MaximumPC 2006 04

reviews TESTED. REVIEWED. VERDICTIZED

74 MA XIMUMPC APRIL 2006

T

his month we pit Corsair’s all-new

external kit, the Nautilus 500, against

the most ambitious cooling contrap-

tion ever to darken our Lab’s door—the

Swiftech Apex Ultra. Both kits promise

extreme cooling, so let’s see if they can

deliver the goods.

—JOSH NOREM

SWIFTECH APEX ULTRA

When Swiftech said it was sending us

the most extreme kit it has ever built, the

drooling commenced. The kit arrived, and

sure enough, it’s extreme—and it performs

extremely well, to boot. But while it’s the

best-performing kit we’ve ever tested, it’s

not perfect.

The Apex Ultra uses Swiftech’s Apogee

universal water block, and it feeds that

beast via fat, half-inch tubing and a high-

flow, five-speed pump, thus bucking the

low-flow trend common to most of today’s

kits. The kit also includes a transparent res-

ervoir and a dual-12cm radiator that hangs

off the back of your PC using Swiftech’s

patented Radbox design.

The numbers the Apex Ultra posted

in testing are astonishing. On our Athlon

FX-55 CPU, it registered an idle temp of a

mere 29 C, and a load temp of just 36 C.

(The stock air-cooling temps are 40 C at

idle, and 54 C under load.) We were able to

overclock our processor by 235MHz—the

highest overclock we’ve ever achieved on

our zero-point platform.

Impressive performance, for sure, but

there are a few issues with this kit. First,

installation requires you to drill two holes

in your case above

the I/O shield, to

route the tubing

from the radiator.

Not everyone will

want to drill holes in

their case, so you

can flip the Radbox

upside down and route the tubing through

an empty PCI slot, but no bracket is pro-

vided to do so. Second, attaching the

tubes to the pump is a cast-iron bitch. We

had trouble getting the tube over the barb

even after we used a ton of hand soap as

lubricant. There’s no reason why installation

of the tubing has to be this difficult. None.

The installation manual is as user-unfriendly

as any we’ve seen, which has always been

Swiftech’s Achilles’ heel.

While its cooling performance is sec-

ond-to-none, the installation seems overly

difficult. It’s certainly an “extreme” kit, in

every sense of the word.

CORSAIR NAUTILUS 500

Corsair claims its new Nautilus kit is both

affordable and easy to install,

while providing exceptional cool-

ing performance. And we’re happy

to report that the kit meets most of

Corsair’s claims.

The kit is housed in a plastic

enclosure that sits atop your case.

It features an integrated reservoir, a

12cm radiator/fan assembly with two

speeds (high and low), and a pump.

It includes a CPU water block and

uses UV reactive 3/8-inch tubing,

along with neon-green anti-algae

mix to give your coolant an alien-

slime look.

The Nautilus’ installation has some

issues. You don’t need to remove the

motherboard to install the kit (it supports

every late model socket), but there’s a catch.

Installation on a Socket 939 requires a back-

breaking amount of force. We feared for our

mobo’s life during the process. Installing on

LGA775, however, is simple: You just push

down four pins to secure the water block,

but you have to remove the motherboard to

remove the block, which is annoying.

In our tests, the Nautilus 500’s cooling

performance was superb. We achieved a

194MHz overclock on our FX-55 proces-

sor, which is damn good. CPU temps were

chilly, but not as impressive as the Apex

Ultra’s scores. You can also toggle fan

speed from high to low, and it’s reasonably

quiet in either mode. In “quiet” mode its

very silent, though there’s a barely audible

whine from the pump.

Overall, the Nautilus delivers on its

promises. We don’t like how much force

is required for a Socket 939 install, and

it’s not totally silent, but it’s easily the best

entry-level water-cooling kit we’ve tested.

Water War

The lowdown on two high-end kits

Corsair’s Nautilus lets you switch between high and low fan

speeds, and both settings are very quiet. Both hoses attach to the

main unit via quick-plug nozzles that allow for easy detaching.

Swiftech’s Apex Ultra uses a high-flow pump

that has five adjustable flow settings, and it’s

whisper quiet on every one of them.

$250, http://www.swiftnets.com

SWIFTECH APEX ULTRA

TUBING

Insane cooling, good looks,

and an adjustable pump.

NOOB TUBING^8

Instructions are unclear, and

attaching tubing is difficult.

$150, http://www.corsair.com

CORSAIR NAUTILUS 500

NAUTILUS

Terrific cooling, and installs

in 10 minutes

NAUGHTY-LUS 

Pump is somewhat audible,

and S939 installation

requires undue force.

BENCHMARKS

NAUTILUS 500 APEX ULTRA

IDLE (C) 31 29

100% LOAD (C) 42 36

OVERCLOCK (MHz) 194 235

Best scores are bolded. All temperatures were measured via the onboard sensors, using the Asus A.I. utility. Idle temperatures were

measured after 30 minutes of inactivity and full-load temps were achieved running CPU Burn-in for one hour.