The small white boxes came in the mail with an assortment of other parts to complete a water cooled setup lying around collecting dust.
The packaging was rather generic looking. A plain white flip-top box with a white sticker branding the Danger Den logo, part number and fine print detailing the contents. Rather simple when compared to the other major brands.
Inside the box is some thick protective foam with waves on one side and sitting on top of the the copper and plastic water block. Also inside are a bag of parts and a small piece of paper with a single cell diagram for instructions.
The block looked high quality with a few strips of plastic tape protecting the important base. The clear plastic top was in perfect condition, sitting on the copper block with a rubber seal between perfectly sealing the two together.
The pile of screws, springs and hard plastic grommets in the bag seemed like a lot to put together for a simple CPU cooler, but a quick look at the poor quality instruction paper meant it was easy to sort them out in the correct order.
Having done this many times before, it was all quickly assembled on an old test board. If you haven't done this before, you may have a brief problem following putting it together, but a practice run is a great idea so you have the hang of it, and won't need to pull apart the computer once it's all together.
One problem with the particular screw on method Danger Den is using for this block is that the nut holding the screw in place on the back of the board can come loose. As the motherboard was sitting on the desk, I was able to flip it over and screw it tight again. This problem arouse because the screw itself has no head. Everything is held together by nuts tightened on the back, front and on top of the springs holding the water block down. As the nuts are screwed on, the screw turns loosening the bottom nut causing the screw to wobble about. If the screw cam with a fixed head for the bottom, this problem wouldn't happen.
Removing the plastic tape on the base of the copper block revealed a flawless machine finished surface that had a scratch free polished mirror-like look.
The matching Danger Den MPC-Universal Chipset cooler is exactly the same in design as the CPU block. The same screw in design, clear plastic top with flawless copper bottom, cheap generic packaging and irregularly cut photocopied instructions.
There were no problems screwing in the chipset block but the CPU block proved to be a problem again with two of the bottom screws coming loose. The trick is to hold the screw still with one hand while screwing the nuts and sliding on the springs with the other hand. It certainly was a good idea to practice it first. The sleeve type 3/4" fittings that came with the blocks aren't a particular favorite and were replaced with 3/4" compression fittings with 1/4" tubing connections to suit the rest of the loop.
Filling the system went rather well. The Chipset block completely filled but the CPU block had a small air pocket at the top. Tipping the case on an angle and lightly tapping the air in the tubes pushed the air out.
The temperatures are low at idle and under load. A Core 2 Duo e8400 managed less than than 40°C with small load using a small radiator and 120mm fan. A larger radiator and more fans could see these temperatures drop sharply.
The two water blocks themselves were perfect. The packaging and instructions were overly simple, but I'd rather have a high quality block at the reasonable price Danger Den charged than anything fancy that will only find it's way into the bin. The screw system worked rather well with everything fitting into place. There are better systems for fitting the blocks to the board, as well as worse, but I just can't figure out why they decided to use headless screws. A minor annoyance. After a little use I noticed the screws are also a bit too long. If you are aiming for the stealth look you'll need to cut them down to size. There Is nothing bad about the products that effect performance.
If you have a little experience in water cooling you should have little problems with these two additions to your loop. I have no problems whatsoever recommending them to anyone needing quality and low temperatures.
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