Introduction

PC enthusiasts demand a lot from their hardware, especially when it comes to their processors. In order to be able to push their processors to their very limits, hard-core overclockers demand aftermarket cooling.

There are a variety of readily available forms of cooling for enthusiasts, ranging from the most basic of heatsinks to large freon-based coolers.

Recently though, one form of cooling is increasingly becoming more and more mainstream - watercooling. Today we will be looking at the latest offering from Corsair in the form of an external watercooling kit, the Corsair Nautilus 500.

Corsair Memory

Corsair Memory was established in 1994 and has since then established itself as a key player in the memory market. They are best known for their XMS line of system memory modules for both personal computers as well as servers.

Apart from their high speed memory, Corsair Memory has also diversified into other products such as water cooling through their COOL lineup and also offer various flash media.

Now, let's take a look at the Nautilus 500 water cooling kit!

Packaging

The Corsair Nautilus 500 comes in a rather attractive box. The front of the box has a picture of the Nautilus 500 as well as a list of its features which highlights its ability to dissipate 500 watts of heat, ease of installation, whisper quietness and compatibility.

We do believe, however, that dissipating 500 watts of heat would not be possible without compromising its overall performance. The back of the box shows the Nautilus 500 unit installed on a case as well as some graphs and accompanying info.

Let's take a closer look at the back of the box. On a closer look, the box lists the components of the kit. It looks like everything you need to install the cooler is in the kit, even the thermal grease.

Below that is a chart comparing performance of the Nautilus 500 with air cooling on both AMD and Intel platforms. The ambient temperature was also included for comparison. How accurate are their claims? We shall see in a bit. Let's take a look at the contents.