| Cooler Master Aquagate Viva |
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Noise is very subjective. One man's silent fan could be another man's vacuum cleaner. I'm somewhat picky when it comes to noise. At idle, the noise from the dual 70mm fans were virtually nonexistent. As a comparison, the Yate Loon D12SL-12 is known to be a pretty quiet 120mm fan and I was able to hear it over the dual 70mm Cooler Master fans. However, things quickly changed when the fan sensors detected some heat. The fan noise ramped up. It became the second loudest component of the system, but it wasn't unbearable by any means.
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Fan sensor
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Unfortunately, I can't say the same for the water block. The built-in pump made a very annoying buzzing/whining sound (on top of the intermittent grinding noise). It could be heard over all components of the test system. For you super silent PC enthusiasts out there, this may be a disappointment when it comes to noise.
Compared to the stock GPU cooler, the AQUAGATE Viva is definitely quieter, even with the dual 70mm fans spinning at 4800rpm. However, the AQUAGATE Viva can't compete with the silent Zalman V700-AlCu or the Yate Loon D12SL-12 CPU fan when it comes to noise.
Power Consumption
Using my Kill-A-Watt power meter, I measured the power consumption of the system. There isn't much to report here. The Cooler Master AQUAGATE Viva barely adds an additional 4 watts - not bad at all.
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System Power Consumption
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| without AQUAGATE Viva idle |  |
128w
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| without AQUAGATE Viva load | |
230w
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| AQUAGATE Viva idle |  |
134w
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| AQUAGATE Viva load | |
234w
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Maintenance
Although this is a complete unit, there is some maintenance involved. Luckily,
Cooler Master provides you with detailed instructions on how to refill your
water coolant, should you need to. Cooler Master states, "The coolant refill
opening cannot be opened if this product is still within 6 months from its initial
use," so you shouldn't have to bother with maintenance for a while.
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Unscrew the stopper screw to refill
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Warnings
For the brave souls that don't care about the warranty, you can skip to my final thoughts.
"Tampering with any of the AQUAGATE Viva's hose clips, the 4 reverse hexagonal screws, or the alarm's metal connectors may void the product warranty."
This is a bit disappointing if you would like to shorten or extend the hoses due to your case layout or mounting positions.
| « Test Setup | Final Thoughts » |