Hardware Swiftech H2O-220 Apex Ultima

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/cooling/2009/04/30/swiftech-h2o-apex-ultima/1

While you could air-cool your Core i7, if you want to achieve a big, stable overclock without damaging your hearing then you might want to consider a water-cooling kit such as the H2O-220 Apex Ultima. We take a look to see how Swiftech's latest water-cooling kit copes with Intel's fastest CPUs.

 

Very nice review...

 

Very nice kit - I can't see why anyone wouldn't like that kit, as you say, all switech did was jam together some standard and much-loved components.

 

Looks like a very nice kit, basically what most people would buy themselves except perhaps the fans and the coolant. 11c idle temps? What was the ambient room temp?

 

It's a delta T temperature. 11'C above ambient.

 

seems like a great way to get started on watercooling, i myself if i decided to watercool id find it hard to decide what kit to use for the first time and this seems a good way to start without having to worry about the bits and pieces not being capable

 

I was gonna say lol. I knew it was cold over there for you guys but not that cold haha.

 

Why no maximum overclocking section, it would have good to see how far the i7 could be pushed, especially as that's the real reason people spend nearly £200 on the kit. The Titan Fenrir produced some impressive results for an air cooler, is that Bit-Tech's new favourite real world cooler?

 

yeah, where's the epeen section?

 

is it cheaper than buying the components individually? do they have a similar kit for lga775?

 

CPU waterblock: Swiftech Apogee GTZ

 

Its worth mentioning that although the review says that adding a graphics card to this loop would be fine because "the radiator isn't even hot" it really is not that simple and likely a bad idea.

The problem is that a water cooling system is based on the temperature of the water, which has a particular difference to the air that is ultimately cooling it. Therefore the radiator fins are at the temperature of the water, somewhere around 10C above air ambient or 35C.

An i7 CPU is 125W TDP, all of which is going into the water and being cooled just fine at load. If we add a 4870 that is another 160W of heat and that is more than double, which is also going to double the water temperature. Now all of a sudden you have gained 10C of CPU temperature at idle and at load because you added the graphics card.

More likely is that someone would want to add a 4870X2 to such a machine and then your talking more like 300W of power added. The CPU begins to look pathetic in comparison, even when its overclocked and your CPU would then be something like 50C at idle and above 90C at load.

Water cooling isn't as simple as just adding what you like to the loop, its about balancing flow rate, heat in and heat out to get a decent overall performance. The moral of the story is that each 120mm of radiator space should go with about 120W of component power output. Therefore this CPU system is fantastic for overclocking a CPU, or running a moderate graphics card and CPU at default clocks, beyond that temperatures will start to go up and you need more radiators which in turn may mean you need a better pump or two different loops.

 

Where's the pics of it built up?

 

What?

I think you dropped a decimal.

 

I had a closer look at the Plus-kit with all the bells and whistles earlier in the spring, and really liked it. Good to see the rad is enough to keep a i7-chip cool as well, as I was a bit worried if it would be enough after updating the parts.

The GTZ looks darn nice as well And was a breeze to install. Too bad about the aluminum top, that just doesn't last...

 

Its nice sure for £195.41, but I think Corsair H70 will beat it You guys should do review on it. Help me decide.