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Swiftech Q Power Bare Bone System


Date
: 07/23/02 – 07:52:33 PM

Author
:

Category
: Cooling

Page 1 : Introduction

Manufacturer: Swiftech
Price: $434 (with MCW-462-U waterblock and MCW40 graphics cooling block)

Introduction

Swiftech is a well-known company among the overclockers community. Swiftech was founded back in 1994 by Gabriel Rouchon as a maintenance and support organization for high-end computer systems. When Intel released the Celeron CPU back in '98, Swiftech immediately aimed all their guns on the overclocking of this processor.

They were the first to release "monster" heatsinks (even a sandwich model that would cool your slot1 processor from both sides), quickly followed by other sweet looking and excellent performing aircooled heatsinks. Although their heatsinks were among the best performing units out there, Gabe and his team were unsatisfied and wanted more. Their next product release was based on thermo electric cooling or "peltiers". Units like the MC1000 and the MC2000 (long-time overclockers will remember this baby as the giant block with 4 fans on it) were released back in the spring of '99 and quickly became the reference heatsink for overclockers!

With AMD becoming a big player on the processor market in the year 2000, bigger and better heatsinks were needed. Units like the MCX370 and the MCX462 were released and are still part of the small list top rated heatsinks. With these new CPU's (TBird, Thoroughbred and P4) putting out more heat then their older brothers, aircooled heatsinks, optionally combined with TEC's are not going to cut it … More cooling power was needed, so Swiftech started working on their own watercooling products.

Today, the second generation of Swiftech watercoolers is available to all of us: the MCW372 and the MCW462 waterblocks are fine pieces of craftsmanship, and combined with the MCW40 graphical cooler waterblock, you can get your entire system watercooled.

Of course Swiftech was expected to release a complete watercooled bare bone system and so they did: the
Q Power
was born. The Q Power is completely customizable to your needs: one or two waterblocks, a waterblock to cool the video card, the MCW462 waterblock or the MCW372 waterblock depending on your needs, …

Today, Overclockers Online is bringing you a complete review of the
Q Power
featuring one MCW462-U processor waterblock and one MCW40 graphics card waterblock. How did O² experienced the Q Power?? How is this bare bone system performing? All these questions and more are answered in our in-depth Q Power review …

Page 2 : Specifications

Specifications

The Q Power contains two major parts: first, the case which houses all the hardware and cooling equipment and secondly, the cooling system contains the waterblocks, pump, radiator, fans, … All these parts will be discussed below, but to start, let's take a closer look at the case.

The Case

- Dimensions: 21" x 18 1/4 x 9"
- Main board size: ATX, MS440GX-
- Drive bays: 4 5.25" bays, 2 external 3.5" bays and 2 internal 3.5" bays + an additional hdd bracket
- Expansion slots: 7 slots
- Power type: ATX
- Metal: SECC
- Sheet mechanical: meet FCC, CE
- Weight: 40 lbs

The case Swiftech has decided to use looks pretty good and is known as the FS020 case. The first thing that I noticed was its wideness. It is noticeably wider than most other cases out there, which is one of the reasons why this case is being used: it offers more space to install a pump, guide waterlines, …

The front bezel looks pretty good: it comes with a grey rectangle which sits about half an inch away from the rest of the case. Behind this "shield" sits a 120mm fan with a dust filter installed in front of it to make sure dust, hair, dirt and any other air born crap that might damage your hardware stands no chance.

Above the grey shield are the two external 3.5" bays with next to them a big grey power button and a smaller but also grey reset button. To the right of these essential buttons are two LEDs: a green one to inform you about the system status (on or off) and a red one to reveal hard disk activity.
Going upwards, the four 5.25" expansion bays claim all the attention and at the right top of the front sits a cut-out to house a case badge. Of course Swiftech fits it with a nice looking "H²0 Q Power – By Swiftech" badge.

Having the front covered, let's take a look at the sides. Both side panels are fitted with venting holes to allow hard drives and cd-rom units to get some fresh air. The left panel also comes with a 120mm blowhole, sucking in cool air and blowing it over your add-on cards, making sure none of them is overheating. The side panels also feature a "relief" part to make it easy to slide the panels of in case you want to swap hardware …

Next on our list: the back of the Q Power. First thing I noticed are the big (makes them easy to use) thumb screws which hold the left side panel in place. As with all computer cases, the Q Power casing has a port panel through which your motherboard connections are made. To the right of these ports sits the Q Power radiator. This black beauty is bolted to the case with a nice piece of foam following all the edges of the radiator. This eliminates any noise that could be produced by the radiator being in direct contact with the case, but it also increases the distance between the radiator and the case. Why is that important? Well, because there are another two 120mm fan behind the radiator, sucking air from the inside of the case through the radiator. It is a well-known fact that performance and noise-reduction are better when the fan is not mounted directly on a heatsink (or radiator) but at a small distance from it. Just look at some of the new heatsinks our there: they all come with fan spacers. The foam also ensures a tight seal so all air has to pass through the radiator. This pretty much covers our case talk. Now let's take a closer look at the actual watercooling setup.

