Primochill has been making water cooling accessories such as reservoirs, shrouds and UV tubing for some time now. Recently they have ventured into the growing non-conductive coolant market. PC Ice is priced well below FluidXP and right in line with MCP-5 at about 20 bills for a 32 ounce bottle. At first glance anyway, with a good selection of bright UV colors and reasonable pricing, the new kid might just be a contender.

One of the biggest drawbacks to water cooling a PC has always been, water and electricity do not play well together. Another is the maintenance required, in order to keep water viable for more than a few months at a time some manufacturers use glycol mixtures as strong as 25 or 30%, severely impacting cooling performance. FluidXP, MCP-5 and MCP-40 have addressed this concern with varied success...and expense.

From PimpRig's Newsbot::

PC ICE is a revolutionary development in liquid cooling. Specially formulated to improve today’s most advanced PC cooling systems. PC ICE overcomes the shortcomings of competitive fluids available on the market today. Testing has revealed that PC ICE shows a maximum gain in thermal efficiency of 5°C* and a minimum average of 2°C* in proportional testing against standard fluid. Although the improvement is not extensive, the fluid's capacity to decelerate the difference of temperature from idle to load environments increases the systems maximum stability, thus improving over clocking capability.

PC ICE is specially formulated with lubricating properties to increase pump life and contains corrosive inhibiting ingredients to cut down on internal build up and galvanic corrosion. PC ICE is safe on all plastic, rubber and miscellaneous gasket materials as well as Non-Toxic, biodegradable and environmentally safe. PC ICE is formulated for high flow pumps and is not prone to mechanical sheering. It is acceptable to use with color adding dye for aesthetic purposes. PC ICE has a 3 year shelf life, is non-conductive and has a freeze point below -60°F.

*Test results were in a temperature control environment and are averages. PrimoChill does not guarantee that you will have the same results.

Features:Non-ConductiveFreeze point below -60°F (-51°C)2-5°C gain in thermal efficiencyAvailable in UV Reactive ColorsPre-Mixed - just add it to the system.

We obviously can't test all these claims in a limited time frame, such as shelf-life and resistance to corrosion, or toxicity (I aint drinkin' it, go get another Mikey) but we can certainly test performance and conductivity.

Packaging

The package arrived in good order from Voyeurmods. The box reminded me of digging for the free prize in a box of breakfast cereal, with about the same result, peanuts were scattered all over the place. But snug in it's bubble wrap, the bottle of PC Ice survived the trip with no leaks, no runs, no errors.

The chrome label definitely looks cool, but the first thing I noticed was how cloudy the fluid is compared to the more common glycol mixtures. Nothing on the bottle gives the slightest hint of what's inside. The only label on the bottle is a rather ominous warning, "DO NOT SWALLOW". So, although it may be non-toxic, it's not blue raspberry Koolaid either.

S'okay though, I don't drink anti-freeze either, I'm not tempted to pour this stuff over shaved ice. What did concern me was the sediment in the bottle. Judging from the dark blue color I'm guessing it's from the dye used, I didn't shake it to see it to see if it would mix in or not. In my opinion any dye that is not completely miscible (from the latin miscibilis meaning completely mixable in any proportion, absolutely soluble, no boogers in the coolant...miscable) and stays that way should not be used in a water cooling loop.

Dye-Lite brand UV dye has been and remains the only coloring I can whole-heartedly recommend for use in a water based coolant. Although it would seem Dye-Lite mixes well with PC Ice as the advertising suggests, I have no idea whether it will stay that way. Not knowing what PC Ice is and how Dye-lite will react with it, the only thing I can suggest is opting for the non-colored version and leaving it that way.