Closer look at the TD03-E

Silverstone have a well-deserved reputation for including high quality accessories with their products and the few which are included here are of excellent construction and design. The TD03-E includes a well-documented installation pamphlet, a small box containing mounting equipment for all current Intel and AMD systems, a small tube of thermal compound and a two-to-one fan splitter cable.While the TD03 and TD03-E may share a name, they are obviously two very different AiO’s. The original TD03 uses an extra thick (45mm) single bay 120mm radiator with a white fascia, an all metal water block, and utilized the older style white FEP tubing to connect these two key components together. The new TD03-E makes use of rather standard 27mm thick single bay radiator, a black-topped metallic waterblock, and usesPA 'rubber' tubing.These changes make the TD03-E much easier to work with but at the cost of some of its uniqueness. This tends to eliminate many of the reasons to choose this particular cooler over the competition’s offerings. However, since both products will reside in Silverstone’s lineup alongside one another, you can still choose whichever suits your needs.While the TD03’s thick radiator imparted a significant amount of additional thermal overhead into its design, the E-series’ 27mm radiators are a dime a dozen these days and everyone offering an AiO with similar-to-better dimensions.Thankfully, this radiator still makes use of the more advanced soldered fin technology which greatly increases contact area with the water channels in comparison to the folded-fin designs most of those other companies use. How much of an impact this thinner radiator has on overall performance remains to be seen, but Silverstone states that they have made numerous enhancements in the waterblock and pump that should make up for any reduction in potential cooling.The black Polyamide (PA) tubing is an interesting addition to say the least. PA tubing is just as effective as FEP but for whatever reason, Silverstone hasn’t covered this tubing in braided sheathing, or any covering at all. Unfortunately where the previous TD03 made use of great lookingtubing, changing to black not only seems like step backwards in overall aesthetics but it also removes the continual white color scheme that made Silverstone's Tundra series so unique.This feels like Silverstone once again giving a nod to ease of installation since PA tubing is much, much easier to work with than the older style FEP tubing of anything that’s been sheathed. This in conjunction with smaller radiator dimensions should make installation a veritable breeze compared the older TD03 model.The TD03-E’s waterblock is better looking than its predecessor as well. Its black top and silver metal design is extremely eye catching and as robust feeling as the original TD03's while cutting down on the bulkiness of its predecessor. More importantly, it does’t not justbetter than the original waterblock but it is also uses a much more effective internal designAlso noteworthy is while the base is not as smoothly finished as CoolIT-sourced bases, Silverstone has made improvements in this department. For example, the copper contact plate is completely screw-less which enhanced reliability and reduces the bowing found in other screwed-in designs.The two included stock fans are barely noteworthy since they haven’t been upgraded from the past generation. This in and of itself could have been easily overlooked except for the fact that the TD03's largest weakness was its fans. Simply put thesefans have a higher noise profile than many competing models. They do however feature a reasonably wide static pressure envelope.The fact that the fans are less than quiet models could also have been easily overlooked except that once again Silverstone has not included any fan controller or any fan control software with this rather expensive closed loop liquid cooler. Instead they feel that your average motherboard can do a good enough job at keeping their noise levels in check.We have to remember that most of the competition includes fan control abilities and what could be overlooked as merely a first generation oversight, is getting harder to justify. Silverstone needs to take this issue seriously if they want to be able to sell premium AiOs at a premium price tag.