Comparison of Water Cooling Blocks
by
Dark MantisAlphacool XP3
Phobya UC-1
This is a brief comparison of the two water cooling blocks from Phobya and Alphacool. That is the UC-1 LT from Phobya and the XP3 from Alphacool. They are both newly marketed blocks and have both been completely redesigned before being produced. There a re a lot of similararities between the two as in they are both made with a solid copper baseplate, an acetal top section and use a seperate mounting plate that can be changed easilly. The ports of both are G1/4" BSPP and so are compatible with most fittings available on the market at the moment. It is only once they are dismantled and the inner designs are displayed that there is much difference between them.
Alphacool XP3
Phobya UC-1
Each top plate has a central inlet port with an outlet port to the side. On both baseplates the outer surface, which is the ones that mate with the CPU's heat spreader, are polished to a mirror finish. The inner surface however is machined. In the case of the XP3 the machining is purely a line of very fine grooves in parallel and then more at ninety degrees to the firswt ones so that there is a crosswork of micro pillars. This helps the heat transfer from the CPU to the water or other cooling medium. The CU-1 on the other hand uses a single row of parallel grooves which is then overlaid with a close fitting plastic water spreader that again controls the flow of the coolant. The XP3 uses a similar flow control design built into the acetal top moulding.
Alphacool XP3
Phobya UC-1
Both manufacturers handle the problem of moving the heat from one medium to the other in similar but different ways. The waterblock itself is designed using different ideas but in the end the performance is surprisingly similar. Run on a perfectly identical platform they both behave the same and return results that are withing a degree or so of each other. The flow performance figures are again fairly close to each other with the Alphacool edging ahead. This was to be expected because the Phobya is more restricted with only a single razor cut to pass the coolant whereas the Alphacool has a few. The Alphacool passing 276 litres per hour which is equivalent to 4.6 litres per minute and the Phobya moving 204 litres per hour or 3.4 litres per minute. Upon checking the temperatures though this doesn't seem to make a great difference.
Alphacool XP3
Phobya UC-1
Alphacool XP3
Phobya UC-1
Alphacool XP3 idle
Phobya UC-1 idle
Alphacool XP3 under load
Phobya UC-1 under load
