. But for the rest of us it offers marvelously versatile performance, adaptable to a near-silent HTPC as well as an overclocked performance rig.

The cooler was very easy to install. The pump/water block unit is low-profile and it's easy to get to the thumbscrews that secure it to its backplate. I'd prefer the backplates be metal, for better clamping pressure, but it's hard to argue with the results this cooler turned in, and plastic backplates are becoming more common anyway. The tabs on the radiator did interfere with the fit of the radiator/fan assembly in the case I was using for this test, but I've read no other reports of this, so presumably this won't be a problem for most people (I trimmed the tabs with a Dremel tool), but this aside, only push-pin heatsinks are easier to install.

The supplied fan is very quiet, emitting only a low hum even at maximum speed. While it's adequate for stock and mild overclocks, I'd prefer a fan with somewhat more airflow. When equipped with an inexpensive high-airflow fan, the performance was excellent.

The appearance of the unit is rather industrial, and the overall quality of construction, while good, is marred by the minor damage to the radiator fins, and the protruding radiator tabs that made fitment a problem. The thumbscrews that secure the water block/pump assembly are plastic collars around standard metal screws rather than solid metal thumbscrews. In my experience these plastic collars can sometimes slip, requiring you to use a screwdriver to tighten the screws.

Functionally, the cooler is excellent. Raw cooling performance aside, its small size makes it easy to install in cases where many air coolers would not fit at all. Even in very large cases, it's nice to have all that area around the CPU socket easily accessible.

The price of the CoolIT ECO A.L.C. is $74.99 at FrozenCPU, or $79.99 at NewEgg. While this is a high price for a cooler in general, it's low for water cooling, and in the same ballpark as high-end air coolers, especially when you consider that many of them don't include fans. I think this product represents a good value for the money.

Air coolers seem to be reaching physical limits in their performance. A top-performing air cooler must be physically large, with lots of heat pipes and fins, to dissipate the necessary heat. Some air coolers are already too large to fit in some cases, or interfere with the memory in the slots closest to the processor. CoolIT has demonstrated that there's a lot of headroom left in pre-built water coolers. Given the number of cases that can support twin-120mm fan radiators, I'd like to see what they could do with a large-radiator version of this kit.

Pros:

+ Low price for a water cooler.
+ Very small, easy to install.
+ Almost silent with stock fan.
+ Comes with mounting kits for any processor you're likely to have.
+ Can be mounted in virtually any case with a 120mm fan mount (radiator tabs might need trimming).
+ Inexpensive fan replacement dramatically improves performance in highly overclocked systems.

Cons:

- Visually unimpressive.
- Minor radiator quality and construction problems.
- Stock fan is inadequate for high overclocks.

Ratings:

• Performance: 9.00
• Appearance: 8.00
• Construction: 8.50
• Functionality: 9.50
• Value: 8.75

Final Score: 8.75 out of 10.

Quality Recognition: Benchmark Reviews Silver Tachometer Award.

Questions? Comments? Benchmark Reviews really wants your feedback. We invite you to leave your remarks in our Discussion Forum.

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