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)

Test Setup & Testing:

The testing procedure is a simple one, and will be comparing the stock Intel retail cooling and the Swiftech kit both using Arctic Silver 5 for maximum thermal conduction. Average temperatures will be taken at idle and at full load while running Folding@Home. Note: I keep my room quite cool at around 18-20C. Temperatures will be read with the onboard thermal sensor using motherboard monitor. There is a lot of controversy about the accuracy of onboard sensors, but because this is a comparison to stock cooling the relationship between the values matters more than the values themselves.

I am quite happy with these results. Remember that these results are using the stock "quiet" fans on the radiator.  There is up to a 5C degree drop in temperature with the new Swiftech kit installed, and the noise has been greatly reduced. I plan on upgrading to more powerful fans that will give even lower temperatures (but that will not be covered in this review), while sacrificing some of the quietness.

These temperatures don't really increase my overclock at all, but with stronger fans on the radiator I suspect it will.