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

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.

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: 1. Dropped my ambient temps 10-15C compared to air cooling with sythe ninja. 2. Complete system for a decent price. 3. Worked as soon as I figured out short, see below.

Cons: The apogee block for the 775 socket shorted out my board after installing everything in my computer. Had to troubleshoot for a day about the synchronized lights on the mobo and my power supply chirped. I ended up taking everything out of the case, taping the mobo screw holes with electric tape on both top/bottom of mobo. I also taped the anchoring plate of the apogee on the back side of the motherboard. Hooked everything back up and it ran perfectly.

Overall Review: If you are water cooling, don't use too much antifreeze, if any. This kit comes with a little green bottle that you mix with .5L water, which is more than enough for the system. Also, make sure you pump your system after hookin it up, you can do this by putting a paperclip in slots 13/14 of your power supply (black/green wires). This will allow you to fill everything without heating up the gpu or whatever is connected to the mobo. Also, I purchased two more fans so I can replace the fans on the radiator, would like more air movement.

Pros: Let me start off by saying that this thing is worth every single penny. You get the best water block on the market, it comes with a free socket 1366 bracket, every part you need for installation on any case, and enough tubing to make a refinery in your case. This sucker cools incredibly effectively and the pump is dead silent. Your power supply fan will drown out any other noise before you can hear the pump. Though the fans are loud, they are VERY powerful and the kit comes with resistors to reduce the fan speed to considerably quiet levels (quieter than the fans in the NZXT Tempest case). The additive is UV-reactive, and it is totally worth it to get a dual UV cold cathode to go along with the kit. You'll then have a series of Glowing tubes!

Cons: The barbs on the pump make it EXTREMELY difficult to attach the tubing. It's best to soak the tubing in hot water then lube the tip of it up (just a tiny bit, though) before trying to hook it up. The smart coils get very brittle over time, and if you bend them too much they'll just snap right off.

Overall Review: The pump is a very high flow pump, but it doesn't have the highest head pressure. If you're hooking up every single component to the loop, try using splitters instead of putting everything in series. The pump is also quite large, so make sure you have room somewhere in your case to fit the pump and tubing. This kit works perfectly with the NZXT Tempest case, although to get the radiator installed you have to cut a chunk out of one of the top case fans to fit a screw; it also mounts significantly off-center (though it might be a good thing if you have large VRM heatsinks on the top of your motherboard).

Pros: Installed flawlessly. Instructions where very well written. Helped me easily overclock my CoreI7920 to 4.4ghz with temps well under control. Excellent customer service and tech support. Complete kit with best of everything.

Cons: Could have installed more coils to wrap around water lines. I came up short. One of the fans had a slight click at low speeds. Called Swiftech and they sent me a new one. I had it in three days! What more could I ask for.

Overall Review: This is my second Swiftech kit that has installed and worked wonderfully. If you are planning on cooling an SLI setup as well as your CPU you will need another radiator. Either the Three 120 unit or better yet, add it to the existing two fan setup. The pump will easily handle two radiators.

Pros: Water Cooling a Q9550and 2 X EVGA GTX 295s. This thing keeps my CPU and Video Cards under 30C Idle and 45C under full load via intel Burn in (Makes your CPU Hotter than it would ever realistically get) and other benchmarking apps. I wasnt sure that the radiator would be able to keep 3 huge sources of heat this cool but it definately can. I recently helped my brother build a 2 X 4890 Video card rig and his cards over heated on air cooling right out of the box (Factory overclocked) until we got his case cooling upgraded. I will never go back to water cooling again.

Cons: Be very careful when hooking this up, the coolant itself is non conductive and shouldnt destroy your rig if it should leak, what they dont tell you is that the dirt in your case + coolant is very conductive and will fry your hardware. I wish someone had told me, I lost 2 X Asus 4870X2 Tops this way.

Overall Review: Water cooling is dead silent, I can barely tell its even there. Much quieter than the 4 X 120MM fans I have running, and they are low RPM and low noise. I highly recommend liquid cooling your CPU and Graphics cards these days. I used to have problems on very hot days when gaming for long periods of time. Stock video cards are overclocked and have poor cooling and almost always result in issues right out of the box. I have seen this over and over with todays video cards and their clunky cheap heatsinks. Do yourself a favor and buy yourself water cooled video cards with factory warranties or buy EVGA or other brands that specifically state on their site they allow the stock heatink to be replaced with water cooling as long as they are put back together for RMA Process.

Pros: Looks Good. Cools Great. Silent. i7@3.6 Idle~29C 100%~50C.

Cons: None at all.

Overall Review: This replaced my Corsair H50. The H50 temps on my i7@3.6 where idle~35C 100%~68C .

Pros: TBD

Cons: Bought this kit, 2x MCW60 GPU Blocks, & 1x MCW30 Northbridge block. Set up the entire system--pump, reservoir, radiator, hoses--then tried to fasten the GTZ LGA1366 backplate to my brand-spanking new i7 system and...*pop*-*pop*-*pop*... That was the sound of the fastening screws stripping the grooves of the backplate. Can't get the thing to stay down. Can't find hex-nuts that work. Can't just send back the stupid GTZ--gotta send back the whole system. Apparently I'm not the only one... Swiftech...you got me. You got me.