Conclusion
Has Swiftech been successful in creating an affordable PC water-cooling system for the average user? Based on the H20-120's $149 price tag and its solid cooling and acoustic performance, we think they have.
Installation was very simple and the only real snag we encountered was the length of the CPU water block screws, which could have been a bit longer to make things easier, but on the whole the H20-120 offered nothing too complex for the average PC tinkerer to deal with.
The only thing that really keeps this product from being perfect is the lack of a variable fan speed control. We found that the 12v setting was a bit too loud and the 7v setting didn't offer quite the performance we were hoping for. If there was a dial that allowed us to control the fan speed to find a balance between performance and noise, we would have been much happier.
How does the Swiftech H20-120 compare to its competition? When we look at the Cooler Master HyperTX 2 air cooler, the Swiftech's performance looks very attractive, but we have to keep in mind that the HyperTX 2 is a $30 part that performed very quietly. In addition, there are higher end air coolers out there in the $60 range that might perform a few degrees cooler than the HyperTX 2, perhaps even challenging the Swiftech's 7v fan performance.
A much closer competitor to the Swiftech H20-120 is the CoolIT Eliminator. At the time of writing this, the Swiftech H20-120 is $149 while the CoolIT Eliminator is $179 at online retailers, so it's natural that both of these products would be compared. While both of these coolers could tackle the 3.86 GHz Core 2 Duo on their maximum settings, the Swiftech was a bit quieter, although both were louder than we were comfortable with. I think these coolers would be a bit happier at slightly lower clockspeeds and CPU voltages so that quieter fan speeds could be used.
And though both products have their similarities, they are different animals in practice; the H20-120 requires a bit more effort during installation due to the hoses and coolant, while the Eliminator is a closed ready-to-install system. On the other hand, the H20-120 offers expandability that the Eliminator wasn't designed to accommodate.
After all the factors are considered, is the Swiftech H20-120 a great product? We think it is. We also think it's not for everyone, but we believe it's just perfect for the right person who is looking to try out water cooling with a system that gives them everything they need to get started while allowing for expansion in the future.
Editor's Opinion
With multiple cores and higher clock speeds on the horizon, I wonder how long it will be before we see simplified water cooling systems like the Swiftech H20-120 come as standard equipment with high end CPUs.
