Zalman plans water cooled power supply

Wants to expand water cooled range

Rob Jones at CES, Las Vegas, Personal Computer World 07 Jan 2006

Zalman is looking to expand its water cooling products, and even considering bringing out a water cooled power supply if it will pass European regulations.

It is currently working on a 14cm fan to add on to it Reserator Plus 1 water cooler, and is looking to bring out other water coolers for components such as the hard disk or PSU. 'This will be hard to get through the regulations, but there is the demand for it' a spokesman admitted.

The ZM-RF1 Reserator Fan Kit is a cyclindical tube that slides down over the top of the Reserator, and helps provide additional cooling. The current Reserator is as cool as the ambient air temperature, but if this is hot, then it does not cool a system as efficiently. By slotting on the Fan Kit, its 14cm fan increases its cooling capabilities.

The prototype on show at CES in Las Vegas was made from aluminium, but a spokesman said once released, it will be made of plastic. It will include the MC1 multiconnectors so that the fan can spin at high or low speeds.

He added: 'More people want to use the Reserator Plus 1 for SLI or dual core CPUs. The Reserator's performance depends on the ambient temperature because it's a passive system. By adding the fan it increases the performance.'

It will come out between now and the end or the second quarter – there was no firm date – and cost $40-$60.

Zalman is also bringing out a VGA Quiet Cooler, the CNPS8000. It goes into a spare VGA slot, but because of its size, will take the one next to it as well. It is aimed at people that run fast graphics cards and want to improve performance, so like the Reserator, will appeal mainly to hardcore gamers. Through its combination of heat pipes and fan, it silently disperses the heat more efficiently from the graphics cards and also helps to cool the memory modules.

Again, the model on display was a prototype, and won't be out for a few months. There was no indication of pricing.

Finally, the company is bringing out a new home theatre chassis, the HPTC Enclosure HD160. Sold as a case only, not a barebones system, is will go mainly to systems integrators, plus enthusiasts that want to build a media center from scratch. It comes out this month and cost $399.

See also: