Intro

No doubt due to some grievous clerical error at the North Pole, I believe I've somehow slipped over to the positive side of Santa's "Naughty and Nice" list. (Who'd a thunk it eh?) For in my possession is a toy any uber geek would love to find under the tree this year. And best of all, you can't even buy one yet. For the last few days I've been putting Koolance's new prototype through its paces. I'm very proud to introduce you to the Koolance PC3-720BK. The PC3-720 is Koolance's latest and greatest, dissipating a claimed 700 watts, the 720 is aimed at the "professional high-end customer".

Keep in mind that this is a early sample, assembled by hand and there may as yet be some slight changes once the 700 series goes into full production. As I write this, the 700 series has just appeared on the Koolance's web site with a release date of December 16. I'm told one definite change will be the addition of a LED designed to illuminate the reservoir. Nice touch.

The New Stuff

Tim Hunting, Koolance Product Manager, outlines the high points,

"The PC3-720SL (silver), and PC3-720BK (black) are based on our next-generation liquid cooling system, designed to dissipate up to 700W loads. There are a number of changes to these systems over previous Koolance products:

• Aluminum chassis, stainless steel bezel inlay. Weight = about 16lb, less than half the weight of our previous PC2-650 systems (34lb)
• Dual 120mm heat exchanger fans (vs. 3 x 80mm)
•Native 3/8" ID tubing (vs. 1/4")
• LED-lit reservoir (available in final product, but not review samples)
• LED display with monitoring of 3 temperature sensors
• Adjustable fan speed (manual modes 1-10, and 1 auto mode)
• Adjustable audio alarm, independent for each sensor channel
• "Safety shutdown" consequently adjusted per user setting with sensor #1 audio alarm
•Refill tap, reservoir, and heat exchanger all located at top; nothing sits anywhere else
I'm sure you're familiar with the chassis, but to summarize: five 3.5" (side-configuration w/ mini trays), two regular 3.5", four available 5.25", front USB 2.0 & 1394, and a large window."

Thanks Tim, I couldn't have said it better myself. And thanks to copy/paste, I didn't have to. =P The case Tim refers to is very familiar to anyone whose put together a system over the last few years. It's based on the latest generation Chieftec slash Chenming slash Antec slash anyone who puts their name on this fine chassis. It's well designed, well made and easy to work with. I happen to have it's older and MUCH heavier brother sitting on my desk in the form of Antec's 1080-AMG. Well you do tend to get heavier as you get older. That odd sound you hear is probably me sucking in my gut.

All aluminum construction, ample room with no less than 5 - 5 1/4" bays make it a good choice for water cooling. If you're going to lose a bay to water, it's nice to have plenty of them to start with. A shallow 5 1/4" device might even fit in the top bay with a bit of luck.

Despite the fact it took two women to haul it out of the back room when I picked it up, the 720 is surprisingly light. I swear the packing weighs more than the case! Well...maybe not, but it's always nice to see a case double boxed for shipping. Once again Attila the UPS Guy's reign of destruction is thwarted by quality packaging. (I'm gonna be in big trouble if Attila ever stumbles across this web site. And judging by the unlikely U-shape of the cold cathode I recently ordered...he's a very proficient stumbler.)