J
ust when we thought external radiators for water-cooling kits couldn’t get any
more outlandish, along comes the freakishly large Thermaltake Symphony.
We thought the Zalman Reserator’s 24-inch tank was big, but the Symphony
dwarfs it. The problem with the Symphony is that although it provides fantastic
cooling and overclocking performance while being extremely quiet, it’s insanely
expensive and cools only the CPU. For this much money, we expect a VGA water
block in addition to a CPU block, as well as the ability to add even more water
blocks. No dice. This is a CPU-only kit, and as such its price isn’t justified.
As you can see, the Symphony is designed to look right at home alongside
the home theater system in your living room. It resembles an audio speaker, and
behind its black mesh grill resides an enormous 24-inch radiator, which is cooled
by five ultra-silent 12cm fans spinning at 1400rpm. At the base of the radiator
are two 12V pumps that connect to the inlet and outlet tubes. Water moves to the
all-copper CPU water block by way of two very long sections of black silicone
tubing. The tubing comes pre-con-
nected to the water block and radiator,
and as we mentioned,
Thermaltake doesn’t pro-
vide hardware to add more
cooling blocks into the
circuit. Like the Reserator
1 Plus, the Symphony uses
quick-detach valves, which work
splendidly, so you can unplug the
radiator for leak-free transport.
Installation is straightforward,
although motherboard removal
is required to install the CPU
water block, even on AMD Socket
939 systems. Once you attach
the water block, you just fill the
reservoir and you’re done. As
the benchmark chart details, the
Symphony’s performance was
exceptional. Despite sporting five 12cm fans, the unit is totally inaudible during
operation because the fans are barely spinning. We were even able to overclock
our 2.6GHz FX-55 processor to 2.75MHz.
At the end of the day, the Symphony is a niche product. If you must hide
a water tower among your home theater gear, look no further. For every other
possible use, we’d rather use Zalman’s Reserator 1 Plus. It’s just as quiet, less
expensive, and cools your CPU
and your GPU.
—JOSH NOREMThermaltake Symphony
External Water Cooler
A must-have for HTPC users, but nobody else
7
THERMALTAKE SYMPHONY
$400, http://www.thermaltake.comIt’s not a killer home theater
speaker—the Thermaltake
Symphony is an external
liquid-cooling radiator in
disguise.JANUARY 2006 MA XIMUMPC 75
SYMPHONY STOCK COOLERBest scores are bolded.BENCHMARKS
IDLE (C) 29 36
100% LOAD (C) 40 5212”43”