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Introduction

Crazy PC provided the test sample. Thank you.


CrazyPC's mission is to make available the widest selection of unique computer products and a dedication to customer service. The company specializes in hard to find computer parts, mainly in the area of computer cooling, case mods, and gaming accessories. You can take a direct look at Crazy PC's whole water cooling department here.

When it comes to cooling, Swiftech is one of the best known brands. It has a history in producing just about any type of cooling – from air, through water, to TEC (the only thing missing is phase-change and tubes for liquid nitrogen/dry ice). Swiftech’s line of water cooling products is also vast – CPU blocks, GPU blocks, chipset blocks, radiators, pumps – it’s all there. Today, we look at the Apogee GT – Swiftech’s CPU waterblock, intended for use with Intel’s newest quad core processors, that should also be capable of cooling older generation, single-core CPUs well.

The Apogee GT is a descendent of the Apogee, which continues where the company’s 6000-series blocks left off. The design has evolved, but the basic principle of large surface-area to cool the processor remains.

The Apogee has a scathed history, with many people criticizing the block when it was launched. It was the winter of 2005 when the block arrived in all its glory. Immediately, the Apogee caused a disturbance in the computer cooling world, mainly due to Swiftech’s claims. According to Swiftech, this was “THE” block to have, beating the Storm (which was considered to be king with a capital K) by 1 °C overall. After some testing, this was clearly not the case, with the Apogee performing worse than expected. To add to the drama, Swiftech halted the production of the Storm, denying enthusiasts the pleasure of having the best performing CPU block. The Apogee soon became the “Apologee”.

Things have changed dramatically since then, though. We now have Intel’s Conroe architecture, and quad-core CPUs have emerged. Not only is their performance “hot”, the temperatures they reach under load, sometimes in excess of 70 °C, are “hot” as well. Another thing we must keep in mind is that these processors have two dies under the hood (or IHS, shall we say) – that doubles the area that needs to be cooled.

Several people attempted to run a Storm on a quad-core CPU, yet results were usually disappointing – the cooler just couldn’t cope with such a large area that needed to be cooled. Then came along D-Tek and introduced the Fuzion – a waterblock that relies on large surface area to cool the CPU, and it instantly became the number one choice for quad core CPUs. Swiftech wanted to get in the game too, and so introduced the Apogee GT, a new incarnation of the infamous Apogee. Have all the culprits been sorted out? Does the block now have what it takes to beat a jet-impingement one, such as the Storm? Or will Swiftech have to go back to the drawing table and rethink the whole shot?

Specifications

From the Swiftech website:
The Apogee™ is essentially meant as a universal water-block. It ships with all the necessary hardware for the following processors which are classified below by the type of sockets that they use:

• Socket 478 (Intel® Pentium® 4),
• Socket 775 (Pentium® 4, Core Duo, Core 2 Duo ),
• Socket 603/604 (Intel® Xeon™ - 400 and 533 FSB)
• Socket 771 (Intel® Xeon™) - Optional AP-NC604 hardware pack is required.
• Socket 462 (AMD® Athlon®, Duron®, MP, XP)
• Socket 754, 939, 940 (AMD® 64 bit processors)
• Socket AM2 (AMD® 64 bit processors) - All known motherboards but one (*) are compatible at the time of release. Please check the COMPATIBILITY LIST
• Socket F (AMD®)

Removal of the motherboard is necessary to install the mounting posts in all cases, except with AMD® Athlon™ 64, Opteron™ (socket 754, 939 and 940), and socket AM2.
Three sets of Nylon hose barbs are included with the device: 1/4" (6mm), 3/8" (10mm) and 1/2" (12mm).
The Apogee™ uses NPSM threads.

Packaging

The block comes in a blister pack, which can be easily opened and closed. You can see the block, plus the compartment holding the accessories.
Swiftech provides a nice set of accessories with the block – of course, the mounting screws and bolts for just about any socket are provided. Additionally, Swiftech gives you a set of barbs (pairs of ½”, 3/8” and ¼”). Also, an Allen wrench is included, should you wish to take apart the block and bow it by replacing the original o-ring by a thicker one, also included in the package. To be on the safe side, there is also a piece of paper that shows the user how he should assemble the block in order to achieve maximum performance. The installation manual is also top notch, covering installation for every socket. Interestingly, I would like to note that the packaging is identical to that of the original Apogee – that means even pressure drop and flow graphs printed on the back side of the cardboard insert show values for the original Apogee.

Note by W1zzard: I also would like to mention the excellent support Swiftech provides. The mounting screws of my Swiftech Storm wore out after dozens and dozens of mountings. After firing off an email to their support (from my private non-TPU account) I got a new set of screws shipped free of charge after a few days.

Below is a list of everything you get when you purchase the Apogee GT:

• Apogee GT block
• Mounting kit (including separate AM2 bracket)
• Barbs
• Thermal paste
• Manual
• O-ring, Allen wrench

The block

The block is beautiful to look at – it has no bells and whistles, but more of that “here to do the job”, utilitarian look. The top is out of Delrin, the base is made of copper. The block utilizes Swiftech’s patented Diamond Pin Matrix for high cooling performance. Interestingly, unlike most Swiftech water blocks, this one is made in China.


The base of the block is polished to a mirror-like finish. Minor milling marks can be seen. The base of the original block is flat, once bowed, it slopes downwards from the centre.


The base of the block uses pins – or, in this case, they are more like diamonds – to take away the heat from the processor. This provides a large cooling area, and is low restriction. The block should therefore be ideally suited for quad core CPUs, as well as TEC applications.
When looking at the top of the block, the only thing that concerns me is the wall thickness, notably at the point where the two vertices meet (the part with the barbs and that which goes over the base). Here, it looks like the top is quite thin, and could be prone to cracking.


