<!–#set var="article_header" value="Water Coolers:
Four Power Kits Starting at 200 Dollars” –>
Water Cooling Systems For 200 Dollars: Innovatek vs. Swiftech
For real gung-ho overclockers, the only CPU cooling system even worth considering is a powerful water cooler. These overclocking fanatics usually remain far removed from the madding crowd of fans of the low-grade, conventional coolers on the market. After all, there’s something exhilarating about causing a stir at the next big LAN party. And nothing will earn more respect and admiration from the hardware fan as a water cooler. In fact, water cooling systems are some of the best cooling solutions for PC processors available on the market. Sales for water coolers, however, have remained subdued, which can be explained by their incredibly high prices.
One important difference between the newer and older water cooling systems is that the newer systems turn out to be surprisingly rugged when it comes to installing and handling them. Long gone are the days when this kind of system was only available as a pre-assembled PC. The whole kit and caboodle isn’t cheap, though – for example, the cooler sets we tested will run you at least 200 dollars. This is a far cry from the 25 dollars you have to shell out for a run-of-the-mill cooler. However, these kits have a cooling capacity that is far superior to that of any available air cooler.
Today’s classic coolers, consisting of a metal heat sink and a fan, are trapped in a Catch-22: the trade-off for high cooling capacity is a very high operating noise level, which is caused by the higher fan speed. Basically, nothing can be done about this problem, since noise levels increase proportionately with increasing fan speeds. Even your best designed standard cooler can’t begin to compete with a standard water cooling system. This is nothing new, though. We have been testing water cooling sets in our laboratory during the past several weeks. These four kits (two each from Innovatek and Swiftech) are more innovative than the coolers previously available on the market.
The cooling systems we tested cannot be installed on an Intel Pentium 4 platform based on Socket 423 or Socket 478. Instead, all four kits are intended for use with the Socket 462 (AMD Athlon and Duron) and Socket 370 (Intel Pentium III and Celeron II). They are ideal for use with overclocked AMD processors with a Thunderbird or Palomino core.
This time around, we are using a new testing procedure: new testing equipment in our lab subjects each cooler to a constant, precise amount of heat, thereby allowing us to display a time/ temperature heating curve for each cooler.
The Cooler Sets – Up Close & Personal
Let’s take a closer look at how the water cooling kits performed in the test. At a single glance, you can see that both manufacturers have put enormous effort into cooling the CPU as best they can.
Innovatek: High Cooling Capacity For A Fair Price
The complete Innovatek set comprises a large heat-exchanger and CPU element as well as a water pump and a header tank.
The somewhat “smaller” set for less demanding applications.
The large cooler in action.
Innovatek: High Cooling Capacity For A Fair Price, Continued
Innovatek sent us two kits that are essentially identical, except for the different sizes of their CPU cooling elements. You also have the option to purchase one of two different heat exchangers to improve cooling efficiency. In general, these two versions consist of a CPU element (including the socket bracket), highly flexible tubes, a water pump (Eheim), a header tank and a heat exchanger, which fits into any tower case.
One of the cooler’s more positive features is the fan, which revolves very slowly and is very large. This cuts down on operating noise, thus allowing the PC system to conform to strict ergonomic guidelines. Innovatec’s design for the CPU bracket on the cooling element also gets a thumbs-up from us. Not only does it seat the element perfectly on the CPU surface and create a seamless contact, it effectively prevents the processor from being destroyed, as well. With this bracket, you can cinch the heck out of the screw without shattering the CPU core. Another bright spot is the header tank, which permits you to fill and drain the cooling water simply and quickly. There’s no need to vent the tubing here, unlike most systems.
The header tank serves both to fill the cooler and to vent the cooling circuit automatically.
There is a sponge in the header reservoir.
As if that weren’t enough, the diameter of the tubes prevents any air bubbles from forming in the equipment. Included with the cooler are elbows that keep the tubes from kinking. Although we’re heaping praise on the Innovatek cooler, we did also discover that the system has some weaknesses. The equipment didn’t come with any useful installation instructions, which are a must for any fervent computer nut. We were faced with another conundrum when installing the water pump – we were unable to lead the plug through the case. The best solution we found was to cut off the current plug and replace it with a clamp-tite plug from our local hardware store. If you own a PC system based on an Intel (Pentium 4), you won’t be able to use an Innovatek kit, since they don’t have a bracket that will fit on a Socket 478 or Socket 423.
Innovatek: High Cooling Capacity For A Fair Price, Continued
In the not-so-distant future, Innovatek plans to include a flowmeter for particularly ambitious users. This new feature will provide the speed input for a fan connector on the motherboard.
The high-quality heat exchanger.
The smaller heat exchanger.
Power connectors for the heat exchanger (8 Volt).
Elbows make it easier to run the tubes in the case.
So, kudos to the newcomer Innovatek, whose products performed very well in our laboratory tests. There’s no doubt that the company is indeed innovative, an impression that is only enhanced by its well-designed, highly detailed solutions. It remains to be seen whether or not these two kits will make it in the market. The price, $200 (regardless of configuration), is very moderate, considering how much cooling capacity you get for it.
Perfect CPU Bracket
Innovatek provides a nearly perfect CPU bracket.
This new CPU bracket for the small CPU cooler just came out recently.
Swiftech: Low Cooling Capacity For A High Price
All the parts in Swiftech’s water-cooling kit. This picture shows the version with the large CPU element.
Here’s the kit with the small CPU element.
