Swiftech H220 Status Update - We Made a Mistake
Linus Tech Tips
·Linus Tech Tips
·2013-05-07
·
838 words · ~4 min read
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in our video review of the swifttech h220 we had a 20 Dee difference between
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our Noctua n12 fans and the swifttech
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Helix fans now we thought those results were pretty suspect at the time but we
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reren them a few times um the problem
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though is that we made a critical error we were using no to as low speeed
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adapters on all of the fans and in the past it's never been an issue because
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we've always just run KN to a fans but what we discovered is that while the
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lowp speed adapters which we thought were just your standard sort of
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undervolt from 12vt to 9vt sort of adapters we thought everything was hunky
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dory um what we discovered is that while it'll tone these guys down from around
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1400 RPM to around 1100 RPM it turns
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swiftex Helix fans all the way down from 1,00 RPM to 600 RPM so the Helix fans to
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get that 20° difference we're actually running at half of the RPM of the Noctua
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fans Not only that but the swifttech fans were only run with the pump at full
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speed and what we found out is that our units here may actually be not quite
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optimal in terms of their performance because these are early samples that are
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not using Swift Tech new vacuum filling
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procedure that basically amounts to zero
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air bubbles inside the system so we might have had air bubbles that were
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getting caught in the pump causing the performance to degrade um with the pump
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running at full speed which might be part of why we got our best results when
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running the pump at half speed so we're waiting for a retail unit of the h220
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and so that we can actually take it and retest it in a number of different
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configurations so we're going to run our noctu a fans at 600 RPM to see how
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comparable that is just you know let's see what happens if we both fans
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we're going to run our Noctua fans at 1100 RPM which is our standard testing
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procedure then we're going to run swiftex fans at 600 RPM again with the
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new fixed unit all with the pump at half because that doesn't seem to affect
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performance much and then we're going to run Swift text Unit at 1100 RPM then
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we're going to take some additional fans we're going to grab some gentle typhoons
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some GED Wings some air penetrator 121s we're going to run all of those at 1100
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RPM this is all in a pull configuration because that's the configuration that I
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prefer to use we've added something to our test bench here that we didn't have
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before so check it out we have a variable fan speed control ER in the
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front so we can use software to exactly
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monitor the RPMs of the fans and fine-tune them to make sure that noise
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levels and RPM levels are the same and
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then last but not least swifttech has also asked us to test theirs in a push
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configuration which is the way it ships stock and to also try using pwm control
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for the whole unit itself because part of the problem may be that swiftex fans
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are not designed for voltage control but are designed for PW m control using a
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four pin connector and a compatible pwm chipset so we're going to plug
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everything into the CPU fan header and then we're going to plug both fans and
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the pump into swiftex pwm splitter and
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then report that result as well and on
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that one we're going to Target 1100 RPM for the fans so this should give us the
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most complete and clear picture of how the Swift Tech cooler performs now I
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it's going to take us a little while to get this done so that's why I'm releasing this video so you guys know
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that it's coming but in the meantime remember guys our result with it
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performing better than everything else is still valid because this engineering
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sample unit had everything going against it and with the Noctua cooler compared
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to every other liquid cooler that we've tested due to its copper radiator
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compared to the aluminum finned radiators that are used in other lowcost
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Solutions due to just the overall design of the unit the better pump the better
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uh see swifttech designed base PL
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dramatically better design dramatically better performance than other lowcost
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coolers it is the best performing cooler on the market if you add aftermarket
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fans we just need to do more investigation into the stock ones that
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are included thanks for watching this video sort of a Blog Style video and as
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always don't forget to subscribe to lus Tech tips for more unboxings reviews and
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