System Builder Marathon: High-Cost System

Features
By Thomas Soderstrom
published

CPU Cooling: Swiftech Liquid Cooling Components

Our cooling system begins with Swiftech's H20-120 Compact kit, which includes a single 120 mm fan radiator with integrated reservoir, CPU water block with integrated pump, hardware, hoses, and a bottle of concentrated coolant additive (antifreeze).

While the kit comes preconfigured for use with LGA775 processors, AMD users will notice that its water block includes a second base for use with Socket F, 754, 939, 940, and AM2 motherboards.

Swiftech polishes its Apogee Drive 350 copper baseplate to a mirror finish. A tube of the kit's included thermal compound shows off the reflective surface.

The H20-120 was selected as the basis for our cooling configuration for two reasons. First, its integrated components, namely the Apogee Drive with water block and combination radiator/reservoir would simplify installation to reduce crowding and eliminate the need to drill holes. Second, the Apogee Drive's high-flow pump and high-dissipation base plate would allow us to build on the system without fear of exceeding its performance limits.

Of course we wouldn't settle for a single 120 mm fan radiator on a system that's designed for overclocking. Swiftech also supplied a 2 x 120 mm fan radiator with mounting hardware, two 3/8" hose barbs, four plastic hose clamps, and two 3/8" Neoprene tubing packs.

We'd also need a good way to attach the larger radiator. Fortunately, the Temjin TJ09 is designed around the concept of mounting this type of radiator where the two top-panel fans are located, and Silverstone recently released a bracket to ease this task.

Constructed of heavy gauge chrome plated steel, Silverstone's SST-RADSUPPORT09 is available from a few web stores for around $15.

Thomas Soderstrom
Thomas Soderstrom
Thomas Soderstrom is a Senior Staff Editor at Tom's Hardware US. He tests and reviews cases, cooling, memory and motherboards.
4 Comments Comment from the forums
  • TDL
    Thanks for the great article - I'm having fun building this - I do have 3 questions though - the fan duct assembly fan has 3 wire sets, 1 has the 3wire motherboard connector, the second taps into a regular power lead. The third is a single wire - the case documentation does not describe that one - what is that little single lead for? Also the motherboard sound card has some connectors on it - I assume one is for the case headphone/mic lead? Third, should teflon tape be used in the dual radiator threads if not how tight is tight enough for the O-rings? Thanks great article!
    Reply
  • Dax3000
    Hi Thanks For The Great Article - I Am Also Building A System With A Few Modifications I Loved Asus Boards But Can Never Seem To Overclock Them At All So I Am Going With A EVGA 780i FTW when they come out, THat Processor IS Sweet But No Way CAn I JUstify PAying $1060 or more here in canada for 1 Pc Component when i already own three computers, I was thinking maybe a Q6850 when they come out, i have changed the middle fan in my case already and i am just waiting on my 120 rad to get here as i already have the other parts from another computer i built that i couldn't use so that saved me a few dollars:) and i can't find that power supply anywhere so i am gonna do with a X3 1000 watt from ultra i hope it's good enough. and since i am not a really good overclocker no point in risking a high end system by messing around with 2 expensive graphics cards will 2 9800GTX+ work for me ? and omost importantly after my system is finished and filled how do i top it up if it needs more water do i have to take the top rad down to fill it everytime or can i just add water in to the same rad. thanks alot of your help and keep up the great work.
    Reply
  • DaveCharleson
    I've been installing and have three questions. First, there seems to be no pump in this system - have I just missed something?

    Second, the twin fan radiator seems to draw the air from inside the case up through the radiator and then out the top of the case. Wouldn't you want to draw cooler air from the outside past the radiator?

    Third, I don't see any connection to the video card although the 880GTX card is built for water cooling. Wouldn't you want to include this in the loop?

    This is my first build with water cooling so sorry if the questions belie this.
    Reply
  • jimwalk
    The Arctic Silver instructions for applying to Intel Quad Core CPU W/Heatspreader are at http://www.arcticsilver.com/pdf/appinstruct/as5/ins_as5_intel_quad_wcap.pdf
    Reply