Corsair Cool Water or Swiftech H20-120F

T

Tyrant222

Limp Gawd
Joined
Apr 2, 2001
Messages
339
Hi,

I will be buying my first water cooling kit and just need to know which one is preferred.

(1) The Corsair Kit HERE

This kit uses 3/8 tubing and comes with the radbox, which is a bonus.

(2) The Swiftech kit is the same thing. HERE

This kit uses 1/2 tubing.

am I missing something in the descriptions here? I was led to believe they were IDENTICAL.

So if they are different, which one would cool better.

As a note the corsair kit is in stock at tigerdirect for 190.

thanks
 
The Corsair product is a Swiftech OEM kit. IOW, Corsair bought what they wanted from Swiftech and repackaged it with their name. Differences may exist... I would suggest you get the Swiftech because even though they made it they will not support the Corsair product. Support is EVERYTHING in the computer world.
 
However I am sure Corsair will support their product, Corsair is a very upstanding company. If you want 1/2" get the swifty, if you want 3/8" get a 3/8" swifty or Corsair....it wont matter one bit.
 
oh ok. thanks for the replies.

I really wanted to know if, in this situation with most things being equal, will 1/2 or 3/8s matter.

thanks again.
 
From what I can tell it looks like the Corsair Kit comes with the "Rad Box" and it is a little cheaper. You may want to look closer when comparing kits. I'm with Erasmus354 on the support issue I would be very surprised if Corsair didn't have great support...just look at the product documentation.

With that said Swiftech has always produced some high quality kits.
 
Corsair is a top notch company. I exclusively use their ram for my computers. Their service is also top notch...but look what happened with their Hydro-Cool product. It is always best to buy the product from the company that makes it. OEM equipment is not supported by the original manufacturer. For instance, make a call to Microsoft and ask for support on an OEM version of XP and see what they say.....
 
Tyrant222 said:
in this situation with most things being equal, will 1/2 or 3/8s matter.
Click to expand...
The water flow rate for those kits ends up being around 3 or 4 liters/minute, which is right at the edge of where you'd be able to notice the difference between 3/8 and 1/2.

I'd take the Corsair for it's better price.
 
Top Nurse you should do some homework and figure who the OEM’s really are.

Who makes rads?
Who makes reservoirs?
Who makes tubing?hell who doesn't
Who makes actually makes coolsleeves?
Who makes pumps?

Was the real issue with Hydrocool the performance of the unit or support? I don’t ever recall support being an issue.
 
Top Nurse you should do some homework and figure who the OEM’s really are.
Click to expand...

So...Swiftech takes a bunch of parts from different manufacturers and sells a product which is the sum of all parts. If Swiftech sells their product to someone else who rebrands the product then Swiftech becomes an OEM seller. So what does this all mean? It don't mean jack because who cares!

The point of my post was simply to say that Swiftech supports "their" products. They do not support a product sold at a significant discount to a rebrander. Corsair is a rebrander in this instance and bears all responsibilty to supply support for their "product" as they have already made their money on selling the product. NEVER buy rebranded products as it doesn't make a lot of sense if you can buy the same product from the company who sells it through normal distribution channels.

Wait a moment...are you saying that Corsair bought the block from Swiftech and outsourced all the stuff they didn't want from Swiftech or thought they could get for a better price?


Was the real issue with Hydrocool the performance of the unit or support? I don’t ever recall support being an issue.
Click to expand...

Corsair tried to really support the product, but the company that they got the stuff from didn't seem to interested in fixing the problems. So see previous paragraph.
 

Keeping to the statement you posed Top Nurse. Nothing you have posted supports the contention that Corsair is incapable of supporting their product. Corsair is a company with significant resources and I am sure they can support their own kit.

HeThatKnows, consider the ecomomics, Corsairs kit is less expensive. How could Corsair not go directly to Laing for pumps? No one assums that Danger Den buys thier DDC from Swiftech.
 
Lothar5150 said:
Keeping to the statement you posed Top Nurse. Nothing you have posted supports the contention that Corsair is incapable of supporting their product. Corsair is a company with significant resources and I am sure they can support their own kit.
Click to expand...

I never said that Corsair is incapable of supporting their product. And from your statements it is obvious to me that you know something about this as an insider. Who do you work for?

I think that Corsair trying to diversify is good. Putting all your marbles in one basket is not a good idea in the long run. However, they don't have too good a track record in the water cooling business so far. I think it is only due to their "significant resources" and good name that they were able to blow off that fiasco and reintroduce another product. And this time they seem to have the foresight not to try and reinvent the wheel till they know what they are doing.
 
in my effort to find something at the $200 price point. I have come across a kit from asetek.

