OCZ's first CPU waterblock released

Posted at: 9:44am 10th October 2008 by Antony Leather

Hydroflow HF-MK1 waterblock is a cheap, low impingement design

OCZ has made small forays into watercooling with hardware such as its Flex and Flex II watercooled memory, but it's now releasing its own CPU block, the Hydroflow HF-MK1. The block features a similar external design to the Swiftech Apogee GTZ with a 'clamp down' attachment mechanism. The base plate is home to an array of triangular shaped pins – quite a different design to the micro pins of the Swiftech.

OCZ previewed the block at trade shows earlier in the year, and the Hydroflow's original design featured a clear acrylic top. This has been replaced with a black nylon one for the production model, which is a shame given how attractive clear-top blocks look with coloured coolant inside. The Hydroflow comes with fittings for Intel LGA775 and AMD sockets 754, 939, 940 and AM2. There’s enough room to fit popular 1/2" compression barbs too.

Early performance tests at Martin's Liquid Lab show the Hydroflow has very low impingement, so it should be great for loops with multiple blocks and radiators. Its cooling performance isn't as good as other modern blocks such as the D-tek Fuzion V1, in the tests it appears able to cope with an Core 2 Quad Q6600 overclocked to 3.6GHz, with a 1.47v vcore. Its relatively low retail price of £28.19 inc vat is a plus point too.

It’s currently available exclusively from www.aqua-pcs.co.uk and you can find more information about the Hydroflow HF-MK1 at OCZ's site.