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Welcome back,

Reactor

What’s inside:

  • 1 x Intel Core 2 Quad Q9650
  • 2 x 650W power supplies
  • 2 x 2GB of DDR3 RAM (4GB total)
  • 1 x NVIDIA GeForce GTX 285
  • 1 x Samsung Spinpoint F1 1TB removable hard drive
  • Samsung slot-loading DVD burner
  • Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit

 

WHY LIQUID SUBMERSION?

When heated, fluids (gases and liquids) don't just sit there and get hotter—they become less dense and rise—a property called buoyancy. When that hot fluid rises, it moves away, and the surrounding, cooler fluid takes its place—this cycle is called natural convection. Boiling water is an everyday example.

Liquid is far denser than air, meaning that in a given space, many more liquid molecules are available to convect heat. We submerged Reactor's components to take advantage of this, allowing Reactor's components to be pushed harder and faster than if they were air cooled. The buoyancy effects of Reactor's proprietary, non-conductive Core Coolant are so much greater than air that many components can be cooled naturally, without heat sinks or forced cooling (blown or pumped fluids). Components that require heat sinks don't need large ones—due to Core Coolant's superior properties, optimal heat sinks are small compared to heat sinks meant for air cooling.

 

 

CORE COOLANT

Core Coolant is a mineral-oil-like substance that's approximately 750 times denser than air and can store twice as much heat per unit of mass. In other words, Core Coolant has tremendous heat capacity—the maximum amount of heat containable in an entire air-cooled PC tower can be stored in 1 cubic inch of Core Coolant. Unlike water, Core Coolant is non-conductive and doesn't harbor microorganisms. Fluids like Core Coolant have cooled electronics for decades in the transformer industry.

 

 

WHAT WE COOL AND HOW

Reactor's active components are fully submerged in Core Coolant. Our Total Liquid Submersion technology cools in two ways: natural convection (described above) and forced convection (pumped coolant). Core Coolant circulates through Reactor's radiator at 2.5 gallons per minute. Most internal components cool via natural convection, but these items get coolant pumped directly to them:

  1. CPU (has a heat sink)
  2. Northbridge (has a heat sink)
  3. GPU (has a heat sink)
  4. Power supplies

Reactor’s direct cooling plumbing track ends at the heat sinks, where the directed Core Coolant disperses and
integrates with the fluid in the tank.

For any heat sink to work effectively, thermal interface material performance is paramount. On Reactor, the thermal interface between the CPU and its heat sink is made of indium, which is simple to install and transfers heat extremely well.

 

 

BENEFITS OF SUBMERSION

Submersion cooling delivers many benefits over air and water block cooling:

  • The fastest sustainable overclocking available. A CPU and GPU shipped with Reactor can run approximately 25% faster than the same CPU or GPU on air cooling without any risk of overheating.
  • Harmless liquid cooling. Unlike a water block system, where any leak is catastrophic, there’s no risk to the components if the coolant contacts your electronics directly—Core Coolant is supposed to make direct contact.
  • All parts operate closer to the same temperature than they would in air or water block cooling.
  • Submersion cools almost all components, not just a few, ensuring that component temperatures stay under their maximum spec.
  • The high heat capacity of Core Coolant dampens any localized temperature spikes. Combine these benefits and you can push Reactor harder and run faster, safer and more reliably than any PC you've ever owned.

 

 

 

 

ANOTHER PLUS: NEAR SILENCE

In Reactor, there aren't any noisy fans moving air and dust through the case and across sensitive electronics.

Instead, circulating Core Coolant transports heat away from critical components to a radiator. With heat concentrated here, Reactor's four, quiet, 120mm fans blow heat off the radiator and out the case. Reactor varies its fan speed automatically according to coolant temperature and workload, staying as quiet as possible.

 


 

 

 

DESIGNED TO COOL

Reactor's enclosure is designed to take heat away from your components and kick it out into the air. We placed the hot oil return at the top of the cooling system—right where all the heat goes—to cool efficiently. Heat moves to the top easily, as Reactor's wire-free internals help Core Coolant flow without obstructions. Every piece of Reactor has been rigorously tested for performance, efficiency, chemical compatibility and durability. The leak-proof tank can withstand a shotgun blast. Reactor's sturdy carry handles serve double duty: they help lift Reactor itself, and with the tank lid loosened, they help you lift out the core.

 

 

 

 

SPINAL CORD CABLE MANAGEMENT

Do you like to crawl under your desk and play in the dust behind your computer whenever you need to connect a cable? Neither do we. As part of our Spinal Cord cable management system, Reactor features an I/O break-out board right on top of the case. All major connections are there:

  • Up to 6 DVI ports or 3 DVI and 3 HDMI ports
  • Front, rear, center/sub and back surround channel outputs
  • Stereo line in, S/PDIF optical in/out, S/PDIF coaxial out
  • 2 1Gbps Ethernet connections
  • 5 USB ports
  • 1 FireWire port
Reactor has ports on the front, as well:
  • 4 USB
  • 1 Firewire
  • 1 headphone output
  • 1 stereo microphone input
Everything's within easy reach. With your devices connected, you can route their cables down the back side of Reactor using velcro ties, keeping wires organized and knot-free.

