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If you are in the market for a compact, yet powerful, watercooled system – but don't want to build it yourself, then today's review may just tickle the taste buds. The AWD Ignis Aqua 290X 250D Mini ITX PC is built around a Core i5 4670k processor – overclocked to 4ghz. Graphics are handled by the very capable AMD R9 290X, which is also supplied in a heavily overclocked state. The whole system is watercooled with XSPC kit … featuring ‘blood red' fluid. Is it all worth the £1,499 asking price?
It is not often we get a prebuilt system which is completely watercooled. AWD-IT have decided to ditch the use of a simple ‘All-In-One' liquid cooler and have opted to go with a custom XPSC watercooling kit handling both processor and graphics card. All of this has been installed inside the diminutive Corsair 250D Mini ITX chassis.
System Specification
- Case: Corsair 250D Mini ITX
- Power Supply: XFX XTR 650W Gold Certified Power Supply
- CPU: Intel Core I5 4670K Overclocked @ 4.0Ghz (Liquid Cooled with XSPC Raystorm)
- Motherboard: Gigabyte Z87N-Wifi Motherboard
- RAM: 8GB DDR3 2400MHz Dual Channel Kit
- Hard Drive: Seagate 1TB 7200RPM Hard Drive
- SSD – Samsung 840 EVO 120GB Solid State Drive
- Graphics Card: Radeon R9 290X (Liquid Cooled with R9 290x Block)
- Sound: Realtek 7.1 High Definition Channel Sound (On-Board)
- Optical Drive: N/A
- Cooling: Custom XSPC Watercooling
Retail price: £1,499.99 inc vat.
That big bubble tho…
I think with the size (or lack there of) of this build; I’d be using 3/8″ tubing, to make sure there’s no chance of kinks forming along some of those tight bends.
Also; it looks to have a DDC pump, if that’s the case, how much airflow is it actually going to get before it overheats in that little corner of the chassis?
I do like the fact that the system comes with a custom loop instead of one of those (awful) AIO systems.