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Swiftech H220-X CPU Liquid Cooling Kit

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#1 ·
Swiftech H220-X CPU Liquid Cooling Kit

Description:
The patent pending H220-X liquid cooling system is Swiftech's next generation all-in-one CPU cooler featuring a dual 120mm copper radiator, and enthusiast grade pump and wateblock. As in previous Swiftech® offerings, the product remains entirely focused on low to inaudible operating noise with extreme thermal performance, and it is engineered to appeal to the broadest possible spectrum of performance oriented users.

The H220-X leverages Swiftech's patent pending technology initially developed with the MCR-X20 Drive series of radiators; in this technology, the pump is fully integrated into the radiator instead of being built into the waterblock. Two major improvements were implemented compared to the original MCR-X20 series of radiators:

thanks to a revised placement of the pump and reservoir, the H220-X radiator is now the most compact dual 120mm heat exchanger on the market, thus facilitating installation of the unit with any dual radiator compatible case.

the reservoir is now transparent and LED backlit, allowing users to inspect the coolant level while enjoying the inner workings of the pump as can be seen below in a customized system that we presented for CES 2014.

Finally, as an immediate benefit of this configuration we were able to use our new extreme performance flagship waterblock the Apogee™ XL which resulted in enhanced thermal performance and flow rate, not to mention superb cosmetic appeal thanks to the XL's multi-color back-lighting capabilities. While only recently released, the Apogee XL has already received two Gold Awards below.

From virtually silent to comfortable audible noise levels Our design objective for all Swiftech products is always to minimize the operating noise while preserving high thermal performance characteristics. At its lowest speed settings, the H220-X system is virtually inaudible. At its maximum speed, it remains within comfortable audible noise levels.
Plug-and-Play The H220-X is probably the easiest AIO liquid cooling kit to install bar none, and is even easier to setup than many high-end air coolers.
Superior Thermal Performance Thanks to its copper & brass dual 120mm radiator, high static pressure Helix 120mm fans, more powerful DC pump than any other AIO on the market, and because it uses the Award winning Apogee™ XL waterblock, the H220-X kit delivers superior thermal performance to any comparably sized system on the market.
Expandable/Customizable
The H220-X differentiates itself from other AIO's by its ability to be fully customized, and to support additional liquid cooled components such as graphics cards, chipset, and/or additional radiator(s).

From a practical standpoint, this is possible thanks to:
The presence of a reservoir including a fill-port built into the radiator so that the system can be easily emptied or refilled by the user at will,
Enthusiast grade 5/8" OD (3/8" ID) black PVC tubing fastened to swivel fittings with an elegant clamping system that users can easily remove and safely re-install.
The factory tubing and fittings can be replaced by aftermarket G1/4 compatible offerings of your choice (an optional G1/4 adapter is needed for the pump outlet, and is scheduled for release on 8/15/2014).
From a thermal performance standpoint, this is made possible by:
The high thermal capacity of the dual 120mm copper and brass radiator
The powerful high-pressure pump capable of driving sufficient flow to cool multiple devices in the loop.
The award winning flagship Apogee XL waterblock
Automatic speed control or fine-tuning right out of the box Both the pump and the fans are PWM compliant devices, allowing the H220-X to be recognized and speed-controlled by the motherboard depending on CPU temperature just like any standard CPU cooler. As a bonus, the system includes a PWM splitter allowing connection of up to 8 PWM devices which can then be controlled as one by the motherboard.
Maintenance-free As shipped from our factory and installed as directed (*), the H220-X CPU cooler requires no maintenance during its 3 year warranty period; a system refill is recommend at the end of 3 years. Under extreme ambient conditions, the system may need more frequent refills. If upgraded by the user, the interval of time between refills will depend on how users implement their customized loop.
Reliability Both fans and pump are rated for a 60,000 MTBF (Meantime Between Failures)
Support With over 10 years of experience designing, manufacturing and setting up liquid cooling systems, Swiftech® customer service can assist you in setting up and troubleshooting your system 6 days a week, 12 hours a day.
 

