Swiftech H220 Water Cooler Video Review

[LinusTech]

I'm going to keep this pretty short & sweet. Mostly because it's late and I'm tired.

Our chart for performance is linked here: http://tinyurl.com/bagtchs

We tested separately with two Swiftech H220s. I think part of the reason it's loud and can perform poorly out of the box is that the fans are not really as "beefy" as some aftermarket ones that are available, and the pump in SO beefy that it keeps circulating bubbles around the loop endlessly unless you turn it down, which can cause extra noise and affect performance of the pump itself.

Once we got this bad boy running correctly it really showed it's strength. It's more expensive than other all-in-one coolers, but with the exception of the fans which didn't impress us too much, this H220 uses DRAMATICALLY higher quality materials than any other pre-filled liquid cooling kit AND gives users the option to upgrade to a true enthusiast class custom loop in the future (more pumps reservoir, GPU blocks, radiators etc) if they want to.

So yeah, we initially were very disappointed, but we KNEW that we had to be doing something wrong, so once we figured it out, everything made much more sense. Hopefully you guys can help us spread the word about how to correctly optimize the H220 to make it the AIO liquid cooler performance king!

EDITOR'S CHOICE AWARD

[LinusTech]

And as always a link to the video!

[Guest]

That's what I was expecting and more :D Thank you Linus :)

[iTonyy]

Why is every time someone makes a cooler they include absolutely shit stock fans that make the product worthless as is

Sure performance is great with Noctua F12s but at $20 each on an already pricey $150 cooler, with tax that's $200+

At that price point, a custom loop would deliver better performance and sure the H220 is expandable

But realistically how many people are going to buy an overpriced cooler just to spend even more money on extra rads, blocks, fans, and tubing

[ACEkombatkiwi]

For people complaining about spending extra on fans if your able to test the others with their stock fans it would show that the H220 is beast considering that I doubt the others will see the same 20 degree drop in temps (still astonished by that).

[Aaranu]

This makes me both very excited and angry. Angry because ive got a unopened h100i sitting next to me and excited obviously because it destroys everything else. Will definitely buy one in the future unless i pull the trigger on a custom loop before then. Nice review linus and co. :)

[Powerkeeper]

I'm glad to see someone who knows their stuff give this baby a test spin. After watching another review that said it underperformed compared to lowered end coolers, I figured something had to be wrong. This is a new type of product, I see it as Plug and Play+. It's a little more complicated than the simple AIO solutions on the market by the simple inclusion of expandability.

I'm sure there will be some naysayers that complain about the need to put the effort into setting it up properly to achieve the performance it can deliver. Crys of "Well the other AIOs are ready out of the box". While this is true, I think the ability to expand later is worth a little more initial setup. Besides if you're spending the extra money over the other solutions, why wouldn't you take the 10-15 minutes to benefit from the quality and workmanship that Swiftech put into it?

[TechFan@ic]

Awesome review, good to see the king of AIO water-cooling still has a dual 120 rad, thanks for adding the stock fans results it really does make all the difference in the world.

[Wats]

I didn't care for the H220 at first, but it's growing on me.

[Jozi]

20,8C difference in load temp just by changing helix -> nf-f12... Damn...

[Whaler_99]

Great review and nice to see the comparison of fans - especially as many of us in the watercooling section always go on about the need for proper static pressure to really optimize your whole solution. You can have the best rad and pump, but without good fans... Meh....

Great job guys.

[LogicalDrm]

This video cleared some things recarding H220. I watched TTL's review earlier and was suprised how poorly it performed. But since TTL uses stock fans this video was more clear. I'd like to see how big diffirence fans stock vs noctua makes with H100i or some else also.

I think long tubing is there to add more placing options for rad. I guess you could install it to front or bottom also. And what about cube style cases? Good review.

[peanutsrevenge]

Good quick review, thanks guys.

The fan comparison answered many lingering questions left from another reviewer (who's linked to your results like a legend :D).

be interesting to hear the thoughts from you guys in the live stream, speaking of which, it's question time I believe, now where's that thread...... ;)

[peanutsrevenge]

Good quick review, thanks guys.

