Zalman Reserator 3 Max AIO Review

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.