New Swiftech Apogee GTX block

nob0dey

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jul 19, 2004
Messages
199
The Apogee™ GTX water-block is to the Apogee™ GT what Saleen is to the Ford Mustang: a good deal of added performance with some killer looks. The reference to automotive does not stop there: we designed the Apogee™ GTX to provide a racing feel, not dissimilar to that of Edelbrock's famous V8 valve covers.

Racing feel huh..:p

apogee_gtx-ultimatecooling.png
 
Looks ugly to me... infact i'd rather have a Fuzion in my case than that for the looks department.
 
Pricing? Availability?!

The extruded (aluminum...?) top looks so nice... I wonder if it is aluminum :(
 
Whats kinda funny is with the new "design" of the top, it still has the same base as the Apogee GT. According to Swiftech, it cools only 1 degree better than the GT. IMO, its not really worth it. I was expecting something that betters the Storm block. Looks like Swiftech is trying to pull a Polarflo. Bling does not increase performance.
 
Whats kinda funny is with the new "design" of the top, it still has the same base as the Apogee GT. According to Swiftech, it cools only 1 degree better than the GT. IMO, its not really worth it. I was expecting something that betters the Storm block. Looks like Swiftech is trying to pull a Polarflo. Bling does not increase performance.

Eh... Depends on the price. If it's 15-20$ more for this block, I'd buy it... if we're talking 50$ for the extra bling, swiftech can shove it.


8800GTX? HWlabs BI GTX? Apogee GTX?

geez. GTX is becoming an international naming standard.
 
Looks ugly to me... infact i'd rather have a Fuzion in my case than that for the looks department.

haha there's something that's completely subjective :) personally i love the look of the gtx, and hate that of the fuzion.
 
It's about time they stopped using that icky delrin (or whatever) for block tops. Waterblocks are a premium item no matter what, and they should look the part. I like the look of that top. I just hope that it's brass (or something else close to copper's electronegativity) and not aluminum.

I hate the look of the Fuzion's top. I'd wish they had a brass top if I were building a loop today. I'd pick based on performance no matter what, but if there were an optional metal top (that actually looked good) for whatever the best block on the market was, I'd probably buy it.
 
It's about time they stopped using that icky delrin (or whatever) for block tops. Waterblocks are a premium item no matter what, and they should look the part. I like the look of that top. I just hope that it's brass (or something else close to copper's electronegativity) and not aluminum.

I hate the look of the Fuzion's top. I'd wish they had a brass top if I were building a loop today. I'd pick based on performance no matter what, but if there were an optional metal top (that actually looked good) for whatever the best block on the market was, I'd probably buy it.
It's aluminum but coated with 2 layers of nickel.
 
we designed the Apogee™ GTX to provide a racing feel, not dissimilar to that of Edelbrock's famous V8 valve covers.


Nobody sees what wrong here ?

lower flow and a 1C (maybe) improvement, but HEY, its got black dyed fin thingies like Edelbrocks famous V8 valve covers.

Well ya know, I am old enough I had a pair of Edelbrock alum finned valve covers on a 72 cuda, and man that car was a babe magnet, course none of them cared to look under the hood, just as long as it went fast.

Trouble is, COMPUTERS ARE NOT BABE MAGNETS. I am going to the bars. cya.
 
$76 MSRP for that? Hell no - I'd rather take the $46 Apogee or $50 Apogee GT thank you. Too much of this useless bling around these days.
 
$76 MSRP for that? Hell no - I'd rather take the $46 Apogee or $50 Apogee GT thank you. Too much of this useless bling around these days.

yeah, it's not so much the bling. it's just because of the diagonal across the grid that allows more dissipation. but otherwise it's the same idea, and they're upcharging so much just because of that one little fact
 
Agreed it's a little fug for not much temp improvement, but at least this means the AM2 version of the MCW6500-T will be released soon :)
 
Not a fan of the looks either. It's nicer than the apogee GT, for sure, but not double the price more.

That, and it's getting into Storm territory. Which is completely different.
 
To everyone that dislikes how it looks:

What is a good looking water block to you then?

I love the industrial-ness of this block...
 
LOL... now even the high flow companies are mixing their metals, like it is OK to do. Shame on them.

btw: that is a fugly top
 
To everyone that dislikes how it looks:

What is a good looking water block to you then?

I love the industrial-ness of this block...
I agree completely. I think this is the best looking block so far.

LOL... now even the high flow companies are mixing their metals, like it is OK to do. Shame on them.

btw: that is a fugly top

Well they are nickel plating it with two coats. Maybe it'll be fine
 
To everyone that dislikes how it looks:

What is a good looking water block to you then?

