CoolIT Domino A.L.C. System - Closer Look at the Domino

Closer Look at the Domino A.L.C.

The Domino is the smallest and probably lightest cooler from CoolIT Systems so far.  It is designed to fit in many cases and due to the short length of this cooler, it should work for just about every mid-full tower case on the market.  It is much shorter than the PURE Cooler and still offers great performance and even more features than its low-cost predecessor.  In the image below, you can see the radiator, stiff, non-porous hoses, and you can just make out the micro pump that feeds the bottom hose on the waterblock.  It's a tidy and tight looking unit.

Domino Radiator

As we move around to the other side of the unit, you can check out the 120mm fan that can be attached by either the included rubber vibration isolating mounts or screws.  Both are included in the kit.  The entire system - pump, fan and display are powered through a single 3-pin motherboard fan connector.  If you choose to connect this to the CPU Fan section on your board, it will allow you to monitor fan speed in your system software.  This fan runs anywhere between 1075 RPM and 2925 RPM and is almost silent up until 1600 RPM.  The pump seems to stay right around 3100 RPM.

 
120mm Fan

CoolIT has made this system as universally compatible as they can when it comes to CPU support.  It will happily fit on LGA775 or LGA1366 Intel processors as well as AM2 and AM2+ AMD processors.  If you've got a later Socket 939 AMD board, it will probably work on that as well - but if you're still running a single-core 939, maybe it's time you upgraded?  By default the block comes fit for the Intel Core i7 Nehalem (LGA1366) processor.  This can be changed to LGA775 in a matter of a few minutes.

Waterblock Base

In the box you get (almost) everything you need to get this unit up and running on your favorite processor.  In the picture below are two Intel motherboard stiffener plates for 775 and 1366 processor as well as a top plate for the waterblock when mounting on AMD systems.  Included in the little bag are screws for mounting the fan, four stand-offs for AMD mounting systems and an extra pair of rubber vibration isolators.  Also included (but not pictured) is a handy manual that covers installation on different configurations.

Included Stuff

What is not included in the package is a stiffener plate for AMD systems.  Most AMD motherboards have a back stiffener plate already installed whereas Intel boards do not.  CoolIT has banked on this plate being available in order to install the Domino on AMD systems.  Our ASRock A770 Crossfire motherboard does not have such a plate and we had to pull the plate off another motherboard in order to get this up and running on our toasty Phenom X4 9950 BE.

The only control on the entire unit is a multi-function switch that can be used to change between performance levels as well as change the temperature display from Celsius to Fahrenheit.  Pressing the button switches the performance mode from low to medium to high and each setting is indicated by a beep - one beep for low, two beeps for medium and three beeps for high.  In order to change the temperature display, press and hold the button for a couple of seconds.

Mode Switch

Operation Modes

On the next page we'll keep on checking out the Domino before we take a look at the test system and jump into some performance numbers.