I was getting a bit disappointed with the performance of my Gigabyte Galaxy Watercooling, as it didn’t seem able to be able to keep my CPU temp under my desired 40 degrees without sounding like the scene at the end of the second series of Lost, when Locke stops Mr. Echo pushing the button.So, after a bit of searching around I ordered a SwiftTech H20-120Premium kit as well as a MCW60 VGA water-block for my X1900XTX (well XT, but I flashed the bios!), and I’m very happy with the performance.
When my machine is idling the CPU temp is only around 34-36 degrees even with the fan turned off, which is about 8 degrees than the Galaxy was achieving. Under load, my temps never go over 45 degrees, even with the fan off. What is even more impressive is that even with the fan running at 100%, it is still very quiet – about the same volume as my external hard drive or CDRom drives.
I think what is also helping the overall case temp, is the massive reduction in the temp of my X1900 XTX. Using the stock cooler my card used to idle at around 60 degrees, and under load it would shoot up to close to 80 degrees. With the MCW60 block the X1900′s idle temp has been reduced to around 32 degrees, and under load it only reaches 40 degrees. This is a major improvement, particularly in terms of noise, as any X1900 owner will tell you the fan is very loud. Now I have a silent graphics card with awesome cooling. I had a little mess around with overclocking the card and I managed to raise my previous best 3DMark06 score by over 10%, to just under 6600 (I did manage 6664, but it wasn’t stable). The airflow in my case has also been improved by the fact that the SwiftTech pump and resoirvoir fit into a drive bay.
Overall, I’m very happy with the performance and it has made a big difference not only to my temps and to my noise
levels. If you have a noisy PC or want to overclock your machine just that little bit further, then the SwiftTech H20-120Premium is for you.
My Current Spec:
OS: Dual-boot Vista
Beta 2/Win XP MCE
CPU: 4200+ @ 2.64Ghz (11×240)
Video: Sapphire X1900XT (flashed to XTX) 739/819, Sapphire Theatrix TV card
Mobo: A8R-MVP
Ram: Crucial DDR400 2x1GB @240MHz (3-3-3-7 2T)
Case & Cooling: Gigabyte Aurora, SwiftTech
H20-120Premium, SwiftTech MCW60 VGU Waterblock, 3xSilenX Ixtrema 120mm LED Fans (Shush….!)
HDD: 2x250GB Samsung P120S SATA, 1x400GB Western Digital SATA, 1x200GB Western Digital IDE, 1x250GB Lacie External HDD
PSU: Seasonic S12-600 PSU
Sound: Soundblaster X-Fi
Monitors: 2xSamsung 913N
