360° View - Coolermaster Aquagate Mini R80 Waterblock Information on Frostytech's test methodology is available here.
The combination pump/reservoir/waterblock is roughly 71x78x63mm in size and constructed from hard plastic. It weighs 570grams. The pump is not removable, and the impeller is only accessible from the inside if you disassemble the entire unit. Spring clamps assure there are no leaks between the plastic barbs and EPT 710 rubber tubing. A single 3-pin power cable provides power to the 12V pump, which spins at 2300RPM and generates detectable vibrations. A soft rubber gasket seals the joint between the plastic and copper plate below. On the inside, surface area is increased with a small row of stacked copper fins that have been soldered to the copper plate.
The tubing has an internal diameter of 6.5mm, and an outer diameter of 10mm. The spring clamps at each joint of the tubing are not easily removed, but in the event the system requires refilling a third port makes the prospect of such a task a little easier.
The copper base plate of this waterblock/reservoir/pump is about 7mm thick. The circular pad that makes contact with the processor is 40mm in diameter and machined perfectly flat. The various mounting clips screw into the copper plate to hold the 570gram device firmly in position.

Base Finish and Flatness

Flipping a heatsink over to inspect the business end is often a simple indicator of overall cooler quality. More practically speaking, a heatsink is in many ways only as effective as the contact it makes with the processor - the flatter and smoother the better. Base finish is one of the criteria that Frostytech measure in the course of evaluating heatsinks, and it involves two distinct aspects. Surface Finish is the first; this is calculated with the aid of Surface Roughness Comparator that has a cross section of common machine surface finishes and their numerical surface roughness equivalents in microinches. The second is Surface Flatness. This is tested with an engineers straight edge or proven flat surface, in two axis.

Coolermaster's Aquagate Mini R80 waterblock is constructed from cast copper. The 40mm diameter copper base plate that makes contact with the processor has been machined very smooth and is perfectly flat in both axis. Surface roughness is approximately ~16 microinches. As you can see in the pictures above, the mounting brackets for each CPU platform screw directly into the copper pad.

Acoustic measurements are next, and then it's on to the thermal test reports!