Thermaltake Bigwater 760i and Apogee Drive

Even though it was a brief review it looks as though Thermaltake has delivered very good, all internal watercooling solution for a very cheap price. http://legionhardware.com/document.php?id=666

Lately i've been contemplating a watercooling setup and while kits were apealing there low quality and performance were a turn off. Recently coming across the upcoming Apogee Drive from swiftech which combines the pump and cpu block in one, combined with a reservoir on the radiator,called tge H20-120-Compact, it looks like a killer deal. Swiftech even claims that this compact setup performs very well, while it would not appear that way. Another tidbit is that you could combine it with a 2x120mm fan radiator which would deliver superior cooling. http://swiftech.com/products/H20-120-COMPACT.asp

All i have to say is that i'm impressed by both products and looking forward for both them. While Thermaltake has provided one of the easiest installs for a watercooling setup, while still performing quite well, Swiftech has taken their high performance pump and waterblock and combined into a compact system that will require less tubing and easier installs.

Both products interest me, especially the easy installation on the Thermaltake, but the superior performance of the Swiftech may be the deciding factor. The cherry on top for all of this is the price, both products will retail at $160.

Just wanted to let you guys know about these upcoming watercooling products that have improved on their weak areas appealing to the more mainstream customer.

Thoughts...

first of all, the coolit freezone is not worth getting, high end aircooling will definitely beat it.

on the other hand, swiftech now has a internal watercooling system to give buyers option away from the thermaltake and zalman crap.

the bigwater historical has got mixed opinions, hard core watercoolers hated it and average users loved it. its not going to give you surprisingly good temperatures, but it is pretty user friendly

So just because a product comes in at a price of $160 it automatically isn't in a rnage cause you "think" it won't yield good enough performance.

Thats kind of like me saying Intel's Q6600 priced at $266 is too cheap of a quad core to yield the performance results i'm looking for.


High end air cooling does not beat the freezone, regardless it's definitely not anywhere up to par for it's price.

Not sure if you read the article, whether they might be slightly bias they seem to think TT has responded with its cheap quality provided in its watercooling, to give high quality, well built solution, well worth its $160 price.

As far as the swiftech kit goes apparently it's much better than it looks, swiftech CEO is stating clearly he thinks this solution is as good as any other. Read this thread... http://www.xtremesystems.org/forum [...] ght=apogee +drive