Overclockers.com met with Gabe from Swiftech at the Consumer Electronics Show last week for some big news from the water cooling manufacturer. They have released a new all-in-one water cooling system of their own design. This unit is targeted to compete directly against similar units, and they had a side by side test setup in their suite to demonstrate for us.
Swiftech Demonstration
Compared to all-in-one units you are already familiar with from Corsair or Thermaltake, the Swiftech H220 is similar and different in a few important ways which we’d like to highlight for you here:
- All-In-One – This is an all in one unit like you are familiar with. It ships already assembled, pre-tested, pre-filled. You simply mount the block on the CPU and the radiator within your case then you are ready to go.
- Pump – A pump is the centerpiece of any water cooling loop. The water flow rate and the fan’s air flow combine resulting in the final performance capabilities of your water cooling loop. Swiftech designed their own pump for this application. To achieve the targeted performance in flow rate and head pressure, the pump’s impeller was designed with similar features to the popular Laing pump already popular among water cooling enthusiasts. The pump runs on 6 watts of power, about 5 times the power draw from similar all in one units. To tune the acoustics keeping things quiet, spaces within the pump housing were injected with epoxy.
- Radiator – The radiator was carefully designed for the purpose. It’s dimensions compare favorably to similar water cooling units while its mounting holes are placed in such a way to make installation “fool proof”.
- Expansion Ability - This unit is made to be customized. Competing All-In-One units from other manufacturers are not made to be changed, making it either very difficult or impossible to expand them. The Swiftech H220 can have additional water blocks and radiators added to the loop, and in fact was demonstrated for us running Heaven on dual GPUs with additional radiators – all driven by their compact pump built into the waterblock.
Swiftech H220 Liquid Cooling System
| Specifications Provided by Swiftech | |
| Radiator | |
| Material | Brass Tubes, Copper Fins |
| Body Dimensions | 269mm x 127m x 29mm |
| Fill-Port Thread | G1/4 |
| Fan | |
| Dimensions | 120mm x 120mm x 25mm |
| Speed | PWM adjustable 800 ~ 1800 RPM |
| Airflow | 24 ~ 55 CFM |
| Static Pressure | 0.53 ~ 2.29 mmH2O |
| Noise Level | <16 ~ <33 dB/A |
| Connector | 4-Pin |
| Pump | |
| Speed | PWM adjustable 1200 ~ 3000 RPM |
| Voltage | 12v |
| Power | 6W |
| Connector | 4-Pin |
| MTBF | 60,000 Hours (independent lab certification) |
| Tubing | |
| Material | PVC |
| Dimensions | 5/8″ x 3/8″ (16/10 mm) |
Those are just a few highlights for now which we were eager to share with you. We’ll have more to say once our in house testing is completed. However, I’d currently say we should expect the position of this unit in the market to be competitive. Swiftech has been a powerhouse in watercooling for over a decade and they’ve waited to enter the all-in-one water cooling arena until they had a product ready that met their high standards. They have combined the ease of installation of an all-in-one with their own custom designed pump, enabling beginning water cooling enthusiasts to get a start on water while retaining the option of upgrading their loop later on to include additional components.
The pricing of the unit will be in the same ballpark as the Corsair H100i and the Thermaltake Water 2.0 all-in-one units, at an MSRP of $140. We’ll have more details available once we complete review of the sample we brought home with us from the meeting!
Tags: ces 2013, h220, swiftech
01-15-13 05:49 PM
01-15-13 05:58 PM
01-15-13 06:13 PM
Matt, hurry.
01-15-13 09:22 PM
So the demonstration setup could have been made more level had they manually applied voltage and frequency settings rather than using the automated 4.6G mobo feature. But that said, there are design advantages to the Swiftech unit that likely give it a performance edge.
While we were there we observed readings but we didn't report any of those, because at the end of the day its a manufacturer demo. Instead we asked good questions, talked A LOT about the design, and really took a good understanding away of the time and effort that went into making a Swiftech All In One unit that wasn't Yet Another Asetek/CoolIT rebadged unit.
If considering an All In One to get into watercooling, to me this H220 seems like the only right answer. Most importantly for people like us, it is the only one with an upgrade path - you can add more components to it without much trouble, and it has had more research and development put into the pump to ensure it can support a growing loop beyond what it ships with.
01-16-13 12:10 AM
01-16-13 04:55 AM
And, how was the dinner at Peppermill? Just couldn't make it happen. Glad I could share it with you for a neat Vegas spot to meet.
I'll work on making next year better at CES for me, I could figure out a way to take a week off if I can do the show and hang with youz folkz. And Fugger is talking a OC event next year.
No, it's no for the mindless schwag, it's to walk 3 miles a day with folks.