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More than a year and half ago Gigabyte decided they weren't satisfied with only manufacturing motherboards, video cards, and other "core" peripherals. With their push towards more enthusiast products it seemed only natural for them to venture into the cooling arena, and venture forth they did with a family of very respectable heatsink fan products. Since then Gigabyte has followed up with successive cooler products, and more recently we reviewed one of their best yet: the G-Power. When we reviewed their Aurora case it was very clear that they intended to sell a matching water cooling kit, and that's what we have on our hands today: the Gigabyte GH-WIU01 3D Galaxy watercooler.

It used to be that water cooling for processors was rare; we would see kits made of aquarium pumps and other odds-and-ends thrown togeather in a plain box. Gigabyte, like a few other companies before them, is offering the Galaxy as a complete retail packaged watercooling kit. Gigabyte's new GH-WIU01 can be used on a variety of sockets, including both S939 and LGA775.

The premise behind a water cooling kit is to supply everything you need to get started. These are "beginner" kits meant to facilitate the process for those who want to delve into watercooling and get their feet wet, so to speak. Let's see just how well this kit stacks up shall we?

Let's start by taking a look at what Gigabyte has bundled in the kit:

• Large, pure copper base employs unique water road design
• Long-life, quiet and powerful ceramic bearing pump
• Low water-level (LWP) and over-temperature protection (OTP) (Patent pending)
• Clear blue LED tank for straightforward coolant refilling
• Large aluminum radiator with 4-parts water road design
• Special aluminum fan cover enhances thermal dissipation
• Radiator installs easily onto most PC chassis
• Multi-purpose Nano-scale GIGABYTE coolant
• 1/2 inch special UV tubing material allows for extreme angling and flexing
• Fully compliant with MOSFET thermal function (Patent pending)
• Optional thermal partner: Gigabyte chassis 3D AURORA (GZ-FSCA1-AN / GZ-FSCA1-SN)
• Fan speed control on PCI rear panel
• 120mm large fan on radiator