Building a water-cooled system for mass production is nothing to be sneezed at, just like Acer experienced with its Predator series. The company produced a system that wasn't thoroughly designed and the result was an CPSC-ordered product recall.
One might think that the manufacturers learned, since even the all-mighty Apple broke its teeth on leaky Power Macs G5 - is that PC manufacturers have to work with liquid-cooling manufacturers in order to produce a long-lasting solution. Looking at the case of recently launched of refreshed all-in-one water-cooled PC from NEC it looks like most companies just refused to learn.
When introduced in mid-2007, NEC's ValueStar looked as a brilliant system on paper - a liquid-cooled all-in-one PC, with NEC going as far as featuring a water-block for the hard drive. Last week, NEC introduced a refreshed ValueStar W, featuring new, more thermally demanding components. The cooling solution, however - is a potential time bomb.
George Clarkson, an industry liquid-cooling expert blasted NEC for the decision to save couple of dime on the quality of the parts, and made a capital no-no by combining aluminum and a standard cooper water block. Even if the parts in the system were produced to the highest standard and corrosion inhibitors were applied, corrosion will still happen of the aluminum parts, it is just the matter of time. Personally, I consider cabling to be the weakest link - Asetek was the first company to show the way with Teflon non-penetrable cabling, and CoolIT followed suit in best possible way. After those two, there are no excuses for such an implementation.
You can view the comments on George's blog, and we have to admit, these comments are a touch of fresh air in the conservative and silent industry of OEM cooling for the machines that most computer users will eventually buy.
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