Swiftech MCW462-UT / MCW478-UT

Company: Swiftech
Product: Intel / AMD compatible water-block w/226w TEC
Street Price: ~ $110.00 USD
Date Reviewed: September 9, 2002
Reviewed By: Joey C. aka Chong345

(Image courtesy of Swiftech)

Introduction:

As an overclocker I am always looking for something to help me obtain more speed and performance out of my system. I have used air-cooling long enough to the point where the noise is getting on my nerves and the performance gains from air-cooling is not going to cut it. That is why I switched to water cooling for my video card, and now my CPU. My current water-cooling setup is composed of a 5 gallon Igloo which serves as my reservoir, Eheim 1250 pump, Black Ice Extreme radiator, and a MCW40-T. I figured the MCW462-UT would be a nice addition to this setup because the MCW40-T is the block Swiftech makes for the NVIDIA graphics cards. So my blocks would be matched using the same fittings and besides they look cool together.

The Unit:

MCW462-UT / MCW478-UT parts list (water-block w/TEC comes assembled):

• MCW462-U water-block
• 226 Watts thermo-electric module (wires are non terminated)
• Cold Plate
• Gaskets
• Mounting Hardware

Processor Compatibility:

• MCW462-UT : AMD Athlon & Duron - Socket A
• MCW478-UT: Intel Pentium 4 & Xeon - Socket 478, 423, and 603

Thermo-Electric Module Specifications:

Mounting Accessories Included:

• Motherboard fittings: Round standoffs with nylon washers and nylons nuts
• 4 compression springs & screws providing exact specified pressure per chip manufacturers.
• Universal Intel Pentium 4 brackets, for socket 423, 478 and 603 (Xeon)
• Tube inserts to be used with vinyl tubing

*Specifications courtesy of Swiftech

Power Supply:

Due to the very high current requirements of the thermo-electric module, the MCW462-UT requires a separate dedicated power supply. Swiftech offers a 320w 12v power supply (which should be available wherever the MCW462-UT is sold), or they recommend a unit with similar specifications for use with the MCW462-UT.

I already had a 350w power supply which is adjustable from ~12v-15v to use with the MCW462-UT. As you can see from the specifications above, peak cooling performance is achieved around 15.2v, which this power supply can deliver with ease. However, running at 15v is going to generate a lot more heat and will require much better cooling. For the tests in this review, the power supply was set to 12v so that results would be comparable with the power supply unit that Swiftech offers.

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