ancient art overclocking is a more delicate ballet than an exact science. The goal is to force your hardware to run at much higher speeds than the manufacturer intended, while offsetting the immense amount of heat generated – heat that can cause system instability and ultimately fry the insides of your PC. Beat the heat and your overclocked PC will fragment faster and last longer.
Typically this means air cooling with noisy fans, water cooling, or some combination of both. Hardcore Computer is trying something a little different: submerging all of the PC’s expensive and sophisticated components in 4.5 gallons of industrial coolant.
This is the DNA that makes up the PC Reactor. Weighing just over 100 pounds, this behemoth is clad in 2.5mm aircraft grade aluminum. The tank containing the liquid is made of a plastic similar to a NASA astronaut’s visor, plus it is bulletproof, in case your play den comes under attack with small arms.
We received a Reactor test unit packed with a variety of high-performance parts, including an Intel Core 2 Extreme processor overclocked to 4 GHz, 4 GB of RAM, and three 64 GB solid-state drives for incredibly fast (and expensive) data. -transfer fees.
Gamers will be interested in the slot-loading DVD burner (or optional Blu-ray reader) and the three Nvidia GTX 280s running in SLI. In addition to seeing impressive scores in the benchmarking software, we ran the all-important Crysis test and saw an average of 40 to 45 frames per second with each setting pumped to the absolute maximum. And there’s still room to push pre-overclocked components even further.
For the DIYers, haxz0rs, and IT enthusiasts in the public, the Reactor is built with high-performance server-level technology in mind. This includes a pair of 650W power supplies that provide a total of 1,300 watts of power, plus redundant backup: if one dies, the other will keep running. A pair of hot-swappable drives, weighing 1TB each, let you swap your battle plans for family vacation videos without having to shut down your PC. There’s even built-in Wi-Fi, complete with two original antennas that would normally be considered monstrous but somehow look good on the rig.
A substance called Core Coolant is the bloodstream of this gaming monolith. It is a biodegradable, dielectric and non-toxic cooling oil created by Hardcore Computer and is responsible for cooling key components. Like the typical liquid cooling setup, a pump circulates fluid through the Reactor chassis to a radiator, where the hotter fluid freezes and is sent back to the tank.
The key difference between an air- or water-cooled setup and the Reactor is unmatched heat transfer – you can overclock every part of your machine without fear of catastrophic burnout. The fans are positively archaic; Air simply cannot disperse the amount of heat generated by a gaming platform; it is often in the area of 158 degrees F. Liquid-cooled systems are more efficient, but while the labyrinth of tubes can draw heat away from the CPU and graphics cards, many other heat-generating components are left at risk, which generally results in system instability.
Submerged cooling is not perfect. The most obvious problem is the size and weight of the thing, with 4.5 gallons of liquid sloshing around. And no matter how careful you are, you’ll want to have a roll of paper towels on hand, because there will be some inevitable splatters when you inevitably open the lid and start digging around inside the machine. Fortunately, Core Coolant (which is clear, odorless, and has the consistency of a mineral oil) is safe enough to drink, according to the company. (Please do not drink the central coolant).
