Overall, the new cooling system will hardly be a very attractive buy for overclocking fans and some regular users as well. The mere fact that it loses to an air cooler makes it really hard for Aquagate S1 to make it to the favorites list.

Although I don’t think this unit has the capacity for extreme overclocking, for the price of a higher end air cooling unit, the Aquagate S1 makes the move toward water cooling much more affordable.  The look of the cooler is sharp and with the cool blue lighting, is a welcome addition to my system.

Since Cooler Master bills the Aquagate as a quieter way to cool your rig than a typical air-cooling solution, we grabbed a nearby fire extinguisher and dialed down the radiator fan. As expected, our rig’s stock air cooler outperformed the Aquagate. In fact, when compared to our stock cooler, the Aquagate didn’t once produce lower temperatures. Silence is golden, but fires are real; running this cooler on silent mode makes your CPU more a hot plate than a processor, and we truly fear the results if we were to attach this to a more powerful chip.

We’re hesitant to recommend the Aquagate as a cooling solution for anything but the weakest CPUs. You’re better off sticking cotton in your ears and tolerating the buzz of a better air cooler.