Intel Core i7 Waterblocks Review

Swiftech GTZ, EK Waterblocks Supreme and Supreme LT, Koolance CPU-350
By Daz

Introduction

While LGA775 socket based systems are still representing the majority of computers on the market, the new generation of Intel Core i7 processors continue to claim their growing share from computer enthusiast’s new builds.

The fact that Core i7 runs hotter than the previous Intel’s CPU generation, makes more people  look into alternative solutions to traditional air cooling, which has already reached its maximum potential.  Air cooling makers continue to produce larger, monster heatsinks with faster (and lauder) fans, but unless Intel and AMD  step up and invent microchips that produce less heat – the war has been already lost. The air cooling is the bottlekneck when it comes to  pushing the Core i7 based system’s performance envelope.

For a while watercooling was  hobby of the elite, which came with a hefty price tag, limited supply, clunky setup and endless list of potential problems from algae growth to the risk of loosing expensive components due to  flooding.

Today a host of manufacturers are making variety of neat watercooling gear, including complete pre-assembled watercooling kits at the price of high-end air heatsinks. People, who have no interest or time to make their own custom builds, can get a watercooling setup going without a hassle. In nowadays the watercooling is a fully commercialised cooling option ready for the mainstream.

This review targets computer enthusiasts who are still excited to make their own watercooling setup and will review the first critical component of liquid cooling setup - the CPU waterblocks.

Based on Canadian availability, the following popular waterblocks are being reviewed:

Swiftech – GTZ;
EK Wateblocks  - Supreme LT;
EK Waterblocks – Supreme;
Koolance – K350.

What is in this review?

Discounting individual visual preferences, the purpose of this review is to look into two factors which may affect your purchasing decision. The first is user friendliness and the second is real life performance characteristics.

Most of watercooling reviews are made in artificially created environments such as open air rack setups. The isolation of a tested component allows for the pinpointing of the smallest differences between tested parts, but it doesn’t show how they would work inside a typical computer.

In this review all waterblocks were tested inside a fully assembled system with the usual set of heat producing components.

Hardware specifications:

• Coolemaster HAF932 computer case with side and top fans removed;
  Corsair 1000W power supply;
  Gygabyte Extreme X58 board;
  Intel i7 920 processor;
  MX-2 Thermal Paste;
  G.Skill 6Gb Triple Channel DDR3 RAM;
  nVidia GTX285 video card with stock cooling;
  2x 1TB Seagate drives;
  NZTX LX Fan controller with thermal probes.

Software specifications:

• Vista Ultimate x64;
  Everest Ultimate Edition;
  RealTemp 3.0;
  Prime95.

Watercooling specifications:

• GTZ/Supreme LT / Supreme /CPU-350 CPU waterblocks;
  D5 (Swiftech 655) water pump;
  Feser Xchanger360 triple radiator;
  3x Koolance fans under-volted to 1600rpm in pull position;
  EK150 Multi-option reservoir;
  Tugon 1/2” ID tubing with appropriate set of fittings;
  Distilled water.

Other hardware:

• MasterCraft multi-option voltmeter with thermal probe;
  Digital Caliper;
  Adjustable wrench;
  External DC power supply for pump.

.

Test methodology

The following methodology was used to compare blocks performance.

1. Install waterblock;
2. Fill watercooling loop with water and leave it running (bleeding) overnight for 10 hours;
3. Set ambient room temperature at 22C;
4. Start system with stock BIOS settings 2.814Ghz (134x21);
5. Run system idle for 30 minutes;
6. Start RealTemp 3.0 to record CPU cores temperatures;
7. Start Prime95 (large TFF test), run for 2 hours;
8. End test, save Real Temp and Everest readings;
9. Overclock system in BIOS to 3,885Ghz (185x21,1.42v/1.46v);
10. Repeat steps 4-8;
11. Re-mount waterblock with new layer of MX-2 thermal paste;
12. Repeat steps 4-11 two more times.

At the end 6 temperature readings per block were available for comparison.

Swiftech GTZ Waterblock Review

Swiftech Apogee GTZ
Manufacturer website: http://www.swiftnets.com
Warranty: 1 year through authorized dealers
Available in Canada at Dazmode.com for $64.99

Swiftech GTZ waterblock is the flagship product of California based Rouchon Industries, better know as Swiftech.

