Swiftech MCX462-V HSF

Swiftech is one of the leaders in CPU cooling technology. This is certainly an industry that must keep up with the increasing cooling needs of today’s processors. Today we take a look at Swiftech’s MCX462-V heatsink.

If the box somehow reflected the beauty or performance of a product, this one would be one “Plain Jane Heatsink.” Lucky for Swiftech this is a beautiful CPU cooler as you will see in the pics ahead. The box makes some heavy claims “Extreme Duty & Low Noise Heatsink” which is right on the money!


The contents of the box included the following:

MCX462-V Heatsink
Fan Mounting Clips and Snap In Rivets for 80mm & 92mm fans
Artic Alumina Thermal Compound
Installation Guide


Right out of the box I noticed a nice Styrofoam pad taped to the bottom of the heatsink for protection during shipping. Also the fan mounts installed were for 92mm fans. Since I was sent 2 80mm fans I had to remove them and screw in the 80mm mounts, more on this later.

Features:

Solid Copper Base 3"W x 3"L x .500"H
390 Thin Aluminum Pins in a Helicoid Design
Concentrically Aligned80 & 92mm Fan Brackets Included
Conventional Socket Retention Tabs (uses compression springs)
Weight 23.2 oz (650g)


The Helicoid pin design increases surface area of the pins. This increased surface area creates a more effective mechanism for heat dissipation. Also these pins are aligned in concentric rows which are bent at different angles. Swiftech says “The spacing and angles between the concentric rows has been precisely calculated to optimize cooling and reduce noise at air flow levels as low as 22 CFM and 23 dbA”


The fan brackets shown here are easy to change out before being installed. However, trying to change the brackets while the cooler was installed on the motherboard proved to be quite a challenge for big hands.


The base of the cooler was nice in that it made sure you knew exactly how to install the heatsink over the socket cam-box. I also liked seeing the model of the heatsink right on the base just above the cam-box. The retention mechanism is the socket tab variety with a twist. The brackets snap onto the socket tabs and then the screw-springs are used to gradually tighten the cooler.


The base was smooth and fairly shinny, however I have seen other heatsinks with a more polished shine. The following is taken directly from Switfech: “The MCX462-V is lapped to 0.0003" (3/10 of 1/1000"), and polished to near-mirror finish to promote optimum thermal conductivity. Users are advised that while flatness is strictly respected for providing the most significant benefit to thermal interface, surface polish is a cosmetic component and may vary slightly from one heatsink to another. Re-lapping or polishing the heatsink base is never recommended.”


Installation:

Installation was fairly easy one I figured out the retention clips snap over the socket tabs. Due to the large shape of the cooler, I had a difficult first few minutes trying to get the clips to stay on the back side while I got the front clip snapped on. After the clips snapped into place the screw-springs were very easy to tighten up. I was not able to install the heatsink with the ram installed.


Here is the NMB 80mm fan attached to the cooler. Notice the fins do stick out around the outside of the 80mm fan, so a 92mm fan does not dwarf the cooler.


As you can see the cooler comes extremely close to the DIMM slots. I actually had to move the Corsair memory to slot 2 and move the Kingston Memory to slot 1 for the cooler to fit. Also notice the snap in rivets where the fan is connected to the fan mounting clips. These snap in rivets are very secure. I was afraid of vibration noise from this type of set up none was heard. The first time I tried to insert the snap in rivets, I dropped them several times. This was due to the fan mounting clips were not “exactly” lined up. I realized later when I installed the other 80mm fan that the clips can be “adjusted” simply by loosening the fan clips and re-adjusting them. Another issue is compatibility with all fans. Since the system uses rivets to connect the fan by using flanges at each corner of the fan, the fan must have a flange at the top and bottom. Otherwise the rivets will not secure the fan.


Here is a nice pic of the top of the screw-spring. Also notice how close this is to the ram and you’ll understand why I pulled the ram before installing the cooler.

Test System:

Asus A7V333 Rev 1.04
AMD XP 2400+ (not overclocked)
256 Meg CORSAIR XMS Extreme Memory PC3200 DDR RAM w/Heatsink
256 Meg Kingston Value RAM (no heatsink)
Western Digital 7200rpm ATA100 "Special Edition" 80GB HDD 8mb cache
Pioneer DVD-117 16X
Asus V8460 Ultra GeForce 4 Ti4600
DLink DFE-530TX+ NIC
Antec True Power 430W PSU
Win XP SP2
Intake Fans: 2 X Antec 80mm
Exhaust Fans: 2 X Antec 80mm

Ambient temps were maintained approximately ~19Cº (winter time). The MCX was installed with each fan and run idle for 1 hour and the final temp reading was recorded. The loaded temps were recorded over a 48hr period running SETI and the final temp was recorded. Thermal compound used was Artic Alumina Thermal Compound. Temps were measured by SiSoft Sandra Professional.

Supplied fans were the following:

NMB 3110NL 80mm 26.5 cfm, 22.5 dBA at 2150 rpm.
Vantec Tornado TD8038H 80mm 84.1 cfm, 55.2 dBA at 5700 rpm

As you can see the Vantec sure makes a large difference, but the noise performance ratio with the NMB fan is much more tolerable.


Conclusion:

This heatsink is a true monster and it does a supreme job of cooling. I really like the ability to use a 92mm or an 80mm fan with this heatsink. Swiftech has done an excellent job with this heatsink and it the truth is in the numbers.

I would like to thank Swiftech for providing the MCX462-V heatsink and fans for review. This item can be purchased on sale for $35.99 at CrazyPC.

Pros:

Excellent performance/quality

Easy mounting system

Snap in rivets for fans

80/92mm fan support

Cons:

Large heatsink

Fan compatibility

Possible RAM heatsink issues

Added: January 15th 2005
Reviewer: KingKash
Score:
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Language: english