Swiftech H2O-220 Apex Ultra kit

[jeffw2767602]

Im thinking about making the move to watercooling for the first time and need a kit that will perform well and is newb friendly . Will this kit cut the mustard? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. This will be cooling a quad now and maybe an 8800GTS down the road. Thanks

 

[thilanliyan]

You didn't post any link to a kit.

 

[jeffw2767602]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16835108076
its the Swiftech h20-220 apex ultra

 

[manimal]

I dont watercool but looked into it a few months ago. That kit all in all is pretty good but piecing together a kit would yield better results. Since that kit basically requires you to do as much work as piecing together a kit from hand picked parts the kit wont save any time or trouble. look at the guide Aigo put in in the stickies and check some other posts from the Watercooling cognoscenti.


As a general rule of thumb, watercooling is a hobby that yeilds nice results. But like a hobby it requires time and patience and can get expensive. The current gen top shelf aircoolers are within 10 percent of what is achievable on water without the headaches and maintenance. That reason alone made me decide to go with High performance air.

Check petrastechshop for some nice kits and parts. Extreemesystems forum has alot of info as well on watercooling and there are build logs of people using the H20-220.

GL & HF with water ^^

 

[jeffw2767602]

well i was going to configure my own kit, but the kit i configured ended up being pretty much the same as the h20-220 kit. the only difference was that i chose the apogee gtx instead of the gt. i dont think there is going to be a tremendous difference between the two so this kit was convenient.

 

[mojaveron]

I have been waiting for the release of the Swiftech H20 - 220 Compact kit I have been told 2+ weeks and a price around $199.00.

 

[ChefJoe]

The Swiftech 220 kit is a very reasonable kit. At $250 though, I'm not so sure it's a good value. I used the 120 kit for a simple E6420 system and it cost $150 from newegg. The difference between the two kits (pump and the radiator) is $20 and a few $ (10?) so charging $100 more seems like a rip-off. Despite what the newegg pictures for the 120 kit suggest, it uses the new micro reservoir and a MCP350 pump.

 

[fujimitsu]

Not a bad kit for the price, essentially just like building your own kit though no real savings.

I'd keep an eye on petrastechshop.com, he sells kits that are a bit more customizable, and actually offer a slight savings over buying the parts individually. Plus petra has legendary customer service/support and is usually willing to work with you on switching out parts in a kit.

 

[aigomorla]

Originally posted by: jeffw2767602
Im thinking about making the move to watercooling for the first time and need a kit that will perform well and is newb friendly . Will this kit cut the mustard? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. This will be cooling a quad now and maybe an 8800GTS down the road. Thanks

your asking for too much on that poor radiator.

Q6600 + 8800GTS despite what gabe says, wont give you much better temps then air. Maybe shave off 3-4C off cpu load temps, and 15-20C off GPU temps.


Look at a petratech elite kit, with a d-tek fusion because you'll be running multi blocks. Also upgrade the standard radiator to a MCR320. Try to fit this radiator, because it will offer better cooling then the MCR220.

But the MCR220, should be left alone on a cpu only loop.

 

[jeffw2767602]

would the thermochill pa 2x120 rad be able to handle that load?
i would like to stick to a 2x120 rad bc my case has 2x120 exhaust fans on the rear and it would be easier to mount. a 3x120 rad is certainly doable though.

 

[Elfear]

IMO, you'd be fine with a good double rad or a double heatercore. The heatercore is fairly thick so it would need stronger fans but it could still be made to be fairly silent with a fan controller. Here is a good read on various radiators compared to the '77 Bonneville heatercore. It has very low flow resistance but cools as well as some of the best. You can pick it up for ~$25 from your local auto parts shop too. Modifying for small barbs is fairly simple as well, especially if you know how to solder or braze. If not a local radiator shop should braze a couple ends on for $5-10.

I've used that same double heatercore with three blocks in the loop (E6600@3.6GHz 1.42V and two voltmodded X1900XT's) with great results. CPU never topped 50C IIRC and the two gpus stayed in the low 50's under load. Estimated power draw was around 445W for just the cpu and gpus so the heatercore can handle a lot. The quad will draw from 105-130W (depending on which model you have) and the GTS will draw about 105W. Even with a decent oc you'll be fine with the MCR220 (good up to 350-400W) or the double heatercore.

 

[aigomorla]

Originally posted by: jeffw2767602
would the thermochill pa 2x120 rad be able to handle that load?
i would like to stick to a 2x120 rad bc my case has 2x120 exhaust fans on the rear and it would be easier to mount. a 3x120 rad is certainly doable though.