The waterblock is supplied with two sets decent metal barbs (size 1/2” and 3/8 ID), 4 cheap plastic hose clamps and thermal paste of unknown nature.  Unfortunately for Core i7 users, GTZ comes with a throw away LGA755 hold down and back plates, which means paying extra $10 for proper mounting hardware.

Apogee GTZ was the only block in this review which required tools and some effort to convert waterblock’s compatibility from  LGA755 to LGA1366 socket. To do so, it  requires the removal of 4 screws that hold the block together, the removal of the installed hold down plate, moving springs and screws from  the old plate to the  new plate and assembling everything back while paying close attention to proper alignment of rubber insulation ring inside of the block. The hardest part of the process is removing and installing the stop-ring (see picture below) on  the block’s screw assembly, which may be tricky for people with larger hands.

Upon close examination of the block, it reveals two main construction parts with rubber O-ring and bowing frame between them. The bottom part is 49 grams 3.06mm thick copper base with raised cooling fins matrix. The top part is made of Acetal plastic with a surprisingly rough carving machinery job. Overall, the block feels as a typical mass produced part without any sense of exclusivity to it.

After installing the proper back plate, the rest of the process is a walk in the park. Apogee GTZ is truly outstanding in terms of user friendliness as it cannot can get any easier!

Supplied back plate comes with self-adhesive pads and goes perfectly into the CPU heatsink mounting holes on the back of mother board.

After application of thermal paste on CPU, the block needs to be lowered down IN PROPER ORIENTATION (!) and screwed to the back plate in cross manner by tightening screws in cross/circle 1-3-2-4 order until full stop.  No need to worry about tightening screws evenly at the end, retention mechanism construction does it automatically.

Attaching tubing requires paying close attention to which part is inlet and which part is outlet. The flow must follow pre-defined direction.

Without analyzing block performance, Apogee GTZ is arguably the best beginner’s custom waterblock on the market. Installation process is simpler then installing a stock air cooler with only two areas for potential mistake: block orientation and tubing order.

EK Waterblocks Supreme LT

Manufacturer website: http://ekwaterblocks.com 
Warranty: 2 years through authorized dealers
Available in Canada at Dazmode.com for $65.29

Supreme LT is the latest waterblock from the European manufacturer EK Waterblocks located in Slovenia an Easter European country bordering Italy and Austria.

This block is positioned by manufacturer as a light version of older Supreme block, which provides the same performance at lower cost. Supreme LT comes in two flavours, one with transparent Acrylic glass top (the version was used in this review) and the other version with black Acetal top. 

Unlike Apogee GTZ, Supreme LT doesn’t come with any barbs or thermal compound. The package includes the block itself and a set of mounting screws. Block’s back plate (to avoid warping the motherboard) is a separate add-on that costs an additional $9.

Block construction is similar to GTZ with a thicker 5.04mm (69 grams) copper base and plastic top. The very first striking difference is in the quality of craftsmanship. You can clearly tell that more attention was put in this product. Another difference is in the construction of the cooling fins. Where GTZ has mostly an array of smallish pins, LT has a set of deeper parallel channels.

Another noticeable difference from GTZ is the finish of copper base. EK claims that it is polished to 0,0007 mm flatness and it clearly shows when the two blocks are next to each other.

Exclusive feature of the LT’s acrylic top version is the provision for two LEDs on the side of the block for an additional “bling” factor (if desired).

Out of the box Supreme LT is fully compatible with both LGA755 and LGA1366 sockets, but unlike GTZ there is no version of LT’s top for AMD processors.

Installation process (although it is not a rocket science) is much more difficult comparing to  Apogee GTZ.

The tricky part is tightening the nuts enough to prevent screws from turning during block installation, while not cracking your board.

Another danger is with damaging of the on-board electronic components with an instrument during the screw-nut tightening process, if owner does not happen to be very careful.

If the computer was not destroyed during the previous installation procedure, the rest of the process is simple and straightforward.

In comparison to  GTZ, barbs installation is very easy as there are no retention screws on the way.

