You know, I wonder if people are looking at this product in slightly the wrong way. Sure, it's a little expensive (we suspect) and it doesn't perform
quite as well as the cheaper H100i - which is certainly the benchmark for this type of kit currently.
Picture this...
I want to give water cooling a go, but I'm fearful of the cost of screwing up. I could lose my £400 GPU, £250 CPU, £300 motherboard...the list goes on. When you've not go the experience, these thoughts are only natural.
I check out the H100i - it has great reviews, isn't too pricy in the scheme of things and will certainly do the job of cooling my CPU. I could get that, fit it easily and be done - risk is minimal as nothing should leak unless I get
really unlucky. However, if I start with cooling my CPU, what about my (far noisier) GPU? That thing would benefit from watercooling too no doubt. Thing is, I'm fair to scared to jump in with both feet and build my own bespoke WC solution, I've neither the experience nor confidence for that.
Ooo, what's this? The Swiftech H220? Ok, it's basically a sealed-loop CPU cooler, it's not that pretty but performs OK if not quite as well as the H100i. Hmm, it's a little expensive too, but it'll certainly do the job. Plus, I can
expand on it, maybe add in cooling for my GPU at some point - once I'm a little more confident.
So, I get my Swiftech H220, I fit it easily enough with only minor knuckle scraping. Now, the device didn't get the best scores out there vs. the likes of the H100i, however it's
so much better than my old stock Intel cooler! It's quieter at load and the temps are much lower. I
love this kit!.
Here I am having taken my first baby step in water cooling. It wasn't so hard, I'm happy with the results as it's made a big difference compared to what I had
before upgrading. My comfort zone for upgrading my PC has just expanded into very basic watercooling.
What next? Well, my PC is running GREAT, I've overclocked my CPU more than I was ever brave enough to do before due to temperatures. Now I've applied a small OC to my GPU too, which works great but the noise is really starting to bug me.
Ah, my loop can be
expanded remember! My newly extended comfort zone means I start doing my homework on GPU blocks, fixtures and fittings etc. Based on my new found confidence with my prior experience, and the reading I've done, I pick up a good basic GPU block and a few accessories to let me expand my loop.
I get my bits, customise my existing loop plumbing in my GPU as well. I do some testing...wow, my GPU is
soo much cooler than it was on the stock air cooler, plus it's much quieter too. This is lovely. My CPU temps have gone up a bit, but still far lower than I had before & my PC is very quiet with the side on. My comfort zone expands once again & so does my knowledge and confidence. Wow, I've just fitted my own GPU block, run some custom hosing
and customised my H220. Pop goes my water cooling cherry!
I run with this build for a while, happy with my much cooler (than stock) and much quieter (than stock) PC. The thing is, my confidence and experience have given me the water cooling bug!
Ok, one GPU just isn't cutting it for me any more in Cryfield Invasion 4, I'm gonna get me another GPU...hmm, my old Swiftech H220 has done me proud, but I don't think it can manage cooling another device...maybe I'll get a 2nd rad? Maybe just get a larger one? I have options here, but I also have more confidence & experience...
Screw it, I'm going 100% custom, I can do this!
Ok, maybe this is a daft little story, but I very much see the Swiftech H220 and kit like it to be the little pebble that starts the land-slide so to speak. We can build up our confidence with a near risk-free starter kit, maybe even expand on that slightly before going for it with full custom water.
It's very easy for those of us with our experiences from those early attempts to
know we should have just done C rather than trying A & B first, but it's those very experiences that gave us the confidence to go to C in the first place. THIS is why I think such kit as the H220 has its place, it can get more people water cooling. Yes, they'd be better off going custom from the start, there's no doubt about that, but without the first baby steps maybe they'd never actually get that far.
Personally, my first "water cooling" experience in my own PC was with an Antec Kuhler 620 close-loop system. It was one of the first and worked really well vs. STOCK cooling. I only got it for space reasons really as my prior air cooler didn't fit with my ram. The 620 was dirt cheap - actually cheaper than my old air cooler - so I went for it & it worked well.
However, my first jump into water cooling proper was a gigantic leap really. I went full external loop with over-kill cooling using parallel flow, which was a fairly new thing in the community back then. I had a great time building that and, in a modified form, it's still doing me proud now. I took the leap as I'd gained some experience helping a friend build his own loop, so my comfort zone was expanded because of that. I also benefitted from some excellent advice here and from the mate I'd helped out previously.
So yes, I largely just jumped in myself, but I can see how such
expandable kits can really help people get into water cooling proper.
Anyway, the usual ramble from me lol.
Scoob.
rofl.
