Home Water Cooling Pumps & Tops Alphacool Eisdecke D5 Pump Top Review

Alphacool Eisdecke D5 Pump Top Review

Jul 15, 2016

The Eisdecke D5 pump top is an aftermarket top for all versions of the ever popular D5 pump. It is a square shaped top which has an impressive amount of ports to choose from – 3 inlet port options and 2 outlet ports. These ports offer huge flexibility in the way tubing can be routed in and out of the pump top. Unfortunately there is not a central inlet port meaning that a tube reservoir can not be fitted directly to the top without being ugly and off-center. So the Eisdecke D5 should really be classified as a “stand alone” pump top.

Installing a pump and the assembly process is easy to follow and uses a collar to lock down and seal the pump. The supplied mounting brackets for a horizontal installation work great but we feel as though a decoupling kit should be supplied with the Eisdecke package. The top is riddled with extra holes for alternate mounting options and LED lighting which we feel detract from the overall look of the top. Even with all the extra holes, mounting options out of the box are limited and therefore we feel that the design of the mounting system has missed the mark.

The performance output of the Eisdecke varied greatly depending on which ports were used and at what speed the pump was operating at. It had the best performance of current generation tops at one data point, but for the most part was average at best, which was highlighted in the vertical inlet, horizontal output comparisons where the Eisdecke was outperformed by the Laing stock top at every data point.

While we can’t call the Alphacool Eisdecke D5 Pump Top a great design due to it’s mediocre performance, inability to fit a tube reservoir and the somewhat flawed mounting system it is not a complete write off either. It does has acceptable performance, has a tonne of port options and with a little work can be installed into the chassis in many different ways.

If you’re in the market for a new D5 stand alone pump top, specifically a square top with heaps of port options, the Eisdecke D5 has you covered. But remember that you’ll want a decoupling kit and may need to do some work to install it in your chassis.