Zalman Reserator 3 Max

Zalman Reserator 3 Max

Zalman has been a big name in CPU coolers for a long time, but we’ve never seen anything quite like the Reserator 3 Max. First off, the radiator in this closed-loop cooler is not your conventional black box, as Zalman has engineered a circular unit that actually has two radiators set up in a spiral pattern. Secondly, Zalman utilizes nanofluids (a mix of nanoparticles and liquid that is more thermally conductive than liquid by itself) to improve the coolant’s ability to conduct heat away from your CPU.

The nanofluids inside the closed loop are cooled by Zalman’s Quadro cooling path system, which consists of two copper heatpipes that run through the inner radiator and outer radiator. Because the heatpipes split into upper and lower paths within each radiator, there are four overall paths for the radiator to absorb heat. Additionally, the fins on the radiators are made of pure copper, rather than the aluminum found inside most radiators.

Zalman included a single 120mm fan to cool the fins, and the PWM fan operates between 1,000 and 2,200rpm. We’ll also note that Zalman provides extra screws for adding another 120mm fan (not included) to the Reserator 3 Max, creating a push-pull setup. The comparatively small size of the radiator ensures that you’ll be able to install it in most any case with a 120mm fan opening. Zalman also added blue LED lighting to the fan and heatsink/pump for a little visual flair.

Zalman also applied some engineering expertise to the cold plate, which is a pure copper base with micro fins on the interior. The micro fins offer a larger surface area for the nanofluid coolant to absorb heat from the cold plate, which Zalman indicates will increase overall thermal conductivity.

Like almost all of the closed-loop CPU coolers we’ve tested, Zalman provides a set of Intel and AMD universal brackets for the heatsink/pump unit. Overall, you’ll find support for Intel LGA775/1150/1155/1156/1366/2011 and AMD AM2/AM2+/AM3/AM3+/FM1/FM2 sockets. Once you’ve attached the universal clip to the heatsink/pump unit, you can mount it to the universal backplate. We like the Zalman provides a sticker that you can affix to the universal backplate, so you won’t need to hold it in place while mounting the heatsink/pump. With the radiator, we utilized the extra screws and attached it to the rear exhaust fan on our case.

We tested the Reserator 3 Max with a stock-clocked Intel Core i7-4770K on a GIGABYTE GA-Z87X-UD5H motherboard. We monitored CPU temperatures with Core Temp. After letting the system idle for 10 minutes, we measured a maximum temperature of 32 degrees Celsius. We put the processor under load with two separate tests: running the POV-Ray 3.7 beta benchmark for 10 minutes and starting four instances of Prime95 for 10 minutes. Impressively, maximum temps never climbed above 66 C (65 C in POV-Ray and 66 C in Prime 95). With Intel’s Core i7-4770K, that’d leave you with around 40 C of thermal headroom before the CPU automatically throttles itself.

We were excited to see the comparatively small Reserator 3 Max put up numbers on par with closed-loop coolers with larger radiators. Overclockers should also like the flexibility the Reserator 3 Max offers, because it could work with most 120mm fans inside your case. Certainly it’s a CPU cooler worth checking out for your next build.

Specs:Materials: pure copper (waterblock), pure copper and black-pearl, nickel plated (radiator); Fans: 1 120mm (1000-2200rpm); Cooling capacity: 400 watts

Test system specs: Processor: Intel Core i7-4770K; Motherboard: GA-Z87X-UD5H; GPU: GIGABYTE GV-N760OC-4GD; RAM: 8GB ADATA XPG V1.0 DDR3-1866; Storage: 128GB Crucial RealSSD C300; OS: Windows 8 Enterprise (64-bit)