Swiftech H20-8500 Series Liquid Cooling Kit

Introduction

Water and electronics are generally not used in the same sentence. However, water has been a means of cooling hot pc components for years. The danger of damaging component has been a deterrent for many. Due to the advancements of water cooling equipment, the ever increasing amount of heat produced by today’s silicon and the excessively loud fans required to cool them, water cooling is quickly becoming main-stream. Today we look at a great kit, the H20-8500 from Swiftech, which makes a safe, quiet liquid cooling system available the masses.

The Package

The kit came in a fairly heavy, well-packed box. I was impressed that the tubing was not smashed or collapsed from improper packaging. The kit has many options and is compatible with different water-blocks. So if you already have a water-block, you can save some “Kash” and purchase only the items you need. Of course the water-block (Optional) featured in the kit has built in 1/2" quick connect fittings, which makes it easier to install and maintain a leak free environment. This kit does have an optional adapter to allow use for 3/8" tubing, although it is not recommended since the smaller tubing restricts the flow-rate. Also (Optional) is the VGA water block. Basically everything in the kit is available a la carte, thus the kit is quite versatile. The kit I received is priced at $144.95 from Crazy PC.

The kit, part # H20-8500A (without waterblock or VGA Cooling) for AMD® processors, includes:

• MCR80-F Radiator with (2) 80x80x15mm fans rated at 29CFM (32dBA) each, (2) nylon clamps
• MCK525™ kit assembly, including MCP300 115V pump terminated for connection to relay switch, FB500 fill-and-bleed kit, 5 1/4" tray
• PRS kit, including relay switch, A/C socket, stainless steel cover plate, A/C power cord
• 12 feet 1/2" vinyl tubing, and tube inserts
• 2 Oz bottle HydrX™ extreme duty coolant
• Arctic Alumina™ thermal paste
• 8 page instruction guide with illustration

Water-Block – MCW5000-A (Optional)

The MCW5000-A™ water-block compatible with: AMD® Duron®, Athlon®, MP & XP, socket 462 Intel® Pentium® 3, socket 370 .

The image below came off Swiftech’s site and shows its features much better than I can. The only difference that I can see between this unit and the one I received is the Swiftech name is etched into the metal instead of printed like in this pic.


Technical Specifications

Housing:

• CNC machined aluminum L2.5"xW2.5"xH1.5"
• Type II, class 2 blue anodized anti-corrosion treatment
• Built-in quick-connect fittings for 1/2" OD tubing (3/8" ID)

Base plate:

• 0.500" (12.7mm) thick CNC machined copper base plate
• Submersed face (0.250"/6.35mm) is CNC machined from billet to form Patent Pending Diamond-Pin Matrix©. Design increases heat dissipation surface, and flow turbulence to enhance heat transfer to cooling fluid.
• Outer face is lapped flat to 3/10 of 1/1000", and mirror polished.

The water-block was very clean. The blue anodized anti-corrosion treatment was a nice touch. I did find one small problem, however. The screws holes for the retention mechanism were drilled thru the entire block in the center on both sides. However if you look closely at the right side you will see the retention screw is inset just a bit and on the left it is not. When I removed the water-block from system during the mock trial, I was unable to tighten the screw as far as I did the other side. It seemed odd that one side would screw down so much more than the other, so I kept trying, and broke the machine screw in half. I thought for sure I had ruined the water-block; however, I went to the local hardware store and was able to match the machine screw and replace it. It worked fine, but did not look as nice because it was a flat-head screw instead of the Phillips. After I removed the block from the system, I looked at the screw hole with a magnifying glass, and it looked as if the block was not machined completely. Again, it functions properly but just doesn’t seem right. At first I thought it was a mistake, but it may be possible that this asymmetrical design was meant to protect the socket cam box from the end of the screw.