I love the industrial-ness of this block...

For that price , I want boobies. (back from the bars, hic) but it does look better now that its closer to closing time.
 
Sweet, checks bank account. Cost wise that top must be expensive to fabricate so the higher price is to be expected. They already have the mass market covered with the GT and its plastic molded top so from a marketing perspective positioning a new high end block to replace the storm makes sense. Nice to see Swiftech retuning to their style combined with function roots.
 
To everyone that dislikes how it looks:

What is a good looking water block to you then?

I love the industrial-ness of this block...

I like the look of the MP-05 SP LE. Though truth be told, I couldn't care less about how any block looks as long as it performs well.
 
It's aluminum but coated with 2 layers of nickel.

I work with the assumption that all coatings will inevitably get scratched. ergo all coated aluminum parts are bad mojo when mixed with copper-like metals in my books.

BillParish said:
Nobody sees what wrong here ?

lower flow and a 1C (maybe) improvement, but HEY, its got black dyed fin thingies like Edelbrocks famous V8 valve covers.

The "lower flow" may not be an entirely bad thing. It's lower flow because the barbs are further apart. While that gives a lower flow rate that the older block (ceteris paribus), it probably also give better cooling over a larger surface area. This may make it more effective as multicore chips grow in surface area.

"Flow rate" is not a goal in itself; effective cooling capacity for a given task is the real goal here.
 
I work with the assumption that all coatings will inevitably get scratched. ergo all coated aluminum parts are bad mojo when mixed with copper-like metals in my books..

Please let the hamsters out of the inside of your cooling blocks before they scrach an inside surface and galvanic corrosion sets in or if you are not hamster powered, filter the rocks out of your coolant.

The "lower flow" may not be an entirely bad thing. It's lower flow because the barbs are further apart. While that gives a lower flow rate that the older block (ceteris paribus), it probably also give better cooling over a larger surface area. This may make it more effective as multicore chips grow in surface area.

"Flow rate" is not a goal in itself; effective cooling capacity for a given task is the real goal here.

yep yep now if I put a fan blowing on those fins I would have , hey ! wait a minute .......
 
Please let the hamsters out of the inside of your cooling blocks before they scrach an inside surface and galvanic corrosion sets in or if you are not hamster powered, filter the rocks out of your coolant.

Well, if one tiny speck of metallic dust from any one loop component happens to be flowing, there's enough particulate matter in the flow to make a tiny scratch. The size of the scratch doesn't even matter. It may be completely undetectable to the naked eye - even your apparently superhuman frickin' laser beam eyes. :rolleyes: The worst part is that galvanic corrosion will be accelerated when there are only a few micro-pits in a coating's surface. That means even if you're filtering your coolant, the one (literally) microscopic scratch that that one tiny shaving - that avoided the multiple washings and inspections you gave your parts - put in your block before it got filtered out is going to corrode incredibly fast.

Anodizing and plating are not "standard" services. There are good jobs and there are bad jobs. The difference may not be apparent upon even a close inspection - especially if there are multiple coats.

I know there are additives, there are good coating jobs, there are filters, there are all sorts of things people do to make aluminum be "fine" in a loop. When it comes to choosing a metal for the base of my blocks, there's no question what to pick (well, given that silver is too expensive for me). Then I look at the gymnastics I need to go through to mix metals and ask myself why would I want to go to all that trouble when I could just use a brass, copper, or a plastic top? That's just my take on it.

yep yep now if I put a fan blowing on those fins I would have , hey ! wait a minute .......
Hey, not everybody has to like the look. I'm not drooling over it, but I think the look is distinctive and tasteful.

And I'm left to conclude that you have no comment regarding the whole flowrate/effective cooling over a larger surface area thing... Why don't we just wait for the numbers to come in before we poo-poo a design, mkay? Maybe it's better for some jobs, maybe this is just a useless piece of e-penis bling. We just don't know until the numbers show up.
 
dude relax, yes and a grain of sand in a stream can drill a hole through a granite boulder but I am not going to live long enough to see it. whatever. IT WAS A FREEKING JOKE! not an attack, guess I should not post after drinking, I used to specify the porosity of the 30 micron gold finish on power supply pins and the plating used on some sheetmetal parts and get called down to the QA lab to look at parts the vendor screwed up on. I turned off my laser eyes and used the microscope, didnt want to blow my cover. There most certainly are standards for plating, and inspection processes to check they are followed, if they are used or not and how well, we cant know unless swiftech tells us. I think you are way overboard on the whole issue but hey, whatever make you feel like you are doing what you think best and I completely agree with your basic point, I wouldnt have anything alum anywhere near my loop no matter what is was plated with and that makes the issue moot to me. I still want it to have boobies 70 something bucks, I demand boobies.

regarding your second point, you are correct if you are talking about the "fins" adding to the effective cooling area, yes I had a comment, it was just over your head, FINS + FAN = a cpu standard HS/fan another joke, I mean it IS susposed to be a water block right ? Or is the fan optional and I didnt see it on the site ?

