Does anyone use Swiftech H20-220 APEX ULTRA Cooling Kit?

[bterrill]

Hi,

I am looking to get in to water cooling and have read a lot of good things about this system (keep in mind this will be my first time so I have no interest in building my own or buying part by part at the moment).

My questions are if you use this is it pretty good? I'm currently on (do not laugh I've only had my core 2 duo 4 days =o) stock heatsink which was a royal pain in the !#@$!#@ to install ... and isn't sufficent to do much OC with.

My build is this:
Case = Thermaltake Armor Series VA8000BWS Black Aluminum/Steel ATX Full Tower Computer Case
Motherboard = ASUS P5B Deluxe/WiFi-AP Socket T (LGA 775) Intel P965 Express ATX Intel Motherboard
PSU Unit = HIPER HPU-4B580-MS ATX12V 580W Power Supply 100 - 120V
Video Card = eVGA 512-P2-N635-AR Geforce 7950GT 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 Video Card
Memory = GeIL Ultra 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1000 (PC2 8000) Dual Channel Kit
DVD = LG 16X DVD±R Super-Multi DVD Burner With 12X DVD-RAM Write Black E-IDE/ATAPI
CPU = Intel® Core 2 Duo E6600 Conroe Processor 2.4GHz, 1066FSB, LGA775, 4MB Cache
HD = Western Digital Raptor WD1500ADFD 150GB Serial ATA 10,000RPM Hard Drive w/16MB Buffer

I have plenty of room in the case and it even sorta has spots setup for the cooling units also. I was going to go with the Thermaltake unit for $150 but a few guys have recommended this one instead.

I want to basically (who doesn't??) push this core 2 duo as far as it can go and remain stable, but also I have several boxes in my office kvm'd and such and the heat gets worse with each addition. This would also help with that.

Is my setup good for this? I do not want to mod my case or anything. Newegg is out of the unit often but I do not mind paying $30 more from the swiftech site or anything.

Also, is it in my best interest to get the ultra edition which comes with the chipset/vga cooling units too, or save that for later as an expansion project (is that even possible with this unit?) or I could always use other cooling devices on them.

Thanks for your time. Don't flame the noob too much ..... =]

 

[msmalls74]

I got one last week and installed it friday, my first time water cooling, wasnt that difficult to install i just took my time over it. Had to mount the rad upside down though as i didnt have enough room between the fan mount and the psu housing to fit the tubes! Still got some very small bubles in the reservoir. Impressed with the cooling so far my E660 at 3 GHz runs about 35 idle and 44 in Orthos, and my x1900xt at stock is 37 on idle and 41 on full load. I didnt fit ramsinks at the mo as they kept falling off

 

[bterrill]

hey thank you for the reply. I was curious if you went the basic ULTRA+ (just CPU) or went for the entire thing that provides GPU/chipset coolers too?

I also found this system, much more expensive but seems to be almost plug and play:
http://www.koolance.com/shop/product_info.php?&products_id=375

I do not have a budget really, but I am more worried about doing it wrong or something so I was thinking the Koolance solution would be fantastic (plus it seems I can just put it on any machine I upgraded to later)

Any thoughts (from anyone?) on the Koolance vs Swiftech ?

 

[tool_462]

The Exos kit sure is expensive! I think you can handle setting up a kit like the Swiftech. Just follow directions and come here for any help you need!

1) Do not take shortcuts. Period.
2) Take your time. Make it a fun project for an afternoon.
3) If you get frustrated, go have a beer and watch a half hour of T.V. and come back to it.
4) Measure twice, cut once.
5) When in doubt, ask someone who knows! There are hundreds of members at Tom's that would gladly share advice.
6) Key: Follow the directions and take your time! You can handle it, if you can build a PC.

I have installed a few kits, but not on my own system so I was extra careful and it doesn't take too long. Next weekend I am buying parts for my own system or installing the Swiftech Apex H20-220 like yourself Haven't made my decision 100% yet.

Will you PM or post back where you plan to order it from? I want to save as many greenbacks as I can.