The kit does not use their best block, or pump. but it is only $170.HERE

There is another kit using a higher flow pump and an integrated pump/res for 230.

I am leaning towards this kit because it is a bit cheaper($170 one). Another reason is that i do not like the idea of a bay res, as it will be hard for me to get to it from the top of my case (the top doesnt come off)

any thoughts? is this kit a comparable one to the swiftech, or would I have to move up to the 230$ asetek kit to get comparable performance to the swiftech one for ~220 (at frozen)
 
That appears to be quite a good kit, especially at that price :D I think you will like it and it will serve you admirably. Once you get the unit in you can then play around and make changes that seem to need changing ;)
 
Top Nurse said:
I never said that Corsair is incapable of supporting their product. And from your statements it is obvious to me that you know something about this as an insider. Who do you work for?
Click to expand...

Sorry if I misunderstood you. I'm just pointing out what should be very obvious to all who have watched this industry mature.

Top Nurse said:
I think that Corsair trying to diversify is good. Putting all your marbles in one basket is not a good idea in the long run. However, they don't have too good a track record in the water cooling business so far. I think it is only due to their "significant resources" and good name that they were able to blow off that fiasco and reintroduce another product. And this time they seem to have the foresight not to try and reinvent the wheel till they know what they are doing.
Click to expand...

I agree Hydro-Cool was a poor product; however it seems that they have learned from their mistakes. The winner here is you the consumer. Who makes what for whom is irrelevant so long as you get a good product at a lower cost.
 
Yesterday I decided to shoot off an email to corsair about their warranty coverage on their new water cooling kit, I thought you all might want to see their reply.

Corsair Reply said:
Hello!
Thank you for your interest in our water cooling product!
Our COOL water cooling kits are more than a rebranded Swiftech kit ...
we have worked closely with Swiftech and Delphi to create this kit ...
it shares many similarities to the Swiftech products but we feel our
product has a bit more of the "final touches" to make this a more
complete and more user friendly product.

Enough of the marketing pitch ... you asked about warranty! The COOL by
Corsair water cooling products are covered by a one year warranty.
Additionally, we have technical support available to end users by way of
our COOL GUY SUPPORT FORUMS.
(http://www.houseofhelp.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?forumid=155)
As with our previous water cooling products, the HydroCool series,
support is available both from Corsair technicians and the enthusiast
community. Additionally, the tech support staff can be reached via
email at the forums and generally respond within 24 hours.

All support for this product is in fact done in house, and is not
managed or associated with Swiftech in any way. Our engineers and
support team have experience in the design and manufacture of water
cooling as well as many are enthusiasts with water cooling kits at home
(and many in our tech lab) ... in short ... we are fully supporting this
product!

I hope this answers your questions/concerns about the COOL by Corsair
water cooling products! If you need further assistance please do not
hesitate to contact me!

Thank you!
Best regards,
Eric
Click to expand...


Draw what conclusions you want, I dont know how long the warranty on the swiftech kit is, but I was kind of surprised that the kit only comes with a 1 year warranty. I think that before people start yelling to not buy something because you wont get any support however, you should at least take the courtesy to find out what kind of support you can actually expect from the company.
 
Erasmus354 said:
I dont know how long the warranty on the swiftech kit is, but I was kind of surprised that the kit only comes with a 1 year warranty.
Click to expand...

I looked in the Swiftech installation manual and their warranty is also one year(12 months) from date of purchase.
 
Lothar5150 said:
I looked in the Swiftech installation manual and their warranty is also one year(12 months) from date of purchase.
Click to expand...

So there we have it, there is no support reason why you should go for the Swiftech over the Corsair....therefore get whichever one you want.
 
Lothar5150 said:
HeThatKnows, consider the ecomomics, Corsairs kit is less expensive. How could Corsair not go directly to Laing for pumps? No one assums that Danger Den buys thier DDC from Swiftech.
Click to expand...
Since I don't know the prices and the margins, I can't accurately consider the economics. Does Corsair buy for less or do they accept a lower profit margin? As for the pumps, I've heard that Swiftech has some sort of exclusive on the D4 pumps. Wouldn't they try for the same thing with the DDC?

Regardless of that, my question was, "Does Corsair buy them [reservoirs and coolsleeves] directly from you?" I'd've understood if you openly refused to answer, but dodging question is lame.
 
