Most of the Waterchill's components are forged in-house at Asetek, although certain components, such as the pump and the hose fittings, are outsourced. First up, let's take a look at the most integral part of the kit - the waterblock.
Waterblock
Asetek's waterblock is undeniably a fantastic looking piece of kit. Special care has been taken by Asetek to make sure that the underside of the waterblock is as thin as possible for optimal heat transfer whilst still retaining structural integrity. Since water is a fabulous conductor of heat, an optimal solution would be to have the water in direct contact with the CPU die itself, but this is dangerous, impractical and absurd. Still, that doesn't stop some people from trying. The top section of the waterblock is constructed from awesomely strong (and crack resistant) Poly Methyl MethaCrylate or PMMC for short. The two halves are kept together using a sealant and extreme pressure exerted by four screws which have star-shaped heads. Separation is by no means impossible, but not recommended.
Asetek have chosen a half moon design for their waterblock, a departure from the maze format chosen by DangerDen and other competitors. In-house simulation testing by Asetek have show the half-moon to be marginally more effective when removing heat as it inherently creates more turbulence, causes less of a drop in flow-rate and better heat spreading. You will also notice from the picture above that there are further raised-sections and pits which also serve to increase turbulence.
The underside of the waterblock is as flat as you could possibly hope and is produced using Asetek's state-of-the-art diamond high-speed milling technology. This results in the base of the waterblock having a surface roughness so smooth that the Ra value is just 0.16ìm. Roughness is recorded using a surface analyzer, which calculates a value in ìm that represent a surface's average roughness over a sampled area. The block comes protected by a white plastic sticker to protect the base from scratches during transit.
The fittings of this waterblock are an ingenious design and require no clamps, jubilee clips or grease to remain 100% leak-free. Taken straight from the naval industry, these fittings allow the tubing to be installed simply by pushing the tube in. Releasing is almost as easy, as you just push down on the blue raised section to release the multitude of teeth that keep the tube locked in position.
