Swiftech H20-120-P with Radbox Review :: H20-120-P

The naming of the kit is not as hard as some imagine it to be. The "H20" simply stands for water-cooling. The "120" is the use of a 120MM radiator and fan. The "P" is the model for the waterblock for Intel Pentium 4 systems. There are other versions of the kit which accommodate Athlon 64 and AMD Socket A systems.

The kit includes your essential needs to set up the water-cooling kit. This is the most basic kit they provide, other upgrades such as the chipset waterblock, VGA waterblock and the new Radbox are available if you wish to make the purchase. The kit we received included the Radbox. The Radbox was designed not only to make your installation easier, but with performance in mind. We will get into the details of the Radbox later. All the goods are bubble wrapped to ensure safe arrival of the package. The included instructions manual is extremely detailed with colorful pictures to help you step-by-step.

The included waterblock is the MCW6000-P. It is one of the best performing waterblocks available on the market, with the lowest price tag. The waterblock came with tubes already assembled and pinched down with metal clamps. Swiftech made our jobs even easier by installing the tubes, but I would've preferred a less permanent clamp for future adjustments and changes. There is nothing fancy about the waterblock. In fact, it looks plain. It is copper all around but does have a very fine lap job. The base is smooth and has been lapped flat to 0.0005", according to Swiftech. Although it can't be shown without breaking apart the waterblock, there are 281 fine copper pins inside to aid in thermal cooling. To install the waterblock, simply use the bracket provided. The waterblock we have here is compatible with both Intel Pentium 4 and AMD Athlon64 systems. All you have to do is switch the bracket for installation. The Socket A system uses a different block, mainly due to the rise of the cam box. Because of this, Swiftech makes a MCW6000-A, which provides the stepping for the cam box. The installation is tool free, and best of all, does not require you to remove your motherboard. Clips are used to take advantage of the Intel Pentium 4 motherboard brackets. I typically like to mount my heatsinks through the 4 motherboard holes for secure reasons, but the clips provide enough pressure to keep the waterblock in place, even when you move your case around.

Instead of a reservoir, Swiftech includes a fill and bleed kit. The fill and bleed kit is small enough to fit inside a 5.25" drive bay and is very effective at bleeding your system, if done correctly. The bleeding process can take only just a few minutes to ensure that there are no leaks and bubbles. People often have trouble with using the fill and bleed kit and basically conclude that it sucks. Unfortunately, they're wrong. Keep in mind that Swiftech makes products with ease of use in mind.

In order to do it the right way, install the fill and bleed kit in the 5.25" drive bay and attach tubes at the end for inlet and outlet. Now here is the most important part. Fill a gallon of water and hold it higher than the case. With the gallon of water higher than the case, gravity will take place and aid your filling process. Simply suck on the outlet tube, with the inlet tube sitting in the gallon of water, wait till the water reaches the end of the outlet, and put stick the outlet tube inside the gallon of water. Turn on your pump and let gravity do the rest of the work. It's as easy as that. Many people set their gallon of water leveled with their case. This makes their filling and bleeding job much harder. There is no help from gravity if the gallon of water is not sitting higher than the case.

The pump included is the MCP650. This is the new pump from Swiftech and provides excellent head for water-cooling. Instead of using an AC adapter, the pump draws power from your power supply via the 12V rail. Like the waterblock, the pump has tubes already installed. At the base of the pump is a layer of noise dampening pads to absorb all the vibrations when installed. There are holes at the bottom for those who wish to install the pump more securely with screws.

The radiator is the infamous Black Ice Pro, and to pair it off is the 120MM Delta fan. This Delta fan is not heavy on sound but is not quiet either. The fan produces 72.4 CFM at a decent 34 DBA. The fan is definitely audible, but not silent enough to be a whisper. The radiator and fan came installed with the Radbox. The Radbox is definitely an innovative product. Because my test bed has no case and sits on my desk, I wouldn't be able to show you how it looks like when attached. I've grabbed a picture from Swiftech showing you how it looks like when attached. The design of the Radbox takes away any kind of modding you would have to do in order to install a 120MM radiator. It installs on any case that provides a fan exhaust. It can be installed on an 80MM, 92MM, or a 120MM fan exhaust. The choice is universal. The tubes will go through a PCI slot with the accessories provided, and enter your system to complete the water-cooling loop. It is very easy indeed. One other important feature of the Radbox is the performance increase. Many people don't realize that the utilization of the Radbox helps increase the water-cooling performance. Testing on a testbed with all the components outside the case is much different from testing with all the components in the case. The ambient temperature in the room makes a big difference when it comes to cooling. Unless your case is packed up with fans, the temperature inside the case will always be higher than your room temperature. Now with that explained my test results will pretty much be similar to the results given when the Radbox is used. Why? This is because the radiator is outside of the case. The radiator cools the liquid that runs in your water-cooling setup, and the cooler the liquid, the better your cooling performance. Most people often install their radiators inside the case, either at the front intake area or the rear exhaust area. The components inside you system releases heat that eventually gets to the radiator and cause that to warm up a little as well.

What enthusiasts tend to do with the fan on the radiator is to have it suck the cooler air outside (air that is room temperature) and blow it through the radiator. This is somewhat ideal as the cooler air does help cool down the liquid that runs through the radiator, but it starts to dump heat into your system. The extra heat may not be much, but a good increase of one degree Celsius on all your hardware components is possible. This means that the memory, motherboard, video card, and all your other components have increased in temperature. What the Radbox does is that when it is installed outside of the case, the fan draws air (that is room temperature) and blows it through the radiator to cool the liquid. The little bit of heat being dumped is released back into the room. The warm air does not go through your system. After rigorous and scientific tests, both Swiftech and ProCooling have found an astonishing 6 degree Celsius drop in CPU temperature. This is just with the use of a Radbox.