One of our first stops at CES was a visit with CoolIT Systems to talk about their assault on the air cooling market. As many of you are aware, CoolIT has been making waves in the industry by offering compact, simple water cooling kits like the Domino ALC that can rival high-end air cooling both in cost and performance. They’re doing something nobody else in the market is doing, and we wanted the full story.

The Domino ALC, installed and rocking

Prime and I met with CoolIT CEO Geoff Lyon to tour their booth and learn all about the company and where they’re headed. Our first stop was to check out the popular Domino ALC. Multiple display units were installed in gaming systems around the booth and we were able to get a hands-on demonstration showing the unit’s features.

We were impressed by the compact package, which comes with mounting hardware for AMD and Intel systems, a pre-applied thermal paste on the heatsink base, and a controller that allows for fan speed adjustment and prevents your processor from frying if the fan or pump die. The Domino ALC’s cooling performance with the fan on high rivals the TRUE, but installs easier and doesn’t require purchasing separate mounts or fans. We liked it.

Lyon also showed us some of CoolIT’s original water cooling systems that used peltiers to chill the water. He said CoolIT is moving away from pelt-based systems as they’re an expensive niche market that requires too much maintenance from the end user to be popular. The company is instead trying to push simple water cooling to the forefront of the enthusiast community.

One way they’re doing it is by offering all their pumps, tubing, couplers, radiators and waterblocks for sale directly from them in an a la carte fashion. Individual part sales will be integrated into CoolIT’s online store by the first of February. It should then be possible to build your own CoolIT-based system, or even modify your existing system to build a custom loop with better cooling performance.

Thrax listens to the noise canceling box

CES isn’t just about what you can get off-the-shelf; it’s also about upcoming products and engineering showcases. CoolIT had two products on display this year that aren’t currently available but could be in the future. The first was a phase change cooler with active noise canceling. The demonstration box had two phase change compressors running in it with a noise canceling system that could be switched on or off to show its effect. While the show floor at CES is loud, we were able to try it during an early morning lull in the din and can attest that it works. Hopefully the technology will find its way into future products so we can have extreme cooling that doesn’t drive our family and friends mad.

The fully water cooled X. O. Concept PC

After checking that out, it was time to go in the booth’s secret back room to see their top secret project, a fully water cooled X58 system called the X. O. Concept. Inside a custom, all-aluminum thin enclosure, CoolIT had installed an overclocked Core i7 965XE on an Intel X58 Smackover motherboard, Crossfire video cards, and all the other performance hardware you’d expect in a gaming system. Everything was water cooled! All you could see were the Smackover’s empty card slots and bulges where the RAM was installed.

The X. O. control board

The super quiet system is controlled by a board they developed in-house that can monitor 15 temperatures across the setup and adjust cooling as needed to different areas of the case. While in the back room, they showed off their control and monitoring software that interfaces with the board and is reminiscent of AMD Overdrive. It looked good although we were only afforded a quick glance. According to Lyon, the only thing holding the full water cooled system back from going to market is the need to have a major computer builder/reseller sign off to market it. It’s just a matter of time.