Page 3 : Specifications Cont.

The Watercooling Setup

The watercooling equipment: this is the hardware that will actively be taking care of your hardware by removing the heat it is emitting. Watercoolers are available in two flavours: inline setups and reservoir setups. Swiftech opts for the first option, which means there is no water reservoir needed. So what parts are left? One of the most important parts is the pump. A pump is to a water setup what a heart is to a human being: it makes fluids go round. Swiftech is using one of the most popular inline waterpumps out there: the Eheim 1048. This inline centrifugal pump has an output of 600 liters per hour (132 gallons per hour) while only using around 10W. Both the inlet and the outlet of the pump use a 3/8" quick connect fitting, just like all other watercooling parts from Swiftech.

The pump operates virtually silent and because of the inline use, it does not add heat to the cooling circuit (a submersible pump increases the water temperature). Also note that the pump has a MTBF (Mean Time Before Failure) of 100,000 hours.

Because the pump runs on A/C, Swiftech installed a 12V relay switch in the Q Power. Thanks to this switch the pump turns on/off along with the rest of the system. To power the pump, you need to connect a normal power cable to the relay on the back of the case. Note that the relay can be used with 110V or 220V (according to your location).

To conclude the pump talk, here's a small spec list:

- Eheim 1048
- 600 liters per hour / 132 gallons per hour
- 3/8" inlet and outlet with quick connect fittings
- MTBF of 100,000 hours
- Comes with relay to turn it on/off with the rest of the computer
- Compatible with 110V/220V

Watercooling is great, but where does the heat go? The CPU releases the heat to the waterblock, the waterblock is being cooled by the water that flows through it but what cools the water down? Exactly, the radiator. As I mentioned before, Swiftech is using an ultra-slim, black anodized aluminium fin construction radiator, which is installed on the outside at the back of the case. The radiator also comes with the quick connect fittings.

The radiator spec list:

- Ultra slim & anodized aluminium with fin design
- Thickness: 3/4"
- Length: 5 7/8"
- Core width: 4"
- Fitting size: 3/8" quick connect

Ok, so I covered the pump and the radiator. Another very important part are the actual waterblocks. As I mentioned in the introduction, our Q Power comes with both the CPU and the video card waterblock.

The CPU Waterblock

The CPU waterblock I am discussing is the MCW462-U, which is the most powerful one. If you are budget limited, or you can not fit the MCW462-U on your rig, the MCW372-U is available.

The MCW462-U is designed to handle extremely heavy thermal loads such as overclocked CPU's, multiple CPU's, peltiers or TEC's, … in short: any application that requires ultra powerful cooling. When you first get a glance at the MCW462-U words like "wow", "aaaah", … go through your mind. The block has a perfectly flat copper base making sure contact between the base and the processor core is perfect. The top of the block is colored blue and has "SWIFTECH" marked into it. The blue color is in fact an anodized anti-corrosion treatment making sure nothing bad happens to your block of the years.

The block will fit all kind of processors: Intel Pentium4, AMD Athlon, … you only need to use a motherboard that comes with four installation holes around the CPU socket. Depending on your CPU choice, you need to use a specific set of mounting holes on the waterblock. Note that this block will also fit Intel Xeon processors!

Swiftech also claims their blocks are 100% leak-free as they test each block up to 60 psi before shipping them to the customer. I have been using Swiftech watercoolers for quite some time now (even before I started with O²) and I still have to encounter my first leak so I guess they are indeed leak-free ;). If required you can get the block fitted with 90 degree elbow connections (for space cramped cases).

