A Closer Look
Most CPU water coolers feature a fairly standardised 120mm radiator that is about an inch thick and square in shape, the Reserator 3 Max couldn’t be any further from that stereotype. There are actually two radiators here, with a smaller on the interior of the larger one and a heatpipe design that loops through both.
There is a built-in fan with exposed blades on the top of the cooler, this is set to push air through the radiator and out of your chassis. The blades of the fan have a frosted look to them and this will no doubt light up rather nicely thanks to the interior blue LED lights that are located on the fans motor.
The water pipes are secured into the side of the radiator and covered by the plastic mounting mould that surrounds the rest of the radiator. The plastic surround also acts as the main radiator mount and there are four screw holes around the exterior which allow you to mount it direct to any 120mm fan mount that has enough clearance.
On the underside of the radiator we see more of the plastic mounting / guard, there is also a four pin fan cable which for some reason is brightly coloured when the other cable on the pump is all black. There is quite a large cavity in the centre and plenty of room for airflow on all sides of the radiator.
The radiator is packed with fins that pass over each of the radiators. The fins and pipes on the interior all made from copper.
In this image (courtesy of Zalman) you can better see how the heat pipe and radiator design is laid out.
The coolant runs in from the pump, around both radiators and back to the pump, allowing the water to cover a considerable amount of radiator surface area compared to more conventional square 120mm radiators.
The pump features a pair of swivel mounts for the coolant pipes, this allows you to better fit the cooler into different shape / size chassis without putting too much strain on the pipes.
The pump has a really clean design with a cool Zalman logo in the centre and a clear ring that allows the LED backlight to shine through.
The underside of the cooling block / pump there is a large copper contact for the CPU, out of the box it comes with a peel off protective cover which will help keep it scratch free during transit.
It’s a little tarnished in some areas, but overall it’s got a fairly good shine to it and it’s also super smooth so we should get good contact with the CPU when mounting. The inside of the pump has micro fins on the back of the copper block, this should allow heat to transfer from the block to the coolant even easier by increasing the surface area.
How come you didn’t test it against the market leader, Corsair?
Their coolers may not be the best but they certainly ship the highest amounts by a long shot.
We will have a 120mm Corsair review soon. I took over cooling reviews from Ryan and started the charts from scratch so that we can rule out any differences in our testing methods. It’ll only be a few weeks before we have nicely populated graphs again 🙂
fair shout
I’ll let you off this time 😛
Haha thanks. But just so you know, Ryan did use the same methods and same testing hardware so you can compare manually, just keep in mind there maybe a few degree variation for things. Ryan may have used more/less thermal paste, had a warmer or cooler office, etc etc.
the moment I saw “stock fans cannot be removed or replaced” it was a no no right away.. won’t recommend this at all. performance is good. the radiator design is pretty good altho it can be improved by better housing (so that all air going thru ain’t escaping thru the sides).
But you can’t replace the fans with your own? are they nuts? LOL
The H80i I have on an i7 3820 oc’ed to 4.3 keeps the cpu at no higher than 32 C in game and it idles at 16-18 C. Looks like the reserator 3 loses in my book.
I have been using Zalman coolers for years, with my current being the CNPS20LQ with 2x Corsair SP120s in a push pull setup. I have a feeling that I will continue using this “sleeper” AIO until it dies. i7 3770K 4.5GHz idles at 12-17’C and never hits 60’C during Prime95. I can play SC2 or BF4 for hours and it never peeks beyond 35’C; Both fans are manually set @ 800RPM and are inaudible.
I was all set to jump on the Reserator 3 Max, but common sense kicked in after I remembered why I upgraded from the CNPS9900MAX…the fan died and I could not replace it.
Zalman’s website has been broken for a while and none of their support email addresses/telephone numbers work. I would stay well away from their products, unless you don’t mind not having any guarantee