Installation:

Installation using the stock Swiftech mounting hardware is dead easy. Swiftech provides a full colour instruction manual that looks, feels, and smells like high quality. Honestly I’ve installed my old APOGEE dozens of times, so I didn’t actually use it, but I read it over and the instructions are amazingly simple and clear. Swiftech is really raising the bar in terms of making water cooling more accessible for non-technophiles.

Things start to get a little bit more complicated once you get past the basics of how to mount the block to the board. For advanced users, Swiftech recommends using a second O-ring that is included in the package in order to bow the base and achieve slightly lower temperatures, and boy does it ever work.


(Original O-ring right, Thick O-ring left)

There is a clear difference in size between these two O-rings with the one on the left being substantially thicker. It was moderately difficult to install this O-ring into the disassembled block (Swiftech kindly provides an allen key which is necessary for taking the block apart, although mine came stripped for some reason… Fortunately the one that came with the APOGEE GTX sample was fine, so I’m assuming it was a fluke). I found the easiest way to install the O-ring was to work my way around the perimeter slowly forcing it as deeply into the groove, while the block and O-ring are clean and DRY. This give the rubber a little bit of grip in the groove, and gives you some time to slap the base plate on and get those allen screws in.

You can see in the above picture that the base of the block is clearly bowed.