Swiftech H20-220 Apex "Ultra" Or a custom loop?

Nazbit

Nazbit

Nazbit

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11 Dec 2004
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Hi all,

Right I have never done watercooling before, but I think that its probably time now, I have the money and I have the space in my case, plus I have a cpu thats nicely overclocked...but capable of a lot more.

Question number one:
Should I make a custom loop or go for the Swiftech H20-220 Apex "Ultra" Watercooling Kit?

Question number two:
If I buy the Swiftech H20-220 Apex "Ultra" watercooling loop, could I add another radiator (Swiftech MCR220-QP Dual 120mm Radiator ) would the pump be able to handle two radiators, would this keep the liquid a lot cooler? It may be a stupid idea, but I just thought seeing as I have a tonne of space in my stacker, I may aswell go all out.

Cheers
 
It sounds like you want to go all out?

Getting a custom kit over the Swiftech kit will yield a slight gain but the best thing about the Swiftech kit is its value for money.

I would get a custom set-up with a Thermochill PA120.3 and a Alphacool Nexxos XP if you want all out performance.
 
Nazbit said:
Hi all,

Right I have never done watercooling before, but I think that its probably time now, I have the money and I have the space in my case, plus I have a cpu thats nicely overclocked...but capable of a lot more.

Question number one:
Should I make a custom loop or go for the Swiftech H20-220 Apex "Ultra" Watercooling Kit?

Question number two:
If I buy the Swiftech H20-220 Apex "Ultra" watercooling loop, could I add another radiator (Swiftech MCR220-QP Dual 120mm Radiator ) would the pump be able to handle two radiators, would this keep the liquid a lot cooler? It may be a stupid idea, but I just thought seeing as I have a tonne of space in my stacker, I may aswell go all out.

Cheers
Click to expand...

swiftech kit is good for a starter... as you get alll u need in one tidy package... but then again you could just order the same stuff for a custom kit... for just a bit more money and if you know where to shop...

and as for adding a second rad its pointless on my opninion... you dont get much added cooling performance and it will cause restrivtion... best way to get better temps is to just get a top spec setup of everything... top CPU/GPU block and top RAD 120.2 will cool both sufficiently :)

weescott is right... the PA's are awesome but they are very large... and the alpha cool cpu performs excellently but in my opinion its ugly!
 
Cheers

Could someone spec me a decent custom loop?

I did some looking in to it a while ago, but Im not really familiar with whats what, so if anyone could draw me up a spec I would be grateful.

I want to cool my cpu, (s939 Opteron 170) and my graphics card (6800 Ultra)and have plenty of space for large tubing, a big radiator etc, whatever is best.

I have £255 in my computer fund at the moment but I dont want to spend all of that.
 
Alphacool Nexxos XP or Aquaextreme MP05
Thermochil PA120.3 with 3 Panaflo L1A's
6foot of 7/16" tubing
Silverprop Fusion HL or Maze 4
T line or Res
Zerex coolant
Distilled water from Halfords
DD D5

At a rough guess that lot should cost about £240
 
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Thanks

How would this compare to the swiftech kit? I cant help but think that the kit is very good value for money, and maybe worth the buy on that factor alone.

What sort of performance differences are we looking at between the two?

Cheers
 
if you have never done it before id do the kit i reckon especially as its very good for a kit and for the sake of one or 2 degrees id go kit form until you want the last little bit.
 
The temperature difference at stock and even reasonable overclocks will be negligable 2-3c. It's with higher heat loads that the 120.3 comes into it's own while still keeping noise levels down.
 
I've just this weekend installed the Apex Ultra kit on my machine (it's my first venture into water cooling as well) and I must say I'm chuffed to bits with it. I posted some screenies of my setup here

I've added two of Swiftech's new MCW60 vga coolers into the loop, and because of the crossfire cards physical closeness I had to use a fair bit of extra tubing in an already cramped case. So flow wise, I don't think adding another radiator will be a problem for you. I do wonder whether one radiator outside the case would beat two inside though. The bios, ATI CCC and thermal probes from my lian li panel (which i've attached directly to the sides of the water blocks) are all reporting substantially decreased temps over their original stock cooling, especially the X1900s at load. Way better than I expected :D I Installed my rad laying sideways on the outside of the case. Actually bolted it to the offside panel behind the motherboard.

Re jokesters comment about the jubilee clips; I'm using the black nylon clips supplied with the kit and must say I think they're fine. I would imagine there's less chance of cutting into a tube compared to jubilee clips and of course there's no need for loctite with them either :p The tubing supplied with the kit is a tight fit on the supplied connectors to say the least! The only way i could get it on was to dip a inch of the tubing into boiling water for about ten seconds, then lubricate the barb with a little fairy liquid and push flippin' hard. It's also impossible to pull the tubing off once it's on without cutting it off, as i found out the hard way when I stuffed up the length of one of the tubes :o Makes me wonder if the clips are even necessary... but for peace of mind I did use them. They're not to bad to take off... just poke a very small screw driver into the gap between the teeth and gently lever them apart and they'll spring open for you. I don't reckon you'd want to do it repeatedly though as they'd probably snap after a few attempts.
 
