CoolIT Domino A.L.C.

As a unit, the CoolIT Domino A.L.C. certainly looks the part with the sleek black housing containing the mainboard for the controls as well as the LCB screen which collates different data on the operation of the water cooling system.

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A couple of logos are printed on the front below the LCD, and with a case that has a see-through side panel cut-out, the LCD screen should be visible from the outside which makes viewing the information a much simpler affair than having the laborious task of removing the side panel every time you wish to adjust the speed setting etc.

Perpendicular to this part of the main body is the 120mm fan that installs where the rear exhaust system fan is usually located. However, this is not an exhaust fan but instead draws in air to pass through the radiator in order to remove the heat. Despite, the hot air being drawn into the main chamber, it shouldn’t be much of an issue as most cases have a large top extraction fan that should remove this as well as helping create a negative pressure inside the case (and so aiding the intake fan on the Domino). But those without such a top bound extractor may find this setup a bit irksome.

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The radiator is located directly behind with quite tightly packed fins in order to create a large surface area to dissipate the heat from the cooling fluid as effectively as possible. The overall size of the radiator is very compact though as most water cooling solutions tend to utilise two or even three 120mm fans.

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Moving on to the water block, it’s actually very thin which was surprising as usually a thicker design would be employed so more water can flow into it at once. The contact area is very smooth and should fit flush against the IHS on the processor; a thin layer of pre-installed thermal paste comes on the base making first time installation even faster.

In terms of aesthetics it’s very plain though just the black bracket atop with a large screw keeping everything tight.

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The next essential component for any water cooling loop is the pump, a very small 67mm x 47mm x 29 mm design rated at <21dBA with a life expectancy of 50,000 hours. It fits very snugly at the bottom of the housing with the ribbed tubing protruding from either end.

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A small sticker on the body explains the three settings: quiet, performance and full. In essence, they are very self explanatory and just increase the fan speed to up a maximum of 2550RPM in order to give better performance.

Upon powering up, the LCD lights up blue and displays the settings, fan speed, pump speed and coolant temperature – useful bits of information but nothing than can’t be gleaned from a decent utility/bit of software. One neat feature of the Domino though, is the alarm system (along with a flashing warning symbol on the LCD) if the fan stops or something goes horribly wrong.

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So after the initial inspection, it looks like we have a nice bit of kit but how will it perform?