CoolIT Domino A.L.C CPU Cooler Review

Up Close and Personal Con’t

As mentioned earlier in this review, the Domino comes with not only an LCD and audible alarms to provide you with a warning should anything go wrong with the Domino but also an easy to use and very intuitive method for fine tuning the characteristics of the unit. In a nut shell you have a small push button located on the side of the shroud which has three built in settings.


In the first setting you will hear 1 beep and this signifies that the Domino is in its low speed / low noise setting. In this setting the fan will make as little noise as possible (rated at about 19dba @ 1030rpm (1060rpms for us) but it will be to the detriment of its performance.


Pushing the button again will move the unit to its middle “performance” setting (2 beeps), in this medium setting you get fairly decent compromise between noise and performance; the fan will rotate at about 1500rpm (ours idled at about 1450rpm) and is rated to do it at a moderate 26dba.


The third press of the button gets you into the high performance setting where the fan and pump are going full speed and is of course the noisiest. In this mode the fan is going to be spinning at about 2550rpms (though ours went WAY faster than this at 2800+ rpms) and making a little over 39dba. As with all cooler reviews, we would take these dba ratings with a grain of salt as they do not tell the whole story. Later in this review we will go into more detail about the noise characteristics of this fan but for now, let's say it is quieter than you would think.


Please note that just like all higher end CoolIT products, the Domino has a built-in coolant temperature probe and this what you are tweaking by using the various modes. In silent mode it will keep the fan at a low speed at darn near all times (we assume that if coolant temps get dangerously high it will kick in a safety override and increase fan speed).

The performance setting is interesting as it will keep the fan noise low unless the coolant temperatures start to rise. Meanwhile, the full speed setting is just as the name implies and the fan goes full bore even during CPU idle times.

This ability to self adjust is a great addition and takes the controller of this unit out of the realm of passive controllers (i.e. auto volt modding) and places it firmly in the realm of fully functional active controllers. The fact you get all this technology for less than a hundred bucks is simply amazing and really does show that CoolIT was not being pretentious in calling this an Active Liquid Cooling kit.


With a quick removal of just a few screws we uncovered the secret to the Domino’s advanced capabilities. At the heart of the Domino beats a 8-Bit RS08 20mhz Central Processing Unit. To be specific it is a Freescale Semiconductor’s MC9RS08KA8 CPU. This is the the processor which converts this unit from an ordinary all in one beginner's water cooling kit (albeit a above average one) to the big leagues.