LOL wait for numbers, swifttech themselves gave the less than stellar numbers. and actually I have to really give them credit for not masking what a low performance difference there is between the much cheaper older block. And the flow reduction is not because the barbs are further apart, its because the cooling path inside the block is longer. The barbs were moved to accomodate that fact and who ever wrote the copy for the site information was not an engineer (like me. you can tell from the crappy spelling and boobie fixation) figured moving the barbs farther apart was ... well I dont know wtf they were thinking. Something sure got lost in the translation there.

So in summary
looks sexy +1
has fins +1
lower flow 0
higher temps -1
alum -1
no boobies -1

total -1 lack of boobies tipped the scale to a thumbs down. wait wait look at the hold down ! the bling is not obscured by a stupid hold down over the middle of the block, bring the jury back in !!! we have a winner.

Oh and in my 30 years of experinece in electronics design and manuf of everyting from telcom power supplys to blow molded fascia panels and cosmetic sheetmetal faceplates to writing the programs for the robots to pick up finished boards off the end of the wave solder machines I learned/aquired quite a bit of general design knowledge and I think I can make comments on designs with as much weight as anyone on the planet. Well cept for some French guys, they are real artists, and who ever does the work for Apple ( actually I think its the French again) , but for sure as much as any american car designer, and luggage, whats up with that ? .
 
dude relax, ... and I completely agree with your basic point, I wouldnt have anything alum anywhere near my loop no matter what is was plated with and that makes the issue moot to me.
Fair enough.
I still want it to have boobies 70 something bucks, I demand boobies.
That would be nice.
regarding your second point, you are correct if you are talking about the "fins" adding to the effective cooling area, yes I had a comment, it was just over your head, FINS + FAN = a cpu standard HS/fan another joke, I mean it IS susposed to be a water block right ? Or is the fan optional and I didnt see it on the site ?

No, what I meant with larger effective cooling area is that with the barbs farther apart, there is a larger portion of the base's area which is not (loosely speaking) "outside the central region". If you have a huge apogee type block (say 10"x10") with a pin-covered base and you place two barbs opposite each other on a diagonal that are 1" away from the center, the outside part of the block will not get much flow. If you move those barbs to the corners, the block will be a LOT more restrictive and have a lower flow rate than the first block, but it will cool MUCH more effectively over its entire area. That's what I meant.

I completely agree that the fins have no role whatsoever in the effective cooling ability of the block.

LOL wait for numbers, swifttech themselves gave the less than stellar numbers. and actually I have to really give them credit for not masking what a low performance difference there is between the much cheaper older block.
All I meant is there is an outside shot that this block will actually perform reasonably well as multicore dies get larger because [see paragraph above].

And the flow reduction is not because the barbs are further apart, its because the cooling path inside the block is longer.
Yes... and the path is longer why again? ...[drumroll]... Because the barbs are further apart![cymbal crash]
 
Another vote for waterblocks with boobies here.

Swiftech's block looks beautiful. I trust their worksmanship. I have no idea why Swiftech STILL produces hybrid aluminum/copper blocks. Their first waterblock (afaik) was a copper/coated-aluminum job too. We had a warm bitchfest about that back in the day. I think Swiftech may produce bi-metals just to piss guys like us off.

The guy that runs Swiftech once responded to a customer complaint on these forums and I wouldn't put it past him to crank our chains. He takes pride in his work and may consider treated aluminum to be a legitimate flourish.

Battery effect! Corrosion! True, true. But think of the boobies.
 
The Apogee™ GTX water-block is to the Apogee™ GT what Saleen is to the Ford Mustang

MmmmKay... that's gotta be the worst analogy they could've come up with. Did someone at Swiftech buy a Saleen recently??? (one with a V-TEC engine in it???)

Based on performance specs between the two blocks, it would've been better to say...

The Apogee™ GTX water-block is to the Apogee™ GT what the G35 is to the 350Z (Firebird is to the Camaro, Navigator is to the Aviator, Cimmeron is to the Cavalier, etc...)

I'd buy it.... if it had boobies. :rolleyes:
 
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