Swiftech H220 CPU Water Cooler Unboxing & First Look Linus Tech Tips
Linus Tech Tips
·Linus Tech Tips
·2013-05-07
·
2,037 words · ~10 min read
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welcome to my unboxing and first look at the swifttech
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h220 this is by any accounts that we've
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seen the Next Generation in all-in-one
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CPU coolers because this Bridges the Gap
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in a true way between a regular allinone
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which is what we've seen in the past so the original all-in-one was kind of the
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acitech lclc where it's pre-filled
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pre-sealed non-expandable it was kind of tricky to
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install in terms of the mounting hardware and that other stuff and this
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Bridges the gap between that that pre-filled easy to install relatively
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you know you don't have to replace it thing and a truly custom
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Loop so it comes in an eco-friendly packaging you've got cardboard here and
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uh just a sec guys we'll be right back back so beyond the eco-friendly
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packaging we move on to what's included the first thing you're going to notice
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about this is it looks an awful lot like something that I've already done a video
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about before where we actually checked this out in the swifttech suite at CES
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and we pretty much know how it's going to perform already which is why I'm able
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to say something like next Generation in pre-done liquid coolers because it has
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the horses to back up the claims that swifttech is making about this unit so
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how does it function as a straight allinone well you've got the mounting
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hardware not only included but actually
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pre-attached for Intel and then they include the mounting hardware that you
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need for AMD so here we've got just a powdercoated uh screw based mechanism so
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that'll go into presumably the uh the
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back plate that's included with your AMD motherboard so those are using very very
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uh rugged mounting Springs it swifttech does such a good job of their mounting
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mechanisms so these look like all you got to do is what yeah AIX them here and
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then screw them in so okay now let's
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move on to the included one so this covers pretty much any Intel mounting
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mechanism that you'd encounter whether it's 775 1155 1156 and 2011 with the
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only changes being you would have to change out the screws here for 2011 due
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to the differing mounting pressure and the different threads compared to the
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included back plate that is used for all of the other sockets now one of the
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first things I noticed about the block itself I didn't have much Hands-On time
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with it when I was in the suite at CES is how freely these joints rotate it's
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very very nice to see because normally they're stiff now the way these joints
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work is they have to stay sealed no matter what kind of pressure you're
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putting on it from this direction or that direction they're swiveling on the
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radiator as well they go all the way around on the radiator so they have to
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stay sealed and they have to also not put any additional strain on the fitting
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which can cause it over time to leak so having them so flexible like that just
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means that you're not going to run into any difficulty with that one of the most
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important design differences between this and swifttech has done previous
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sort of all-in-one liquid coolers like their Drive series is that it uses a
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swifttech designed and manufactured pump
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so unlike what everyone else is doing where they're pretty much oeming through
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coolit or acch or I believe Cooler Master also manufactures their own
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swifttech is now a manufacturer of pumps
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not a rebrander of pumps so in the past swifttech even was using Lang for the
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pumps for their all-in-one liquid coolers so now you find a completely
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redone design all by swifttech with a swifttech base plate a swifttech pump
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swifttech design fittings and uh special
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tubing and even hold Downs for the tubing itself so check out this hold
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down here they're using a custom sort of like a worm Drive clamp where you've got
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a very slight bulge
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right here so you can see the lip on the fitting itself and the way that the
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clamp actually fastens down all the way tight so you don't really have to think
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about the way that you're mounting it so that it will form a perfect seal not
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overtighten and not under tighten so it can't actually go anywhere but the thing
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about this is it uses a standard Philips head so if you wanted to clearly labeled
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in and out on the other side presumably nope just the inlet is labeled so if you
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wanted to you can actually remove this and Plum it up to a completely custom
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water loop which is an option that the existing products on the market don't
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really have because you can't really drain them you can't really refill them
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this one has a drain plug on the radiator itself it has completely
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removable tubing with fittings that can be reused with other industry standard
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38 inch tubing and reusable clamps so
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that you don't have to worry about sort of damaging in any way I actually did
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empty and refill a generation 1 lclc but it was a bit of a be so the drain plug
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is here on the radiator so the radiator has a built-in sort of extra part here
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that's uh kind of a reservoir it has a little bit of extra room in it so it's
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not a ton of extra fluid but it'll be pretty much all you'll need so if you
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were going to drain it you just take the whole thing and go like this pretty much