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#2 ·
Swiftech H220-X CPU Liquid Cooler Review

review by williamgayde

Swiftech's H220X 240mm all-in-one liquid cooler is their response to the less than stellar H220. The H220 was plagued with legal issues and faulty pumps. The H220X looks to put those worries to rest.

We will start with an unboxing. The front of the box lists the key features that make the product stand out. The back lists more features as well as a temperature comparison.


The side lists some info about Swiftech as a company as well as package contents.


The bottom lists dimensions as well as some tech specs.


Now let's look in the box. We get the cooler itself with 2 included 120mm PWM fans, various mounting options, 3 extra color plates, a PWM splitter, thermal paste, and an instruction manual.


Here is a closeup of the 8 port PWM splitter. Power comes from a SATA power cable and the PWM signal comes from a standard 4-pin fan cable. The computer will report RPM statistics from the fan in port 1.


Next up are the 3 additional color plates. A blue one is already installed. To change colors first remove the 4 plastic pins from the block. Then replace the color plate with your desired one. Place the cover on and push the 4 pins and you are good to go.


Now let's take a look at the actual unit itself. Starting from the left we have Swiftech's flagship Apogee XL waterblock. Attached with high quality G1/4 fittings is 3/8"OD tubing. The tubing goes into the high quality MCP30 pump which is directly attached to the radiator and reservoir. The radiator is brass and copper compared to the standard aluminum of other AiO units. This increases heat transfer. Attached to the radiator are 2 of Swiftech's Helix 120mm PWM fans.


Now we will take a closer look at the waterblock. It is Swiftech's top of the line Apogee XL. I was surprised to see this on an all in one unit as it retails for nearly $70. There is no pump on it like most coolers feature. The only cable coming out of it is for powering the LEDs. The bottom is solid copper and is very shiny. Intel 115x mounting hardware comes pre-installed.


Here is the inside of the block. It looks very restrictive but it isn't. Lots of work was done to keep it as high performing as possible, but with the least restriction to the rest of the system. I would not recommend taking it off as I did. The unit is filled using a vacuum filling process which leaves no air. I made a mess despite taking many precautions.


Now we will move up to the pump/res combo. The pump is Swiftech's high end MCP30. There were many complaints about underpowered and faulty pumps with the H220. The MCP30 seems to solve them so far. As we are early in the release, we won't know about many problems for a few months. The pump is powerful enough for additional radiators or blocks. The pump is very quiet. It only becomes noticeable above 60%.


The unit is powered by a bunch of cables. The plug on the left plugs into the pump. Next the 2 pin connector powers the reservoir's internal white LED. Finally there is a 4 pin PWM connector and a SATA power cable.


Here is the radiator. Like I mentioned previously, it is copper and brass. Most traditional closed loop coolers feature aluminum fins. This brought down the price but also hurt performance. The radiator is standard thickness and features a fill/drain port.


Finally we have the fans. They are high pressure Helix PWM fans. Swiftech hasn't gone cheap on these either. They retail for $12 each. This is great compared to the $4 fans most radiators come with.


Here is the cooler installed in my test rig. The unit says it can be installed in any orientation except down. However, the tubing is a bit too short for anything other than top mounting. Depending on the clearance of your case, you might have to fight it to get it to fit due to the thick tubing and the arrangement of the fittings. The lighting effects are pretty cool. They are bright enough to be seen through a tinted case window, but they aren't overpowering.


I have mentioned lots of high end hardware. That was the focus of the H220-X. Bridging the gap between consumer closed loop coolers and high end enthusiast custom loops. All the parts are flagship class and available individually. If you were to buy all the components separately, it would cost you over $220. This is a testament to the quality and Swiftech's manufacturing processes that they were able to get it down to $140. This may seem expensive compared to $90 coolers on the market, but once you understand the quality of what you are getting, it is a great deal.

Now the moment you have all been waiting for. The performance numbers. The H220-X performs great. It isn't game changing, but it performs better than traditional coolers. It is somewhere in between a traditional closed loop cooler and a custom loop. For my testing I used the stock Intel cooler, a very high end dual tower air cooler, and a traditional air cooler. The results were just as expected. Better than previous generation liquid coolers, and similar to a dual tower air cooler. These tests were done at 100% fan speed on a 3570K, MSI Mpower Z77, and a GTX 660.