Radiator - MCR80-F


My first thought about the radiator was “That’s small!” The radiator was also blue like the water-block, however it was finished with a high-gloss acrylic paint. The radiator is designed to replace an 80mm exhaust fan. This radiator has dual fans; one goes between the case wall and the radiator and the other goes on the inside of the radiator toward the pc interior. In the pic above I set the outer fan off to one side to allow you to view the fins.

The clips that were meant to connect the inlet and outlet tubes to the radiator were the wrong size. I called Swiftech support and they said they had 12-15 kits that were shipped with the wrong clips and they would ship the correct ones to me. I declined after I found out I could use standard automotive clips. Since they are only $0.60, I figured I would rather purchase new clips than wait several days for the correct ones to come in the mail.

Technical Specifications:

• 2-pass 80 mm radiator specifically developed for PC CPU and VGA watercooling
• Double-row high internal volume design
• High-gloss acrylic paint finish
• Rated for 236.6 KCal per hour (938.89 BTU per hour) or 275W
• 80 mm (3 inch) Copper core consisting of flat tubes for maximum heat conductivity
• High-density copper fin configuration for enhanced heat dissipation
• Built-in enhanced depth plenum chamber for increased performance and noise reduction even when using high-speed 80mm fans.
• 3/8" OD inlet and outlet: 1/2" OD tubing (3/8" ID) is clamped over inlet and outlet.

Pump – MCP300


The pump is small and quiet. It reminds me of a fish tank without the bubbles. Its size is deceptive, though. It moves the coolant much faster than I thought it could. It came mounted to a 5 & ¼” drive tray with the tubing installed and ready to slide into the uppermost 5 & ¼” drive slot. The whole system uses quick connects to hook up the tubing. Swiftech includes a tool designed to help remove the tubes from the quick connects, but I found it much easier to use my forefinger and thumb to hold the collet while pulling and twisting the tube out of the quick connect.


Technical Specifications

• Heavy Duty Flow Rate: up to 330 GPH
• Compact Design
• Quiet Operations
• Convenient, and safe built-in quick-connect fittings
• ½" OD tubing standard for optimal flow rate in P/C environment, also supports larger or smaller sizes tubing with optional accessories
• Safe, and Versatile installation
• No maintenance when used with de-mineralized water, and anti-fungal additives (e.g. common antifreeze, Zerex™, Red Line™, etc..).

Pump Relay Switch kit

The relay switch controls the pump. It allows the pump to run when the pc is on and shuts off itself off when the pc is powered down. The kit includes an AC Socket and mounting plate that requires a hole to be cut in the case. The kits suggests using a 1¼” hole saw and 1/8 drill bit to cut the mounting holes. Incidentally this is the only hole that must be cut in the case.

Installation

I tried to use only the uppermost drive bay for the pump tray, however the pump was just a little too tall so I had to use the second bay also. If your case has ANY extra room above the top drive bay you won’t have this problem. The fill and bleed tubes shown can be moved slightly to allow more clearance above.


After I pulled everything out of the case I noticed the radiator would not fit in the 80mm fan shroud. I have the Antec PlusView1000AMG case which has fan shrouds instead of holes in the case to mount fans. I removed the lowest fan shroud and drilled 4 holes in the case to mount the radiator.


The pic here only shows the first two screws mounted, but all 4 have been installed. I installed the AC Socket below the radiator at the same time. After mounting the AC Socket, I realized I mounted it right over the AGP slot which made screwing down my video card a little awkward. I recommend staying away from the area just above the expansion slots.


The instructions say that it’s best to do a mock installation of the tubes and water-block. For the collets and the quick connects to work properly, the tube ends must be cut perfectly square. For the mock trial I cut the tubes a couple inches longer than needed so I could re-cut them if necessary.

The coolant for the system is marked by Swiftech as HydrX™ extreme duty coolant. It was a small 2 OZ bottle that must be diluted with Distilled Water before filling the system. The coolant looked like some very thick concentrated Anti-Freeze Coolant. It is important to make sure you use distilled or de-mineralized water. If you don’t use distilled water you run the risk of causing mineral buildup inside your system, just like in an automotive cooling system. Oh yea, by the way, it tastes awful! After my intake tube slipped out, I had to siphon from the outlet tube and a tiny bit of coolant found its way into my mouth.

