A few months ago we took a first look at some very cool watercooling products from the German company, Alphacool. One of the biggest differences you will find between German and US watercooling products is design philosophy. As I mentioned back in that review it goes all the way down to basic design philosophy. Here in the US we think that when it comes to water cooling, just like our cars, bigger is better. Meanwhile the Germans take a more understated approach and go with technical excellence and engineering.

While impressed with performance, particularly the NexXxos HP CPU cooler with its 8mm tubing setup, it didn't perform quite as well as the “bigger” US designed blocks. Not to long after the review, Tanner from Alphacool contacted me about a new block they were designing, the NexXxos XP. I had seen a “spy picture” of this block over at Wizard Designs . Wizard Designs is a UK-based performance and water cooling web shop run by Richard “Pug” Pugh who supplied GruntvillE with our very first German-engineered watercooling product, the Aqua Computer AquaTube that we reviewed last year. I thought the block looked beautiful, though Pug didn't tell anyone what it was at the time. Imagine my surprise when Tanner sent me a photo of the new block and lo and behold, it was the one Pug was raving about. I quickly informed Tanner that we would be honored to put the new block through its paces.

When I was planning out the testing for this review, I decided to do a little more then just test the NexXxos XP block. I wanted to see the current state of the German vs. US waterblock competition. So not only did I test the NexXxos XP, but also the Danger Den TDX that came in the Frostbyte Case , the PolarlFLO SF , and PolarFLO TT in both 2 and 3 barb configurations. Want to know how they all performed, then click that little NEXT link down below.