At stock speed, the CoolIT does quite well and manages to keep the Core i7 at reasonable temperatures. Performance mode was quite a leap ahead of Quiet, while not being too loud. Full mode was only slightly better cooling wise but it was a lot louder so Performance is definitely the best compromise in this case. On the whole though, the CoolIT system lagged behind the heatsink based ones.



At 4ghz, the Domino A.L.C begins to struggle against the heatsinks. The sheer amount of heat being dissipated by the overclocked i7 seems far too much for a single radiator to cool. Performance mode managed to sustain it through the stress test but Quiet resulted in a shut down to prevent the temperatures from creeping over 100 degrees Centigrade, hence the lack of results. Full mode did a much better job, at the expense of noise. The Thermolab Baram was exceptional here but more on this in another review!


The coolant temperature can be read directly from the Domino A.L.C's own display. There was a definite correlation between the fan speed and the temperature, the higher speeds leading to lower temperatures as expected. The temperature drops were seen as soon as the mode was changed suggesting that the fan and radiator were doing an excellent and noticeable job of cooling the liquid.


Again, we see that the temperatures have risen as just as expected with the high heat output of the overclocked i7. The temperature difference of the coolant however between stock and overclocked isn't as significant the that of the actual CPU. It may be that the heat isn't being transferred effectively to the liquid.


Here is shown the effect of changing modes and its effect on the fan speed. At 1200rpm, the Domino A.L.C cannot be heard above my case fans but a step up to Performance and it's definitely audible, although not too intrusive. Full mode on the other hand was as noticeable as a hurricane entering your house. No difference is seen between idle and load since they cooler still managed to cope well under stress and so the fans didn't have to ramp up in speed.


Under load at 4ghz, we see how the fans automatically kick in to try and lower temps when it gets too high. Performance mode is where we see the most significant change, preventing the temperature from going overboard by increasing the fan speed by 600rpm. Even on Full mode, the fan still managed to ramp up slightly. The fan was designed to go up to 2900rpm by specification.

I have to add that while gaming, temperatures were ranging between 45-60 degrees but the CPU was not being stressed massively as opposed to the LinX test. The test represents a worse case scenario and determines the performance of the coolers in the most extreme computing environment.