A quick spec list of the MCW462-U waterblock:

- Compatible with all AMD and Intel CPU's
- Perfectly flat copper base
- Blue anodized top – anti corrosion
- Comes with quick connect 3/8" fittings (1/2" is optionally available)
- Comes with all hardware needed to install on any processor
- Leak-free tested up to 60 psi
- Also available for use with TEC's (peltiers)

The Video Card Waterblock

Next on the list: the MCW40 video card water block. Hardcore overclockers are not only installing watercooling onto their processor, they also want to get the most from their video card so watercooling is the only option. Swiftech was aware of this need, so they designed a waterblock made to fit all nVidia based video cards (other cards are usable as well, but you will most likely have to use epoxy to mount the waterblock to the card).

The MCW40 is made with the exact same eye for detail as the CPU waterblocks. The base is also made of copper and is perfectly flat. The top of the block is anodized with the same blue color and if you want, a peltier can be installed on the video card as well.

The MCW40 spec list:

- Dimensions: 2.5" x 2" x 0.73"
- Retention mechanism: 4 springs loaded 4-40 socket screws, providing 20 lbs of pressure
- 3/8" quick connect fittings
- Blue anodized top
- Copper base
- Available for use with TEC's

That pretty much covers the waterblocks discussion, leaving us with only one part of the watercooling system that remains: the filling/bleeding system. Since the Q Power does not use a water reservoir, one has to be able to add or remove water from the system. In order to do this without putting your entire case in your bath, Swiftech include a fill & bleed kit. The kit is composed of three valves allowing you to easily fill the system with water and bleed all the air from it. The Q Power comes with water + anti-freeze preinstalled in the system, so you shouldn't have to worry about it, unless you have to add or remove water from the system (for example if you want to add an additional CPU waterblock because you upgraded to a dual CPU box). Don't panic though, Swiftech includes all the manuals needed to take care of the task without any trouble.

Page 4 : Installation

Installation

Installing the Q Power is fairly easy: Swiftech delivers the system fully assembled and filled with a mixture of water and anti-freeze. The only thing left to do is install all your hardware into the case and mount the waterblock(s) onto the CPU (and video card if you decide to get the MCW40 as well).

Just like the aircooled Swiftech heatsinks, their waterblocks are mounted through the motherboard by using the four holes around the CPU socket. Although this kind of installation demands more labour than a system which uses the clips on the socket, the Swiftech way ensures that the waterblock will never fall of the CPU by accident (for example while moving your box), making sure no hardware is killed in the process (imagine a waterblock dropping onto the back of your video card …).

Installation of the MCW40 video card waterblock was painless as well: I used an ABIT GeForce3 Ti200, so I just had to rip-off the existing heatsink, align the four holes in the card with the four holes in the block, push the screws through the holes and carefully tighten the goodies. Easy huh?

All in all, I can honestly say that if you have the skills to put together your own rig, installing the Q Power should not be a problem what so ever … just take your time and don't rush things. Don't forget to apply a thin layer of thermal paste (I prefer Artic Silver III or Alumina which is included with the Q Power).

Enough blabbering about the installation, let's see what this baby can do!

Page 5 : Testing

Testing

It's time to put this lean, mean cooling machine through a real-life experience test, just like we're used to in the O² bunker :). Before I can comment on the performance, I need to know what goals Swiftech wanted to achieve when they designed the Q Power …
Judging by the name, Swiftech intended to design a Quiet (what the "Q" stands for) but powerful (this is where the "Power" part steps into action ;) ) watercooled bare bone system. Ok, so know that I know what to keep in mind, let's see what hardware was scarified to become a part of the Q Power :).

Test setup:

- EPoX 4G4A+ Intel 845G motherboard
- Intel Pentium4 1.6A processor
- 512MB PC2700 DDR memory
- ABIT GeForce3 Ti200 "Siluro" video card
- 2 IBM 30GB 7200rpm hard drives in RAID0
- 2 IBM 40GB 7200rpm hard drives in RAID0
- Toshiba 8x DVD-ROM
- Plextor 40/12/40A CD-RW
- Creative Soundblaster Live! Platinum
- Swiftech's Q Power watercooled bare bone system
- Enermax 431W PSU (the Q Power comes without PSU so the end-user has all his options open, but Swiftech does recommend Enermax for quiet operation purposes)

As you can see, I decided to go the Intel route for a change. The Pentium4 1.6A is a CPU with a very big overclocking potential and I felt that it would make a sweet watercooling project combined with the EPoX 4G4A+, which I reviewed not so long ago. The board proved to be a good overclockers board with all the needed voltage and memory settings, so nothing was going to stop me from pulling this off …

After installing all the hardware, and about one hour later, I was ready to hit the power button. When I started up the system for the first time, I thought I killed something already. You have to know that when you power the system, you hear some sort of "click" which is in fact the pump kicking in. Apart from that, everything went just like I expected and the system posted nicely. To be on the safe side, I installed Windows XP at default speed, making sure the system is 100% stable before I start overclocking.

