Swiftech H20-220 Apex Ultima Extreme Duty CPU liquid cooling kit

Pros: Easy to install and works great. This kit keeps my CPU ice cold. I touched the reservoir while playing a game for over 30 minutes and it was about the same temperature as tap water from the faucet. tubing has a relatively large diameter 7/16" I think and the pump moves a good volume of water fairly quickly. you can really see how powerful the pump is when your circulating out all the air bubbles during the first run.

Cons: Not enough tubing to run CPU and video card loop and keep a clean appearance.

Overall Review: You have to choose between a clean CPU only loop or a sloppy CPU / VGA loop with the amount of tubing supplied. I really like having a near show quality machine with hidden excess tubing and sleeving all cables in the case and routing them around the back of the case. Besides that this kit was easy to install, I didnt even use the manual and this is my first water cooling install. Swiftech did an excellent job making a powerful and easy to install Water Cooling solution.

Pros: Finally! Just passed 3 hour leak test. No leaks!

Cons: Finally got it to work, but problems abounded:

1. Waterblock thumbscrews stripped all the grooves on the 1366 backplate. Couldn't find metric nuts small enough to fit the screws, so using needle nose pliers I pried off the edges of the other, 'X'-shaped 755 factor form backplate and used the ends as makeshift nuts to hold the waterblock in place. (A gamble because it precluded sending the unit back, but worked impeccably well.)

2. Apogee GTZ leaked, fast, on first test, through the seal between the top chrome plate and copper contact plate. Upon dismantling, saw that rubber ring was too large for its rectangular groove. With some effort, was able to close it again with a proper seal.

Overall Review: A great unit once you get it working. May have been easier just to get separate parts + hardware store. The idiosyncratic, unique parts of the H20-220 are novel, and work well when fully assembled, but if something breaks or gets lost, could cause more headaches than an ease-minded kit buyer might bargain for.