The block is also provided with a thicker o-ring that allows you to bow the block. By bowing the block, you alter the shape of the base, so that it is no longer flat, but convex. This should make it “fit” Intel’s CPUs better, which usually have a concave IHS.

Installation

For testing purposes, I used a DFI nF4 Expert and an Opteron 144 CPU.


To start off, I installed 3/8" barbs that are provided with the block. The well known problem with the DFI board is its backplate, which is not identical to the standard AMD one. From the pictures above, you can see that I had to use longer screws – I took the ones from the Xeon package. These were too long, so I used some nuts and washers to make them have contact with the block's plate. I tightened everything down, and booted the PC. I was alarmed by the very high temperatures I got from the system. I thought I must have bad contact, so I redid the mounting, only to arrive at the same outcome.


I then decided that the best idea would be to use my “old” mounting system – so, I re-drilled the Apogee’s mounting plate to accept slightly larger screws, and mounted it. Temperatures instantly dropped to much more acceptable levels. Even Apogee’s original mounting mechanism is great, it holds the block down firmly, provided that you have the correct backplate. All in all, it was DFI’s mistake for having such a bad backplate that would not let users achieve good temperatures. The Apogee’s mounting is a breeze.

Performance

Straight after mounting, the block was demounted and contact was checked. There was a very strong suction force – so strong infact, that I pulled the CPU out of the socket along with the block (and yes, I did twist it a bit, but that obviously didn’t help). I can’t say anything else than that contact is excellent.

I decided to test temperatures on my Opteron 144. For initial testing, I used the integrated diode - actual values were then measured using a Fluke 54 II Thermometer and thermocouple, located at the edge of the IHS.

Idle temperatures were measured after 30 minutes of the PC idling at desktop. Load temperatures were measured after 30 minutes of CPUBurn K7. While this may seem short, keep in mind that CPUBurnK7 places an extreme load on the CPU. The heat output that can be achieved by running CPUBurnK7 is much greater than that of a CPU loaded to 100% by any other program (say Prime95).

The TDP of an AMD Opteron 144 (1800 MHz, 1.39V) is 67 W. At 2502 MHz, 1.55V, the TDP is 115 W, at 2700 MHz, 1.55V, the TDP is 125 W.

The water cooling kit used during testing was made up of the following:

• Pump: Eheim HPPS+ in Power mode
• Apogee GT
• Black ICE Xtreme II with 2 Sunon 7W fans, running at 100%
• AGB-O-Matic plug-on reservoir

Opteron 144	Clock, Voltage	Temperature Load	Temperature Idle
Thermaltake Orchestra	1800MHz, 1.4V	30°C	26.5°C
Thermaltake Orchestra	2502MHz, 1.55V	36°C	26.5°C
Thermaltake Orchestra	2700MHz, 1.55V	39°C	28°C
Alphacool	1800MHz, 1.4V	28°C	26°C
Alphacool	2502MHz, 1.55V	30°C	26°C
Alphacool	2700MHz, 1.55V	31°C	27.5°C
S80DP, dynamic fan	1800MHz, 1.4V	37°C	28°C
S80DP, fan 100%	1800MHz, 1.4V	32°C	25°C
S80DP, fan 100%	2502MHz, 1.55V	39°C	27°C
S80DP, fan 100%	2700MHz, 1.55V	41°C	28°C
Apogee GT	1800MHz, 1.4V	30°C	28°C
Apogee GT	2502MHz, 1.55V	32°C	29°C
Apogee GT	2700MHz, 1.55V	33°C	30°C
Apogee GT, bowed	1800MHz, 1.4V	32°C	28°C
Apogee GT, bowed	2502MHz, 1.55V	33°C	29°C
Apogee GT, bowed	2700MHz, 1.55V	34°C	30°C

From the graphs you can see that the Apogee GT is about 2 or 3°C worse than the jet-impingement Nexxxos XP. In my opinion this is a great result. Also note, that bowing the block caused worse temperatures in our case. This is probably due to the fact that the AMD IHS was flat to begin with, and so by bowing the block, we actually lost some contact area.

No Block	0.182 m³/h
Flow with Nexxxos XP	0.129 m³/h
Flow with Apogee GT	0.168 m³/h

As you can see, the restriction of the Nexxxos XP is much higher than that of the Apogee GT.

Value and conclusion

	You can get your Apogee GT at Crazy PC, directly here. The block will cost you $49.99
	Price Bang for buck Package and accessories Compatible with almost every socket
	Plastic (nylon) barbs Thin top Manual does not cover “bowing”
9.2	The Apogee GT is not only a block – it is a clear statement from Swiftech that it wants to improve its products and do better than the competition. With the GT, Swiftech has managed to bring its performance ever so close to jet-impingement blocks, yet the design still does not manage to beat jet-impingement blocks in terms of performance. A nice feature is the fact that you can bow the block, to achieve better temperatures on Intel CPUs. Even though we were unable to test this in our labs, users on the forums have reported that indeed it dropped their temperatures by a degree or two. When we look at Swiftech’s line-up, we see that there is one block above the GT – the GTX. However, the GTX has a major disadvantage, as it uses an aluminum top. Even though it is plated to military spec, I’m the sort of person that would lose sleep over the potential risk of corrosion. With the Apogee GT you have nothing to worry about. Furthermore, the GTX is incompatible with anything but Socket 775. Another advantage to the GT. Lastly, you save $25 by going for the GT. Overall, I was pleased with the Swiftech Apogee GT. Yes, there were issues with it, but not due to the block itself. Once everything got sorted out, the block performed well. Its low restriction design allows it to be employed virtually anywhere. At the moment, this block is my clear choice for today’s hot-running quad core CPUs.