Swiftech MCX462+

"It looks like a piece of sculpture," she stated, obviously somewhat surprised. Too feminine, I thought, not how I would have phrased it at all; although, I don't disagree with her judgment. This was the first time I had ever seen a Swiftech cooler in person. Pictures just don't do its appearance justice. Not only is it pleasing to look at, but at (650G) it is truly massive. The only heatsink I can think of that's larger is the near brick-sized monstrosity -- the Kanie Hedgehog Type W. Which with TWO screaming 8K Deltas is more noise than most mortals can stand.

Packaging

Swiftech's mantra here seems to be one of "Everything You'll Need, And Nothing You Don't." You'll find no colored graphics, no hi-gloss box, no case badges. What you will find, however, is a well-packed, well-engineered product with a detailed set of instructions. While I miss some of the fancy extras, I'm not sure I'd be willing to pay extra for their inclusion.

The Swiftech MCX462+ comes bundled with Arctic Aluminia. No TIM or stupid pink goo is pre-applied to the bottom of the heatsink. The Arctic Aluminia, while not nearly the best thermal compound on the market, is nonetheless the best I have ever seen bundled with a heatsink.


Here are the MCX462+ Specs copied from Swiftech's site.

Specifications

Heatsink

CNC machined, C110 copper base, 3"W x 3"L x .500"H, flatness better than 0.0003", micro surface finish 8 or better.
371 Helicoid Pins made of High Thermal Conductivity Aluminum Alloy, press fitted in the base.
Overall heatsink dimensions 3"x3"x1.66"
Weight: 23.2 oz (650g)

Retention mechanism

Motherboard fittings: 6-32 Female to Male 1/4" standoffs with lock-nuts
Heatsink fittings: 4 pre-assembled compression springs provide exact specified pressure per chip manufacturers.

Mounting System

The MCX462+ mounting system is somewhat of an enigma. While it's one of the coolers largest strengths, as it not only allows Swiftech to build massive coolers, it also allows them to be attached safely to your motherboard without the possibility that a stray screwdriver will damage a trace and ruin your board.


On the other hand, the AMD White Papers means future motherboards MAY not use the four holes. This problem, though, is somewhat mitigated by an informed consumer, who can then determine for themselves if this issue is of importance. Swiftech include this quote on the front of the box: "For all motherboards using 4 mounting holes retention mechanism" This information is also prominently placed on their website. All that being said the only retail AMD motherboard I am currently personally aware of that doesn't adhere to the four hole mounting system is the MSI KT4 series.



Observations

Even though I know that if the motherboard conforms to AMD keep- out -specs the MCX462+ should fit my eyes tell me that there is no way that this nearly 1 1/2 lb hunk of metal is going to fit on my EPoX 8k3A. So I carefully sit it on top of my XP 2000+. To my surprise it fits fine. In fact the closest component to the MCX462+ is the Power Supply. That's when you appreciate how the bottom edges are machined for component clearance.


HSF Installation

As with the earlier MCX462 the MCX 462+ requires you remove the motherboard to mount the heatsink. You do this with four standoffs and lock nuts, using one of the three methods shown below. Unlike the MCX462 with the addition of the new locknuts, this is now a ONE time operation. This new hardware is also sold separately. So if you own a MCX462 you can purchase this new mounting hardware separately. Pics are from Swiftech's included instruction page.


Attaching the heatsink to the motherboard is accomplished by tightening the four pre mounted spring loaded bolts in the typical crisscross tightening pattern. Tighten until the bolts bottom out in the standoffs. Do not over tighten!


The MCX462+ is designed to accept either a 70 or 80mm fan. If you are brave enough to bend the fan mounting brackets a little, it will even accommodate a 92mm fan! The 70mm fans attach using an optional 6-32 x 2" set of four screws, which are included, the holes for which are visible in some of the photos if you look closely. The 80mm fans attach using 4 plastic "Snap Rivets" (similar to the plastic pins on Geforce 4 HSF). Four others are also included to mount a fan guard in a similar fashion. These are very easy to use.



