Swiftech H220 Liquid Cooler Review Linus Tech Tips
Linus Tech Tips
·Linus Tech Tips
·2013-05-07
·
1,561 words · ~7 min read
0:00
this video is brought to you by our trusted partner Intel for a limited time
0:04
only with the purchase of any unlocked Core I5 or core i7 Intel CPU get a free
0:09
Intel beanie with a chance to win an Intel snowboard valid for Canadian and
0:13
US customers only some restrictions apply for complete details visit Intel
0:17
gaming promo.com welcome to my full product
0:22
overview of the swifttech h220 liquid cooler so this is an all-in-one liquid
0:26
cooling kit sort of because unlike the other ones there it is fully expandable
0:32
and uses high performance components so by high performance components I mean a
0:35
swifttech designed base plate I mean a high-powered pump that is capable of
0:40
running multiple radiators multiple blocks 3/8 in tubing that can be
0:44
replaced and upgraded and added to and a
0:48
copper fin radiator rather than the aluminum fin radiators that competitors
0:52
are using it also comes with swiftex Helix fans pre-attached so installation
0:57
is a snap you basically just take the thing and then screw some fans into your
1:03
dual 120 mm Mount and you are pretty much ready to go upgrades and
1:07
maintenance can be performed via the fill Port here on the radiator itself so
1:11
that acts as a reservoir while the pump is built into the CPU block swifttech
1:15
does a great job of their mounting mechanisms as always so it comes pre pre
1:20
ready for you although we've taken it off now at this point because we've tested it and it comes with screws for
1:24
LGA 2011 to go directly into the back plate on your motherboard as well as a
1:28
back plate and additional mounting screw for the other Intel sockets you even get
1:32
an AMD bracket included yay and it's not like a Cheesy AMD bracket that's sort of
1:36
weird compared to everything else so there's been a lot of hubub about the
1:41
h220 which is why we're releasing this review a little bit out of order we
1:45
filmed some other ones already but we want to get this one out to you guys um
1:50
how does it actually perform so let's start with introducing our standard test
1:54
benion methodology so we have a Corsair C70 case that we close up all the side
1:59
panels on and then we measure ambient temperature using our thermometer at the
2:03
intake so that gives us a good idea of what the room temperatures are like well
2:07
not a good idea an exact idea of what the room temperatures are like we use a
2:10
GTX 580 to generate a heat load because we don't want to give the CPU Cooler any
2:16
unnecessary advantages that it would get on an open test platform this is a we're
2:20
pretending this is a real case with a real gaming rig inside which means
2:24
there's other heat generating components so we run this with combuster for our
2:28
load test and then we leave it for our idle test we have a 3930k CPU we've
2:33
chosen that for a number of reasons Intel really is the platform of choice
2:37
for most enthusiasts out there right now and the fact that it's a six core
2:41
processor means that it generates oh yeah overclocked too means that it
2:44
generates a ton of heat load and allows us to really differentiate the coolers
2:47
for you guys so you know which ones are genuinely better um we use IC Diamond
2:53
thermal compound on all the coolers to eliminate as many variables as we can
2:57
and also in the spirit of variable elimination we we test all coolers with
3:00
Noctua NF F12 fans using their seven bolt adapters the reason for this is
3:06
that we were able to get the system to a noise level that we feel is appropriate
3:10
so you can actually listen to it there
3:14
slick that is a quiet gaming
3:19
rig and then we know how at a noise
3:22
level that we appreciate that cooler will actually perform so let's move
3:27
along to sort of the performance numbers here which is uh right here so our idle
3:33
temperatures I have no idea what you're talking about we use a boom mic for the
3:36
audio test oh yeah there's a boom mic on the camera that slick stuck the camera
3:40
into the case to thank you CU usually you use a lapel yeah uh okay so idle
3:46
temps this we because we were curious how swiftex Helix fans performed because
3:51
we'd never really used them before we decided to uh run the swifttech h220 at
3:56
full pump speed with the stock fans and see how it performed it was right in
4:00
there with an air cooler and some single 120 mm and single 90 mm radiators so we
4:07
were a little concerned about that um however when we ran it with nf12 we got
4:12
some of the best idle temperatures that we've ever seen even when we turn the
4:16
pump down to a fraction of its full speed making it near silent the pump was
4:20
a little bit on the loud well the pump was loud when it was running at full
4:24
speed but the good news is you don't have to now let's head into load
4:27
temperatures so when we say corrected to 20° the reason we say that is because we
4:32
run all of our fans at a fixed RPM so basically if the room temp
4:37
temperature goes up 5° the CPU temperature will go up exactly 5° if you
4:41
want to know how our setup's going to perform where you live measure your room
4:45
temperature and then just add or minus to it so so this is sort of standard
4:49
room temperature now into the juicy load temperature results guys so the first
4:54
thing we noticed about the lad temperatures was the h220 at full speed
4:58
with the stock fans was uh among the
5:02
least performing of the coolers that we've tested in the past uh right down
5:06
there with you know single 120 mm radiator coolers and even our Silver
5:11
Arrow extreme air cooler so that was uh
5:14
that was very disappointing it was also quite loud with the pump at full speed
5:18
so what we didn't necessarily realize at the time was the h220 needs a little bit
5:23
of TLC and optimization and once you do
5:27
that it destroys everything else so with
5:31
full pump speed again the pump speed was
5:34
full pump speed was a little on the loud side for our taste but a lot of people
5:37
probably wouldn't care um it was the best performing cooler on our test bed
5:42
by a significant margin we attribute this to the Copper radiator as well as
5:46
the much much better CPU block that
5:50
swifttech integrates I mean a CPU block can make a 5 degree difference and then
5:54
a copper radiator versus an aluminum radiator is worth a couple degrees as
5:57
well there so that's very exciting to see and we were even more excited to see
6:01
that when we turned the pump down it was still our top performing cooler by a
6:06
good 4° margin so we can explain the rest of the results pretty easily as
6:10
well the water 2.0 has a thicker radiator than the h100i which is why it
6:15
performs better even though it's a dual 120 the h110 uses a dual 140 mm rad so
6:21
that's why that performs better than an h100i and h100i is pretty standard it
6:25
performs about the same as the um as you know any other dual 12 mm radiator
6:31
cooler a touch better plus you get Corsair link software and I think that
6:35
pretty much covers it so in conclusion
6:39
the h220 if you make the correct optimizations which is to turn down the
6:43
pump which is easy you can use your motherboard pump control CPU fan control
6:47
utility to just turn that baby down and if you get some awesome fans to put on
6:52
it in our case nff 12s from noct which are freaking awesome it is Far and Away
6:58
the best preone liquid cooler that you can put on your CPU and it has the
7:04
advantage of actually being able to be expanded with multiple blocks when
7:08
you're ready for it in the future thanks for checking out this video on lineus
7:11
Tech tips what two BL oh the tube oh
7:16
yeah okay slick wanted me to mention that the stock tube length is a little bit on the long side and he's right if
7:20
you come look at it um there they're pretty long I mean the
7:25
good news is it well it doesn't even look that long when you put it on this side but you had it on the other side
7:31
they were the good New tubes it's asle as
7:35
cutting putting back together and you can have exactly the length you need so
7:39
I would rather swifttech where you can actually adjust it air on the side of
7:43
tubes that are too long than air on the side of tubes that are not long enough
7:47
thanks for watching L's Tech tips and don't forget to subscribe