Cooler Master Aquagate Mini Review

One of the biggest complaints that I hear when it comes to watercooling is "Where am I going to put all of this stuff?" The equipment is fairly big and while you can normally stuff it all into a typical mid-tower case you don't have much room left over.

There are exceptions to this; the Coolermaster Aquagate is a prime example of a growing trend towards smaller and more compact watercoolers that can be installed with a minimum of effort or modifications. Coolermaster has recently taken the Aquagate system one step further and created something totally unique called the Aquagate Mini. This is a completely self contained watercooler that can be installed on any modern socket based system provided that you can mount a heatsink to the motherboard.

As with any watercooling system you need 3 basic things to get started, including a waterblock to transfer heat, a pump to circulate the fluid, and a radiator to dissipate the heat. The Coolermaster Aquagate Mini contains all of these items but packs them into two basic parts. The radiator stands alone however the waterblock is actually an all in one unit consisting of a pump, waterblock and a small reservoir.

As with most electrical devices you can find the pump specifications right on the unit. This isn't a very powerful pump but what do you expect from something the size of an Athlon64 OEM heatsink.

Unlike other watercooling systems the Aquagate Mini comes pre-filled with Coolermaster anti-icing fluid that is guaranteed to remain full for up to 2 years. This is due in part to the special opaque and heat resistant tubing used between the pump unit and radiator. I'm pretty sure this guarantee does not cover what we are about to do.