Swiftech Apogee GT CPU Water-Block Review

Installation and Test Setup

Motherboard and CPU Compatibility

The Apogee GT is essentially a universal water-block and should be able to work on nearly ever system that. It ships with all the necessary hardware for the following processors which are classified below by the type of sockets that they use:

• Socket 478 (Intel Pentium 4),
• Socket 775 (Pentium 4, Core Duo, Core 2 Duo ),
• Socket 603/604 (Intel Xeon – 400 and 533 FSB)
• Socket 771 (Intel Xeon) – Optional AP-NC604 hardware pack is required.
• Socket 462 (AMD Athlon, Duron, MP, XP) – see notes 2 and 3 below
• Socket 754, 939, 940 (AMD 64 bit processors)
• Socket AM2 (AMD 64 bit processors) – All known motherboards but one are compatible at the time of release. Please check the COMPATIBILITY LIST
• Socket F (AMD) compatibility is undergoing validation and will be updated as soon as possible.

Removal of the motherboard is necessary to install the mounting posts in all cases, except with AMD Athlon 64, Opteron (socket 754, 939 and 940), and socket AM2.

Our LGA775 Installation on the BFG Tech 680i SLI Motherboard:

Installation of the Apogee GT and Storm are identical, the mounting hardware is only slightly different. On our LGA775 platform, it uses four screws that come in from the backside of the motherboard with a bolt threading all the way down to keep the screw in place. Nylon washers keep the screw head and bolt from touching the motherboard so no worries of shorting out the board. Once all the screws are in place the block slides down those screws and onto the CPU. With the block in place, the spring is squashed between the hold down plate and a cap nut, completing the installation. All said and done I feel the installation is very easy and straight forward, just be sure to get the screws in nice and tight before putting the block on as it’s really easy to loosen them when installing the cap nuts.

Test Setup:

Before we get down to the numbers let’s take a look at our test system. We’re using the 1/2″ barbs provided in the Apogee GT package with Tygon R-3603 tubing. We’re also using the top performing Swiftech MCP-655 12v DC pump which comes in the Swiftech Apex water cooling kit. To dissipate the substantial heat the quad core puts out we used a Thermochill PA 120.2 radiator. Our airflow through the radiator was provided by a pair of Panaflo L1A 120mm fans running at their full speed (68cfm) in a “pull” configuration.

For our actual PC configuration I used the BFG Tech 680i motherboard, and Intel QX6700. Testing was completed with a constant room temperature of 22c. To get the CPU up to full load we used OCCT 1.0.2 which is capable of completely loading each of our 4 CPU’s. The test was run for thirty minutes with the CPU temperature being logged with Core Temp.