Exclusive Review of CoolIT's Domino Advanced Liquid Cooling

Introduction

2008 has been a break-out year for CoolIT Systems. The company launched several new products in the first half of the year. Among them was a full chassis cooling solution built with the SilverStone TJ07 and the Freezone Elite, the follow up Freezone that launched the company into enthusiast stardom. Towards the second half of the year CoolIT Systems struck again with the PURE and PURE ST. We are now a stones throw away from 2009 and the company is back with yet another release, the CoolIT Systems Domino Advanced Liquid Cooling (or A.L.C.).

The Domino Advanced Liquid Cooling is a lot like the PURE we reviewed a few months back. Both are liquid cooled and do not have an active TEC (peltier) to cool the liquid below ambient. The Domino is a new design, though; nearly every component is fresh, from the CPU block to the firmware controlling the pump and fan. The active digital display is a first for CoolIT as well and to be honest I am surprised to see it on their new entry level product. Generally such features start out on the flagship product and make their way down.

I think what we are seeing here is the beginning of a battle that has started behind the scenes in the OEM market. Asetek has been gaining ground with their L.C.L.C. (Low Cost Liquid Cooling) unit for the past few months and now has several design wins under their belt. The L.C.L.C. even came in the CyberPower Gamer Xtreme XE I reviewed back in October. The OEM enthusiast market is one place where CoolIT Solutions has dominated for several years and once someone started to step on their turf with an ultra low cost solution it was time to get the engineers on the ball. Let's have a look at what their motivated engineers were able to come up with and see if their OEM solution can be competitive in the enthusiast market.