Intro

Phobya quietly entered the watercooling market in late 2008 with a socket 775 CPU look that was quite different from others on the market, an extremely thin base and complex injector plate. Since the initial product introduction, Phobya has continued to expand their product portfolio to nearly every corner of the enthusiast market. This ever-expanding product line has been primarily available in Europe–Phobya is a German based company after all– the products are finally starting to make their way to the USA and Australia thanks to their primary distributor, Aqua Tuning. Additionally, there have been rumors abound that the G-Changer is a close match or even a copy of a similar named radiator, but as you will see the similarities are mostly product naming.

Time to get down to business and start by covering the features and spec of the Phobya G-Changer 360 v1.2…

Features/Specs

Initial views of the G-Changer immediately call out the barb tanks, which boast two ports per tank versus the regular perpendicular ports. Having the extra set of barb ports straight out of the top of the tank should give us options for tube routing and laying out the loop inside the case… I like this option and have been seeing it more and more with new radiators. Setting the radiator aside and checking the box, Phobya includes screws for 25mm fans and a set of fan anti-vibration pads. The screws are a standard offering we have come to expect, but the fan pad offering is a nice little bonus especially for a moderately priced triple radiator.

Back to the main attraction, the G-Changer. I already mentioned the dual barb ports, but along with that, the tanks are split. This does not mean a thing for performance, but more of a manufacturing and design choice. On the opposite end of the G-Changer we see the uncommon (these days anyway) bleed screw, and I have to admit of all the radiators I have looped up with a bleed screw, I have never actually used it. Not saying it serves no purpose, I have just never needed it. Staying with the external features, we have the logo stamped side panels, which wrap around the core and have our mount/fan holes. The G-Changer uses tapped M3 mount holes, which I am not thrilled about the use of M3. For one long length, M3 is a bit for difficult to get ahold of here in the US but they are very easy to strip threads. This is why I prefer M4, but I am okay with 6-32.

Before we get into the core, I have to call out the tube guards directly under the tapped mount/fan holes. They are not perfectly aligned underneath, so do not rely on them to save your tubes and always verify your screw lengths. However, if you go a bit long the tube guards should provide enough protection and save you from the tragedy of puncturing a tube. Staying in between the mount/fan holes, the G-Changer has a 10mm plenum separating the fans from the surface of the core. According to the information I can get, the tubes and end tanks are brass and the fins are copper, but I would not be surprised if the tubes are more copper than brass. The G-Changer is a dual row radiator with copper fins sandwiched between the tubes at 11FPI. Yes, the G-changer is a regular dual row, two-pass (U flow) radiator. Before we move on, we have twelve tubes across the radiator (24 in total) that are 2mm wide and spaced 9mm apart for the fin channels.

To recap the features/specs, here is a quick reference list. As a reminder, we are using a completely different test procedure this year, so it is definitely worth a read.

• Matte Black Finish
• Copper fins, brass tubes and end tanks
• Dual row, Two-pass u-flow configuration
• 10mm fan plenum on both sides
• G1/4 Barb ports
• 11 Fins Per Inch (FPI)
• Standard 15mm Fan spacing
• M3 tapped fan/mount holes with included 30mm screws
• Dimensions: 416x125x60mm (LxWxH)

  
 

With our normal features and specs section wrapped up, time to move to the test methods before rolling to the performance.