Swiftech's H240-X Liquid Cooler Also Patent-Troll Proof
Swiftech has built a 280 mm customizable all-in-one water cooler.
Back when Swiftech was selling the H220 liquid cooler in the US, it almost faced litigation. In order to avoid that, the company simply took the cooler off the US market and came up with something else – the H220-X.
The H220-X featured such a radically different design that it couldn't possibly attract any legal attention (Swiftech may have been trying to make a point there), but it only came in a 240 mm variant. Now, the company is introducing its H240-X, which follows the same design but is a little bigger, featuring the popular 280 mm size.
The radiator on the unit has a rather odd configuration, as it also houses the pump and reservoir. The water block is Swiftech's new Apogee XL block, which has built-in LEDs and comes with four interchangeable color plates. The reservoir is also LED lit. Air is pushed through the unit by two 140 mm Helix 140 fans which spin at up to 1800 RPM, are PWM controlled, push up to 90 CFM and make up to 28.8 dBA of noise while maintaining a static pressure of 2.29 mm.
The MCP30 pump is also PWM controlled, nominally draws about 6 W and can spin at speeds between 300 and 1200 RPM. Both the pump and the fans are rated at an MTBF (Mean Time Between Failure) of 60,000 hours.
All things considered, aside from some compatibility issues in certain cases, this may be the best all-in-one water cooler that money can buy. It will certainly outperform most other closed-loop liquid coolers, and once you've reached a point where you want to expand your loop, you can.
Swiftech claims that the unit is maintenance-free for a three-year period, but you can always open up the loop to add more radiators and one or more water blocks for graphics cards. Included with the unit is an 8-way PWM splitter, which can take a single PWM signal from your motherboard and send it to eight PWM compatible fans.
The Swiftech H240-X is available immediately for $149.99 and comes with a three year warranty.
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Niels Broekhuijsen is a Contributing Writer for Tom's Hardware US. He reviews cases, water cooling and pc builds.
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Christopher1 ReplySociety is in a mess when scientist are more afraid of Lawyers than progress.
No scientist fears progress. They do fear science debunking their PoV on a subject, but the best simply take it as "Well, I got that wrong... let's try on this subject!" -
zombiejon Reply
Another thing a scientist fears - someone else publishing the data first.Society is in a mess when scientist are more afraid of Lawyers than progress.
No scientist fears progress. They do fear science debunking their PoV on a subject, but the best simply take it as "Well, I got that wrong... let's try on this subject!" -
HKILLER $150....a bit expensive don't you think?compared to $80-$100 Corsair H110i and Cooler Master Nepton 280L...Reply -
JackNaylorPE No, not at all..... the 100i's are $100 on newegg and are usually bought with a pair of quieter fans costing $30Reply
1. The 100i and its ilk are made of a copper cold plate and aluminum Rads ..... extremely bad design. Her's what happens wwhen copper and aluminum are mixes in the same loop.
http://martinsliquidlab.org/2012/01/24/corrosion-explored/
2. The 100i gets close to 70 dba .... the Swiftech is 1/6 as loud. The H240-X is 4 dbA quieter than the 220
3. The Swiftech H220-X is 7C cooler under load. The H240-X is 9C cooler
4. The Swiftechs kits are simple an assemblage of time proven custom water cooling loop parts that somebody has pre-assembled for you.
5. The Swiftech's loop can be opened up and you can add GFX card blocks, MoBo Blocks, RAM Blocks ..... no other AIO does that. How much is the 2nd pump and accessories gonna cost you when you cool your GFX card.
6. The Swiftechs have a reservoirs and visual coolant level indicator.
7. The Swiftech is the ONLY AIO to beat the top air coolers in temps, but at louder noise levels. VERY INTERESTING that at the same noise levels, nothing really beats top air coolers. The Swiftech wins by 2C but needs 2 dbA more to do it.
The H240-X looks like it will give the Cryorig a run for its money.
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Lutfij JNPE, You should also addReply
8| thanks to the pump you can add a tonne load of watercooling hardware (rads and blocks) and maintain very good thermals that air cooling alone doesn't give. True prices go up but when you look at it from a performance standpoint, temps drop on the GPU side can be seen to drop to about 40'C.
This would indeed be a true watercooling loop that can be opened up and expanded upon without voiding warranty.
9| also comes bundled with Swiftech's awesome 8 way PWM splitter which is really handy to have in tight quartered cases and not require a 5.25" front panel fan controller. -
JackNaylorPE Those certainly are factors one might consider but ....Reply
8) is same as 5) ... couldn't do 5 if pump wasn't strong enough but worth pointing out.
9) Z97 boards have plenty of PWM headers so it's kinda redundant on those. But aslo I'd rather use 3 pin fans with Phanteks PCB as it provides all the advantages of PWM and none of the downsides......no PWM clicking / hum at low speeds, no $5 premium per fan. -
Lutfij Alot of people complained about the 4 pin fan headers on the mobo's and I've read how devoid they were in terms of control via software.Reply
JJ on his product videos for Z97 boards were probably whitewashed with the multi fan splitter cable where the true point was the CPU fan header was the only true PWM header on the entire board until Z87...thus why I brought it up. Most people would recycle older hardware and thus the cheap fan splitter can be a good offering.
Though the only PWM fans capable of watercooling would have to be the E-loop fans by NB and they aren't a $5 premium...and Swiftech Helix's are the only closest thing to Scythe's GT AP15's.