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The HydroCool 200 EX is a fully-contained external watercooling system that works with Intel and AMD CPUs, but unfortunately has no support for the Athlon 64 at this time. The reservoir, pump, etc are contained inside the black box as shown above. The included accessories are:
- PCI mechanism for temperature monitoring and tube routing
- AMD and Intel retention
- Power switch passthrough mechanism
- PCI to HydroCool data cable
- Tubing for waterblock
- Waterblock
- Thermal compound
- Fittings
- Water additive
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Both the intake and exhausts for the internally contained radiator have dust filters which are user-replaceable, new in the EX version. However, the unit actually only has one fan doing all the work (it blows air through the radiator and out the other end). The silver grills are attractive, but what would be really cool is if these were painted black-- probably a very simple user modification that would make it look much more awesome.
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Inside the HydroCool is a flow indicator as shown above. The flow indicator shows whether the HydroCool is pushing water or not. I imagine something like this will end up reducing flow rate, but it will help in case your pump dies, and might save your CPU from over-heating. Corsair is aiming to make this system very user friendly, and to leave users with the same convenience and safety they had with their old air cooling system.
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Here is a shot of the actual pump. The flow rate is pretty low, only 66GPH, but over twice that of the Aquarius II. It's enough to do the job, though, as it's pre-packaged with the HydroCool system.
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The HydroCool uses a reservoir-based system to fill itself. The idea of using a reservoir vs. an inline system is a hotly debated one around major watercooling forums; a reservoir is more expensive and prone to leakage/breakage, but more convenient than an inline system. There's no risk with this one, even if it breaks, the worst thing it can damage is the HydroCool, and maybe overheat your CPU, but not your computer. To fill up the HydroCool, simply fill this up with distilled water and 150ml of the HydroCool's included additive.
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This is a shot of the back of the radiator, where all of the hot air exits the HydroCool. It's not painted or anything, because it's not even visible 
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On the front panel of the HydroCool is the temperature display. This displays in large red lettering, and we'll show you more of it once we enter the testing phase. The Turbo button forces the fan on full speed mode instead of the temperature control mode.
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