Alphacool today introduced the new line of their Helix reservoirs.
The lineup includes two versions:
- Helix 250, 60mm diameter comes with central UV Cathode tube
- Light, 50mm diameter
The Helix 250 also offers eight G 1/4 inch ports for connectivity, while the Light model offers six. In addition there are four color choices:
Both versions can be mounted with a two-piece clip bracket. Each clip can be fastened to the case with just one screw. The Eisbecher Helix 250 also comes with the Eisbecher bracket, which allows for mounting on radiators with two or more 120mm or 140mm fans. This is a nice touch that we really liked when we used EK’s UNI bracket which does a similar thing.
Chief Editor Stren’s Personal Take:
“You may of course recognize the helix reservoir as being very similar to FrozenQ’s design which of course was most likely inspired by the Resident Evil series T-Virus. Just look at this video clip of a baby linus unboxing the almost exact same thing back in 2009. It’s always difficult to judge how much to be mad when a company copies or is ‘heavily inspired’ by another. For example, when a company makes another D5 top, I’m not usually mad because it’s usually visually different or it tries to bring something new to the table in terms of features or performance. But this design feels to me a bit beyond a simple grey area and into the unpalatable ethics department. It feels somewhat like the ThermalTake vs CaseLabs, or ThermalTake vs Fractal Design (I could keep going here with ThermalTake, but you get the idea…). My expectation is of course that it this is legal unless Frozen Q has a strong design patent, but even if there was patent there would be a legal fight that a tiny company like Frozen Q is unlikely to be able to afford vs the AquaTuning/Alphacool behemoth that is based in a different country anyway. Hopefully Alphacool do the right thing and agree to some kind of royalty to FrozenQ even if they are able to get away without doing so. If they were to do so I would be happy to support the product, but as it is, this simply leaves a bad taste in my mouth. For those who didn’t know about FrozenQ and love the look of this design, maybe take a look at the original which can be found here“
Pricing and availability:
AquaTuning – $52-83
For more info see this video.
Source: TechPowerUp
Is Alphacool really the new, European Tt? Copy-cat issues aside, perhaps they could devote more time and effort on fixing the VPP755 problem? For this alone I’m personally not going to purchase anything from them.
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