Ribbed for Extra.....

Although the heat output of AMD cpus has restricted the use of Peltiers to those with nuclear power plants under their desks, it should be noted that Innovatek does not recommend the use of Pelts. Given its compact footprint and the inability to clamp a cold plate to the bottom with screws, there seems to be plenty of good reasons to listen to the manufacturer. The retention system is similarly impressive, engaging all three lugs on either side of the socket and using a hefty lever to drive a small shaft directly down on the center of top of the block. The lever itself is engaged by a threaded shaft on one side of the clip and when a knurled knob on the threaded shaft is turned, the lever moves downward to press the block against the processor. The clip is also designed so that the use is not restricted to a single orientation of the inlet and outlet when mounting the block, which comes in handy for ensuring that air will not be trapped in the block.

The inlet and outlet fittings are a compression type where a threaded collar is used to secure the hose after it is placed on the barb. The barbs themselves are intended to accept 8 millimeter inside diameter tubing. The fittings themselves screw into the block and an O-Ring seal is used in between the fitting and a chamfered surface of the block to ensure that there are no leaks. The fittings conform to the “G1/4” specification and their diameter and thread pattern is identical to the diameter and thread pattern of ¼ inch BSPP (British Standard Pipe Parallel) fittings. These fittings, and the manner in which they attach to the block, do present one problem. Innovatek maintains that flow rate does not affect cooling and the fittings are large enough for adequate cooling. On this side of the Atlantic, ½ inch I.D. tubing systems are becoming increasingly popular, if for no other reason than the fact that the more backpressure a pump has to fight, the more heat and noise it produces. American ¼ NPT thread barbs will not fit in this block, and unless or until a reseller of the Innovacool makes larger barbs or fittings available, the only route for installing larger fittings is to purchase adapters that will convert the ¼ BSPP to ¼ NPT and then use American hose barbs. You won’t find these adapters in your local True Value – I found only one source on the web and each one went for $12 before shipping.