Intel i7 3960X EE / Gigabyte GA X79 UD3 / 16GB GSkill Ripjaws Z (2133mhz) Review

1. Introduction2. Intel i7 3960x Extreme Edition3. Intel Active Thermal Solution (RTS2011LC)4. Intel i7 3960x & RTS2011LC (Super High Res Gallery)5. GSkill Ripjaws Z (2133mhz)6. GSkill Ripjaws Z (Super High Res Gallery)7. Intel DX79SL Extreme Series Motherboard8. Intel DX79SL Extreme Series (Super High Res Gallery)9. Gigabyte GA X79 UD3 Motherboard10. Gigabyte GA X79 UD3 Motherboard (Super High Res Gallery)11. Technical: Bios & Overclocking12. Testing Methodology13. Synthetic: PCMark 714. Synthetic: Unigine Heaven 2.015. Synthetic: 3DMark Vantage16. Synthetic: 3DMark 1117. Synthetic: SiSoft Sandra18. Synthetic: Cinebench R11.5 64 bit19. Synthetic: SSD Performance20. Synthetic: AIDA 6421. Image Quality: HQV Benchmark22. Real World: 3D Rendering23. Real World: Media Encoding24. Real World: BluRay Playback25. Real World: Flash HD Playback26. Real World: HandBrake 9.527. Gaming: Battlefield 3 - Eyefinity28. Technical: Power Consumption29. Closing Thoughts30. View All Pages

Intel have worked with Asetek on the release of a new ‘All in One' liquid cooler, called the RTS2011LC. This is designed to work with the LGA 2011/1366/1155 and 1156 socket. Our sample arrived in a plain white box but there should be some rather attractive Intel coloured artwork with the final retail version.

Inside, the unit is shipped within a molded cardboard box.

The bundle includes mounting brackets and screws for all Intel platforms, as well as installation instructions and thermal paste. Intel also supply a single fan.

The cooler itself will be familiar to many Kitguru readers as it looks similar to many we have reviewed before from Antec. It uses Propylene Glycol as the cooling liquid. The RTS2011LC weighs 820 grams.

The cooler uses a copper ‘cold plate' design which uses ‘state of the art, ultra efficient heat transferring microchannels'. Intel claim that these new microchannels are able to transfer heat from the CPU to the liquid more efficiently than previous generation designs.

The radiator is 150mm x 118mm x 37 mm and Intel supply a 120mm fan with the product, which screws into one side of the radiator. This is a custom design fan by Asetek specifically for this product, rated at 74 CFM. It spins between 800 rpm and 2,200 rpm with noise emissions rated between 21 dBa and 35 dBa.

There is a single 4 PWM header cable which connects to the motherboard directly.

The RTS2011LC uses soft rubber hoses, which are said to last for 50,000 hours.

We noticed that the mounting system was identical to other ASETEK sourced designs and as such the ANTEC KUHLER units are interchangeable. We tried the Antec Kuhler 920 and found it was a better performer than this Intel branded model, due to a thicker radiator with twin fan configuration.

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