Larkooler SkyWater 330 Liquid Cooling System CPU Cooler Review

Installation and Finished Product

Removing the middle section of padding is easy enough; it is cut and pops right out. As for the holes for the studs, I just pushed them through the foam, and the plus and paper comes right out of the other side. Then, we simply slip the studs through the board, and we are ready to flip it over.

First, we had to send the barrel nuts on top of the washers down to the bottom of the studs to make standoffs, and secure the plate to the board. After that, we applied some TIM, and set the block down. To secure the block, we then used the larger nuts, and I tightened them as tight as possible with my fingers, in an X-pattern.

There is one thing obviously missing from this kit, and it took me until I added the fans to the radiator to even see it. The small screws that I thought were for the brackets will mount the fans, but then there is nothing to mount the fan grills. Digging into my older hardware, I was able to come up with what I needed to get the job done correctly.

We went ahead and checked the thread and fit of the fittings with what Larkooler had supplied. It didn't take but a second to realize I would be in dire need of some angled fittings to make this fit in the chassis we test with.

And this is why we had to opt for a pair of angled fittings, and it does not hurt that they are rotaries either. Setting things up at this point were pretty simple, outside of the fact that the tubing is not as soft as I would like it to be.

At the other end of the loop, I did have to do some rigging to make it all work and stay where I needed it, but that is due to the chassis, not the kit. The Velcro pad held pretty well, but we added the foam to make sure it stayed in place. Also, keep in mind, the fill port is the one facing you, not the one at the top currently; that is a bleeder valve of sorts.

The 24-pin jumper comes in really handy when filling the loop. This way, you can just flick on the PSU, run it, then stop to add more fluid; rinse and repeat until the loop is full. It also allows you to run the loop and look for leaks, and wait for all the air to escape the block, the radiator, and the tubing, while the rest of the system sits essentially dead with no power.

After about 30 minutes to an hour of messing around and getting the majority of the air out of the SkyWater 330 loop, we had it installed, and almost ready for testing. We did run the system for another few hours to get all the air out of the lines, and that seemed to take the most time. At this point I will say: It has been rather simple and easy thus far to put this all together.