Review of Cooler Master Seidon 120XL CPU Water Cooling System

Installation and Testing

 

My system is based on an Intel Core i7 2600K CPU with an ASUS Z68 motherboard, the case is an NZXT Switch 810 with HIS 7870 and 7750 video cards along with bgears b-Enspirer PCI sound card.

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The Switch 810 has plenty of room in it for swapping CPU coolers thankfully. On the back you’ll find a nice cut-out where the CPU socket back plate would be so the user doesn’t have to remove the motherboard from the case, but not all cases are like that so depending on your you may have to remove the motherboard to start the installation process.

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The first thing I did was collect the parts I’d need to installation and there’s plenty of them. You’ll need the back plate, brackets, assorted screws for the mounting process and fans.

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The first thing you’ll need to do is install the brackets on the pump/copper cooling block.

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The brackets actually slide into the block then you use four screws to secure the brackets to the block.

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Once I got the brackets installed I started with the socket mounts which include the back plate and four double threaded screws that are really thumbscrews or at least they look like it. The installation is kind of tricky as you have to hold the back plate in place while attaching the screws on the front side of the motherboard.

Here’s the front side with the hardware attached:

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Then here’s the back plate in place:

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Once that’s completed you can install the Seidon liquid cooler. The instructions say to install the water block first but I found it easier to install the radiator and fan first then put the block in place.

Installation requires the fan, rubber vibration dampener and four screws mounted on the back of your case.

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The order is basically case, screws, fan, dampener, and radiator. The four screws hold the fan and radiator combo in place very well, you won’t have to worry about it coming off inside of your case.

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Here’s two pictures of it installed, the first one is without the power and fan connections made and the second is the complete installation. I had no issues getting the block installed on my motherboard even though this particular motherboard has some rather large chipset heatsinks all around the socket. I’ve come across many issues installing other CPU coolers, but none here.

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