After applying thermal paste on the CPU and the removal of the protective label, the block is easily lowered down onto CPU and fixed with the supplied spring and nuts.  This is the part where calliper helps with even pressure settings. Screws get tightened in the same cross/cycle matter as with GTZ installation. The block manual warns against over tightening to prevent motherboard physical damage.

The good part about Supreme LT is that you don’t need to worry about block orientation and order of tubing.

For the initial impression, Supreme LT demonstrates more superior craftsmanship then GTZ and its deeper water channels have potential for better performance. On other hand, crews installation process is not for those with clumsy hands and may become costly if the electronic component gets chipped off the board while tightening the nuts. This disadvantage is partially offset by absence of specific rules for block’s orientation and tubing order.

At the same price point with GTZ, the choice between the two boils down to the looks, easiness of installation and performance characteristics.

EK Waterblocks Supreme (original)

Manufacturer website: http://ekwaterblocks.com 
Warranty: 2 years through authorized dealers
Available in Canada at Dazmode.com for $84.96

EK Supreme is a veteran block from EK Waterblocks introduced back in 2007. Unlike Supreme LT discussed on previous pages, original Supreme is multi-platform compatible with support for both Intel and AMD through the installation of an appropriate hold down plate.

Straight out of the box, Supreme comes with an Intel LGA755/1366 hold plate pre-installed as well as a AMD compatible plate readily supplied along with set of retention screws. There are no thermal compound, barbs or back plate in the package.

Similar to Supreme LT, original Supreme comes with choice of Acetal or Acrylic top.

Moreover, Supreme and Supreme LT share the same high quality finish and a similar construction of the copper base with water channels system. 

Installation process for Supreme is nearly identical to Supreme LT as both blocks are sharing the same type of mounting and back plate. The caution about springs tightening  applies to Supreme as well.  

Where the difference comes, is in the order of tubing for inlet and outlet. The coolant must flow into the inlet which supplies liquid to the middle of the block (where stainless steel plate can be seen) and exit from the other channel.

Overall Supreme has the look and feel of a solid high-end device that is well worth its price. Modular construction with the replaceable hold down plate keeps options open for future compatibility, the same as for GTZ, but thicker and 42% heavier copper bottom is expected to provide smother temperature changes.

Koolance CPU-350

Manufacturer website: http://www.koolance.com  
Warranty: 1 year direct
Available in Canada at Dazmode.com for $124.99

The last, but not least, waterblock in this review comes from Koolance USA headquartered in WA with manufacturing facilities based out of South Korea (Koolance Korea).

The CPU-350 cooling fins matrix is somewhat similar to GTZ, but with much higher quality of craftsmanship. Where GTZ plate looks smudged (first picture below), Koolance demonstrates art of precision.

Similar to EK Supreme, Koolance block flows water into the middle of the block and pushes it to the sides for exit. The water is going through four openings in the middle plate. This construction, while being highly effective, is also highly restrictive, which means this block requires a powerful pump and minimal amount of other blocks in the loop. Utilizing this approach,  this review has the optimal setup of the Koolance CPU-350.

The block packaging is the most complete in comparison to any other waterblock that has been reviewed in this article; it includes mounting hardware, back plate with silicon pad, set of multi-platform hold down plates, thermal paste and even sticky metal tape to attach the thermal probe (not supplied) to the side of the block. Had Koolance supplied a set of compression fittings which are always pictured on block’s pictures, it would be hard to imagine what else could be added to the package.

Installation experience is in many ways similar to Swiftech’s GTZ with a few quirks.

First, the screws need to get attached to the supplied back plate as clearly shown in one-page manual, then the silicon pad needs to be placed on top of the back plate and the whole assembly goes  on the back of the motherboard. Although the back plate is not fixed with self adhesive pads (as for GTZ), this is more of a  benefit than a disadvantage as if the board was to be resold, no marks would be present after the plate’s removal.

Next, come the tricky parts.  If tubing is desired to be attached beforehand, it is important to not forget to put the hold down plate on BEFORE attaching the tubing, as unlike all other blocks,  it is a separate loose part. Second, while attaching the tubing, the order of the inlet and outlet is extremely important, fortunately the correct order is clearly marked on the block itself.

