by Sergey Lepilov
03/24/2008 | 01:15 PM
We are frequently criticized for testing mass production liquid-cooling systems that prove less efficient and even more expensive than air coolers. And one of the arguments in this pretty fair criticism is the fact that there are quite a few ready kits in the market these days that allow putting together a liquid-cooling system for your computer case components on your own. So far we didn’t have a chance to check out any of those “do-it-yourself” kits for computer enthusiasts that is why we put in a few requests for kits like that and today we are proud to offer you the first review.
<%BANNER[article]%>Swiftech Company founded in the far away 1994 is one of the trend setters in the liquid-cooling systems market. Starting from 1999, they have been releasing solutions for gamers and hardware enthusiasts. It was the time when they first introduced Peltier modules, combo cooling systems and a little later – first liquid-cooling solutions. Today Swiftech’s product range is truly huge. Besides ready kits for overclockers, they offer an extensive lineup of components for do-it-yourself liquid-cooling systems for practically any components inside your computer case. Moreover, there are multiple modifications available in different price ranges. To cut the long story short, it is a real paradise for a liquid-cooling fan.
The first system we got our hands on was Swiftech H2O-220 Compact. So today we are very excited to tell you about it in all the detail.
H2O-220 Compact system from Swiftech comes in a relatively small cardboard box with primarily black color design:
The front and the back of the box contain extensive info on the solution inside including the photographs of its major components:
It also mentions that the liquid-cooling system was designed in the USA but manufactured in China.
Inside the colorful box there is an internal foam box with a number of big and small sections containing the major Swiftech H2O-220 Compact components and accessories:
Each component sits securely in its place that is why nothing should get damaged during transportation. On the reverse side of the box there are two flexible tubes and a plastic funnel in the middle of it.
The accessories bundled with Swiftech H2O-220 Compact look as follows:
Let me list them all from left to right and from top to bottom:
The system also comes with a small bottle of liquid coolant concentrate of vivid green color:
A 56ml bottle of anticorrosion concentrate called “Hydrix” states that its major component is ethylene glycol with corrosion inhibitor, so it shouldn’t be consumed under any circumstances. The coolant made from this concentrate and distilled water is claimed to be good for 5 years.
Besides everything I have already mentioned above, the bundle also includes an installation manual in several languages and a few info leaflets on proper system fill-up techniques:
The two black rubber hoses we mentioned above are wrapped in Coolsleeves that should prevent them from bending and hindering the coolant flow.
Now let’s take a closer look at the main components of Swiftech H2O-220 Compact system.
The first one is the largest component: the cooling system radiator:
It measures 301 x 125 x 30.8mm. All other dimensions are given on the schematics below:
The most important thing is that this radiator is made of solid copper and hence should be much more efficient than anything we have tested before. The official description of this component claims that its design is optimized for two quiet 120-mm fans that can be installed onto any side of it. You can even install four fans like that, if you wish.
There are two holes with fitting thread in the lower part of the radiator. At the top of the radiator you can see an opening for coolant filling:
The next component worth mentioning is the water block combined with the pump, which is called Apogee Drive 350:
This very compact liquid-cooling unit consists of a copper water block and a pump with two nipples that have been carefully covered with orange plastic caps:
The ceramic pump bearing should serve you for 50,000 hours. The pump power is claimed to be at 300 l/h. When you get your Swiftech H2O-220 Compact, the water block will be preassembled for LGA 775 mainboards and comes with the corresponding backplate:
If you need to install this water block onto mainboards designed for K8 platform, you will have to replace the bottom part of the water block with a different one bundled with the system. In this case all you need is to unscrew the copper base and then the removable plastic lower part of the block:
Our liquid-cooling systems expert – overclocker eastSiR helped us determine through a hole in the base of the pump, that Swiftech H2O-220 Compact uses a new revision of high-quality Laing DDC 3.1 pump with lowered voltage.
The copper base is actually pretty standard for Apogee GT series: it is designed as an array of small diamond-shaped pins:
The water block base surface that comes in contact with the processor heat-spreader is finished quite nicely, although it is far from being polished off enough:
The most important thing, however, is that it is impeccably even, which we have checked with our standard thermal compound imprint method on the glass surface.
The pump and water block unit is connected with two cables: one for pump rotor rotation speed monitoring and another for power supply that plugs into a standard Molex connector of your system PSU:
Graphics card and chipset water blocks are not included with the Swiftech H2O-220 Compact bundle. However, you can purchase them separately. Note that all the necessary clamps and fittings are already included with the Swiftech H2O-220 Compact accessories (including the splitters for SLI configurations).