To finish up this review, I will summarize. Swiftech's H220-X is the first CPU cooler that made me say "Wow". It features enthusiast class components in an all in one form factor. It is bridging the gap between consumer and enthusiast cooling. Its expandability and build quality are revolutionary. This is a great first time water cooling kit. Just add a GPU block and a second radiator and for under $250 you have a full loop. I hope other manufacturers are watching because Swiftech hit this one out of the park.

ProsCons
Expandable, High quality components, Quiet, Great performance, Included PWM splitterInstallation difficulty in some cases

Ratings
Overall5
 
#15 ·
Best AIO (out of the box) Cooler on the Market, solidly built

review by ganzosrevenge

All-in-One Liquid Cooling has becoming something of a "fashion statement" in building computers; a bauble of showing one's "building prowess" and "good taste towards temps and overclocking" for the digital nouveau riche, although by and large, these AIO coolers are typically low-cost solutions that lack the expandability of their custom loop counterparts. Enter Swiftech and its Hx20 coolers - and their US market cousin the CoolerMaster Glacer 240L - and the ability to have a liquid cooler in a mainstream rig is no longer relegated to the hardcore builder who uses rads, fans, D5 Pumps, Bayres / Tuberes, etc., nor is it relegated to the low-power, looks-cool AIOs typically seen in many computer stores that are Asetek or CoolIt OEM. Rather, the H220-X is a wholly Swiftech product that combines the ability to simply "plug and play", with the ability to expand into GPU cooling and extra radiators as well. I chose the H220x because I wanted a gaming rig that was not only capable of staying cool, but didn't require me worrying about issues such as galvanic corrosion due to copper block / aluminum radiator, as well as being able to expand the cooler if I ever mustered up the bravery to do so.

Taking the cooler out of the box for the first time was an experience. With a 29mm thick rad, 3/8 inch ID and 5/8 inch OD tubing, and a copper CPU block, the H220x was deceptively heavy. I almost dropped it due to it being FAR heavier than I had expected. Stupid me for thinking "aluminum, copper, how great of a difference in radiator weight could it make?"; the answer is very... I'd say the whole unit weighs roughly 4 to 5 lbs. Upon further inspection, this suspicion of "heavy" was replaced with the reassurance of "solid". Very tightly screwed together clamps, smooth cabling, low fpi radiatior (i think 13 fpi is the fin quantity), easy-swivel 45-degree fittings, the apogee XL block that has won awards everywhere... how could this be a $125 cooler, when to build the same on Swiftech's site would have been approximately $200?! I stopped asking myself this and once all my components were in the case, I fit the Cooler in my Obsidian 350D, and off I went.

It was here that I discovered the two issues with the 350D; one is not the fault of Swiftech in any way, one I feel needs to be addressed with a backplate revision. The Obsidian 350D mATX case is probably the largest non-Caselabs mATX on the market, and mine had the Corsair flat modular cables in order to maximize the amount of space for the radiator / fans. With the typical 240mm Corsair coolers - 25mm in height - the 350D has no issues. the 29mm radiator height that the H220x has means that the 350D and other mATX cases will have tight-clearance into the roof the case. This is further exacerbated by the large heatsinks on the Maximus VII Gene that resides in my case. Although this is an issue with the H220x, I'm not going to blame Swiftech for this. Why? First, I figure this is more suited to larger, ATX cases that have room for 30mm radiators rather than mATX cases that are best suited to AIO radiators. Second, no company should have to design accessories in every shape / size for every possibility. The H220x fit into the Obsidian 350D, but at the cost of losing all of the 5.25" drive bays.

