Provided by: Thermatake
No compensation was received for review of this product.
Price Point
Price: $109.99 (Pro)/$79.99 (Performer) USD Retail
Class: Enthusiast
The Thermaltake Water2.0 Pro and Performer CPU Coolers are in the Enthusiast class of CPU coolers.
Performance
The Thermaltake Water2.0 Pro and Performer CPU Cooler performed well, though cooling was on the low end of their price range. Installation was simple, quick and straightforward, and noise was low for a dual fan setup with this amount of air movement.
Reviewer's Opinion
I have to say that I am really have a tough time forming a way to relate a solid opinion on the Tt Water2.0 line. On one hand, Tt did a really nice job of addressing some of the issues we had seen in previous self-contained liquid coolers. As a package, I would take the Tt Water2.0 over the Antec, Corsair or Zalman without question. But, it is still an Asetek self-contained liquid cooler, and as the old saying goes “you can’t make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear”, not even Thermaltake.
Cooling on both units was, as expected, sub-par for its price point. The Water2.0 Pro and Performer both cooled as well, or better, than any self-contained liquid cooler in their class, but still got their rear ends handed to them on a platter by similarly priced and less expensive air cooling solutions. This is certainly not a knock on Tt, they tweaked every ounce of performance available out of the design. The problem is that the design isn’t evolving and as long as people keep buying them, the price isn’t going to drop to match the performance.
On the upside, install of the Tt Water2.0 was a breeze. Tt’s retention ring is a little different and much more exact and easier to work with than previous incarnations. The idea of installing a liquid cooler may seem daunting to some, but the Tt Water2.0 goes in with about the same effort as an air cooler with a good mounting kit and a case fan.
The area of huge improvement that Thermaltake made in the Water2.0 line was the fans. Not just the fans themselves, but the way they are used. First, Tt uses two 120mm 1200-2000rpm PWM fans in push/pull. While self-contained liquid coolers using the dual fans in the past have been incredibly loud to the point of being unusable for everyday, the Tt Water2.0 is actually very quiet even at full rpm. The Tt Water2.0 is actually much quieter than most air coolers with this configuration, and is absolutely suitable for everyday use. What makes the Thermaltake Water2.0 even more friendly is its use of PWM. Fan speeds can be tailored to your tastes for optimal cooling to noise balance for your system. Set up correctly, the Water2.0 is basically inaudible except under extreme loads. Thermaltake did an incredible job of getting the noise under control while maintaining the cooling on the Water2.0.
Thermaltake has put out the best self-contained liquid coolers we have seen to date with the Water2.0 line. Rather than simply relying on consumers’ blind faith in buying any self-contained liquid cooler, Water2.0 addresses the issues that others have, and in the case of the fans they do it astoundingly well. The cooling is every bit as good as any of the other self-contained liquid units out there, and Water2.0 does it much more quietly and with the ability to tailor the cooling/noise to your liking. In the end, if you took simply the characteristics (cooling, noise, price, ease of install) and put them out blindly, you aren’t going to choose the more expensive unit that doesn’t cool as well and has similar noise output. So, as much as I am not on board with self-contained liquid coolers as a whole, if I was going to personally use a self-contained liquid cooler it would unquestionable be a Thermaltake Water2.0. With that in mind, I am giving the Thermaltake Water2.0 coolers a HiTech Legion Gold Award as self-contained liquid coolers. However, due to the poor price/performance ratio, I would have to give them a Bronze Award as an overall cooling solution. Since I can only give one award, I am going to meet in the middle.
Pros
Cons
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