Well time to put the Swiftech H2O-220 Apex Ultima to the test in our two test rigs, one at a time of course ;)
As always when you test a water-cooling system you should run the system by itself for at least 24 hours to make sure none of the components are leaking. Even though the manufacturer always test the components before leaving for the shelves, they can become broken during shipping or anywhere in between.
So as a rule, always test the equipment standalone away from electronic equipment before installing the kit in your computer.
Swiftech gives you, in the manual that comes with the kit, ideas on different setups to make sure you get the best possible performance. This is great but as long as you keep the coolest part first in the chain and the hottest in the end it should be no problem.
The only real rule you must follow is that the reservoir is at the very end, before the pump to make sure the pump always have water to go with. Otherwise you can burn the pump and make it brake. Other than that you can have the radiator anywhere in the chain and so, just make sure to keep the coolest part first or you will "accidentally" heat up the cooler parts by a degree or so.
Not that it's all the world if you do that wrong, but to maximize your performance.
Also when putting the system together, remember to measure and cut the tubes like the system will be when it's installed. Otherwise some tubes may be too short when it comes to installation after the leak testing.
You can do a test installation before you fill the system, measure and cut the tubes so all is fine. Then remove the system and test it out of the case, cause then when you install the system you know everything is the right size and it will save you lots of trouble if you do it right from the beginning ;)
After all the security tests its time to install the system into your computer to test it out and see what kind of temperature drops you can get and the most important, for me ;) is what kind of noise reduction you get with a water-cooling system.
Unfortunately I don't have a noise measurement tool so I can't compare the difference between the two systems, so the only tool I have is my ears. Hopefully I still hear good as when I compare with an air-cooled system the water-cooling rig is so much more quiet.
You can't believe it until you've heard a water-cooled system !
As long as you isolate the pump, which gives away tremendous amount of vibrations, you can get an almost silent case with better cooling performance than air-cooled systems.
So now it's time to check out the temperature we get with our water-cooling kit, but first let's have a look at our test rigs, which we've run with pretty much the same hardware.
Our Intel Socket 775 rig.
Our Intel Socket 1366 rig.