Filling and bleeding the system was a snap, literally. It took only 30 seconds to fill the system. After the bubbles stopped coming out of the bleed tube I raised the pc vertical to remove any trapped bubbles. Then disaster struck! My fill tube slipped out of the coolant fill bottle, and sucked in lots of air. The instructions say that if this happens to blow all the coolant out of the system and try again. I had a hard time getting all the liquid out the system because my tubes were a little long, but finally I was able to fill and bleed correctly. The second time I filled it, I taped my fill and bleed tubes to the bottle of coolant just to be safe! Then I opened and closed the main valve a few times to remove the final bubbles, closed the circuit, and removed the fill and bleed tubes.


Test System:

Asus A7V333 Rev 1.04
AMD XP 2400+ (not overclocked)
CORSAIR XMS Extreme Memory PC3200 DDR RAM
Western Digital 7200rpm ATA100 "Special Edition" 80GB HDD 8mb cache
Asus 40X CDRW
Asus V8460 Ultra GeForce 4 Ti4600
Dlink DFE-530TX+ NIC
Antec True Power 550W PSU
Win XP SP1
Intake Fans - 2 80mm Antec 34cfm 30dba
Exhaust Fan - 1 80mm Antec 34cfm 30dba

Results

	SK-6+	SK7	SLK800	H20-8500
Temp C Idle	34.3C	32.4C	30.8C	36.8C
Temp F Idle	93.7F	90.3F	87.4F	101.5F
Temp C Full	42.5C	40.2C	38.5C	44.6C
Temp F Full	108.5F	104.4F	101.3F	112.3F

Conclusion:

Water cooling is the way to go, period! I know the temperature test results are far from stellar, but this is a completely closed water cooling system that does not require maintenance, and is completely mobile. This is one system you CAN take to the local LAN party. The radiator is small, but it works sufficiently well considering it is a closed system, however, I do believe the performance would improve with larger radiator or possibly a second radiator. My thoughts for my particular Antec case, would be to add an additional MCR80-F radiator. Since my case has an additional exhaust fan shroud, I would add an additional radiator above the one pictured below. The additional cooling from another small radiator would be very beneficial especially if VGA water-block was installed.

Installation was a bit involved, but the instruction manual was very easy to follow and it seemed as if my hand was being held by Swiftech the whole way thru. Suggestion: Download the color instruction manual from the Swiftech website, the manual in the kit is black and white. The tube routing is much easier to follow when it is shown in color. The only thing I stress during installation, is don’t let your intake tube slip out of your coolant liquid fill bottle! This is the 3rd water cooling system I have installed, (This is the first in my own system) and it is by far the easiest to set up and maintain.

Another thought, I have 2 dual Athlon MP systems that are Extremely Loud & Hot! Both systems are installed in this same type of Antec/Chieftec case with SLK800 Heatsinks, 50cfm Sunon fans, & 5 50cfm Sunon intake & exhaust fans (both have blow holes above the psu). I would love to quiet these baby’s down, at the same time, leaving them mobile to move around as I need. (Just in case you were wondering why I need so much CPU power have a look!)

I would recommend this truly versatile kit to anyone looking for a water cooling system for their pc. As a matter of fact, my wife has truly embraced this product and is urging me to purchase SOME so we can remove those loud fans from our bedroom!


Pros:

Maintenance Free

Retention mechanism latches directly to the socket

Very quiet

45° inlet and outlet on water-block

Easy install

Quick Connect setup

Quick and helpful Customer Service via Swiftech phone support

Cons:

Radiator not mountable to fan shroud

Drilling hole in case

Height of the pump tray

Small Radiator

High Cost


I would like to once again thank CrazyPC for sponsoring this review. If you are looking to pick one of these up make sure to check them out.

Added: May 10th 2003
Reviewer: KingKash
Score:
Hits: 16734
Language: english

  

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