Some people cannot be satisfied with anything except the most extreme. You know the type; they just HAVE to shoehorn a 426 Hemi into a Dodge Neon. They just HAVE to get a 60 inch Plasma TV with eight 10 foot speakers so they can watch Antique Roadshow in style. They also just HAVE to have the bragging rights to one of the best cooling systems available for their computer.

I can remember back in the day when extreme cooling meant placing a Delta 60mm 8,000 RPM screamer on your heatsink that you could hear from the street in front of your house. Literally, my home office was in the back of the house I lived in and I could still hear that damn thing from the street. Then a few hardcore enthusiasts started talking about cooling with water and that's when I got my first waterblock from a newcomer to the scene, Tom Leufken. Yeah, water-cooling back then was extreme but it just wasn't enough. Peltiers were played with for a bit, but the hassle just wasn't worth the results. It was around that time that Kryotech and Asetek started making waves with their computer "refrigerators". Phase change hit the scene and to this day that method of extreme cooling is about the most simple, effective, and reliable way to get to subzero temperatures without risking life and limb.

I had the good fortune to play with an Asetek Vapochill PE a couple years back and was sufficiently impressed with the cooling ability, but was less impressed with the case that it came with. Although looking quite cool, it was so no frills that that it actually started to annoy me after a while. I ended up passing it on to a wandering nomad called Zennzzo who wanted to explore the mystical world of custom phase change since he had already conquered direct die cooling. (Sigh) The memories... but that's a tale for someone else to tell.

One of the great things about the Prometeia Mach II GT is that you are not saddled to a single enclosure. There are a couple of cases that were specifically designed for the Prometeia; the Enlight mid-tower is the case to use with the default Prometeia configuration, and the Lian-Li PC-7 is the case to use with the Lian-Li makeover for the Promy. However, unlike the Asetek Vapochill you are not limited to what case you use with your Prometeia. A dremel and drill will allow you to attach any case to the Prometeia, or use your imagination and figure out your own method which is what I ended up doing. Let's take a closer look at what the premium price for a Prometeia gets you.

Package

First off, the Prometeia is heavy, damn heavy. It weighs around 42 pounds in shipping configuration so be ready for the hefty shipping charges. I was a little concerned when my review unit arrived from CrazyPC since it looked like a Samurai delivery person tried to slice it in two.

My fears were unfounded though, the Promy was packed quite well and the styrofoam absorbed all the punishment. I'll tell you up front, this is one heavy S.O.B. Since you shouldn't invert a phase change unit it takes some effort to lift it straight up and out of the box.

There wasn't much else included with the unit except a couple of bolts, an application CD, and an outdated manual. I know that nVENTIV, the company that originally produced the Prometeia units, went under over a year ago. In June of last year, a company named Extreme Cooling Technologies decided to pick up what was left of the company and perpetuate the Prometeia line. That's why I was surprised to see an nVENTIV manual with this unit. The manual is so old that it only gives instructions on how to mount an AMD XP and Intel Socket 478 CPU. Extreme Cooling Technologies does offer mounting kits for Socket 775 and A64 CPU's, but the manual doesn't reflect that. There is a more updated manual on Extreme Cooling's website, but it still only covers Socket A and 478.

Each of the CPU mounting kits will add around $95 to the price of your Prometeia. I'm going to use a Socket 939 setup for this review so I received the A64 mounting kit. Inside there was a top mounting bracket, a mounting back plate, a CPU shim, a heater, some mounting screws with an allen wrench, and a couple of tubes of Arctic Alumina. There is also a roll of "seal string" which is a long, thin strip of a tar-like substance used for sealing the processor area to prevent condensation. What wasn't included in the box were instructions for mounting, so I guess I'll just have to make it up as I go along.