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The Coolit Vantage arrives in a blue gradient layered box which shows the main specifications with several high quality images.
Inside, the cooler is sandwiched between two very heavy duty layers of styrofoam.
Inside the Vantage is further protected by a plastic bag. There are three mounting backplates for the various slots and an AMD mount.
The Vantage uses a control module that be customised with settings entitled ‘quiet‘ ‘performance‘ and ‘extreme‘. On the top of the pump block are two buttons that allow menu navigation. We have a video of the unit in operation on the build page later in the review.
The pump assembly is inside the housing and Coolit are using their own proprietary CFF1 unit which has a ceramic bearing to achieve the rated 50,000 hours of use while consuming a single watt of power. In layman's terms this means if you were running a system 24/7 that it is rated to last for 5 years. The liquid mixture also contains a propylene glycol mixture with anti fungal and anti corrosion additives, this will be a major asset to long term performance as without it, algae growths can block the heat exhanger.
The CPU head comes with a fine layer of thermal paste preapplied – we removed this to show the complete, exposed block. Very nicely manufactured it is too.
The Vantage uses 90 degree fittings which swivel around to make sure the fitting is extremely flexible regardless of the way you need to mount it. One side of the pump has a little latch and the other side is home to the pump outlet and the return feed from the radiator. Just be aware that even though these lines are rigid yet flexible that there are limitations to how far you can bend them without causing damage.
When we first opened the box I was immediately impressed with the shroud concept because I knew this would greately assist with airflow outside the case. Additionally it also means that you are not screwing directly into the radiator itself which is better for safety. The 120mm Coolit fan is capable of spinning from 1100 rpm to 2500rpm to cater for a variety of system demands. The airflow is tailored to push from inside the chassis, over the radiator, and out the rear of the case.
Technically they could have flipped the fan meaning it would suck in cool air from outside, but this would have a negative effect on the air flow inside many chassis. We have created a diagram to show a brief overview of what we mean.
‘The right way' shows a traditionally designed chassis (Lian Li) two with intake fans on the front, The Vantage has replaced the rear exhaust fan and we added a 140mm fan at the top to expel warm air. The Vantage ‘out of the box‘ acts as an exhaust fan which replaces the original fan at the rear. If Coolit had reversed the fan position to act as an intake (‘the wrong way'), then both front mounted and rear mounted fans would generate conflicting air flow, causing turbulence. Some cases don't have top mounted fans either so there would actually be no exhaust system in place.
