Swiftech H20 220 Compact mini review

Mad_Jay

Mad_Jay

Mad_Jay

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**Updated 1st post**

On monday i got hold of the Swiftech H20 220 compact kit. Now ive been toying with the idea of going towards watercooling for awhile now, but going custom seemed complicated and i was too worried of getting it all wrong, so i put it aside. But then i spotted this water cooling kit and give it some thought.

But then i noticed a place which cannot be mentioned had them on there site. So i gave them a quick call and they just had them delivered.

So i hopped on the bus and got one and got a bottle of Fazer aqua destilled water too.

Got home and like a little kid i ran upstairs to my room, shut the door and had a look at it all.

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1st impressions where great, you gotta love the "new thing smell". Box had a neat design and after opening it up it was neatly and tightly packaged.

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I had a good read though the instructions which was very through indeed with plently of pictures to teach a noob like me how too set it all up.

After a good hour ( i think ) of setting it all up and plumbing it together i hot-wired my psu with a paperclip (Even tells you how to do this in the instructions) and started primeing the pump and filling it with water. Which the instructions said to do for a hour ( Or more ) so i stuck a film on and kept a eye on it.

Once that was done (Needed to rock my pc case abit to get a small amount of air out) I attached the cpu block to the mobo with the back plate supplied.

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Now since i installed the kit ive been running my pc at 3.6ghz @ 1.475v and all has been well. Its stable in prime95 and ive now just ran afew tests at different rad fan settings to show you my temps.

I ran Prime95 for the 1st test with the fans at 50% on my fan controller and 100% on my fan controller. And also recorded the idle temps for each 50% fan and 100% fan.

1st are the idle temps:

Rad fans where at 50%



Core 1: 28c
Core 2: 23c
Core 3: 23c
Core 4: 28c

Rad fans now at 100%



Core 1: 28c
Core 2: 22c
Core 3: 22c
Core 4: 28c

So as you can see, Not much differance at all with the fans set too 100%

So now i set Prime95 running and recorded the result after the 1st test had finished.

1st with fans now at 50%



Core 1: 49c
Core 2: 44c
Core 3: 44c
Core 4: 49c

Now i set the fans too 100% and restarted Prime 95 again once the temps had gone back to idle.



Core 1: 49c
Core 2: 43c
Core 3: 43c
Core 4: 49c

Again only a very small difference with the temps again with the fans at 100% And i must say, the stock fans at 100% are very very loud.

Over all im very happy with this product. Its 10c cooler atleast at full load than my noctua ( I would include more pics of my noctua temps, but ive formatted since then )

Like already said the only problem i have with it is the fan noise at 100%.

Otherwise its a great product and swiftech have done a great job to get us watercooling virgins to take the plunge.

Also this is my 1st ever review ive ever done so be nice :p

Prime 95 2 hour test results:



Core 1: 46c
Core 2: 39c
Core 3: 39c
Core 4: 46c

Temp log for the 2 hour test:

http://www.sendspace.com/file/fis0ez
 
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My only criticism would be that it would be nice to see how it handled sustained load - eg. prime for 2 or 3 hours?

Those temperatures are REALLY good. Basically for £120 or so you are thrashing systems costing 2 or 3 times more money, with bigger radiators and supposedly far better pumps and blocks.
 
Nice review...but like WJA96 said, running prime for 9 seconds hardly dumps enough heat into the loop to show comprehensive results.

Some more screens with a few hours of priming would be helpful.
 
gurusan said:
Nice review...but like WJA96 said, running prime for 9 seconds hardly dumps enough heat into the loop to show comprehensive results.

Some more screens with a few hours of priming would be helpful.
Click to expand...

Nice review but as suggested a longer run with prime would be beneficial
 
It's a great product from Swiftech, good idea to join four products into two.

What's noise like from the Apogee Drive like? I would imagine you would get some sort of vibration and resonance through CPU/Motherboard?
 
Is anyone confused as I am? There were a lot of contradicting reports as to the performane of the H20 120 compact kit which led to people believing these were no good. Wonder what happened there?
 
Mekrel said:
Is anyone confused as I am? There were a lot of contradicting reports as to the performane of the H20 120 compact kit which led to people believing these were no good. Wonder what happened there?
Click to expand...

Well this one has a 240mm radiator...perhaps the 120 just wasn't capable of dealing with the heatload.
 
Yeah I know the difference, and I would imagine the 120 wasn't because a quad with 1.55v @ 3.6Ghz is capable of putting out 250+ watts of heat but there are users reporting good temps on a quad with the 120 version and some who report poor temperatures.
 
That very true i had to recheck the box (pic) and gurusan i believe has pin pointed the change but swfitech still market the product as compact but under extreme instead of straight forward compact previous edition.

So it would appear there are two types of compact on the market? The rad size being the difference
 
fornowagain said:
Need ambient temp and is the vcore 1.475 the bios setting or the actual after droop+drop?
Click to expand...

1.475v is the setting in the Bios. Also id love to find out my room temp but i got no way to find out.

Just started prime95 again with fans at 50% and il report back with temps in the wee hours of the morning.
 
Mad_Jay said:
1.475v is the setting in the Bios. Also id love to find out my room temp but i got no way to find out.

Just started prime95 again with fans at 50% and il report back with temps in the wee hours of the morning.
Click to expand...
Ok thanks, so the Vcore is nearer the 1.4v mark if we believe cpu-z.

Temps are relative, the ambient is important to get an idea of the cooling delta.

Swiftech like to use the Delta WFB1212M 72CFM fans, can you tell that's what's fitted? Whilst they produce a gale, they're not exactly known for silence. If noise becomes an issue you can replace them for something equivalent and a lot quieter.
 
On the back of the box under specifications it says:

RDM1225S Fans:

2 x 120mm class fans, with RPM sensor
Construction Sleeve bearing (Low Noise)
Current 23A - Speed 2000rpm - Static Pressure 2.7mmh20 - Volume 81.3CFM
Noise 33dB/A @ 12VDC - 26dB/A @ 7VDC - 21dB/A @ 5VDC.
Click to expand...
 
Thats an generic by Ruilian Science (xinruilian). Something like the newer Zalman ZM-F3 / Scythe S-Flex SFF21F would produce the same/better pressure (CFM drops across a rad) and be a LOT quieter. Some good info (click the chart) based on medium flow fans. You could even improve performance by moving to higher cfm fans, chosen carefully, with little/no extra noise.

 
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Actually seems to be a decent kit. I think some people are too quick to jump onto the "its a kit so it must suck" bandwagon, some of the kits and external units perform prety well.
 
Still waiting on mine ordered on 12th december to arrive from USA :mad: , i thought the fans would be loud so have got some yate loons to go along with it..thanks for the review :).
 
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