Another 60 minutes later, the system was sitting in a well-known Windows environment, awaiting a command from my hand. It was time to see what my watercooled P4 could do …

First stop: 133MHz front side bus. The system booted right away at 2.133GHz with all voltage settings set to default. No surprise here, because the CPU would run at this speed with Intel's stock heatsink ;). On with the show, next stop: 150MHz front side bus. A quick calculation reveals that my Costa Rican piece of silicon would now be humming at 2.4GHz (still at default voltage). And again, the system booted fine and started loading Windows without any sign of instability. Now it was time to start the real "overclocking", because anything over 2.4GHz would require more volt and since I used the CPU with a fairly normal aircooler, the heat would drive the CPU to a crash after some time …

I rebooted the machine, entered the BIOS and set a front side bus of 160MHz. I also increased the CPU core voltage up to 1.85V so the problem would not be a lack of power.
If all goes well, the Q Power should boot up at a speed of 2560MHz … and so it did!! Again, Windows was loading and in no time, I was facing the desktop. I quickly launched a loop of 3D Mark 2001SE to make sure everything was fine, and a few hours later the system was still showing off. Being a true overclocker, I wanted to get more … Another reboot later, a few BIOS changes and the system was posting at 170MHz front side bus, resulting in a CPU speed of 2720MHz. Unfortunately, the system would hardlock while loading Windows XP … Bummer! I set the front side bus to 165MHz, giving me a core speed of 2640MHz (yes folks, this is a +1GHz overclock) and all went well as Windows was loaded fast.

2.64GHz seemed to be the sweetspot for my Pentium4 1.6A, as everything above it would result in a blue screen … I tried to increase DDR voltage, decrease CPU core voltage (you never know), increase AGP voltage, … no avail. Still, I'm not complaining with these numbers :D. Now we know what the CPU can do, but what about the video card? As I explained earlier, I removed the standard fan and heatsink and replaced it with Swiftech's MCW40 waterblock.

One of the main reasons I wanted to do this mod is noise: those video card fans tend to get loud after long time usage and although mine was still running the way it should, I figured it's better to be safe than sorry ;).
In order to install the waterblock, I had to remove one pair of memory heatsinks … I am going to replace them with a pair of low-profile heatsinks so I can overclock the memory some more.

The ABIT GeForce3 Ti200 has a stock speed of 175MHz core and 400MHZ memory. After installing the MCW40, I was able to run the core at 215MHz, which is a 40MHz gain over stock speed. The memory is cruising along at 465MHz, which is very good considering I removed one pair of heatsinks from it! I am curious to see what it will do with heatsinks installed … I guess the blowhole in the side panel is helping a lot in the video card overclocking part.

So, what temperatures are to be expected from the Q Power? Well, with the system running at full load thanks to a combination of both RC5 (yes, this machine is working hard for the O² RC5 team) and Prime95 (one of my favorite stability testers) the Pentium4 reaches a peak temperature of 45 degrees Celsius (with a room temperature of 22.5 degrees Celsius). When idling, the CPU sits at a nice 38 degrees Celsius. Just for comparison: an identical setup running at 2.4GHz (aircooled by a Vantec heatsink) runs at 51 degrees Celsius without a case … Note that the GeForce3 Ti200 is also adding heat to the water, but I experienced it is not more than 1-2 degrees Celsius.

Page 6 : Conclusion

Conclusion

The Q Power by Swiftech is one great product. Although the price tag could be steep for some of you, I feel that it is worth every penny. If you are looking for a fully integrated watercooling bare bone system, built with nothing but the best material, the Q Power is what you need. It uses all the Swiftech parts (which are also available separately if you want to build your own Q Power) which are known for their high quality level and excellent performance. The Q Power is customizable to your needs with one or two waterblocks, the big or the smaller waterblock, a video card waterblock, different sets of elbows, … you name it, Swiftech handles it :). Also note that Swiftech includes a nice collection of manuals with their Q Power, explaining you how to fill/bleed, install, disassemble, assemble, … your new rig. Because of all this, the Q Power is going home with the official Overclockers Online POWER Award!!

Good

- High quality
- Performance
- Fairly quiet compared to other cooling solutions
- Good manual(s)

Bad

- Price might be high for some (although I feel it is a fair price for what you get in return)
- Pretty heavy case when filled with hardware and watercooling gear