Verdict: The Reserator looks more conventional now but still tries to offer fanless cooling
Unlike most £200 water-cooling kits, which are aimed at turbonutters trying to overclock their PCs to the limit, Zalman's original Reserator was designed with silence and style in mind. However, the advent of components such as dual-core CPUs elicited complaints from many people that the original Reserator wasn't effective enough at cooling a modern system.
Zalman has attempted to meet these demands with a sequel to the Reserator. The most obvious change is its appearance. The Reserator 2's silver and black colour scheme is okay, but uninspiring compared with the royal blue of the original Reserator. The unit's shape has also been overhauled. The original Reserator was a very tall cylinder surrounded by radiating aluminium fins that towered above a midi-chassis. Its sequel, on the other hand, is less imposing, measuring just 370mm tall and 436mm long. It's smaller than a desktop PC case, and blends into the decor much more effectively than its showy elder sibling.
The Reserator 2 kit has two waterblocks, a ZM-WB4 Gold for your CPU and a ZM-GWB3 for a single GPU. This acknowledges that a £230 water-cooling kit should be able to cool multiple components.
However, it's disappointing that the passive heatsinks for the graphics card's RAM are an 'optional extra' when, in reality, some cooling for the RAM is a necessity, especially if you own a modern high-end graphics card. We expect important components such as this to be included.
The Reserator 2's CPU waterblock uses a simple retention mechanism that's compatible with all modern CPU sockets. We found that the metal arm holding the gorgeous gold-based CPU waterblock in place worked well in both our Intel LGA775 and AMD Socket 939 thermal test rigs. With an Intel system, you have to attach a plastic backplate and bracket around the CPU socket, to which the block is then screwed. For an AMD system, the block screws into two tall screws (referred to as 'nipples' by the manual) that are attached to a backplate. Getting the correct amount of downward pressure was simply a case of tightening the supplied screws as far as they would go. Full marks to Zalman for keeping this mounting system simple.
Setting up the system was easy but time-consuming. While the Corsair Nautilus500 had its tubing already attached to its CPU waterblock, with the Reserator 2, you have to cut the lengths of tubing you require and fit them to the block. This requires some good pliers (for the stiff tube grips), and a cup of hot water (to soften the ends of the PVC tubing). Reassuringly, Zalman includes a PSU jumper cable in the box, so you can start up your PSU and the Reserator 2 without having your PC powered up, which allows you to test the connections for leaks. The manual is excellent, with lots of clear diagrams that show how the system should look.
Zalman also includes a degassing tube, a small piece of pipe that connects to both the water inlet and outlet ports, allowing you to bleed air out of the main unit without having to watch for leaks at the same time. This process still called for an impressive balancing act of constantly restarting the system with one hand while holding the radiator at a 70-degree angle with the other and, at the same time, trying not spill the 1.25 litres of coolant on the carpet.
The Reserator 2 takes its power from a wall socket, but it also has a Molex connector so that the system starts as soon as you turn on your PC. Apart from an initial beep to say that the pump has started, the system was almost inaudible when running, although there's a flow meter in the front that shows it's working.
Our Intel system comprises a 3.6GHz Pentium 4 560 overclocked to 3.93GHz and overvolted to 1.45V, and, after a night trying to keep this system cool while it was running at 100 per cent load, the Reserator 2, like its predecessor, failed to prevent the CPU from reaching its thermal shutdown temperature. A passively cooled radiator simply isn't practical for an extensively overclocked CPU at full load for a prolonged period of time. However, the Reserator 2 fared better when attached to our less demanding AMD test rig. This uses an Athlon 64 FX-55 overclocked to 2.8GHz and overvolted to 1.55V. The Reserator kept this CPU 3ûC cooler than the original Reserator, and 6ûC cooler than the reference cooler.
CONCLUSION
As promsied, the Reserator 2 delivers near-silence, but you don't get much cooling ability for your money though. You can buy the better-looking Reserator 1 with the fan attachment to improve its cooling if needed for a lot less cash - while stocks last. There are also other water-cooling kits to consider, such as the Swiftech H20-Apex Ultra kit, which costs £80 less, offers better cooling and can be fitted with quiet fans. That said, the Reserator 2 remains a unique, if pricey, product.
