Hello! It's my first post in here, so be gentle.
I purchased few months back a Barrow made cpu waterblock (FBLTBH-03).
I was curious to see how it performs since I had never heard of Barrow before.
Also the look of the block is much different of what I had used to and answering to the trends of today, it has RGB leds with various effects.
When I first got it I was surprised by it's quality. I wasn't expecting it to be so well made.
First thing I checked was that the contact plate to cpu was well milled.
It is like mirror as you can see from picture below and very good contact to cpu.
I first installed it with screws that came with the block.
Those were pretty small and I had the feeling that they wouldn't get firm mount, but still gave it a go.
I got the block installed, but it was bit tricky compared to what I have used to.
Anyway, first test with my i7-6700k @ 4.7ghz/1.37V.
I let it run for hour or so Intel Burn Test (IBT) and what do you know, temperature had reached 61 degrees celsius. Not bad.
In my loop I had EVGA GTX 1080 with EKWB Block, EK D5 pump/res combo and 240mm 30mm thick copper radiator. For me that was very good results.
Later I added another radiator of 360mm 60mm thick and got the temperatures lower.
One thing that still got me doubting was the mounting method on the block. I felt that it has too much pressure on too small areas and might break something since it did not come with any back brackets/plates, just the screws. Probably won't but I couldn't get it out of my mind.
I went to see if I had any leftovers from my earlier projects and I found lga 115x mounting kit for Corsair h100i AiO water cooling. I measured the screws and mounting holes of the block and the kit was like made for the block. I detached the block, installed that mounting kit and then the block. This time it was much easier since you only had to "drop" that block in it's place and tighten the thumb screws.
Now it is mounted firmly and I can have my mind ease about it.
As an conclusion I would say it is very nice cooling solution with bit out of ordinary looks.
Even thought I'm not much of fan of rgb leds, it is nice feature to have them on every now and then.
Few more pictures:
Would you like to have more posts like these in future?