But the greatest nuisance part is in putting the block and the loose back plate on CPU. There is no way to put it straight into the desired place, thus it is almost guaranteed that the block will be moved after it isplaced on the thermal grease. After that, placing springs and nuts is very straightforward. As with the GTZ, the nuts need to be tightened simply to the end and no additional measurements are required.

Koolance CPU-350 is the most complete offer out of all other blocks in this review. At the highest price point, it may look either wasteful for some people or perfect all-in-one package for others. One thing is for sure, CPU-350 looks and feel as a truly high-end product with reasonably simple installation procedure.

Performance results

By now, a large group of people are already throwing monitors out of the window and screaming: “Enough about look and feel! Where are my numbers?” So, here we go.

Overage CPU temperature between 1st and 2nd hour by Everest.

Overage CPU Cores temperature between 1st and 2nd test hour by Real Temp at 2.81Ghz

Overage CPU Cores temperature between 1st and 2nd test hour by Real Temp at 3.88 Ghz

The next two charts show blocks’ thermo inertia with the CPU going from 0 to 100% load. The first graph simply shows temperature changes over time; the second graph shows delta in temperature change over time. Readings are representing sum of the 4 cores temperatures for  the 1st minute under the load at stock speed.

All four blocks’ performance has been reviewed many times and this test went along with other published results. Koolance CPU-350 demonstrated its superiority in a single loop set up, as has been expected, with EK blocks followed close by. Apogee GTZ is known as a(relatively) weaker performer, but in its defence, it works better with multiple watercooling blocks on the same loop due to its low restriction design.

Having said this, some results were different from previous reports.  For instance, EK Supreme LT and EK Supreme (original) demonstrated virtually identical performance results, although some reports demonstrated better performance with the LT version. Each block was mounted 2 more times (#4 and #5), but this did not yield anything new. The other difference is a smaller margin between blocks’ performance, which is more likely attributed to the heat inside the case.

Blocks thermal inertia results went along with the block’s copper base weight. The heaviest EK Supreme with a 70 gram base demonstrated smallest yo-yo behaviour, while GTZ with only a 49 gram base was fluctuated the most.

Final words

A summary of the month long experience of filling and draining test computer’s water loop and watching temperature graphs on the screen won’t take too long as “first impressions” are well slept on. Let’s look at each block again in order it was tested.

Swiftech Apogee GTZ

To no surprise this block performed the poorest in this review . But, it doesn’t mean that GTZ has no merits of its own.  Fist of all, Apogee GTZ is block of choice for any novice computer enthusiast for its brilliant mounting system. For somebody who does not feel comfortable with computer assembly, working with GTZ will be as easy as it gets. Secondly, Apogee GTZ, due to its low restriction design, is a reasonable choice for a watercooling setup with the chipset and graphic card(s) in the same loop.

EK Supreme LT

EK Supreme LT is a killer deal for any Intel LGA755/1366 board owner.  With cost equal to the inexpensive GTZ and performance that rivals such high-performance blocks as original Supreme or Koolance CPU-350, it’s hard to find a valid reason why somebody should choose anythign else. Similar to GTZ, Supreme LT has low restriction properties and also comes with a selection of two top choices (Plexi and Acetal). The only caution comes from the block’s mounting hardware that requires patience and attention. Two years of EK Waterblocks warranty is a welcomed bonus! The Supreme LT gets...

Dazmode's The Best Value Recommendation

EK Supreme

EK Supreme is very attractive waterblock with top-tier performance. The replaceable hold down plate promises a long life of the investment and an easy transition from one system to another. Supreme’s heaviest copper base ensures smaller temperature fluctuations and less stress on electronic components. Being a high restriction block, Supreme requires special attention to an owner’s future expansion plans.

Koolannce CPU-350

For somebody who wants the best, Koolance CPU-350 delivers. Complete, all-in-one package and extreme performance leaves no room for imagination: CPU-350 means serious business. Needles to say, the CPU-350 is a highly restrictive block and performs best in a single CPU set up, but for those with a dual loop or CPU only cooling that won’t be an issue. The K350 is a keeper and gets...

Dazmode's Editor Choice

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