The box also contains two 7-blade 120-mm fans:
The fans use a slide bearing and are manufactured in China:
They can rotate at maximum 2200RPM. Both of them together generate 39dBA of noise and create 81.3CFM airflow. However, as you remember, Swiftech H2O-220 Compact comes with two pairs of adapters that allow connecting these fans to 7V or even 5V outputs thus reducing the noise level.
I believe this is all we can say about the design and functionality of the main system components. Now let’s put Swiftech H2O-220 Compact together, which turned out a pretty simple task to accomplish.
The first thing to do is to finish the pre work on the radiator. You have to install two fittings with rubber rings into the corresponding holes:
Do not apply too much power here: the rubber rings will ensure secure contact between the radiator and the fittings and will prevent any leakage:
Then (or before that, whichever works best for you), install the two fans to the radiator. The plastic retention bracket for attaching the entire unit to the case rare panel should be fastened on one of these fans:
In order to fasten this complete unit to the case rear panel, you have to first insert long spindles into the panel and lock them with threaded plastic bushes:
Note that this procedure doesn’t require a pre-made spot for the 120-mm fan in the case rear panel. A 92-mm or even 80-mm fan will do just fine as it will be fastened with spindles through the grid slits. As for the 120-mm fan, the bracket fits nicely into its retention holes, although these holes in our ASUS ASCOT 6AR2-B case did not coincide with the default retention holes for a 120-mm fan that is why we could only use two screws out of four to fasten the bracket:
Before you hang the radiator and fan unit onto this relatively weak looking bracket, you should better install the mainboard into the system case. Do not forget to stick the backplate to its reverse side before, though:
We do not recommend installing the water block and pump unit onto the CPU and mainboard right away, because the water block should be below the radiator level for proper coolant fill-up. So, you have to connect this unit with the radiator using two bundled hoses that should run into the system case through the holes in the corresponding rear panel bracket. Do not forget to lock the hoses with clamps. The coolant concentrate should be deluded with 0.5l of distilled water and then you pour this mixture into the upper radiator opening once you ensured that that water block and pump unit is places below the radiator level. This way you can fill the system almost completely without letting it idle for a few seconds after the first start.
Now you need to install the water block and pump unit onto the CPU:
There is one more nuance here, you should take into account. The manufacturer recommends installing this unit in such a way that the outgoing nipple faces upwards and the incoming nipple – sideways. The radiator holes are also marked accordingly. According to the manufacturer, this is the only way to ensure maximum cooling efficiency for this liquid-cooling system.
By the way, the location of the computer case with Swiftech H2O-220 Compact system installed on its rear panel is also very important for the overall system efficiency. I believe that if you place it in a covered section of your computer desk, which is a common place for most system cases these days, the efficiency of this solution will be limited or even “overpowered” by the niche it sits in. However, we decided to eliminate this possibility and placed the system next to the computer desk instead:
Of course, if your desk doesn’t stand close to the wall, your system case stands outside the desk or you have no case at all, don’t even bother: there will be no cause for concern.
In conclusion to our discussion of Swiftech H2O-220 Compact functionality and installation I have to add that it is currently selling for $140 MSRP.
The technical specifications of the Swiftech H2O-220 Compact liquid-cooling system are given in the table below:
The new Swiftech H2O-220 Compact liquid-cooling system and its today’s only opponent were tested only inside a closed system case with the following configuration:
Using the weakest cooling system of the two tested today we managed to overclock our quad-core processor to 4.05GHz with the Vcore increased to 1.6125V in the mainboard BIOS. The monitoring utilities reported the core voltage setting a little bit lower than what was originally set in the mainboard BIOS: around 1.575~1.6V. The system memory was working at 1077MHz efficient frequency with 5-5-5-16_2T timings and 2.05V voltage.
All tests are performed in Windows XP Professional Edition Service Pack 2. SpeedFan version 4.34 Beta 40 was used to monitor the temperature of the CPU, reading it from the CPU core sensor:
The data it reported matched the readings from Core Tempt v0.96.1 utility that was used for additional temperature monitoring. The mainboard’s automatic fan speed management system was disabled for the time of the tests in the mainboard BIOS. The CPU thermal throttling was controlled with the new RightMark CPU Clock Utility version 2.35.0 that now supports Intel Core 2 Extreme QX9650 processor.
The CPU was heated up with OverClock Checking Tool version 1.1.1b in a 23-minute test with maximum CPU utilization, during which the system remained idle in the first and last 4 minutes:
This test was long enough to demonstrate the cooling efficiency of both: the liquid-cooling system and the air cooler, because the processor temperature reached its peak after 14-16 minutes into the test already and didn’t increase any more even after an hour of running non-stop. Of course, we could run stability tests for days, but it wasn’t the plan and is not really an objective of our today’s review.
