Swiftech H220-X Liquid CPU Cooler

The article I read is: Swiftech H220-X All-In-One CPU Cooler Review

My best friend sent me the article this morning, and I hadn't had time to read or write about it until now. All the computers I've built so far have all been air-cooled, and I've never dared to dabble in liquid cooling, even closed-loop systems; I've never wanted to run the risk of possibly shorting out the motherboard or something, but by no means am I against liquid cooling.

Swiftech's H220-X definitely is nice all around, and if I had the money to, it'd be a possibly feasible upgrade for Melty if I ever wanted to upgrade her to liquid cooling.

The block has plates to change the glow colour, which is quite nice, as I'd definitely want to match the black/red theme that Melty has. The reservoir light colour wasn't really specified in the review, but I'm sure I could probably hack something together if it's not modifiable.

The temperature comparison charts didn't include Zalman's CNPS9900 Max, which didn't really help me see approximately how much more heat it dissipates, but I can at least imagine that it'd be roughly 10C cooler. From what I remember, I've never really gone over 50C for CPU temperature, and since the CPU temperature is usually around 35-40C, liquid cooling doesn't seem horribly necessary for Melty.

Mounting would be another problem for me; there's some screw holes in the top of the case that allows for a radiator, but I'm not sure if it's the right pattern for the H220-X (which is 2x120mm fans). If it is, then it's pretty easy to mount, but if not, then I'd have to get an external bracket and run the radiator outside of the case.

As far as noise goes, the H220-X probably isn't all that bad (even at full blast), but Melty isn't bad herself, as the loudest fan is probably the fan of the 9900 Max - which is very tolerable at the normal speeds (about 1100-1200 RPM).

It's also quite nice that there's room for expandability, since most closed-loop liquid coolers usually don't give that option - locking you into their specific configuration.

Price seems pretty decent, even though the numbers are limited to Swiftech's stock.

While I probably won't buy this myself, I'd definitely would recommend it.