RADIICAL COMPUTING - Reviews - Swiftech Dual Radiator

There is little doubt in my mind that water cooling is becoming more mainstream than say several years ago. Along with this rise in popularity is the need for watercooling to become more portable and compact. The die hard watercoolers who never had the need to move their watercooling setups from their homes have given way to groups of people who like to take their computers to LAN's and other external activities. It stands to reason that portability would be quickly embraced by large manufacturing companies as a result. Swiftech is one such company marketing a range of water cooling products including total in case solutions.

Today we are looking at one of the Swiftech product range. The 80mm radiator assembly. To be quite clear about this we are looking at two of these radiators placed in tandem.

What is the benefit of small radiators as opposed to the "mad scientist" laboratory arrangements of more hard core overclockers........ portability. The following pictures illustrates the application of these radiators when placed in say an HX-08 where the existent case fan placement can be used.

The 80 mm radiator core or for want of a better descriptive term the Swiftech ST-MCR80 is a miniaturized version of the much larger units currently in use. Having a 3/8" inlet and outlet in its standard form it does require some modification if larger bore 1/2' tubing is used. For the purposes of this review I have used two types of tubing for demonstration purposes only.

The first problem I encountered in setting up the radiators was as a result of the inlet/outlet size. To fit even the 1/2" Eheim tubing required the fitting first of some 3/8" Eheim tubing as an undestorey support. I would have to say here that I cannot understand why these radiators are not given a fair chance of performance with the fitting of 1/2" inlet and outlet pipes. If Swiftech has a revision two of these radiators planned my vote would be to increase the barb sizes to a 1/2" as a standard size particularly for Australian consumers.

Before going any further it is my expectation that some of you may have already experienced the devastating affects of radiator leakage. Any attempt at fitting 1/2" tubing like Tygon without an understory will result in leakage so be warned! Follow the mantra of put the watercooling parts in the place you want them to be. Measure the tubing three times then cut once. Fit all components inside the case and check tubing length and radius turns then bench test for leakage outside the case. Saves a lot of heartache this way.

The next step to happy reviewing is the second problem of kinkage of the tubing in the space available inside the case. These little radiators are easily moved about by their own lack of weight. I f you do not measure very carefully the tubing will either attempt to push the radiators apart or will kink. Using traditional "Y" pieces the minimum length that would avoid kinking even using Tygon was 100mm.

Kinking in Tygon at less than 100mm length

For people with tight space requirements inside their case this is problematic to say the least. Increase the length of the tubing before the "Y" pieces and naturally you decrease your available space. For the purposes of this section of the review the dimension of the tubing from the front face of the radiator to the outer most "Y" piece was 15cm or approximately 6 inches.

Example One

We were able to reduce the total distance to the "Y" pieces by an amount of 2cm to 13.0cm by alternating the inlet/outlet configuration with less likelihood of the tubing kinking. The picture below shows the effect of alternative tubing placement with all Eheim tubing.

Example Two

The distance from the radiators to the pump inlet or outlet can be a critical matter if a radius curve is required to join up the radiators to the pump. By necessity the radius should be kept as gradual as possible or again the tubing will simply flex and obstruct the water flow. The question of how this should be addressed rests with the mantra of measure three times and cut once. In your particular computer case this may not present a problem but if it does lets look at the alternative

Enter the water distribution block.

Distribution blocks are not a new concept. They are widely used in a variety of industrial and engineering applications. The distribution block as used here is a simple application of more complex designs. Here it is being used to shorten the tubing length, reduce the space taken up inside the case and open up the possibility of placement of the radiators in a number of possible locations. Without this unit the possibility of placement could be narrowed down to perhaps a single application. The major drawback with distribution blocks is the number of 90 degree angles necessary to take the water to where we want it. These bends could have a serious and perhaps detrimental effect on flow rates and radiator performance. Should the distribution block be used then consideration should be given to using a higher flow rate pump. It is for this reason that we have elected to test using the two "Y" pieces shown in example two above.

Its is pretty hard to find a comparison for the surface area of two twin pass 80mm radiator's just lying around the place. They are, after all, pretty darn small. We opted for a comparison of the Swiftech product with the Black Ice radiator as the nearest surface area comparison. This section of the revue is for the user who would only be using the radiators to escape the sound levels of traditional air cooling and for those not planning to seriously overclock.

For overclocking purposes we changed the fans fitted to the Swiftech radiators and measured the variance on temperature as the flow through the radiators increased.

Fans; Two Young Lin ( Akasa) DSFS802512m 80 mm fans (32.40cfm) for Swiftech Radiators

The Eheim 1048 pump was used due to the space constraints within the case used. If more space was available an Eheim 1250 pump may have produced better results.

We used an old Abit KR7A motherboard fitted with an AMD Palomino 1600XP. Default voltage and clocking was used for base line measurements. We then overclocked the cpu to 1746 MHz (10.5 x 166) and recorded the temperature again.

The Black Ice radiator was used for baseline comparisons, at default, as a single radiator versus twin radiator comparison. Temperatures were measured by onboard diode for CPU temps and by digital thermometer for water return temps. Ambient temperature was recorded using a wall mounted alcohol based thermometer one metre away from the air inlet for each radiator. All tests were conducted with the radiator(s) in free air and outside of the case.

These results are with an almost silent system save for the ticking of the hard drives. As a solution for those wanting a quiet system this seems to be a very satisfactory outcome.

Using the same set up as before in this test the CPU voltage has been increased to 1.85 volts and the FSB to 166Mhz

I think it is accurate to say that from these results the radiators require a lot of "wind" if the are going to function at higher overclocks. With the exception of the Sunon's when placed under pressure the air/water flow rate combination sees these radiators struggling.

The noise level between the fans particularly the Sunon's is simply deafening. The panaflo and Asaka fans do the best with the Sunon's bringing up a rather dismal rear.

It is hard to say whether I feel the Swiftech radiators are a winning team. If you want to get away from the noise of multiple case fans or screaming air cooling units then the answer is yes they do fit the bill. If you want to reach the dizzying heights of overclocking better look somewhere else.

Portability of water cooling for LAN goer's without the risk of damage of the cooling system.

Small barbs on inlet/outlet will cause problems for users of larger bore tubing such as Clearflex and Tygon.

May have to pre plan or change the pump flow rate to accommodate the reduced radiator barb size.

Overall I have decided that I am happy to use these radiators as they have allowed me to re assemble my case so that it can function as a closed unit after many years of being left open to the elements. It looks rather strange now with the case side on and closed up.

The silence is deafening here as a result of using these radiator/fan solutions.