Introduction

The progression of water-cooling is really a cool thing. Back in the day, sites like Overclockers.com were leading the charge allowing end users to post their ideas for all to see. A person would make new ground in one area and others would pick up, improve upon the idea, and spread the word on. The first water blocks were made from the tops of PVC pipe caps with standard heatsinks placed inside the empty opening and held with epoxy. All that was left to do was drill holes for brass nipples that were purchased from home improvement stores, and voila, you had a water block.

Water blocks were not the only pieces involved then, just as they are not today. Radiators were fabricated from automobile heater cores, a smaller version of a radiator, while pumps, often the most expensive component were made from pond pumps, often found at the same home improvement store for around 50 US Dollars.

It wasn’t long before garage startups like the now defunct Bee Cooling came in with pieces made from copper bar stock and added a professional level to water cooling. Some privateers were able to keep their heads together and continue improving their products, but many just faded away in the sunset as larger companies started to move in on the wet and wild world of overclocking.

Ten years later and water cooling is now established and doesn’t hold the Voodoo like stigma that it once held. Very rarely do you hear rebuttals to the practice like “What if there is a leak?” and “It is too expensive”. Companies like CoolIT Systems played a large role in turning water cooling into a mainstream practice by making it available on a large scale, even getting their products in the hands of big box builders like Alienware.

Today we are going to look at CoolIT’s latest water-cooled processor heatsink, the PURE. CoolIT calls their cooling systems “Fluid Heat Exchangers” and have been building their FHEs for a couple of years now.