Swiftech H220 vs the Rest (H100i, H110, X60..)

Hello guys, as a result of the research that went into choosing a decent AIO cooler, I came across a controversy of sorts. There seems to be huge hype surrounding the Swiftech H220, and the general understanding was that it would kill all the other AIOs. I noticed this after reading and watching A LOT of reviews, and can't get my head around it. For some reason, most reviews directly contradict each other when it comes to performance test results, and I'm sure others have noticed this too. Me being the noob that I am, want to learn more about cooling and overclocking, and would like your take on what exactly is going on. Why are these reputable (that's what they seems at least) reviews so contradicting? I am NOT saying one is better than the other, just wondering how they can get such contradicting results testing the same hardware.

Examples:


Corsair and NZXT outperform the Swiftech by a good margin


Swiftech outperforms the same Corsair and NZXT units by a good margin

http://www.anandtech.com/show/6716/...ew-liquid-coolers-from-corsair-and-swiftech/4

Again, Corsair and NZXT outperform Swiftech

Aaaannnd

http://www.hitechlegion.com/reviews/cooling/liquid/32847-swiftech-h220?showall=&start=2

....Swiftech outperforms Corsair and NZXT....

What in the name of science and math is going on?

The Swiftech is better by a bit. It's still just a 120x2 prefilled cooler.

It's QUALITY. Made by a company that watercools, not some hack company that buys stuff and slaps a label on it. Swiftech has designed the pump and fittings so it can be expanded. None of the others are.

Some review places are hacks also.

If your not sure, wait for 30 days as folks report on the actual usage, we'll see if Swiftech has a MUCH MUCH lower return rate over the other AIO's. Swiftech 220 is the first made by a real WC company. All the rest are pretenders.

If you want a review from someone who really knows his stuff when it comes to watercooling:

Martin's Liquid Lab H220 Review

Sorry, I have neither the time nor the patience to do my own full review, but suffice it to say that I'm very happy with the setup and performance.

Being easily expandable and having a pump capable of handling added expansions is a big plus.

Conumdrum said:

The Swiftech is better by a bit. It's still just a 120x2 prefilled cooler.

It's QUALITY. Made by a company that watercools, not some hack company that buys stuff and slaps a label on it. Swiftech has designed the pump and fittings so it can be expanded. None of the others are.

Some review places are hacks also.

If your not sure, wait for 30 days as folks report on the actual usage, we'll see if Swiftech has a MUCH MUCH lower return rate over the other AIO's. Swiftech 220 is the first made by a real WC company. All the rest are pretenders.

Click to expand...

What this wise guy says.

You know I was thinking......(I know its ok everyone).......Why are we comparing the H220 to the H100/H100i when we should be comparing it to a XSPC Raystorm 750 RS240? I'd love a performance benchmark on those 2 on heatload, pumps, fans etc. I really don't know who would win this one but my gut is giving a slight edge to the RS240.

Only a $5 difference between the two.

Jack, there was a small comparison from Martin's review posted above:





The Swiftech appears to scale better with noise (increasing fan speed and pump rpm) when comparing default kits. Also he found no difference between the two kits when changing to aftermarket fans:

Wow awesome. Thanks for the post. Totaly missed that. Those are really not bad temps being a 3930k OC'd to 4.5 @ 1.44v but am a little surpised it wasn't a bit lower.

Not is it just a AIO unit but a great starter kit as well! We should push folks for the H220 direction more often but I guess most of us have been held back to see some reviews first and see other peoples experiences with the kit.

Coming from Martin it means alot. I'am more confident enough to advise someone to get this unit over a Rasa. Reason being is its $5 cheaper, better built pump and fans. Its a all around better buy.

This kit is great to an extent imo. I wouldn't go more than a CPU+GPUx2+120.5 loop with lots of short tubing otherwise I would than advise folks to build a custom loop with a stronger pump. I still think CPU+GPUx2+120.5 loop is pushing it for a 6w pump even though we saw a similar setup in the demo at CES 2013 and I wouldn't be suprised if the volts were set to the lowest they can be. I would love though to see another similar setup as the demo if not a bigger loop from a non-affiliated party and see how it would perform.

They are not using the same hardware in most cases, one will change the fans on one unit or they will use results from a previous test for the other coolers that used different hardware or they will just leave out a cooler that performs as well and use another model from the same company that doesn't. It will usually state this somewhere in the review, like "We used the same fans on all the units" or noting in results that a particular unit was mounted using a pull configuration, meaning that they found a way to slant the results to sell more units.

Like Conumdrum said they are just 2x120 prefilled coolers. They will perform very closely if they are indeed using the same hardware, probably within a degree or two right out of the box. The h220 has expandability if that is what you are looking for and the H100i is a little more compact and has lED's while staying a little cheaper. The real differences are in the fans, sizes of the units and the software provided. That is what should guide you to a decision on what you want. You should throw out the measurements on all the units that are run on high because I don't think that anyone would actually run them that way and base your decision on results using the low or quiet settings. I would say that as an AIO unit the 120x240 sized rads are a dead heat.