The fan comparison answered many lingering questions left from another reviewer (who's linked to your results like a legend :D).

be interesting to hear the thoughts from you guys in the live stream, speaking of which, it's question time I believe, now where's that thread...... ;)

Someone please delete. Server lagging like a 'insert rude but appropriate words', lost my comment and CBA to re-type/remember what I put.

[Thaid]

Nice review, good to see changing the fans fixes the issue. Anyone know if the block/pump 'cover' is removable? I want to make a custom face plate for it :)

[MunsonedForLife]

Goes to show ya, what good fans can do! Great review Linus!

[Tx3Jorge]

such a cheaper alternative to a custom loop, I'm definitely getting this cooler.

[gnar]

I love these reviews, using the same fans on all radiators is a great idea to just test the radiator itself! About the stock fans tough:

Do they come pre-attached in a pull config? (If not might be worth testing them in Push)

What RPM where they tested at? (min speed according to the Swiftech site is 800 RPM)

According to the manufacturer specs the Noctua NF-F12s are better fans (pressure estimated using p₂ = (rpm₂/rpm₁)²*p₁ and flow using V₂ = (rpm₂/rpm₁)*V₁):

[peanutsrevenge]

such a cheaper alternative to a custom loop, I'm definitely getting this cooler.

Only if you just want to stick with just the CPU (and happy with a crappy pump in a noisy location and crappy fans) and don't like Corsair/NZXT.

As soon as you want to expand, the costs are going to level out as you're going to want a proper res (else it's going to be a pain to fill and bleed the loop), more tubing (where you're stuck with the size they've spec'd) more fittings (again, restriction on selection due to tubing size.. although I'm not sure on their size), additional rad and replacement pump as you'll probably be sick of the noise of that DDC style one....

Just fork out the extra £30 from the start and do watercooling the way it's meant to be done. Uniquely in your own style for your system!

Yes, I am annoyed that Swiftech appear to have botched their first entry to the AIO pre filled cooler market.

[LogicalDrm]

After Linus talk'd about "problems" with tests I'd like to add something to my previous post. Since both Linus and TTL got suprising bad results with stock fans, is this matter of bad optimization by Swiftech or build error? I mean that gamerkid (= person who goes for performance and doesn't know about mechanics) who buys this and get's bad results can't really be happy with buy. If this kind of diffirence with temps is thing with every unit, it's clearly major problem. I would think that reviewers got first batch with some issues that will be corrected on normal retail units.

[MuZeVII]

Linus,

Is there any chance that you could throw the SP120s into the fan mix when you redo the testing for the H220, as they are a very common consumer choice. Thanks :)

[vanwazltoff]

Linus,

Is there any chance that you could throw the SP120s into the fan mix when you redo the testing for the H220, as they are a very common consumer choice. Thanks :)

please do, i just bought a pair of sp120s for the price of 1 nf-f12, such a good price

[Tex63]

I'm going to keep this pretty short & sweet. Mostly because it's late and I'm tired.

Our chart for performance is linked here: http://tinyurl.com/bagtchs

We tested separately with two Swiftech H220s. I think part of the reason it's loud and can perform poorly out of the box is that the fans are not really as "beefy" as some aftermarket ones that are available, and the pump in SO beefy that it keeps circulating bubbles around the loop endlessly unless you turn it down, which can cause extra noise and affect performance of the pump itself.

Once we got this bad boy running correctly it really showed it's strength. It's more expensive than other all-in-one coolers, but with the exception of the fans which didn't impress us too much, this H220 uses DRAMATICALLY higher quality materials than any other pre-filled liquid cooling kit AND gives users the option to upgrade to a true enthusiast class custom loop in the future (more pumps reservoir, GPU blocks, radiators etc) if they want to.

So yeah, we initially were very disappointed, but we KNEW that we had to be doing something wrong, so once we figured it out, everything made much more sense. Hopefully you guys can help us spread the word about how to correctly optimize the H220 to make it the AIO liquid cooler performance king!

EDITOR'S CHOICE AWARD

[Tex63]

Linus did you know that on the sabertooth 990FX R2.0 & some other motherboard by Asus that the hose on memory side of Swiftech H220  blocks one of the memory slots. Swiftech said that they trying change AMD  mount to fix it . Could you put the word out when you hear when it is out,

[dramabeats]

If you already have some noctua's laying around you might as well use them, besides you can't even see them if you sandwich them between the rad and the case ;)