daftVader said:
I've just this weekend installed the Apex Ultra kit on my machine (it's my first venture into water cooling as well) and I must say I'm chuffed to bits with it. I posted some screenies of my setup here

I've added two of Swiftech's new MCW60 vga coolers into the loop, and because of the crossfire cards physical closeness I had to use a fair bit of extra tubing in an already cramped case. So flow wise, I don't think adding another radiator will be a problem for you. I do wonder whether one radiator outside the case would beat two inside though. The bios, ATI CCC and thermal probes from my lian li panel (which i've attached directly to the sides of the water blocks) are all reporting substantially decreased temps over their original stock cooling, especially the X1900s at load. Way better than I expected :D I Installed my rad laying sideways on the outside of the case. Actually bolted it to the offside panel behind the motherboard.

Re jokesters comment about the jubilee clips; I'm using the black nylon clips supplied with the kit and must say I think they're fine. I would imagine there's less chance of cutting into a tube compared to jubilee clips and of course there's no need for loctite with them either :p The tubing supplied with the kit is a tight fit on the supplied connectors to say the least! The only way i could get it on was to dip a inch of the tubing into boiling water for about ten seconds, then lubricate the barb with a little fairy liquid and push flippin' hard. It's also impossible to pull the tubing off once it's on without cutting it off, as i found out the hard way when I stuffed up the length of one of the tubes :o Makes me wonder if the clips are even necessary... but for peace of mind I did use them. They're not to bad to take off... just poke a very small screw driver into the gap between the teeth and gently lever them apart and they'll spring open for you. I don't reckon you'd want to do it repeatedly though as they'd probably snap after a few attempts.
Click to expand...

Just ordered the same kit. What temps are you getting?

Matt
 
Ok thanks guys.

I think I am going to order this kit tomorrow.

I will just go with one Rad first and see how it goes.

Cheers
 
mattup said:
Just ordered the same kit. What temps are you getting?

Matt
Click to expand...

Great!

Not sure what my room temp is (nice and chilly at the moment) but idle = cpu 29'/gpu 30', load = cpu 36'/gpu 35' according to the bios and ati ccc. I've also got three thermal probes attached to the sides of the water blocks and they read 22' cpu, 26' and 28' gpus when idling.

Whatever the real temps are it's still a pretty nice drop compared to stock cooling on the FX60 @2865 Mhz (10% o/c) and two X1900s @ 689/797Mhz (pretty much the max overclock through ATI CCC in otherwords). When I ran the ATI clock config utility on air, the temps went up to 100'! When I ran it after installing the water it didn't go above 38'.
 
daftVader said:
I've just this weekend installed the Apex Ultra kit on my machine
Click to expand...

I've been thinking of getting the same kit for that case too. Thing that's bothering me is I can't see how I would get the dual 120 rad into the case. Can I ask how you've done it, maybe a close up shot would help. Or was it necessary to mod the case some.

It looks like you've managed to get it into the space where the two hard drive cages were, but I've heard it wouldn't fit there.
 
Hudzy said:
I've been thinking of getting the same kit for that case too. Thing that's bothering me is I can't see how I would get the dual 120 rad into the case. Can I ask how you've done it, maybe a close up shot would help. Or was it necessary to mod the case some.

It looks like you've managed to get it into the space where the two hard drive cages were, but I've heard it wouldn't fit there.
Click to expand...

You're right, there's not enough room in the bottom of the case to mount the rad. Not without fairly extensive modification to either the rad or the case.

I couldn't mount it on the back of the case either. Just not enough clearance from the power cable or back of the pci slots. Nowhere convenient to drill holes for the tubing either.

So I put it here:



Not pretty, I know lol. Still... i never was that fond of symmetry ;) It is functional though. My priority was to keep the rad outside the case for better air flow. The inlet and outlet holes are between the motherboard and the 5 1/4" cages so I only had to drill through the side panel and not the cages. On it's side the radiator is still self purging too so it shouldn't accumulate any air.

It wasn't any harder mounting it there than anywhere else on the outside of the case. I had to cut two 22mm holes with a hole saw for the tubes, and drilll four bolt holes to mount the rad box, plus a 12mm hole to feed the fan cables through.

I took the second hard drive cage (the one closest to the psu compartment) out and that's where I've installed the pump. It's a real tight fit getting from the reservoir which is standing up under the DVD drive to the inlet of the pump, which is facing the psu! It was really the only way I could do it without cutting more holes.

Anyway good luck if you decide to go ahead with it. It's tricky as hell getting it all in there even with the rad on the outside. Worth the effort though :)
 
Bought my apex kit a while ago when it came with the storm waterblock and drive bay resevoir. Also added an mcw55 for my 7800gt. Using it with an opteron 148 at 2.9ghz and 1.55V, idles at 19-21, full load never been above 42, averages when folding at about 35. Really happy with it. GPU doesnt seem to go much over 40. Stuck the rad on the back using the "radbox", only had to cut a couple of holes for the pipes.

edit: used about 6 foot of 7/16" Masterkleer tubing
 
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