For this review I chose the Delta Model: FFB0812SHE 68 cfm fan. I believe this fan to be typical of the one that will be used by the normal user with this heatsink. As to the sound issue I have talked about it in other articles here until I am blue in the face, so just let me say this, Sidewinder Computers has a sound room where you can hear this fan in action. If you have never heard a 80 mm Delta for yourself you ought to check this out.

I had planned on also testing the Swiftech MCX462+ with my Sanyo Denki Model: 109P0812A201 53 cfm fan for a take on how this HSF might perform with a much quieter mid-range fan, unfortunately that wasn't possible. As you can see above, the fan mounts to the HSF, and the fan grill with four push pins at the bottom and top of the fan flange. That means if your fan doesn't have these TWO flanges then you are out of luck. I also tried another fan I had laying around the house the Thermaltake A1357 Smart Fan 2 and discovered that it too only had one edge flange. (Can be seen at bottom left and right of picture)



To be fair to Swiftech let me state now I could have got out a hacksaw and sawed the single flange in two, or I could have waited until Home Depot opened Monday and went and got some additional screws and nuts to mount a single flange fan on the Swiftech, but realistically I wouldn't expect many end users to go to this amount of trouble. The obvious solution is for Swiftech to include a few additional screws and nuts for this purpose.

Test System Specs:

AMD Athlon XP 2000+ o/c 1.72GHZ (150X11.5) 1.75V
EPoX 8K3A (BIOS 2619)
256MB Samsung PC2700
Quantum 7200 RPM ATA 100 40GB HDD
I/O Magic 52X CD-ROM
PNY Geforce 4 Ti 4200 (300,550)
Sound Blaster Live
Linksys LNE100TX
Thermalright SLK-800, Swiftech MCX462+
Delta Model: FFB0812SHE, 68 CFM, 48.5 dba fan
Enenermax EG365P-VA 350 W ATX PS
WIN XP Home
DirectX 8
Det 28.32 Reference driver>

Testing Procedure

Although Swiftech generously included a packet of Artic Alumina, Evergreen TherMajic was used in all testing, not only is it high performing it is very easy to use and clean up, and when you use thermal compound by the bucket like I do that is very important. I must confess I actually dreaded this part. The bottom of the MCX462+ being polished to a near mirror like surface, its a shame to mess that up with some some thermal compound.


For the CPU idle test I boot to Windows XP and do nothing for 20 minutes, and then I take a temperature measurement using MBM 5.2. For the CPU loaded test I boot to Windows XP and run SETI for 20 minutes at 100% stated CPU usage. Ambient room temperature for all tests was 73 F. In my testing the Swiftech MCX462+ beat out the Thermalright SLK-800 by 1 C to place it at the top of the HSF I have tested. That being said, 1C is such a narrow margin of victory that for all practical purposes I consider the performance of these two heatsinks virtually identical.



Conclusion

The four-hole mounting issue is one that needs to be watched. It's not a large issue at the moment, but nonetheless something of which you should be aware of. Taking the motherboard out of the case to mount the heatsink has become less of an issue now that you only have to complete that task once.

As for performance, I found the performance of the Swiftech MCX462+ to be the best I have tested to date. As you can imagine, though, that level of performance doesn't come cheaply. And at $50 dollars, while priced no higher than it's competitors, if you aren't a hard-core performance fanatic, realistically this level of cooling may be overkill for you. If you however are an overclocker, live in a place with unusually high ambient temperatures or just someone who wants the very best performing air cooling solution on the market then you need look no further.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank Swiftech for making this review possible, as well as answering my questions nearly as quickly as I could ask them.

Pros:

First rate cooling

Many small improvements over MCX462

Good looks

Should fit all boards that meet keep-out-specs

Cons:

Expensive

Single flange fans will not fit without modification

Added: February 3rd 2002
Reviewer: Jim Adkins
Score:
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Language: english