| Thermaltake Sword M Super Tower Case w/Liquid Cooling Review | ||
| by SKYMTL | February 3, 2008 | ||
| Water Cooling Installation Water Cooling Installation   The installation of the stock water block onto the CPU is very straightforward so we won’t go into it here. On the other hand, the way the tubing is attached to the nozzles is extremely easy and is sure to win a lot of fans among water cooling novices (myself included). All that needs to be done is unscrew the clamps, slide them over the tubing, insert the tubing over the nozzle and then screw the clamp back onto the nozzle. This provides a nearly foolproof method of putting together a nearly leak-proof loop.   Before we go any further into this installation it should be mentioned that you should pay very close attention to and kinks you have in the tubing. There are many areas in this case where the tubing has the potential to bend in some serious ways so make sure you keep an eye on things, especially with the black rubber tubing at the bottom of the radiator. The next step will be to take some measurements of your tubing and cut it to usable lengths. Just remember: it is easy to work with a longer tube but if you cut too short, there is no way to undo what you have done. Here we can see that the green PVC tubing is interfaced with the black tubes from the radiator via a pair of beveled nozzles. The tubes are attached to each other by way of a pair of standard clamps which prevents any leakage.   The installation of the tubing onto the pump and the reservoir is exactly the same as we saw with the Thermaltake water block. It is very novice-oriented and wonderfully simple. Due to the unique nature of the Sword M’s layout, the tubing passes right in front of the motherboard’s I/O connectors but there is still enough space to give you access to them without too much of a problem. What you do have to watch out for is the tubes coming in contact with any heatsinks you may have on your motherboard once the back door is closed. Here the heatsinks have Asus’ trademark fan installed on them but if it was left bare, it would present an extremely hot surface which may damage your tubing.   One of the most important things to remember about installing water cooling into this case is that fact that there is a pair of door to contend with. Make sure you check very carefully that when the doors are closed that they don’t cause your tubing to kink or bend in unnatural ways.   To see if the proprietary Thermaltake water cooling system was compatible with higher quality components, we installed a D-Tek Fuzion CPU block with its optional 3/8” nozzles. Well, it installed without a problem and this bodes extremely well for the water cooling setup in the Sword M. While it may be restrictive to the flow of fluid through its components, Thermaltake’s loop can be upgraded through the use of aftermarket components like the Fuzion we used here.   Something that Thermaltake doesn’t include in their instruction manual nor is it written anywhere in their documentation is the importance of leak-testing your loop before you turn you system on. What I did here was to isolate any leaks which may occur with paper towels so the distilled water would not get onto my components. I then hooked up the pump to an old power supply which was then started with a power supply tester which puts a dummy load of about 100W on the PSU. I then let the water circulate through the loop (while filling the reservoir as needed) for one hour to ensure that there were no leaks. This is a VERY important step so do not forget to do it. Considering before this I had never touched water cooling, I have to say that Thermaltake’s implementation of easy to install components coupled with good instructions made the job of a novice a lot less daunting. If you are looking into taking the leap to water cooling, this will provide you with a good jump-off point. Good job Thermaltake.         | ||
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