GlobalWin Silent Stream

Review by Jason Jacobs on 4/13/04
Water Cooling Kit Provided by Global Win

Kit Overview:

The Silent Stream arrives in a very small box that contains all of the system components and accessories. the first thing that is immediately noticable upon opening the box and examination of the components is just how simple this system is. GlobalWin has deisgned the system where the waterblock and pump are integrated.

Another thing mmediately noticable is how easy to use the cpu hold-down clamp is to use. A large complaint about most good heatsinks/waterblocks is that they must utilize the four holes that surround some cpu sockets. This means that in order to install the heatsink you have to remove the motherboard and install screws, a baseplate, or additional hardware to mount the heatsink or waterblock. The Silent Stream is one of the rare products that makes use of the Ziff socket tabs to hold the heatsink down. The convenience of this design cannot be stressed enough. As a PC enthusiasts we at Techwarelabs often swap components in and out often, this task is made much simpler with this design.

The CPU clip has a screw down top to tighten the waterblock onto the CPU core. The screw down is off center to account for the core placement and applies pressure directly over the core. Little tightening is required to apply enough pressure as it is evident that GlobalWin has accurately measured the installation distance needed.

Taking a look at the rest of the components that accompany the kit you will find that GlobalWin has kindly included retention mechanisms for Athlons, Pentium 4, and the upcoming K8 CPU's.

• A molex to fan adapter connector
• A male to female Fan adapter connector
• The Pentium 4 hold down kit
• Silicone Grease

In addition another Installation Kit bag is provided with that allows for further expanded use.

The contents of the second bag are:

• Expanded Fan/Radiator Screws for external case placement
• Pump On/Off Switch
• Slot plate for tubing
• PSU Water Kit Test Connector
• Slot Plate Screw
• Water Syringe for filling/topping off the system.

GlobalWin has really taken a few extra steps here that I haven't seen presented in previous water cooling kits in this category. They have taken the time to include a Connector that allows the PSU to be powered away from the motherboard. This connector allows you to test Silent Stream for leaks outside the system. Once you are satisfied that the kit is leak proof you can then install the kit with confidence. The Technicians at Techwarelabs all gave this addition two thumbs up. The addition of little extras throughout the kit made the discovery that GlobalWin used leftover Video slot plates for routing the tubing a surprise. It doesn't affect kit performance and we have to admit the hole size is perfect, but honestly there had to be a better solution for this. It gives an otherwise professional looking kit, the appearance of haste. The casual system admirer will never notice this little fact though and only the owner will know.