Reviewed by: Jason Hambly
Date: June 2, 2006
Manufacturer: Danger Den
Model: DFI Expert Maze4 Chipset Water Block
Supplied by: Danger Den
Category: Enthusiast/Water-Cooling
Price: $38.50
Grammatical and Spelling Editor:
Danger Den is known for their high performance water-cooling
solutions. Over the years, they have
expanded their line of cooling products to cover just about everything that is
attached to your motherboard. In the past we have tried out their CPU and GPU
blocks, along with full kits. This time around we are trying out the Maze4
chipset block designed specifically for the DFI LanParty UT NF4 SLI-DR Expert
motherboard.
{mospagebreak title=Specifications/Appearance}
Specifications:
- Designed specifically for the DFI LanParty UT NF4 SLI-DR
Expert motherboard.
- 100% Copper base
- Clear Lucite top
- High flow 1/2? or 3/8? OD fittings
- Stainless steel hold down kit
- Machine lapped and polished beyond 1200grit
- Pressure tested before shipment to 85PSI
Appearance:
When you are used to looking at larger water blocks, such as the TDX or NV-78,
the Maze4 chipset block is pretty darn small. However, once you get the stock
fan off of the chipset and see how small the chip really is, you understand why it
is so small. The amount of space
available in that area of the motherboard is also limited, but we will get into that in
a bit.
The copper base is machine lapped to over 1200 grit and
offers a nice reflection when looked at. With some good thermal compound you will have no worries about bad
contact.
Like many of Danger Den?s products, the Maze4 chipset block
comes with a Lucite top that enables you to see into the block. This doesn?t help performance any, but if you
run green dye and a UV light you can see the water throughout your loop.
My test unit came with ?? OD fittings to fit into my
existing ?? ID tubing system. The stainless steel fittings are the same ones
Danger Den uses on the rest of the water blocks that I have tested.
The DFI Expert Maze4 chipset block looks as well as you
would want a water block to look. With a clear top to see through and an all
copper base, the Maze4 chipset block is a great looking water block.
Appearance: 4.75/5
{mospagebreak title=Installation}
Installation:
If there is a down side to water cooling it has to be the
installation. Even all-in-one water kits
can be tedious and cause more headaches than necessary. Multiply those headaches when you need to
route the tubing and find room for pumps and reservoirs for a custom kit. I am
not going to get into all of that in this review; I will simply stick to the
installation of the Maze4 block on the chipset.
To get things started, let’s say that the motherboard is not
in the case already. If it is, back the bus up and pull it back out. You are
going to need to remove the stock heatsink fan by popping the two plastic clips
up through the motherboard. The thermal
compound was so dry on my board that I don?t think it even needed the clips to
hold it on. After a little bit of work
the fan was off and I was able to get a look at the chipset.
After cleaning the chipset off and getting
rid of any old thermal compound, you need to insert the mounting hardware on the
board. This involves placing the rods
through the board and putting a nut on each side of the motherboard to secure
it in place.
From here the Maze4 block slides down over these rods and is then
secured in place by a spring and a nut on each rod. Of course you remembered to
apply a small amount of your favorite thermal compound on the chipset before
securing it down.
If you haven’t done so already, you should have the motherboard back
in the case and be getting everything else ready to install. In my test system, the Maze4 block will be an
addition to an existing water-cooling loop. Measure out the required tubing you
will need and attach it to the chipset water block now. You won?t be able to do
it once you have your video card or cards installed. In my situation I have NV-78 blocks on each
of my 7800GTs and the clearance between the Maze4 and the NV-78 on the top card
is very slim.
I had to ensure that I
placed the hose clamps in a certain position so that I had room for the video card
to seat properly in place. Once the tubing is clamped onto the Maze4 I dropped
the two video cards in and finished connecting all the tubing. Leak test the
system and you are ready to go. Overall
the installation of the DFI Expert Maze4 chipset block is not very hard,
but mixed with a pair of video cards around it, the installation can become a
little more difficult. It would have been great to not need to remove the
motherboard, but since the stock chipset fan is only held in place by push
clips, there is nothing on the back side to hold a water block in place.
