The Swiftech H220 comes with fans pre-installed straight out-of-the-box. These Helix 120mm PWM fans that do 800 to 1800 RPM. These fans are identical to the fans Swiftech provide with a lot of their custom kits.
With the fans fitted the unit is 53.7mm thick.
The radiator houses the fill port for adding or draining coolant. This is mainly going to be used by anyone looking to expand the Swiftech H220 into the future.
The radiator used by Swiftech is entirely their own design and features 14 fins per inch (FPI) all made from copper. The side channels of the radiator feature a gap so that long screws won’t burst radiator – a particularly useful design aspect to make sure novices don’t end up ruining their H220.
The entire unit uses Swivel fittings. Swiftech make the whole pump unit themselves and it is not an OEM Laing pump like we traditionally see in many Swiftech kits. The Swiftech H220 pump has been entirely designed with performance in mind, not cost. It packs 6 watts of power, compared to the 1.2 Watt pump on the Corsair H100i for example, meaning expandability is a viable option because the pump has the power to drive extra devices.
Swiftech are telling us the design is high reliability too, with a 60,000 hours MTBF.
This pump uses the same base plate and form factor as the Swiftech Apogee drive II.
Installation couldn’t be simpler. In fact if you use LGA 1155, LGA 1156, LGA 775 or LGA 1366 then the unit comes pre-fitted with the required installation components (shown below, we took them off for the purposes of photographing the product). The installation procedure is as simple as sticking the backplate on with the correct hole adjustments and then screwing the pump unit to the backplate using the correct brackets. The manual is incredibly detailed and you really can’t go wrong with it. If you take the time to read this incredibly well planned out manual then you will have no troubles at all.
Additional components for AMD systems and Intel LGA 2011 are also included. Swiftech include a high quality “Tim-Mate” thermal compound as well as an 8 channel PWM splitter board. This allows you to power and control eight 4pin devices including the pump and two fans that come with the unit. This is a great little inclusion by Swiftech and really shows attention to detail.
Great review Ryan, I’ve been reading all of your all in one watercooling reviews making a wishlist for a PC build I’m dreaming up for when I get settled in with my new job and hopefully can save for a build. This looks like one of the best ones you’ve reviewed and the H100 looks pretty sweet as well. Probably by the reviews I’m leaning more towards adding this one to my wishlist.
I’m not a novice to computer building and have build all my old builds and builds for friends but I am absolutely clueless with watercooling, sounds like this one is perfect as you say the installation is extremely simple in the review, so do you think this would make a good first delve into watercooling?
Thanks,
JB
Yes I would highly recommend this one as probably the best. It has got to be between this and the Corsair H100i. It isn’t really watercooling per se because you don’t actually have to do anything above and beyond what you would do for the installation of a normal air cpu cooler. The h100i is cheaper and gives you a better warranty duration, while the swiftech h220 is more expensive and has a shorter warranty but uses better quality components, is marginally quieter and is expandable. I’d personally rather pay more for the Swiftech H220 because it is has a much better pump, better radiator and a really nice fan controller. The H100i has advantages in having better fans and LED customisations. It is a tough one
Surely the H110 is the best compromise between performance and noise output?
Sure, if you have the space for it.