 

 

CORE ACCESS

Reactor is simple to get into. Remove the top cover and remove the tank lid screws. Then, lift the core to the first locking notch, unhook some cables, lift the core to the second notch and you're in. The motherboard, CPU, video cards, SSDs, RAM, power supplies and a large portion of the cooling system attach to the core tray. You can remove the core entirely and move it elsewhere if needed.

 

 

 

 

CMOS BATTERY AND SWITCH

If you've ever had to reset your BIOS, you know how frustrating it is to dig inside your case, fumble with a tiny jumper and turn on your PC. Reactor makes this task extra simple—the BIOS battery and reset switch hide under a small panel on top of the chassis. Open the panel, push and hold the reset button for a few seconds, power on. That's it.

 

 

 


 

 

CUSTOM MOTHERBOARD

Reactor's custom, NVIDIA 790i-based motherboard was designed purposefully. We've modernized it, removing legacy features such as PS/2 and parallel ports. Each component was placed in a way that optimizes bus communication speed and the hottest-running components sit closest to the coolant return. Reactor's motherboard regulates voltage onboard, allowing Reactor to feature server-style power supplies. Gold finger connectors on the top of the motherboard allow for pass-through input and output to the top-plane board while maintaining a liquid-tight seal.

 

 

 

SERIOUS POWER

Server-style power supplies are held to higher standards than consumer-level hardware—they're built to run for 24/7 for many years at full load. Reactor introduces this kind of quality and reliability to the deskop with server-class, blade-type 650W power supplies that attach directly to the motherboard. The direct motherboard connections provide a shorter electrical pathway, ensuring cleaner power transmission and enabling extremely fine control over Reactor’s system voltages. Two power supplies provide power that’s both additive and redundant—should one supply fail, the other supply takes up the slack until you replace the dead one.

 

 

BIOS

If you're an overclocker, you'll get a wide, fine range of voltage and frequency adjustment in Reactor's BIOS. Its settings explanations are simple: Reactor's is perhaps the only BIOS ever that's been reviewed by professional writers. Hardcore Computer has full control over the BIOS. This is absolutely crucial—the importance of the BIOS as the brain of the system never ceases to astound us.

 

 

 

 

AUDIOPHILE-QUALITY SOUND

Only Reactor comes with industry-leading Creative X-Fi sound embedded on the motherboard itself. X-Fi sports 7.1 surround sound, CMSS 3D, EAX 5.0, and the X-Fi crystalizer. What's more, we've selected every other supporting audio component for quality, and placed the X-Fi chip strategically to minimize crosstalk. All of this is standard on Reactor.

 

 

THREE-WAY SLI

High-end air-cooled video cards need gigantic heat sinks. With heat sinks built for submersion cooling, we can pack three video cards in the space of one air-cooled card and still run them at lower temperatures than even the best air cooling. Running three cards in SLI, you can enjoy smooth-running 3D applications at the very highest graphics quality settings.

 

 

SOLID-STATE DRIVES

Solid-state hard drives have no moving parts, giving them near 0ms data access times which let you load your operating system, business applications and games faster than ever. SSDs are relatively new on the market, and we planned ahead with Reactor: easily-installed SSDs attach directly to Reactor's motherboard in one of three 2.5" internal bays. They're submersion-cooled and are faster and more reliable than magnetic drives.

 

 

 

HOT-SWAPPABLE DRIVES

Out of storage space? Just slide a new drive into one of Reactor's hot-swappable drive bays. Hot-swappable hard drives allow you to exchange hard drives while the system is running, like a DVD or flash drive. This is especially useful for professionals who create and work with very large files, like photographers and video editors.

 

 


CERTIFIED QUALITY

Thoroughly tested, Reactor holds the following industry-standard certifications:

  • ETL certification
  • CE mark
  • FCC Class A certification

It’s one thing to comply with FCC standards or self-declare CE compliance, but our ETL safety approval means Reactor undertook and passed stringent operational and safety tests in an independent lab.
Many PC makers don’t bother with external, third-party testing. These
certifications ensure that our equipment is safe, complies with recognized
standards and coexists with other compliant electronic devices.

Each system is custom built to your specific configuration. Parts are picked, kitted and assembled carefully. After assembly, the builder completes an inspection checklist. Then, our senior technician re-inspects the machine and we submerge Reactor's core in Core Coolant. Finally, each system goes through 48 hours of rigorous industry-standard tests including 3DMark Vantage, PCMark Vantage and Prime95, stressing the CPU, RAM and video cards to ensure stability.

