VapoChill Impressions

The VapoChill case is not built using metal that you would normally find in high quality cases. The metal appears to be galvanized steel that is then powder coated to the one of two available colors. The material is also much thicker and heaver than the Antec sample case and much to my surprise it provides even less rigidity. From a case modders standpoint this is completely unacceptable, not only is the case needlessly heavy but to choose lower grade metal for a high end product just doesn't make much sense.

The interior of the case does not deviate much from standard designs. There are 5 internal 3.5" HDD bays, one external floppy drive bay, and 3 external 5.25" bays. Since the power supply will not fit in its usual spot above the motherboard you'll find it covering the chill head in an ATX standard location. Above you will see the rather large exhaust opening for the chill unit. Exhaust temperatures stayed in the 140F to 170F degree range.

The VapoChill system is a closed loop cooler with a 120mm Sunon fan providing air movement over the cooling coils, the compressor is a 12volt variable speed unit by a company called DanFoss.

The VapoChill case weighs a good 40lbs by itself which can exceed 55lbs depending on what equipment you decide to install. Some may find this to be an unfavorable feature if the computer needs to be easily movable.

Installing a system into the VapoChill was actually very easy though some of the processes aren't as desirable as you'd think. If you happen to look around the web at other VapoChill reviews you might notice that they all are using Pentium4 motherboards and processors. There is a reason for this and I had to learn it the hard way, you guessed it, the chill head cracks XP cores. Asetek has come up with a solution in the form of a shim that is closely machined to fit around the XP core and resistors. The shim will provide enough support to eliminate the core-cracking problem, unfortunately the news came too late for my XP2000+.

The motherboard installs with some one-way plastic standoffs, these make installation very quick and easy but doesn't provide any extra grounding. The need for this can be argued left and right though personally I would have rather seen a few brass supports to ensure that the motherboard won't move and to also provide additional grounding points.

Any processor used in the VapoChill needs to be sealed with non-conductive thermal grease. The main purpose is to keep water from condensing on the processor pins. The only downside is that once the grease is applied its pretty much there forever.

Installing the chill head was rather easy; you simply apply some thermal paste to your processor and screw it into place using the provided hardware.