Cooling off your computer’s processor provides plenty of benefits, namely extending the chip’s life and, for the enthusiast, a bit of extra headroom before a processor overheats during yet another overclocking session. Years ago, most people struggled with massive air-cooled heatsinks but, increasingly, water cooling is entering as a solid cooling alternative that is nearly free of the fear of liquids mingling near expensive electronics.

CoolIT Systems specializes in creating pre-assembled water cooling kits. The company’s Domino A.L.C. is an entry level kit designed to cool off your system’s processor and represents an interesting and inexpensive introduction into the water cooling world. We’ll be taking a look at the cooler and what it can do for your PC.

Attempting to ease the cooling pain

Water cooling, or to be more precise liquid cooling, was once the sole endeavor of the tweaker and PC enthusiast dedicated to improving their systems performance which the cooling method easily afforded. Air cooling is limited by the fact that it requires an insanely large surface area in order to work properly and it eventually hits a point where there’s too much heat for the fins and heatpipes to dissipate without resorting to insanely large, loud, and fast fans to get rid of the heat.

On the other hand you have water cooling which forgoes the less effective heatpipe method of…well heat transfer in favor of whatever coolant one finds worthwhile. That coolant is then pumped through a series of tubes into a radiator, which offers far more cooling surface area than most air coolers could ever hope to offer, giving off its heat as it flows through which a cooling fan can more effectively remove.

The downside was finding the right mix of radiator, pump, water cooling blocks, reservoir, and tubing size then trying to cram it all into your PC then test the whole thing for leaks. It’s not a process too high on instant gratification but its benefits were clear.

The case for simplicity

CoolIT Systems managed to come up with the Domino A.L.C. which combines all of those components, and a few extra touches, into a pre-assembled kit which eases installation and has you up and running much quicker. The first thing you’ll notice on the unit is its plastic cladding which, inventively, hides the “ugly” parts of the water cooling setup for those with see through windows on their computer’s side panel.

The plastic shell holds the Domino’s pump and latches on to its radiator. The radiator itself is designed for a 120mm fan, which is included, and the whole setup is powered off a single 3-pin power connector designed to plug into your system’s CPU fan header.

Taking another look at the good old plastic shell you’ll find an LCD display which sports a blue back light and offers up information on the pumps current speed, coolant temperature, fan speed, and fan setting. The unit’s different settings are controlled by a simple button on the side which allows you to choose from three different fan speeds and, by holding down the button for three seconds, a choice between Celsius and Fahrenheit coolant temperature readouts.

As far as the unit’s fan goes you’re looking at three options: a low speed setting which is whisper quiet and runs the fan at around 1000RPM, a high speed setting which is obnoxiously loud and runs the fan around 2900RPM and offers the best performance, with the third option offering the a great combination of the two. The “performance” setting automatically adjusts the Domino’s fan which, in general usage, stays at around 1400-1800RPM although higher heat loads will no doubt spin the fan faster.

The good old contortionist act

The Domino supports a wide range of modern processors and includes mounting hardware for Intel LGA775 and LGA 1366.  AMD users have AM2+ and AM3 support to look forward to. If you’re an LGA 1156, aka Intel Core i5 owner, you may have to spring for the company’s LGA 1156 retention kit at least until they work something into their retail product.

Prepping the device for installation can be tedious. You’ll have to take apart your PC and apply a rear plate mounting plate to your motherboard. That task is easy enough and requires you to peel off the protective paper on the pieces of sticky tape and slipping the screw posts through the appropriate mounting holes on your motherboard. As for the bracket on the cooler’s water block, you’ll want to be careful removing the retention bracket if you’re going to use the pre-applied thermal paste.

Swapping the retention bracket is easy in and of itself, a wide screwdriver or coin should remove the plastic screw easily, take note that there is a spacer underneath the screw that you’ll need when it comes time to replace the bracket. Since the Domino comes with the spring loaded screws mounted for LGA1366 motherboards you’ll have to remove them in order to switch to LGA775 support or use your AM2+ retention bracket.

Moving the spring loaded screws is a bit of a pain and will require you to remove the C-clips holding them in place, that task is easy enough but you’ll likely have a few issues putting them back in as it requires a little leverage to push the C-clip back in between the screw and the bracket. Patience is key.

Now you’re ready to mount the cooler. That entails cleaning any old thermal paste from your CPU and clamping the waterblock on. It takes a bit of effort as the tubes are stiff and that hunk of radiator hanging over your precious motherboard is a little disconcerting but eventually you’ll be able to screw down the cooler taking a few turns on each screw at a time in a diagonally alternating pattern.

Mounting the radiator will require you to ease the tips of the “anti vibration” rubber mounts through the rear 120mm fan mount holes on your system’s case. Once added, expect a little bit of sag as the unit stretches the top two mounts a bit. If you’re leery of those rubber mounts, the company does supply four mounting screws that should keep a tight grip on the cooler. Your last task is to plug in the cooler’s power cord into a 3 pin fan header (4 pin system header works as well you just won’t be using the 4th pin) and you’re ready to go.

The experience

(test processor: Intel Pentium e2160 @ 3.0GHz, 1.4v)

As mentioned earlier, you’re going to want to run the cooler at the performance setting and let the Domino handle fan duties, it offers the best performance while allowing you to actually hear yourself think. On our test processor we saw the cooler shave off a good 10C from our test processor’s running temperatures compared to the mid-range Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro. Considering the Intel e2160’s struggles with heat output, especially at the 3GHz speed, that’s a substantial improvement.

The cooler does have a few downsides: somewhat awkward installation due to its stiff tubing, and its plastic shroud and display will likely prevent the installation fo side panel fans. As far as the installation went, the hardest part was properly aligning the rubber mounts; it gets somewhat difficult lining all of them up before you pull them through and get them seated.

As far as noise is concerned, the Domino A.L.C. does a good job of keeping quiet. You’re likely to hear other system fans over it when it’s operating at low or performance settings; its pump is also low noise.

Overall if you’re looking for a high performance and quiet cooler for your PC, CoolIT System’s Domino A.L.C is a great choice. It does have an “extended” installation session but that’s to be expected from most high end coolers that use spring-loaded screws to keep the heatsink in place anyway. There is competition out there but the Domino A.L.C. is the only one to supply a handy LCD display for all of your obsessive system monitoring needs.