 


UPGRADES

Reactor is no more difficult to upgrade than a standard water-block cooled system. Part-by-part, here's a breakdown of what's involved in upgrading Reactor's major components:

PART DIFFICULTY   MAJOR STEPS
Hot-swappable drives Simple Attach a bracket to the drive, slide the drive in and configure.
Solid-state drives Simple Open Reactor's core, open SSD panel, install drives. Close Reactor, boot and configure.
Memory Simple Open Reactor's core, install memory. Close Reactor and boot.
Video cards Involved Buy a video card and install the Hardcore Computer heat sink, plenum and hose. Open Reactor's core, install the riser card, the video card itself, and fit the card to the retaining bracket. Attach the SLI bridge connector and connect the coolant hose to the manifold. Close Reactor, boot and configure.
Processor Moderate Open Reactor's core, remove CPU heat sink and indium thermal interface material, swap out processors, add a new piece of indium, reinstall the CPU heat sink. Close Reactor, boot and configure BIOS.
Power supplies Simple Open Reactor's core, install the new power supply, connect a cable and a hose. Close Reactor and boot.

 


CUSTOMIZATION

All Reactors come standard with the following in addition to the components you select:

  • Total Liquid Submersion cooling
  • Embedded Creative X-Fi audio
  • Leak-proof, military-grade, rugged chassis
  • Custom motherboard

You can customize Reactor easily on our system configurator. Many components not listed on the configurator
can be special ordered, and we encourage you to contact us with your
requests. If you have any questions during configuration, feel free to call
or chat with one of our customer care agents.

On the software side, we give you a clean slate, installing only the operating system and drivers, no bloatware.

 

SUPPORTING YOU

We're a close-knit group at Hardcore Computer—everything our technical support staff needs sits with within a stone’s throw of the call center, including Reactor's designers and engineers. Our customer service is multi-channel, so you can browse the website for information, send an email, and still contact a technical support agent when necessary via chat or telephone. We've invested in serious customer service technology, empowering you to find answers quickly through our knowledgebase even before submitting your question. As a customer, you have access to the same customer service knowledgebase as Hardcore Computer employees.


HARDCORE REACTOR SPECIFICATIONS
 
*Items marked with an asterisk are not submerged in fluid.
 
 
INTEL PROCESSORS
 
Q9650
Processor cores:
 4
Clock speed:
3.0GHz
Cache:
12MB L2
Front side bus:
1333MHz
Architecture:
Intel 64
 
 
Intel technologies (all processors):
45 nanometer build process
 
Execute Disable Bit
 
Intel Virtualization technology
 
Enhanced Intel SpeedStep technology
 
 
 
 
 
REACTOR MOTHERBOARD
 
Processor socket:
Intel LGA775
RAM slots:
4, supporting up to 8GB DDR3 RAM (8GB may not be available for every configuration)
PCIe slots:
2 PCIe 2.0, 1 PCIe 1.0
SATA 3.0Gb/s connectors:
3 for internal 2.5" SSDs
 
2 for hot-swappable daughter card with SATA back plane
 
1 for optical drive
Performance features:
Discrete top panel with audio, video, USB, Firewire and LAN ports
 
Onboard voltage regulation
 
Robust over-clocking options
 
LED POST code display
 
 
 
 
 
NVIDIA 790i ULTRA SLI CHIPSET
 
Dual-channel memory architecture.
 
Memory clock:
Native 1600MHz
Supported technologies:
2- and 3-way SLI
 
DDR3 2000
 
Extreme overclocking
 
RAID 0, 1, 0+1 and 5
 
DirectX 10 support
 
 
 
 
 
HARDCORE COMPUTER DDR3 RAM
 
Clock speed:
Up to 2000MHz
Module size:
1GB or 2GB per DIMM
Voltage:
1.5V, 2.1V max
Timings:
9–9–9–24 timings
 
 
 
 
 
 
NVIDIA VIDEO CARDS
  GTX 285
GTX 295
Quadro FX 3800
Shader processors:

240
480
 192 CUDA cores
Graphics clock:
648MHz
576MHz
-
Processor clock:
1476MHz
 1242MHz
-
Texture fill rate:
51.8 billion/sec
 92.2 billion/sec
-
Memory:
1GB GDDR3
 1792MB GDDR3
1GB GDDR3
Memory clock:
1242MHz
999MHz
 -
Interface width:
512-bit
 896-bit
256-bit
Memory bandwidth:
159.0GB/sec
 223.8GB/sec
51.2GB/sec
All cards are CUDA- and PhysX-capable.
 
 
 
 
CREATIVE LABS X-Fi PROFESSIONAL AUDIO
Embedded into our custom motherboard.
 
