Zalman Reserator 3 Max AIO Review

Final Thoughts

Price

The Zalman has one major draw back, it isn’t cheap and at £84.99 from Overclockers it is one of the more expensive 120mm radiators on the market. However it does back that up with great performance and price vs performance is balanced nicely.

Overview

The Resorator was quite a surprise, it doesn’t look anything like your average water cooling units and despite the fact that the design doesn’t appeal to me, or at least I don’t think it would look right in my own personal system, the design is still the thing I love the most about it. Something a little different, a unique and cool looking design is no bad thing and the fact that most of the design features are the by-product of improving performance it makes it all the better.

The radiator design is quite chunky, but it packs an impressive surface area for a 120mm mount, not to mention the dual radiator design that helps keep things running as cool as they did. I’m not so sure about the difference the nanofluids coolant makes, or if that is just some marketing nonsense, but I have to admit that what ever Zalman have put in there is clearly doing its job well.

The fan is a little noisy when the system is under load, but you can really feel a significant amount of airflow blasting through the back of the radiator. The design also helps cycle the air within your chassis, something that can help system airflow overall. If you’re looking for a quiet build, you’ll need to drop the fan profile lower on your motherboard and perhaps go easy on the overclocks. However if noise isn’t an issue for your build, you’ll be happy to get such great cooling performance from a radiator that only needs a 120mm mount.

Build quality feels great, but I don’t like not being able to change the pre-installed fan, should it fail you will have to RMA the whole product as opposed to just replacing the fan. The 2nd fan cable could have been all black to match the rest of the setup and it could have been just a little quieter overall, but that’s really me just being picky as it isn’t overly loud and great performance shines through regardless.

Pros

• Unique and stylish design
• Great performance for a 120mm compatible design
• Blue LED lighting is a nice touch
• Build quality feels great

Cons

• Was very tricky to install
• Expensive (although it is justified by good performance and build quality)
• A little noisy under load
• Can’t remove / replace the stock fan

“Zalman have really made something unique here, it looks fantastic, performs better than you would expect given its size and while the mounting kit may be awkward, it does look nice and clean once installed. If you can afford it and you want great performance without the need for a larger radiator, then this is a very tempting option”

Thank you to Zalman for providing this review sample.