H220 or ...

The idea of the Swiftech H220 coming out really got me thinking about water cooling my rig. I know the H220 will be around $140 and unlike other AIOs it is expanable/upgradable.

Will there be much of a difference between the H220 and the H2O-220-Elite system from Swiftech other than the $100 pricetag difference? Or would building a custom loop for just my CPU and adding my GPU on later be a better way to go? I would like to stay around the cost ($240)of the H2O-220-Elite if building a custom CPU loop.

I basically want something that will be fairly quiet and still allow me to overclock well. I currently have a 2500K with a Thermalright 120 Ultra Extreme @ 4.4GHz 24/7 that maxes out around 66C under Prime95. The GPU is a 6790 but I may have something different by the time I am able to add the GPU waterblock. This will be going into a Xigmatek Utgard case that has a built in location for a 240mm radiator at the top and enough room for another 120 or 240mm in the front if needed later on.http://www.xigmatek.com/product.php?productid=26

Thanks for any possible input.

Maybe to a GPU loop first? Reason being the 2500K is a very cool running CPU...you still have 15-20C of OCing headroom.

Modern GPUs put out a lot more heat, water cooling makes more sense for them.

Knufire said:

Maybe to a GPU loop first? Reason being the 2500K is a very cool running CPU...you still have 15-20C of OCing headroom.

Modern GPUs put out a lot more heat, water cooling makes more sense for them.

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Thanks for the info but I am just looking to do a CPU block to start off so I can take advantage of my other two memory slots that the current heatsink covers.

The new 220 would be enough, but adding the GPU I'd go for the better, more powerful pump etc. So the Elite is the one I would pick for long term usage and adding a rad/GPU into the setup down the road.

Conumdrum said:

The new 220 would be enough, but adding the GPU I'd go for the better, more powerful pump etc. So the Elite is the one I would pick for long term usage and adding a rad/GPU into the setup down the road.

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Is the pump the only difference between the two or is the radiator any better or different.

Not sure. If I had the rad in my hands I could tell. Swiftech has decent rads, best for the $$ for sure. So I don't see them downgrading the rad on the basic 220. Maybe the barb fittings are different, on the real WC stuff they are G1/4 threaded. Not sure on the 220. Looking closer the fittings aren't as good on the rad. They are plastic. I'd rather have real chrome plated barbs myself. Of course that means the rad is diff, not sure of it's cooling ability. Fin count looks kinda normal from what I can see.

One thing about the top res hole like that, you should make a hole in the top of the case for filling etc if you ever add another rad up front. Or put the 220 E rad up front later, it would be easier to fill and bleed.

http://www.swiftech.com/H220.aspx

Conumdrum said:

Not sure. If I had the rad in my hands I could tell. Swiftech has decent rads, best for the $$ for sure. So I don't see them downgrading the rad on the basic 220. Maybe the barb fittings are different, on the real WC stuff they are G1/4 threaded. Not sure on the 220. Looking closer the fittings aren't as good on the rad. They are plastic. I'd rather have real chrome plated barbs myself. Of course that means the rad is diff, not sure of it's cooling ability. Fin count looks kinda normal from what I can see.

One thing about the top res hole like that, you should make a hole in the top of the case for filling etc if you ever add another rad up front. Or put the 220 E rad up front later, it would be easier to fill and bleed.

http://www.swiftech.com/H220.aspx

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I won't need to put a hole at the top since my case has a removable top to get to the radiator. I am ordering the H2O-220-Elite right now.

If you're looking to add the GPU later down the road I just go with the 120.3/360.

I know the H2O-220-Elite comes with Hyprx coolant but i am going to go with distilled water and a silver killcoil. Since this setup uses a combined rad and reservoir will placing the killcoil in the built in reservoir cause any problems? Such as taking it in and out if needed, will it get stuck or could it possibly get partially sucked into the rad?

You can put it anywhere as long as it doesn't get into the pump.

Put in the tubing, coil it up and make it fit tight, it'll be fine.

I know the rad has a reservoir built in but is there any reason or advantage to include another reservoir that I can see into? I am mostly thinking so that I can see easily if something starts to grow in the loop and to have a better visual on the actual fluid level.

i use the swifty mini res on several builds works excellent way easier to bleed than the integrated res....and thats where my silver coil is....

agentsmith23 said:

I know the rad has a reservoir built in but is there any reason or advantage to include another reservoir that I can see into? I am mostly thinking so that I can see easily if something starts to grow in the loop and to have a better visual on the actual fluid level.

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Yes, it makes filling easier. But your spending more money. A bay res is a pain.

The 220 is PREFILLED and you don't have to do squat. You plug it in like a toaster.

Later if you expand it you want a seperate res.

Nothing will grow in the 220. Visual, like you will look at the flow every 10 minutes in heavy gaming.

Flow visual rate is silly. It's all about temps. If temps are high you got a problem.

You look at the monitor, not the PC.

In 5-7 years of watercooling down the road you'll understand.

I'm not getting the H220 i ordered the H2O-220 Elite, that one comes as an unassembled kit. I am not interested in viewing the flow but being able to catch something growing in the loop as early as possible and to monitor the water level. If i add a bay reservoir i wont be using it as the fill location, i will still fill it through the rad due to ease of access.

Ohh thats right, you got the Elite.

You can add a bay res I guess, no need to.

The toys showed up yesterday . Got everything setup yesterday and leak tested it last night. I decided to go with the Hydrx coolant instead of distilled water I also used the Tim-Mate thermal paste. I usually use AS5 but I thought I would give this a try even though I couldn't find any reviews of it. Everything was still dry this morning so I got it all powered up. So far everything is running smoothly, idle temps seem higher than I was thinking they were going to be but load temps dropped about 10C under load. My normal overclock is 4.4GHz 24/7 and was at 66C with air and now I am around 56C. I never really paid close attention to my idle temps on air but they were somewhere in the 30s. Now they are in the low 40s if I leave the pump and fans on auto PWM but if I force it to 100% they dip into the high 30s.