Swiftech’s strategy looks a little bit different. This company has grown popular, thanks to its powerful conventional coolers, such as the MC462. The two kits we tested differ only in the size of their CPU cooling elements. Each kit consists of a CPU element, a water pump, a heat exchanger, a clutch of tubes, instructions and T-pieces with stop valves. Swiftech put some effort into manufacturing the CPU elements – the heat sinks are milled from whole blocks at the factory and can be used with both the AMD Athlon and the Intel Pentium III. The cooling set, which appears to have been just thrown together pell-mell, gets a definite thumbs-down. It seems that the manufacturer didn’t pay much attention to any nifty detail work. Instead, the testing engineers had a sneaking suspicion that Swiftech’s choice of the remaining components is the product of a headlong rush through the hardware store. Whereas Innovatek provides two useable heat exchangers to be installed in the PC case, the Swiftech installation kit comes with one large, passive heat exchanger. At this point, you might be wondering where in the world you’re supposed to put this component. And to top it off, a fan is supposed to supply the heat exchanger with a sufficient volume flow.
The large Swiftech in action.
The small Swiftech in action.
The field test revealed that the larger CPU element’s hefty dimensions prevented it from being installed on several motherboards. What’s more, the entire PC system has to be disassembled if you want to install the cooling system in any event. The reason is that the CPU bracket attaches to the socket using special screws that can only be installed from the underside of the motherboard. The connecting tubes also turned out to be too stiff to be really practical. Even a slight kink is capable of preventing the water from circulating properly. The installation instructions, included with the cooler as a series of leaflets, are detailed enough for you to install the kit components relatively painlessly, even though you’ll need considerably more time to install them than you would for the Innovatek sets.
Comparison Of The CPU Elements
The “large” CPU Element from Innovatek.
The “large” CPU Element from Innovatek – rear view.
The inner workings of the CPU element.
The “small” CPU Element from Innovatek.
The “small” CPU Element from Innovatek – rear view.
Comparison Of The CPU Elements, Continued
The inner workings of the “small” CPU element. These parts are obviously products of high-quality manufacturing.
The simple Swiftech cooler.
Inner workings of the Swiftech cooler.
Swiftech’s front-runner.
The inner workings of the large CPU element.
Rear view of the large Swiftech model.
Premiere: Automatic Cooler Measuring Station
This measuring station will help determine the cooling characteristics of a CPU cooler using a standardized procedure.
View of the connectors on the measuring station.
The mock CPU socket on the measuring station.
Clamping on a cooler to be tested.
The test can start now.
Premiere: Automatic Cooler Measuring Station, Continued
For the very first time, we used an automatic measuring station in a cooler test. The station allows us to test all the CPU coolers (both traditional coolers and water coolers) using a standardized procedure. During this process, the cooler is heated up with a constant amount of heat while a sensor measures the temperature on the underside of the cooler. The data obtained in the test are evaluated by a software tool, and then displayed in a diagram. A special feature on this device is the option to program it any way you like.
The external temperature sensor for the measuring station.
Plates to simulate Socket 462 and Socket 423.
Setting Up The Measuring Station
Let’s look at how the measuring station is set up.
The most power is consumed by the toroidal core transformer that supplies the two heating resistors.
The heart of the measuring station is the controller chip based on Basic.
Opening the mock CPU core.
These two 50-Watt heating resistors simulate the energy dissipated by a CPU.
Other Testing Instruments
From right to left – contactless electronic tachometer, laser thermometer and a digital noise-meter.
The image shows the measuring equipment we used in this comparison.
Optimal Coolant: Distilled Water
Different coolants for a water-cooling system.
The coolant that you use greatly determines how much maintenance a system requires. By no means should you use pure tap water, since this can quickly lead to lime deposits in the system. What’s worse, if the cooler springs a leak, you run the danger of shorting your system. The best coolant is distilled water, since it won’t leave lime deposits that will reduce the flow through the system, nor will leaks short out your system.
Test Results: Innovatek Smashes Swiftech
Here’s a diagram showing how the large Innovatek water cooler performs.
A history of the small Innovatek cooler.
Graphic of the top-of-the-line Swiftech model.
Performance of the smaller Swiftech cooler.
In comparison: the diagram for the Silverado air cooler.
These four diagrams clearly demonstrate that the two Innovatek models provide greater cooling capacity than the Swiftech water coolers. We also drew a line indicating the fastest model from each processor line. This should clear up any doubts. We’ve included the data generated by the Silverado air cooler as comparison data.
Conclusion: Innovatek Kits a Real Deal
Innovatek has managed to launch an easy-to-install, useful cooling system that uses water as a cooling medium. This system can be added to existing PC systems without too much trouble. Behind every one of Innovatek’s high-quality components there are clever, detailed solutions without any parallel in the cooling world. And Innovatek plans to launch more interesting water cooling solutions in the future. With a price tag of about 100 dollars, the set costs just twice as much as a high-end air cooler (such as Swiftech MC462 or Noise Control Silverado). With the Innovatek system, we measured the highest cooling capacity that we had ever achieved with a water cooler.
The two Swiftech cooler sets, however, weren’t anywhere near as convincing – particularly because the company made such a good name for itself with powerful coolers in past tests. Particularly striking in this test was the heavy-duty design of both CPU elements in the sets. In the field test, the two water cooling versions weren’t particularly persuasive – their cooling capacity is considerably less than the Innovatek models. What’s more, Swiftech bases its system on a passive heat exchanger that runs without a fan. Overall, the Swiftech package seems to be missing that final, finishing touch – it appears that the manufacturer just threw together a motley assortment of components. Our collective hat goes off to the CPU elements, which are meticulously milled from blocks. Otherwise, Swiftech should thoroughly revamp its water cooler, altering its heat exchanger and including more useful hoses and connectors. There is more room for improvement in the CPU elements, which, at a hefty 539 grams (large model), could stand to shed a little weight.
The continued development of water cooling systems is a very interesting field. What will be more interesting is to see what happens when more manufacturers venture into this new territory.