The second issue with the H220x is directly tied to the H220x. the backplate for LGA 1150 is not a locking backplate, and the sticky-tape provided is not sufficient to hold the backplate to the Maximus VII Gene. The backplate "poke-throughs" for the motherboard were rather difficult to push through for proper attachment. They do push through, and once a great (personally I found it unsettling) amount of pressure is applied to the tape, it sticks to the back of the motherboard. I wish there was more tape on the back of the backplate in order to provide a more assuring contact. However, my second issue is that because the mounting mechanism on neither the Apogee XL nor the backplate "lock", putting in the Apogee XL block was a test in patience, and "small formfactor" precision. At various points, I worried that I was going to screw the mechanism THROUGH the motherboard, rather than through the mounting holes, because of how wobbly the screws were. However, after much coordination efforts and screwdown, everything mounted as promised. The reservoir / pump combo has more than sufficient room for taller RAM such as the Vengeance Pro, and it was largely silent - save for a very light "pump sound".

So how did this beast perform? Running linpack for 8 hours at 4.6GHz, with a CPU voltage of 1.234v, I never saw temps go beyond 70 Deg C. (That's 4.6 on all 4 cores.) It's also near-silent even at 60% pump power, and the air that it pulls in has a nice focused and cool feeling, so the static pressure is decent. At idle, temps are in the high 20s to low 30s C, and with normal use, approximately 35 to 40 Deg C. Overall I'm very satisfied with the performance of my cooler, but I nearly docked half a star for the mounting mechanism. A locking mechanism to keep the screws in place as they're being inserted into the backplate would have made the 5/5 I gave, a solid 5 /5. Right now it's a 4.75 / 5 that rounds up.

Great product, be wary / careful in smaller builds. Can't wait for a 280mm version to hit the market.

ProsCons
Comes prepared for as-is use, expandable, all-copper / brass constructionMounting mechanism is a bit difficult to install, can be difficult to install in smaller cases

Ratings
Overall5
 
#16 ·
Solid AIO Cooler

review by tmontney

Writing this review, I have not used any other All in One (AIO) CPU coolers. I can't compare this to anything from personal experience. However, I am quite pleased with this cooler.

System

AMD FX-8350 Black Edition (Stock)
G-Skill DDR3 2166 4x2 GB Memory
Cooler Master GX 450 Watt Bronze Power Supply
ASUS M5A99X EVO R2.0 Motherboard
SAMSUNG 840 EVO 250 GB SSD
NZXT H440 Case
EVGA 7900 GS

Price

Normally, this AIO costs around $140. I managed to grab it new for $90 with free shipping on eBay. I was definitely willing to drop $140 based on what I read online.

Installation

Installation wasn't too bad. The instructions were definitely lacking (unless they the seller left them out, but based on their web support I don't believe so). The cooler came fitted for an Intel CPU. I struggled on switching the block to AMD. I struggled on the part below.



That plastic washer is ridiculously difficult to remove. I assume that's what they're directing me to do, as that's the only one on the screw. I feel that that I broke all the washers in the process. There didn't appear to be any other way to remove them (it seemed like they were notched to go one way; the screw had a groove for the washer to fit into). It would have been nice to have some text instructions. To remove the washers, you have to work at them with a flat head. Trying to rip them off forcefully, things will go flying.

It seems that thermal compound is included, but the seller didn't provide me with it. Thankfully I had some left over from a few builds ago. (It's possible my older thermal compound will affect my results a little.)

Results

The system was benchmarked in an environment of ~60F.

I have been prime95-ing it for over an hour and a half (since installation), and it will not budge from 55 Celsius (it's been at 55c for a half hour). Obviously, this is an immense improvement over the stock AMD cooler (which would overheat in 10 to 15 minutes @ full load). I have no way to measure dB, but it is very quiet despite full load. Once again, a major improvement over the loud stock cooler. I bet a case with better airflow would fair better. My case has small vents along the sides, and does not have any exposure on top or front (like most cases; you can't see the fans).

The CPU cooler also looks cool. I love the changeable color plates. The only thing that annoys me is the "warranty void if removed" sticker.

Update: Since writing the review (about 10 hours ago), my CPU temp is now holding at 51C (full load).

Photos

Enjoy some photos from un-boxing to finish.

























ProsCons
Decent price, flexibility, great resultsNone

Ratings
Overall5
 
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