You wont be able to fit the PA120.2 on the rear of your case.

Reason is the fan spacing on the PA is slightly wider then what most 120x2 configs are made for. IE. Gigabyte, and CM stacker.


Also rule of Thumb: 120x3 will always be greater then 120x2. Even if your cross comparing PA vs Swiftech.

The MCR series are excellent radiators, and there a heck of a lot cheaper then the PA series.

The only PA series i recomend is the PA120.3 which is the king of all radiators.

@ heatercores, unless you get a premoded heatercore with a shrowd, you'll need to do some moding. I would just recomend a MCR320. Less problems in the long run that way. Also A QUAD overclocked will dish out 200-210W.

Where you getting those numbers Elfear? Even gabe confirmed this.

If your not Overclocking, then why are you on water? You could of done well with air.

 

[jeffw2767602]

ok im at petras tech shop and here are the components ive got in my cart:

cpu block: dtek fuzion universal - 1/2"
gpu block: swiftech mcw60 w/mc14 ramsinks
pump: laing d5 basic/swiftech mcp655b
rad: swiftech mcr320
res: swiftech mcres-micro hiflo res
swiftech radbox

im not too sure about what kind of tubing and clamps and such i am supposed to use with this setup. that was one of my reasons for wanting to go the kit route.
i see 7/16 and 5/8 and 1/2 and all kinds of crazy fractions and im confused lol. if anyone has any good links that will help me out i would appreciate it.

thanks guys.

 

[Elfear]

Originally posted by: aigomorla
@ heatercores, unless you get a premoded heatercore with a shrowd, you'll need to do some moding. I would just recomend a MCR320. Less problems in the long run that way. Also A QUAD overclocked will dish out 200-210W.

Where you getting those numbers Elfear? Even gabe confirmed this.

If your not Overclocking, then why are you on water? You could of done well with air.

I may be wrong about the dissipative capacity of the MCR220. I got the 350-400W number from some comments made over at XS. Apparently those numbers were calculated using something more powerful than the MCP655.

Doing a little digging I came up with this guy's testing. He measured 1.6GPM with a Storm and a pair of heatercores in parallel (shown here) A Storm is a very restrictive block and I'll bet the two blocks the OP will be using would be comparable or possibly flow better. His rad should flow a bit better two compared to the two heatercores. So if you figure 1.6-2gpm, the MCR220 should be good for 290-300W with included fans according to Swiftech's figures.

The OP would be pushing it with an oced quadcore and oced GTS. 200-210W is a good estimate for a quad at approximately 3.6GHz(1.4-1.45V). The GTS would be pushing 130W or so with just a bump in clock frequency.

aigomorla is right about the MCR220 if you plan on doing some decent oces with your chip. I'd go with the MCR320, PA120.2, or a heatercore. The heatercore is probably comparable to an MCR320 according to a recent discussion on the subject.

 

[Elfear]

Originally posted by: jeffw2767602
ok im at petras tech shop and here are the components ive got in my cart:

cpu block: dtek fuzion universal - 1/2"
gpu block: swiftech mcw60 w/mc14 ramsinks
pump: laing d5 basic/swiftech mcp655b
rad: swiftech mcr320
res: swiftech mcres-micro hiflo res
swiftech radbox

im not too sure about what kind of tubing and clamps and such i am supposed to use with this setup. that was one of my reasons for wanting to go the kit route.
i see 7/16 and 5/8 and 1/2 and all kinds of crazy fractions and im confused lol. if anyone has any good links that will help me out i would appreciate it.

thanks guys.

For tubing I'd use Masterkleer 1/2" part #5233K68 which can be found at McMasters. They also have different colors available. For the price, this is some of the best tubing out. Excellent bend radius and only $0.77 a foot.

For clamps I've had really good luck with McMaster's 1/2" worm-drive units, part #5415K32. They are super strong which means you can tighten them up really well. I've used a lot of other worm gears from Checker, Autozone, Lowe's, etc. and they all stripped the worm-drive with even moderate torque. If you have some tight spaces where the 1/2" band size wouldn't work, you can also use the 5/16" band size, part #5388K17. I'd use those over the other 5/16" clamps from local chain stores.

You might also consider a Liang DDC-3.2 with a Petra's top. It flows about the same as the D5 (mcp655) but is smaller.

 

[PCTC2]

Here's a good reference.