Zalman Reserator 3 MAX review

Discussion in 'Frontpage news' started by Hilbert Hagedoorn, Mar 11, 2014.

  1. Hilbert Hagedoorn

    Hilbert Hagedoorn Don Vito Corleone Staff Member

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    In this review we test the Zalman Reserator 3 MAX cooler. Compatible with most Intel and AMD platforms, including Intel Sockets 775, 1150, 1155, 1156, 1366, and 2011; and AMD Sockets AM2, AM2+, AM3, A...

    Zalman Reserator 3 MAX review
     
  2. Ch0plol

    Ch0plol Guest

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    "Nanofluids?" Oh please...

    But besides that, what's the point to going for liquid cooling when it has a radiator the size of an intel stock heatsink, with a noisy fan to boot?
     
  3. CronoGraal

    CronoGraal Ancient Guru

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    Zalman is trying to stay relevant in the market.
     
  4. TheDeeGee

    TheDeeGee Ancient Guru

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    If you wanna stay in the market let people decide which fans to use in the first place.

    I personally found my home with Noctua for CPU Cooling and Case Fans. And Arctic for my Videocards.
     

  5. eXXon

    eXXon Guest

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    Hmmm, Zalman are a little ambitious with their pricing for this cooler.
    For that price, you can get an H220 which is expandable and much better at cooling.
    Plus, as stated above, why can't the fan be replaced?
    But Kudos for the design and using Copper.

    Who is the OEM btw ?
     
  6. kroks

    kroks Active Member

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    anything above 1000rpm is noisy to me
    they should go back to fanless wc...
     
  7. Fender178

    Fender178 Ancient Guru

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    Very well said. Even Corsair allows you to put custom fans on their water coolers.
     
  8. SquirrelBoy

    SquirrelBoy Guest

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    It would have been nice to have the stock cooler in the charts, for comparison. (obviously not in the OC charts, you'd have baked chips for dinner)
     
  9. sykozis

    sykozis Ancient Guru

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    If they want to stay relevant, they should start with a design that will actually work.
     
  10. Sasquatch

    Sasquatch Master Guru

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    I've got one of these coolers, going on about 6months of use now.
    While I could have gone with an Hxxi series cooler, I liked the look of this one. I agree with the review, that it's not the best cooler around, but for mid-level overclocks it works fine.
    Using Silent mode in the Bios, my FX clocked to just over 4GHz rarely gets above 30C while gaming - usually in the 15-24C range, according to HWiNFO.
    I have 2 Cougar Vortex 140's in the front of my case, and a Cougar Vortex 120 in pull behind this cooler, all PWM. The Zalman & the 120 are both using the CPU_fan header, using a PWM splitter cable. Max speed I've seen is around 1600RPM. It's really as quiet as my 140s are, and they're spinning around 800RPM.
    But, once this cooler reaches 1800RPM you really start to notice it.
    After reading about all the issues surrounding Asetek-based coolers and their legal claims, I have to admire Zalman's forethought to an alternate design.
    For a small 120mm design that will fit almost anything, it gets the job done.
     

  11. Speed Weed

    Speed Weed Guest

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    Guess my NH-D14 can breathe easy for some time, then! :)
     
  12. Gromuhl'Djun

    Gromuhl'Djun Ancient Guru

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    In what room do you game?
    Or which readings are you looking at? As those temperatures are anomalously low. They look more like the temperature in your case than CPU temp.
    I've never gotten my cpu as cool as or cooler than ambient temperature. Which is usually around 18-20°C in my home, my cpu is 25°C idle, around 50°C when gaming)
     
  13. Sasquatch

    Sasquatch Master Guru

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    Hope this link works. This is about 20min of playing in BF4. Just got the game installed so still learning it. Normally I'm playing Tomb Raider, Diablo3, World of Tanks & a little Bioshock Infinite, all with High settings or better.
    I was wondering about my temps before, so I did some searching. The ITE chip is one of the motherboard controls. Core Temp (not installed currently) always gives me the same readings as the CPU [#0] reading.
    I custom labeled the fans. Radiator fan is the Zalman 120mm fan & CPU Pump is the pump attached to the Chas_1 fan header on my motherboard.
    Chas_2 is one of the two Cougar Vortex 140mm.
    Using an industrial food temperature gauge (borrowed from work) my ambient temp is 63F - it won't let me switch to Celsius.
    I do know that FX chips give very inaccurate readings when they're at low temps, but I've never seen it above 35C since I've had it. I first had a Hyper 212 Evo on it, and that was only a few degrees higher then this is. (Amazing air cooler, btw.)
    [​IMG]
     
  14. gaul

    gaul Active Member

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    eyes catching, strong fan perform, nice build quality
     
    Last edited: Mar 20, 2014
  15. gaul

    gaul Active Member

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    nice review as always, but i look forward for DUAL
     

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