Swiftech H240-X CPU Liquid Cooling Kit

[Lawrence Lee]

http://www.silentpcreview.com/Swiftech_H240-X/

[Jon-R]

That was a bit disappointing. Hope you guys can take a look at the Eisberg 240L, the production rights just returned to Alphacool, so they're able to sell it for under 90€ in Europe. For a expandable full copper 240 kit that some value.

[Xyvotha]

Wow, I really expected more from Swiftech. I wonder how the H240-X would perform with alternative fans, though the pump would still be a serious noise source as with most AIO loops.

Thanks for yet another great article!

P.S.: Ok perhaps this is somewhat OCD :in upcoming article's comparison tables, any chance to have the competing heatsinks list left-justified? It would be easier to look for a particular one

[MikeC]

Just a couple cautions. Any test system has biases & ours certainly has them too:

1) Our CPU is not the hottest, and this means the coolers that are optimized for performance with hotter CPUs will not do as well.

2) Our focus on noise is in the range considered below "normal" by most reviewers -- the 22 dBA@1m maximum on the comparison scale is actually lower than almost all other sites can accurately measure!

The above may factor in the H240-X's relatively modest results. With a hotter CPU, all of the heatsinks in our test database would have had to spin faster to achieve the same level of cooling; with higher airflow, the impedance of the fairly tight fin-spacing in the Swiftech radiator would be less of an issue, and noise/performance would likely have improved more than with many other coolers.

I can't confirm such conjectures w/o testing, but Techpowerup's review ranks the H240-X at the very top of all coolers they've tested. How can that be? Well, they run the load test at full fan/pump speed only, and this test determines ranking; 25% and 50% fan speeds are used only to report the noise at those speeds. It's also notable that their testbed is Intel Core i7-4770K @ 3.7 GHz & 4.2 GHz OC -- a Haswell chip that's difficult to cool. More difficult, I believe than our LGA1366 965 with its much bigger die & heatspreader surface area.

By discrete WC standards, the pump is actually pretty quiet -- yes, I've been playing with some in the past few weeks.

[Xyvotha]

Good point.

I've been thinking on my next upgrade and a socket 2011 based system is a serious candidate. If I decide for that, my whole cooling strategy would change.

yes, I've been playing with some in the past few weeks.

Please share your experiences! I'm gonna keep an eye open for your comments, perhaps a forum thread if it's not a full article!

A few years ago we wouldn't have imagined a gaming build guide in spcr these are good times for the quiet computing enthusiast.

[Mensuri]

Any thoughts on removing the pump resovoir like this guy did

http://forums.evga.com/m/tm.aspx?m=2257675&p=1

Seems like it would enable the pump to be decoupled and remove vibrations Bri g transferred to the radiator

Given the cooling capacity, chuck that 290 with a water block in. Might be a decent option with the pump decoupled and removing the need for gpu fans

[demilleroh]

Hello and thanks for the excellent review of the H240-X.

I can't retrieve the .mp3 link on page 7 of the review ( "Swiftech H240-X stock fans at 1m") to listen to the sound levels. I get a "Page not found" error message with both Chrome and IE 11.

Is it possible to restore the .mp3 to the link ?
("http://www.silentpcreview.com/files/sou ... -100pc.mp3")

I'm especially interested, as I'm evaluating the sound level vs cost trade-offs of the H240-X vs a MPC655 PWM based custom loop.

Thanks !

[RonJac]

I had everything planed for my new build and first stab at water-cooling, yes I had planed to ues the Swiftech H240-X and link it to my MB, that was until I stumbled across you review. I thought this would be an easy option to get me started and had read that the pump was quiet, noise is important to me as I use my PC for music but I also like to tinker and over-clock, what I don't need is a water pump rattling away in the background. Can you think of a good alternative I can use (water pump) or am I worrying about nothing. Thanks.