Closing the Loop II: New Liquid Coolers from Corsair and Swiftech
by Dustin Sklavos on February 1, 2013 12:01 AM EST- Posted in
- Cases/Cooling/PSUs
- Corsair
- radiator
- Swiftech
Conclusions, Part 2
The Swiftech H220
Because so many closed loop cooler vendors have been basing their designs off the same basic products from Asetek and CoolIT (and inheriting the quality control problems from CoolIT in some cases), they've been forced to differentiate through features and fans. Corsair's "i" series coolers get to enjoy the Corsair Link ecosystem with sophisticated fan controls, while NZXT's Krakens have decent software-based fan controls of their own.
Swiftech changes things. Since they're already established in the liquid cooling market, the H220 is positioned less as a closed loop cooler to just be marketed to the public and more as an entry into the world of liquid cooling. Swiftech wanted to make the H220 as easy as humanly possible to install while offering enough of a performance reserve that if someone wanted to open the loop and start tinkering, they could. At CES, the H220's pump was demonstrated keeping a pair of GTX 680s and an i7 cool.
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Meanwhile, the radiator itself has a larger reservoir than the competition, is user accessible and serviceable, and is produced from higher quality materials. Instead of just using aluminum, the H220 has copper fins and brass tubing, which theoretically will allow it to both dissipate heat more effectively and last longer. That also means it's much heavier in the hand; when you hold the radiator you can feel the difference in a big way.
Additionally, Swiftech includes a breakout PWM block specifically for controlling up to seven fans via a single PWM channel, addressing a problem that Corsair failed to with the H110. This is a polished product capable of delivering competitive performance and easily superior to the other 240mm coolers I've tested, but it does come at a cost: $139 is the same MSRP as better-performing (but also larger) NZXT's Kraken X60, and much more expensive than the other 240s.
There's also the fact that the H220's pump produces a bit more noise than the others do. That's to be expected: it's a much more powerful pump (that amusingly can be regulated via PWM, unlike the others). In a quiet case it's easy to muffle, and my review unit may simply be noisier than the production models (review will be updated when I have a production model in hand.) It's still worth mentioning, though.
Despite that, and despite the cost, the Swiftech H220 is basically the cooler to get if you're in the market for a 240mm closed loop cooler. It fulfills the promise the H100i inexplicably doesn't, and is basically as good as it's going to get before you get into either 280mm radiators or entirely custom cooling loops.
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lowlymarine - Friday, February 1, 2013 - link
Still, I can't help but feel it would be worthwhile to include a couple of the more popular air coolers as well for comparison. The Noctua NH-D14 and Cooler Master Hyper 212+ are very popular units, and in the case of the former runs around the same price as some of the mid-range closed loop options. I think it would be illuminating to see how these options stack up against each other, for situations where clearance and so forth aren't major concerns.Dustin Sklavos - Friday, February 1, 2013 - link
I'll get there. :)Ratman6161 - Monday, February 4, 2013 - link
I recently replaced my Hyper 212+ with the H55 so I can sort of make that comparison. I'm running an i7-2600K@4.4Ghz so a fairly similar setup to the test rig in the article. With the 212+ I used to idle at 32 - 35 C and peak out at about 65 C running Intel Burn Test. With the H55 I idle at about 24 and the peak under load is around 53 - 55. But....I've made other changes too. With the liquid cooler I turned the my three 120 mm intake fans and case's 140 mm exhaust down to their minimum speeds and put the variable speed fan from the 212+ on the H55 in place of the constant speed fan that came with it.The 120 mm intakes and the fan off the 212+ that's now on the H55 are all bios controlled and set to run at their minimum speeds unless the CPU temp goes over 50 C. However that condition is never met (i.e. it never does go over 50 C) unless I'm deliberately ramping things up with Intel Burn Test. FYI my goal is always the best overclock I can get with stock voltage. I don't get any better overclock than I did with the 212+ but it does run cooler and quieter due to all the fans now able to run at minimum speed basically all the time. Since I don't turn up voltage, something better than the H55 probably would not do any good in my particular circumstances and what I've basically achieved over the 212+ was a quieter system.
TreXor - Wednesday, February 6, 2013 - link
53° C at full load with a 4.4 GHz overclocked i7-2600 on a H55? lol...Its time that you and all the other people that post ridiculous temps learn what programs to use to read out the real core temperatures. And its definitely not the software coming with your motherboard, reading out the CPU sensor in the socket...
althaz - Monday, February 4, 2013 - link
Yeah, this is a great review, but it's mostly useless data without including good air coolers for comparison. Especially the Noctua NH-D14 (which is probably not the best anymore, but from what I've seen still offers superior performance per decibel to most closed-loop water coolers).From Dustin's comments it seems we can expect some more stuff in the future, which will make this excellent review much more useful.
Jambe - Friday, February 1, 2013 - link
Ah, Swiftech, makers of those eccentric heavy slabs of copper studded with helicoid aluminium pins. Nice to see them making new & competent products.drfish - Friday, February 1, 2013 - link
Lol, was thinking that same thing. Now THAT would make for a great read, all of the classic coolers over the years pitted against each other - mounting all of them "unconventionally" shouldn't be that hard, right? ;)maratus - Sunday, February 3, 2013 - link
Actually, Swiftech has gone full-H2O after that and was always high-regarded amongst watercooling enthusiasts. Ever since Swiftech Storm was introduced, they became a major source of high-quality CPU and universal GPU waterblocks for custom builds. They also are the biggest reseller of Laing pumps and offer exclusive PWM-controlled version of DDC. MCR rads were the best in their price range for low noise fans and it's nice to see all-in-one kits as they have much more potential customers. I just hope that Swiftech will be more like Asetek in future and less like DangerDen, if you know what I mean.jasonelmore - Monday, August 12, 2013 - link
it was taken off the market due to patent infringements. gabe used someone else's design.Aikouka - Friday, February 1, 2013 - link
Dustin, with the following statement..."The H220 itself is definitely a strong radiator, but Swiftech clearly tuned their fans for acoustics instead of performance."
...it sounded like you were faulting the fans on the H220 as the main reason why the H220 can't compete with the other offerings. Out of curiosity, would you be willing to try different fans on it to see it that helps? Obviously, those numbers wouldn't be able to be used in any official context, but it would be interesting to see!
Although, I will admit that the idea of suggesting ponying up another $12-25 per fan (Enermax Magma, Noctua PF-12, etc.) to make an already expensive product work better is a bit ballsy of a marketing tactic! ;)