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| Corsair Nautilus 500 Water Cooling System |
The Corsair Nautilus 500 is a very well-built external watercooling kit. That's evidenced by its ease of installation. Corsair claims that it can be installed in under 10 minutes. To be honest, we didn't actually time the installation, but it really didn't take very long to get it up and running. Design-wise, Corsair really did a great job with the the Nautilus 500. It utilizes a very reliable and high-performance pump with a high-quality waterblock. Combine that with the ease of installation, this makes it a very good entry-level kit. As far as the mounting is concerned, we would really like to know how Corsair can make do with only the stock mounting bracket. It's nice, of course, as it avoids having to remove the motherboard in order to install the waterblock. Unfortunately, the waterblock doesn't seem to be mounted as securely as we would have liked. We were able to "wiggle" it a little, even with the bracket fully fastened. We also felt that the tubing was somewhat stiff, compared to other types of tubing in the market. But that's just a minor complaint. Overall, the Nautilus 500 is a very well-built. It certainly didn't feel cheap. But we wonder why they decided to go with an aluminium radiator, as opposed to a full copper radiator. Not only will a copper radiator improve its performance, it would also avoid galvanic corrosion and do away with the need for additives like ethylene glycol. Even though it's an entry-level kit, its performance is certainly commendable. It bested all of the heatsinks that we tested it against. Note that most of these heatsinks are no slouches! Two of them are actually the best in the market. Now, Corsair states that the Nautilus 500 is "whisper-quiet". However, we feel that it's not really that quiet. The fan, on the "high speed " setting, emits a noticeable amount of noise. We believe that the noise itself isn't really from the fan but from the air moving through the unit. Also, while Corsair claims that the Nautilus 500 is capable of dissipating 500 watts of heat, we have no doubt that it can. But we do not believe that it will be able to do so while maintaining the same level of performance we saw earlier. Not on a single 120 mm radiator, and an aluminum one at that. Still, we enjoyed using the Corsair Nautilus 500. We feel that it's a great kit for the budding watercooling enthusiast, as well as those who don't have cases large enough to accomodate big watercooling setups. The Nautilus 500 comes ready to use, right out of the box. Well, except for the distilled water that you have to get on your own! It's also offered at a relatively low price, compared to other high-performance external watercoolers. Because of its ease of installation, excellent build, good performance and competitive price, we gladly award it our Editor's Choice Award! Congratulations, Corsair! For more details, read our Comprehensive Review! |
| MSRP |
• USD 159.99 |
| Lowest PriceGrabber Price |
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| Review |
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Model Number |
• CWCN500 |
Chipset |
• ULi M1697 |
Water Pump Type |
• Spherical Motor |
Water Pump Voltage |
• 8 V to 13.2 V DC |
Maximum System Pressure |
• 22 PSI |
Head Pressure @ 12 V |
• 13.05 feet (390 m/bar) |
Maximum Flow @ 12 V |
• 350 LPH (1.54 GPM) |
Fan Voltage |
• 12 V DC |
Fan Current |
• 0.3 A |
Fan Speed |
• 1800 RPM |
Fan Air Flow |
• 74.4 CFM |
Fan Air Pressure |
• 3.2 mm Aq |
CPU Water Block |
• Solid copper CPU water block |
CPU Support |
• AMD64 processors (Sockets 754, 939 and 940) |
Package Contents |
• One COOL Copper CPU water block |
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