Installation: 4.25/5
{mospagebreak title=Performance}
Performance:
How well does this thing cool? That is the question I was wondering from the
start. After finally getting it
installed, I just wanted to get right into loading up the system and seeing how
much cooler the chipset ran with a water block. Add to that, how much warmer the CPU and GPUs would be with added heat
to the loop. To test the cooling
performance of the water block, I used MBM5 to record all temperatures during
idle, CPU load, and CPU + GPU load. To load the CPU I ran two instances of
Folding@Home with affinity set for one on each core. Temperatures were recorded
after a half hour of running. To load the CPU and GPU I ran the same two
instances of Folding@Home as well as running the RTHDRIBL video demo at the same
time. Again temperatures were recorded after a half hour of running. The system
was then allowed to idle for a half hour and the temperatures were recorded for
the final time. Each of these temperatures was recorded with the stock chipset
fan. The tests were then rerun with the
chipset block placed in the loop before the CPU block and then placed in the
loop after the CPU block. This was done
to see which way was the most effective for a system with multiple water blocks
running.
Test System
DFI LanParty UT SLI-DR Expert
AMD Opteron 165 @ 2.5 with Danger Den TDX water block
Corsair TwinX PT 2x512MB
2x Leadtek 7800GT TDH Extreme in SLI with Danger Den NV-78 SLI water blocks
2x Seagate 7200.10 SATA 3G in RAID 0
2x120mm Black Ice ExtremeII Radiator
2x 120mm Papst 4312L fans
Danger DD12V D4 pump
5 1/4" Dual slot reservoir
1/2" ID Clearflex and Tygon tubing
The following graphs show the temperatures of the CPU, GPU1, GPU2, and chipset. The first measurement in each graph is with the chipset running with air cooling. The second has the chipset mounted before the CPU in the water loop and the third has the CPU running before the chipset in the loop. The later two measurements were taken to decide whether or not there is a performance change when the blocks are placed in different orders. Each test was run with the CPU at stock speeds and then again with it overclocked and at a higher voltage.
To my pleasant surprise, adding an additional water block to
the loop did not adversely affect the temperatures of the existing water
cooling system. I had initially expected
temperatures to be a few degrees higher across the board with the extra water
block absorbing heat.
After finding out that the extra block would not increase
the system temperatures, I proceeded to test the ordering of the water blocks
in the system. After recording the temperatures of the system with the chipset
cooled with air I installed the chipset water block first in the loop and then
to the CPU and GPUs. Temperatures remained almost identical except for the
chipset that dropped an impressive 12-14?C in each test.
Pulling the entire system apart and reassembling in a new
order with the CPU first and then the chipset and GPUs I ran through the same
tests and recorded a new set of temperatures. To my surprise again,
temperatures dropped by a degree or two in almost every test.
Overall the performance of the Maze4 chipset water block is
going to come down to your individual water-cooling setup. However the cooling
performance it there if your system can handle the extra heat absorbed by the
water block.
Performance: 4.5/5
{mospagebreak title=Price/Warranty}
Price/Warranty:
The DFI Expert Maze4 chipset water block retails from Danger Den for
$38.50. There are not very many water
blocks that are specifically designed to fit current SLI chipsets so this price
is more than reasonable.
Danger Den offers a one year warranty on their products form
the date of purchase. Covering manufacturing and material defects provided the
products were used in normal fashion.
Price/Warranty: 4.5/5
{mospagebreak title=Conclusion}
Conclusion:
I was quite happy with the performance of the DFI Expert Maze4 chipset water
block from Danger Den. I had up to a
14?C drop in temperatures from the stock cooler to the water block. Although I
didn?t see an actual increase in my overclocking ability with this cooler, the
long term benefits of keeping the chipset cooler while the system is
overclocked are probably worth the price alone. With a cooler chipset comes more stability with the system when running
under full load. The stock DFI cooler is
pretty quiet to begin with, so replacing it with a water block to reduce noise
isn?t really something that many will be doing. However, if you already have a water-cooling setup and want to add to it,
I would recommend the DFI Expert Maze4 chipset water block to you.
Pros:
- Impressive cooling
- Looks good
- 100% Copper base
- Danger Den quality construction
Cons:
- Limited performance increase
- Water-cooling installation
- Only fits one motherboard
Appearance: 4.75/5
Installation: 4/5
Performance: 4.5/5
Price/Warranty: 4.5/5
Overall: 18.25/20
The Danger Den DFI Expert Maze4 chipset water block receives our Best on the
Planet award.
Acknowledgements:
We would like to thank Dan at Danger Den for sending us this water block for review.