To test the 3D Galaxy Water Cooling Kit we used the same methodology as we did for testing heatsinks . First we we used two different software programs running at the same time to simulate the maximum load possible on the processor.  The first programs we used was Passmark Software's BurnInTest V4.0, BurnInTest is a software tool that allows all the major sub-systems of a computer to be simultaneously stress tested for endurance, reliability and stability. BurnInTest tests the CPU, hard drives, CD ROMs, CD burners, DVDs, sound cards, 2D graphics, 3D graphics, RAM, network connections, printers and video playback. The Pro version can also test tape drives, USB 2.0 and 1.x, serial and parallel ports. This can all be done simultaneously as the application is multithreaded.

The second piece of software we used Sisoft Sandra's Burnin Wizard, This wizard allows you to run any benchmark (in verify mode) or burn-in module (or a group of them) either continuously or a specified amount of time in order to test the stability of the system.

While the benchmarks are not designed for burning-in, they are designed to stress the components they test to the limit, being CPU, chipset, memory or disk bound and thus test the stability of the system. The burn-in wizard puts them in verify mode (if supported) that tests the results after completion.

The burn-in modules are designed to stress the components by executing tasks that are known to cause problems and test/use as much of the components functionality as possible. Most of the time, this means causing the components temperature to be raised as much as possible.

Conclusion

Overall Gigabyte has done a tremendous job on their first offering in a water cooling product, yes it does have a few items that could be addressed to make it a bet more user friendly but all in all I give it high marks. As you can see by the temperature charts it out performed any of the fan and fin heatsink we have previously tested with the same setup.

The price the 3D Galaxy Water Cooling Kit is going run in the neighborhood of about $160.00 which some may say is a little high for an entry level water cooling kit.  The one thing that makes this kit far superior to other is the fact that it uses 1/2" tubing where most entry level cooling kits have 3/8" tubing.