Intro

Up on the review bench today is a product that’s been getting a good deal of discussion going in the PimpRig Forums, the Zalman Reserator 1. Can a product that looks like a prop from a 1950’s Sci-Fi movie cool a CPU effectively? Can it do so without a single fan? Overclocked? And remain dead silent? Thanks to Xoxide we’ll have a chance to answer some, if not all of these questions. But before I start, I have a question of my own. Am I the only one that has an insane urge to talk like Arnold Schwarzenegger when saying, “Duh Zahl-Mahn Rehz-Zuh-Ray-Tuh.”? Okay, maybe it’s just me, onward.

One of the major motivations for my original foray into the water cooling arena was noise. Well that, and the fact that chicks dig guys who water cool. Zalman has built a successful company around the quiet computing principle. And with products like the 7000Cu HSF, they’ve shown you don’t always have to give up on performance in exchange for quiet operation. It’s not surprising they are one of the first major players to attempt a fan less water cooling system.

It’s a big box. But even with such a large target, once again Attila the UPS guys was thwarted in his ongoing attempts to destroy merchandise by the use of quality packaging. The Styrofoam clamshell packing insures the Reserator can survive even the most persistent shipping menace.

The ZM-WB2 Gold water block didn’t fare quite as wall. The way the block is packaged with the mounting bracket in place over the block may look spiffy in a store display. But the small distance that the block and bracket were able to move around in the packaging had beat up the anodized top a bit. And without a static cling or similar protection on the base, the delicate gold plate showed light scratches from the foam…ahem…"protecting" it.