I performed at least two cycles of tests and waited for ~20 minutes for the temperature inside the system case to stabilize during each test cycle. The maximum temperature of the hottest CPU core of the four in the two test cycles was considered as the final result (if the difference was not bigger than 1°C – otherwise the test was performed at least once again). Despite the stabilization period, the result of the second cycle was usually 0.5-1°C higher.
The ambient temperature was checked with an electronic thermometer that allows monitoring the temperature changes over the past 6 hours. During our test session room temperature stabilized at around ~25°C. It is used as a staring point on the temperature diagram. Note that the fan rotation speed is shown in the diagrams as the average reading reported by SpeedFan, and not as the official claimed fan specification.
The noise level of each cooler was measured according to our traditional method described in the previous articles with the help of an electronic noise meter – CENTER-321. The subjectively comfortable noise level was considered 34.5dBA and is marked with a dotted blue line in the diagram. The ambient noise from the system case without the CPU cooler didn’t exceed 33.2dBA when measured at 1m distance.
Swiftech H2O-220 Compact system will be competing against the most efficient air cooler inside a closed system case. Thanks to the 120mm case fan in the side panel, Thermalright SI-128 cooler appears more efficient inside ASUS ASCOT 6AR2-B system case than Thermalright Ultra-120 eXtreme that is the best in an open testbed. Moreover, to make Thermalright SI-128 an even stronger opponent for our today’s liquid-cooling system, we equipped it with a high-performance Scythe Ultra Kaze 120 fan measuring 120mm x 38mm (DFS123812H-3000) with the nominal rotation speed of ~3,000RPM. Of course, we have also tested the air cooler in a quiet mode at ~1,300RPM fan rotation speed.
Well, this is a pretty worthy opponent. At least there are very few mass production liquid-cooling systems that can outperform this cooler. Let’s see if Swiftech H2O-220 Compact can do that, too.
The cooling efficiency diagram has all results grouped according to the level of generated noise: in relatively quiet mode and at maximum fan rotation speeds. Here are the obtained results:
No doubt that Swiftech’s liquid-cooling system outperforms the air cooler in quiet mode by 8ºC and in full speed mode – by 6ºC. Taking into account that a very efficient Thermalright cooler is working in an enhanced mode today with a tall 38-mm fan, we can conclude that the Swiftech H2O-220 Compact system proved simply remarkable. Its advantage obtained on a pretty hot quad-core processor deserves our greatest praise. Moreover, I would like to remind you once again that although this liquid-cooling system is designed by a very well-known company, it is an entry-level solution.
I would like to add that further processor overclocking was limited by the overclocking potential of our particular CPU sample. Even with the fans on the Swiftech’s system rotating at their maximum speeds we couldn’t push the processor frequency beyond 4.05GHz, and further Vcore increase unfortunately resulted only in higher CPU temperature, but not higher frequency.
And what do the noise readings for Swiftech H2O-220 Compact look like? The answer is given on the diagram below:
First of all - the pump. We measured the noise it generated with the radiator fans turned off and we can’t say it was loud or annoying. You can barely hear it against the ambient noise of our quiet system case (35.1dBA at 1m). Nevertheless, if you connect the radiator fans to 5V power source (850~900RPM), you will not be able to distinguish them against the background of a working pump. As you can see from the acoustic measurements, a pair of 120-mm fans rotating at 1200RPM generates only 0.4dBA higher sound pressure than the pump (when measured from a 1m distance). That is why it doesn’t really make sense to run the tests with fans connected to a 5V power source.
As for the tall 120mm fan of the Thermalright SI-128 cooler, it is a real beast at almost 3,000RPM that compares only to the reference Radeon HD 2900 XT cooler or even worse: Radeon X1900 XT cooler. Far not every user will dare have this cooler work in this mode, maybe just for a short period of time that is why these results are of pure theoretical value to us. However at 1,300RPM the cooler is much quieter and doesn’t produce any more noise than the two fans of Swiftech H2O-220 Compact liquid-cooling system.
Swiftech H2O-220 Compact liquid-cooling system has certainly made the most favorable impression. I don’t think I have to repeat that the cooling efficiency of this system is far beyond any competition against mass production liquid-cooling solutions such as SilverStone Tundra TD01 or Thermaltake Big Water 760i, while its price is at least not any higher. I don’t know for sure if one can put together a set of components that will be as efficient and at the same time not more expensive than $140, but I believe the price of Swiftech H2O-220 Compact is more than acceptable. Moreover, this system is universal and according to users’ feedback, the powerful pump will allow adding graphics card and mainboard chipset water blocks without losing any of the efficiency.
As for the drawbacks, there are hardly any: the only thing I would like to point out is pretty weak rear case panel retention for the radiator unit with the fans. Other than that, Swiftech H2O-220 Compact is a truly remarkable solution, although it could certainly use an even quieter pump.