Edit: Also, well done on your first post. Not sure if you read the FAQ's and stickies, but you followed directions and it helped me reply back quickly and efficiently.

 

[bterrill]

tool_462:

I don't know, apparently Newegg(http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16835108076 @ $249.99) has a LOT of problems keeping this unit in stock. It's ETA is on the 24th but will I be fast enough to get it by waiting? I don't know. Also sometimes Newegg ships me from their CA warehouse which if it does ship after wednesday I won't get it till the following week (goes through Canada for some reason).

I'd rather pay the $30 buying it straight from swiftech themselves (http://www.swiftnets.com/products/H20-220-APEX.asp @ $279.99)

I've never OC'd a video card and I think my card will do me justice @ stock (or barely passed it) so I do not think I need the extra kit (http://www.swiftnets.com/products/H20-220-APEX-plus.asp) which includes gpu/chipset waterblocks.

However, I've never done water cooling or know anyone (in real life) who uses it to know if I would need to do EVERYTHING when setting it up.

I think also being an impatient person I am going to just order from swiftech. I desperatly need a new monitor/soundcard and perhaps speaker unit so I do neeed to make a newegg order, but again, as I said, I do not want to wait 7-10 days even though I pay for 3 day.

I bought the majority of the PC I built on newegg, some on zipzoomcity, and the parts I ordered on the 12th (Thursday) took around 6-7 days to getr here due to the weekend so... I think I'm going to just purchase the unit @ swiftech and pick up my monitor/etc @ newegg so hopefully it all arrives before Friday.

I will post back when I get the unit and during the install. I am sure I will be back here double checking my steps in which I do not feel confident in performing or need help on.

I am already excited with this pc in general (coming off a p4 2.8 ghz no hyperthread, pc 3200 2gb ram, ati radeon 9800 pro 128mb) so each day I add/tweak this one out is a new fun project to me; watercooling is going to be the field trip ... =)

Thanks!

 

[crapback]

the other place i would recommend getting the swiftech kit from would be performance-pcs.com... the apex aultra kit is only $10 more than at newegg and the service was great(the bank i have my debt card from is a little insane about fraud prevention) anyway, here's a link

http://www.performance-pcs.com/catalog/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=202&sort=20a&page=2

 

[bterrill]

the other place i would recommend getting the swiftech kit from would be performance-pcs.com... the apex aultra kit is only $10 more than at newegg and the service was great(the bank i have my debt card from is a little insane about fraud prevention) anyway, here's a link

http://www.performance-pcs.com/catalog/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=202&sort=20a&page=2

Hey, thanks for the tip but I had placed an order today thruogh www.frozencpu.com -- they seemed pretty good and had a high rating on the resellerrating.com place.

For $275.15 I got the swiftech unit w/ 2 day fedex .... swiftech itself wanted $279.95(or 279.99) and newegg I doubt I'd get there in time to grab one. Apparently a lot say they are out of stock often on them (infact, all of their swiftech cooling units are out of stock....) I didn't want to wait.

A few guys I game with said they were pretty good, price is a bit higher than others but right now I planned on going through swiftech anyways since newegg is out of stock and I got this w/ fast shipping for $4 cheaper. Seemed good to me.

I will post back Wednesday when it comes n. Well, maybe not till Thursday I was told it can take a long time to setup and then you need to let it go for 1 day or so to see if it leaks. I am pretty excited to get it and [hopefully] install it and see how good it goes.

If all goes well (I have the worst luck, so I do hope someone is watching out for me that day..!) I am going to check out that "cpu lapping" and try it (on an older cpu first though).

thanks

 

[bterrill]

I must be a complete idiot I can't even get the dual 120 mm radiator/radbox mounted on the back of my thermaltake armor ...

where I thought it'd go (the 2 screw holes right above the blue led 120mm exhaust fan) is like 1 milimeter too wide.

below it (I took the fan out now) it fits but the unit falls right off when I move my hand away.

sadly, I messed with it for hours and couldn't get passed step #1