Swiftech H20-8500 Series Water Cooling Kit

Company: Swiftech
Product: Swiftech H20-8500 Series Water Cooling Kit
Street Price: ~$230 USD
Date Reviewed: April 9, 2004
Reviewed By: Daniel Swords aka rds0811
Rating: (4.5/5)

H20-8500 Installation:

Installation takes about 2 hours or so depending on how you pace yourself, and none of it is particularly difficult. The installation guide is very thorough and covers every step of the process. Also, each individual component of the system has it's own user's manual with installation instructions and specifications. I installed the radiator assembly inside one of the rear 80mm case fan holes, the MCW5000-P on my 2.4C, and put the fill/bleed assembly in my second highest 5.25" drive bay.

Coincidently, my fan controller died on me recently so my top bay is empty, but it should still fit in there with the Swiftech assembly right below it. I wired up the relay kit and used the included wire clips to adhere the wires to the side of the case. The instructions illustrate drilling a hole in the case to mount the relay socket, but I don't have a drill handy for the review so I just routed it over top of the radiator and protruding through a rear case fan hole.

The kit also includes a couple metal springs to insert into the tubing at points that are likely to kink. I didn't have any kinked areas so I didn't need to use them. I did find, though, after filling the system (which was quite easy with the fill assembly), a leak developed on one of the radiator posts I earlier suspected was going to be a leak spot. I tightened the clamps on the hose as tight as I could, but they are pretty difficult to use and would try to bend to the side instead of clicking shut. I was able to fix the leak by placing small zip ties (included in the kit for wire management actually) in front of and behind the clamp.

The kit includes Arctic Alumina thermal compound, but since the majority of people see Arctic Silver 5 as the premium compound, that's what I've used. It has a very long cure time, so I've given it an entire week to cure completely.

When running, the pump is extremely quiet. Every now and then there will be a rattle or gurgle, as with any water cooling setup, but overall it makes very little noise. Also, the fans on the radiator are extremely quiet (much more so than the stock Intel cooler).