Primochill Wet Bench Review

To secure graphics cards and the like, a PCI support plate can be mounted at the top of the motherboard, with seven slots on offer. One issue we did find is that the middle screw fouled the large backplate on our Maximus VI Formula test motherboard, but it's unlikely you'll have issues with anything else. In any event we simply removed the offending screw and everything was fine.


The Wet Bench is compatible with mini-ITX and E-ATX motherboards as well as everything in-between of course. There's an adjustable drive mount on the underside that can be used to mount either 3.5in or 5.25in devices depending on where you mount it and there's a plethora of mounting holes in the horizontal section too - good for SSDs, hard disks and pumps. There are also more holes in the side sections that make good homes for more pumps or tube reservoirs. Installation is fairly easy although mounting the motherboard last is probably a wise option.


One major oversight, though, is that there's no dedicated PSU mount - instead you'll have to place it under the benchtable. It's a slightly odd omission that's at odds with most benchtables we've seen and could make moving the table from one desk to another slightly troublesome.


On the plus side there's a mount for triple 120/140mm-fan radiators at the rear and by using standoffs or a shroud first onto the acrylic plate, you'll have the option of using larger radiators too - as you can see we've used a quad 120mm-fan radiator as we couldn't get hold of a triple-fan radiator in time for this review.



Conclusion

We're quite taken with the Wet Bench for the simple reason it looks so much better than pretty much every other benchtable we've seen. Others offer sturdy steel construction and possibly more hardware mounts, particularly for the PSU, which is entirely absent here. However, they're invariably similar-looking squarish steel boxes. The Wet Bench differs in a slightly rebellious way, but it still makes for a great base to build a water-cooled system.

Quite how many of you will have a need for such a thing is another matter. But regardless, at less than £100 for practically any colour of your choice, the Wet Bench isn't bad value for such a niche and bespoke bit of kit.

The only other concern we'd have is how long an acrylic benchtable would last if you're very regularly swapping components in and out. It seems sturdy to us but if you're using it everyday it's somewhat inevitable it'll loose its lustrous appeal as it gets scratched and chipped, in which case a more mundane steel model may still be your best bet.