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after you open up the drain plug you want to refill it you refill the whole
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thing with it oriented like this get it as full as you can and there you go
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you've actually refilled it swifttech also takes things a step in the right
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direction I Believe by pre-installing the fan on the radiator itself in the
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orientation where they expect you to use it they also include the screws that you
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need to mount the here we go which ones
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are these I haven't looked closely at this
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yet but it looks like yeah to mount the radiator directly to the case so in that
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case remember Guys these fittings up here swivel around completely so to
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mount the radiator directly to the case or to mount da da da da flip this around
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the fans directly to the case whichever you prefer you want to use it as an
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inlet or an outlet that is totally up to you and the fact that the fans are
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pre-installed and you just screw the screws into the fan plastic housings
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themselves rather than all the way through as a bolt through to the
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radiator just means that you don't have to we've all gone through this
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installing these predone liquid coolers where you hold this in place and you
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align the fan and then you thread the screw and you try to get it in they also
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have their own custom fans installed on here so these are fully sleeved look
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absolutely gorgeous in fact let's get a closeup of the uh of the sleeve they're
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pw4 pin fans and based on the performance and noise characteristics
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that we saw in the swifttech suite at CES I am expecting these fans to be just
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freaking awesome I mean you can tell the way that they're designed they are
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optimized for pressure not necessarily for free airflow but uh that is exactly
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the application that they're being used in although this radiator does use a
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fairly um like not a super dense fin Arrangement so it is optimized for quiet
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operation as opposed to being optimized for extreme performance with like Delta
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fans on it for example now I'd be remiss
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if I didn't do the obligatory uh finger shot of the base I mean Swift Tech's
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been doing water blocks for as long as pretty much anybody else out there so
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they do know a thing or two about designing a water block um a thing two
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or two about Precision manufacturing them and a thing or two about making it
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difficult to remove the plastic covering until you've actually unscrewed the base
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plate so there you go I'm just going to go ahead and show you guys how
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reflective that surfaces I mean remember reflectivity is not necessarily an
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indication of performance but you got that diesel yeah he says he's got it uh
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but it can't hurt swifttech also includes a highquality thermal compound
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this looks like a shinetsu tube but I actually have no way of knowing for sure
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it could also be an MX uh derivative of some po some some sort I mean most of
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the thermal compounds out there are sort of a few different brands but uh
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swifttech assured me this is one of the better ones out there and I think that
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pretty much covers it in terms of the unboxing so what's good about this in
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the swifttech booth they had their custom pump running not only the CPU
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block and the radiator that was included but also additional blocks such as
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graphics card blocks or even a built-in water block like something you might
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find on a Maximus 5 formula which we happen to have over on the test bench
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over there with Slick's empty drink glass next to it way to go slick mind
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you he didn't know we were going to point the camera over there um so you can actually Plum up additional blocks
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they had an additional radiator running through it and it was still holding up
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just fine that's the reason why the other manufacturers don't want you to
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expand your pre-done liquid cooling Loop because the pump isn't capable of
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powering it well this one can and it actually runs off of a four pin pwm
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connector speaking of fan connectors swifttech also includes this guy right
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here which is freaking sweet so this is
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actually an eight-way so channel one is labeled and it's got a red little thing
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on it so this is actually an eight-way pwm fan splitter what it does is you
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just plug in Molex power and then you plug it up plug it into a pwm fan
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controller for monitoring and you can hook up up to eight fans and just run
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them all somewhere in your case I've seen this included on cases here I'm going to give a closeup for diesel to
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have a look at I've seen this included on cases like the Phantom 630 from NZXT
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but swifttech figures well why should that be tied to a case go ahead strap it
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to something screw it into something not those screws different screws these
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screws screw it into something whatever you want hook up all your fans to one
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place because it makes it easier for monitoring and controlling thank you for
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checking out my unboxing and first look at the swifttech
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h220 prefilled prefabbed pre-installed
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almost with the fans on there liquid cooling system stay tuned guys we are
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going to do a performance review on this one in our standard test bench and see
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how it Stacks up away from swifttech testing setup although based on how
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closely I looked at their testing setup I think we're going to get pretty much
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the same results but uh hey that's what third party validation is for don't
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