MaximumPC 2007 11

W

e’ve seen various USB transfer devices over the years, and for the most

part they’ve been clunky and sloooow. Not so with Data Drive Thru’s

Tornado, which blew into our Lab and impressed the hell out of us. Essentially a

coiled, flat USB 2.0 cable that retracts into a plastic housing, the Tornado works

by plugging into the Hi-Speed USB ports of two PCs running a newer Windows

OS (Millennium, 2000, XP, or Vista). A basic file-transfer application executes

from a bit of flash memory in the device, which allows you to simply drag and

drop files between the two rigs. Similar cables from other companies force you

to install software to transfer files.

The snazzy part, though, is how fast data moves across the cable. We cop-

ied about 4.2GB of data from a Raptor X drive installed in our zero-point Athlon

64 FX-60 to a notebook PC in 3:28 (min:sec). Using a crossover cable hooked

up to the Gigabit ports on both machines, the same transfer took an additional

minute. The company claims that the Tornado is one of the few flat cables

that can actually meet the Hi-Speed USB 2.0 specs for shielding, and thus,

the device can burn up the data-transfer rates. Other flat cables actually leak

enough data to cause speeds to plummet, as corrupted data must be resent. We

tested this claim using generic retractable USB 2.0 cables and, indeed, a slew

of transfer issues cropped up—but didn’t occur with the Tornado.

The flat USB cable retracts into a case to make a nice, neat package. This

design is our one complaint about the device though. The cable retracts so far

into the case that it’s difficult for people with stubby fingers to pull it out. Elven

folk will have no such problem.

That’s a minor complaint, though. The Tornado gives you easy and fast

file transfers without the need of additional software and should fit

right into any tech’s toolbox.

—Gordon Mah UnG

Data Drive Thru Tornado

The Tornado whips through data transfers like an F5, um, tornado

A

lot of the enclosed “for newbs” water-cooling kits we see at Maximum PC

are pretty lame. You get a pump/heatsink combination that’s mildly irritating

to install, connected by tubing that’s slightly wider than the veins in your arm.

The tubing goes to a radiator that’s often unable to handle the heat output of the

processor—even with a noisy 12cm fan pushing more air through it than a jet

engine. You spend half an hour installing the device for a whopping cooling differ-

ence of three degrees versus what you get from a stock air cooler.

Assembling and installing Swiftech’s new H20-120 water-cooling

setup will leave many on the brink of frustration, but if you’re willing to

trade an hour of your life for additional cooling relief, this device delivers.

It cooled our test rig by an average of 6.5 degrees more than our stock

cooler in both our idle and punishment CPU tests, outperforming most of the

water-cooling kits we’ve tested.

Setting up the H20-120 is similar to building a DIY water-cooling kit. The

pieces don’t come assembled; you must do the grunt work. If you’re running

an AMD rig, you need to take apart the

Intel-specific waterblock that’s attached to

the pumping mechanism

by default. Instructions are

provided, but the process

could be confusing for a

liquid-cooling newbie.

In a perfect world,

Swiftech would have taken

a note from its competitors and preassembled the entire kit. The company could

close-loop the system and free everyone from having to double, double toil and

trouble up a liter of coolant—of which the cooling kit uses very little. Small

details, but absolutely crucial for inexperienced users that want a no-fuss setup.

The H20-120 functions great, but it straddles the line between the

newbie and enthusiast markets. It’s mildly complex for the former, and its

lack of included water cooling for graphics cards will surely make the lat-

ter froth at the mouth. Consider this a practice run for your first

piecemeal setup.

—david MUrphy

Swiftech H20-120

Cool? Yes. Complicated? Yes^2

90 MAXIMUMPC november 2007

reviews Tes Ted. Reviewed. veRdic Tized

Kiss your sneakernet goodbye.

The h20-120 is a great cooler but faces strong competition from

true diy setups.

8

Swiftech h20-120

$160, http://www.swiftech.com

the tornado

$60, http://www.datadrivethru.com

9

MAXIMUMPC

KICKASS

Best scores are bolded. Idle temperatures were measured after 30 minutes

of inactivity, and full-load temps were measured after running CPU Burn-in

for one hour.

Stock cooler Swiftech h20-120

Idle (C) 26  19

100% Load (C) 52     46

benchMarKs