Thermalright XWB-1 Review Discussion Thread

Let me know your thoughts. I've worked hard on this one :)

[lowfat]

Very nice review. Really looks like a great block.

[Amon]

Performance seems fair. The high-density arrangement of fins inside the block will be a problem with viscous coolant mixtures, and the way the two-peice block seals doesn't mix with me; very peculiar arrangement of rubber grommets. I'd give the kit a 3.5/5 from what I'm reading. Nicely written and very detailed review, though.

The rating was hard to come up with. I'm still happy to give it a 4 though, because honestly, out of the box, in a dedicated loop, with a powerful pump, and a low-restriction radiator, it's outperforming everything else I've got here.

I don't like the way performance drops off with other things in the loop, but what are ya gonna do? That, price, and the lack of the AM2 backplate cost it a 5/5

[eagle_]

You have the Nexxxos XP in the flow comparison but not in the temps charts. How does it compare to the remaining blocks?

to be perfectly honest, I've never tested the NexXxos XP for performance...

Great work Misoprostol

I particularly like your innovative restriction test lab equipment :p. When will you post the wheel barrow results?

Nice to see a player like Thermalright enter the H20 arena though.

The restrictiveness might not be a huge problem for many H20 newbs (like myself) as they tend to stick with just cooling the CPU. If they want to expand at some point it could be more of an issue then.

Amon raises a good point as well about different liquids possibly compounding the restriction factor. I wonder how a glycol based fluid would work on this block.

You posted that you would email larger pics if requested and this has been something I've long thought would be an improvement to the Hardware Canucks review conventions. It would be great, IMO, if the pics in the reviews were thumbnails that could be clicked to view a "blow-up" version.

[C'DaleRider]

Nice article. One thing though....

You said, "it should be noted that the APOGEE GTX needed to be "bowed" with a thicker O-ring in order to beat the XWB-1."

You do know that Swiftech began in July shipping the GTX only in the bowed configuration, right? They no longer ship the GTX with 2 O-rings and leave the bowing up to the purchaser to decide to do or not. Instead, Swiftech has made a switch to the larger O-ring as the default shipping configuration, so all GTX's shipping in the last month or so and all shipping from now on are all bowed from the mfgr.

So the bowed GTX is the stock GTX.

Just a heads-up. :)

[eagle_]

Originally Posted by Misoprostol

to be perfectly honest, I've never tested the NexXxos XP for performance...

I was asking because this is the cheapest wb here in Portugal (almost half the price of the XWB-1).

[SKYMTL]

Originally Posted by eagle_

I was asking because this is the cheapest wb here in Portugal (almost half the price of the XWB-1).

Can you get ahold of the Magicool block over there in Portugal? I hear that NCIX is the only store here in North America that has it but it has pretty good availablability in the EU.