HeThatKnows said:
Since I don't know the prices and the margins, I can't accurately consider the economics. Does Corsair buy for less or do they accept a lower profit margin? As for the pumps, I've heard that Swiftech has some sort of exclusive on the D4 pumps. Wouldn't they try for the same thing with the DDC?

Regardless of that, my question was, "Does Corsair buy them [reservoirs and coolsleeves] directly from you?" I'd've understood if you openly refused to answer, but dodging question is lame.
Click to expand...

You should read the reply I got from Corsair...the guy I talked to said that Corsair has been working closely with Delphi (as you probably know the DDC is a joint effort by not only Laing but also Delphi). This would imply that Corsair seems to be getting the pumps directly from Laing and/or Delphi.
 
this may be a stupid question but:

how does the swiftech/corsair unit start when the PC is turned on.

I see the asetek kits have a control unit that seems to plug into PSU power. Didnt notice any similar device on the swiftech kits
 
HeThatKnows, what CoolingWorks sells to whom is confidential. However, I have no doubt that you are smart and can make some reasonable assumptions based on observations. And deduce the answer to your question. Are not you HeThatKnows ;)
 
Tyrant222 said:
this may be a stupid question but:

how does the swiftech/corsair unit start when the PC is turned on.

I see the asetek kits have a control unit that seems to plug into PSU power. Didnt notice any similar device on the swiftech kits
Click to expand...

The pump has a 12v molex and powers up with the PSU
 
I think that before people start yelling to not buy something because you wont get any support however, you should at least take the courtesy to find out what kind of support you can actually expect from the company.
Click to expand...

The only thing I said was that it was usually unwise to buy a rebranded product from XYZ company when you could already buy it from ABC company that has been selling it for years. However, there are exceptions. I once bought a Montgomery Wards TV that I new for a fact was a Mitsubishi rebrand at a helluva lot cheaper price.

Peace to all
 
Sc0ttFern said:
So what is the conclusion on these 2 kits? Which is better?
Click to expand...

They are the same, get whichever one floats your boat. They use the same components, and all have the same support. Besides, I have only ever heard of one person EVER having a problem with the swiftech blocks. They are brazed so that it is all one solid piece of metal, no o-rings to fail, pretty sturdy design overall.
 
Tyrant222 said:
Hi,

I will be buying my first water cooling kit and just need to know which one is preferred.

(1) The Corsair Kit HERE

This kit uses 3/8 tubing and comes with the radbox, which is a bonus.

(2) The Swiftech kit is the same thing. HERE

This kit uses 1/2 tubing.

am I missing something in the descriptions here? I was led to believe they were IDENTICAL.

So if they are different, which one would cool better.

As a note the corsair kit is in stock at tigerdirect for 190.

thanks
Click to expand...

They look to be the same kit with the same tubing. The swiftech says 1/2 OD tubing and the Corsair says 3/8 ID tubing which I believe is the same tubing. I think that all 1/2 OD tubing has a 3/8 ID. I've downloaded the manual off the Corsair site and the Swiftech manual. Only difference seems to be the radbox is included with the Corsair (hell the corsair manual even refers to things by their Swiftech name: "radbox" tm and "coolsleeves" tm) . Also, the Corsairs radbox does not come with the metal pipes in the PCI rear cover as Swiftechs does. Instead, the PCI rear cover has holes in it for the tubing.

For the price, I'm also considering the Corsair. However, I think that newegg sells the Swiftech kit for $171 plus $30 for the radbox separately.
 
Yeah, it's the same tubing. I've been interested in the kit as well and was a little confused that the Swiftech kit doesn't actually come with the RadBox even though the most recent reviews linked off the [H]omepage implied that it did.

Newegg's been the cheapest I could find the Swiftech kit, although they don't sell the GPU block which blows.

H20-120-FB Kit - $170.99
RadBox (only in black I guess) - $22.99
 
I ordered Corsair's COOL kit for LGA775 and am expecting it to come in sometime next week. After a few days evaluation, I will post my thoughts/impressions of it. They (Corsair & Swiftec) seem to be identical except for the paintjob, so judging by recent reviews (Madshrimps, LegionHardware, [H]ardOCP, etc.) of the Swiftec kit, it should be a nice addition to my setup. If I find that it does a good job, I will probably order the GPU block for my 6800 Ultra as well. It will be nice to finally get this Prescott's temps under control seeing how it idles at around 60C and load at around 70+!
 
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