RAM:
64MB X-RAM
Technologies:
Dolby Digital Live encoding
 
Digital HD audio
 
24-bit crystallizer
 
EAX 5.0
 
CMSS 3D sound
Channels:
7.1 support
Connections listed in the connectivity section.
 
 
 
 
 
 
SOLID-STATE DRIVES
  SAMSUNG MMDOE56G5MXP-0VB
INTEL X25-M
Storage capacity:
256GB
160GB
Interface:
SATA 3.0Gbps
 SATA 3.0Gbps
Maximum sequential read:
220MB/s
 250MB/s
Maximum sequential write:
200MB/s
 70MB/s
Physical size:
2.5"
2.5"
Mean time between failures:
1 million hours
 1.2 million hours
     
     
 
HARD DRIVES
 
Samsung HD103UJ*
WD WD2002FYPS*
WD WD3000HLFS*
Capacity:
1TB
2TB
300GB
Buffer size:
32MB
64MB
16MB
Rotation speed:
 7200RPM
7200RPM
10000RPM
Seek time:
 8.9ms
8.9ms
4.2ms
Interface:
SATA 3.0Gbps
SATA 3.0Gbps
SATA 3.0Gbps
 
 
 
 
 
OPTICAL DRIVES (SLOT-LOADING)
 
SAMSUNG SN-T083A DVD*
PANASONIC UJ-135-A*
PANASONIC UJ-235-A*
BD-R write:
 N/A
N/A
4x (SL)** / 2x (DL)**
BD-ROM read:
 N/A
4x
4x (SL) / 2x (DL)
DVD +/- R write:
8x (SL) / 6x (DL)
8x (SL) / 4x (DL)
8x (SL) / 4x (DL)
DVD-ROM read:
8x (SL) / 8x (DL)
8x (SL) / 4x (DL)
8x (SL) / 4x (DL)
CD-R write:
24x
24x
24x
CD-ROM read:
24x
24x
24x
**SL=single layer, DL=dual layer
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
REACTOR CHASSIS*
 
Structure:
Aluminum and steel hybrid construction
User features:
Spinal Cord cable management system
 
Top-mounted die-cast handles
 
Top-mounted case lighting and hard drive activity light base controls
 
Dual top-mounted wi-fi antennas
 
Top-mounted CMOS reset switch and battery
Drive bays:
3 internal SSD bays
 
2 hot-swappable drive bays
 
1 front-mounted slot-loading optical drive
Chassis panel connections described below in connectivity section.
 
 
 
 
 
 
CONNECTIVITY*
 
Ethernet:
2x1Gb/s
Wireless ethernet:
Upgradeable USB 802.11 b/g/n adapter
Top panel ports (radiator side):
5 standard Hi-Speed USB ports
 
1 90-degree USB connector (for wireless card)
 
1 Firewire ports
Top panel ports (tank side):               
Front, rear, center/sub and back surround channel outputs
 
Stereo line in
 
S/PDIF optical in/out, S/PDIF coaxial out
Modular pass-through ports:
Up to six, initially available in any combination of HDMI and DVI
Front panel ports:
4 USB
 
1 Firewire
 
1 headphone output
 
1 stereo microphone input
 
 
 
 
 
COOLING SYSTEM
 
Cooling technology:
Patented Total Liquid Submersion cooling
Tank:
Aerospace-grade engineered plastic
Coolant:
Synthetic-engineered Core Coolant
Pump:
Laing, high-GPM circulating style
Fans:
Four ultra-quiet 120mm fans capable of a combined 250CFM
Heatsinks:
Thin-fin skived copper
Cooling control:
BIOS- and OS-settable cooling variables
 
 
 
 
 
FLEXPOWER POWER SUPPLIES
 
Combined output:              
1300W (2 PSUs x 650W/PSU)
+12V rail amperage:
54A max per supply
Auto-sensing input ranges:
100–127/200–240V~,50/60Hz, 8.0/4.0A
Server-style redundant backup (depending on configuration)
 
Fluid-submerged cooled.
 
 
 
 
 
 
OPERATING SYSTEMS
 
Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate 32-bit or 64-bit. Note that a 32-bit OS cannot use more than 4GB of RAM.
 
 
 

G4TV

88%

"It's hands down the fastest PC we've seen."
       Kevin Pereira, G4TV/Attack of the Show

Read more in Gadget Pr0n or watch the video review here.

 

PCWorld

82/100
VERY GOOD

"There's no question that the Hardcore Reactor is an impressive, delightfully imposing machine." Read more at PCWorld.

 

AskMen.com

AskMen.com score—87

"Starting at $2.999.00, this one-of-a-kind cool submersion technology allows for the most reliable and efficient overclocking anywhere on the market. Extreme style meets elite performance with the Reactor PC." Read the review at AskMen.com.