Swiftech unveils Apogee XT new flagship waterblock

[talonz]

i agree with you. better safe than sorry. for both. manufacturer and customer

My Apogee XT has shipped, I'll post regarding quality of my block. Hopefully others can do the same.

[Musho]

Hey Gabe! Great looking and performing block you have there! I was wondering if Swiftech has any future plans to include this block in a future set. That would be a great followup set for the H20-220 Apex Ultima

[gabe]

i agree with you. better safe than sorry. for both. manufacturer and customer

My Apogee XT has shipped, I'll post regarding quality of my block. Hopefully others can do the same.

@ Tackleberry & talonz

All I can say to you all is this:
1/ minor irregularities in the pin matrix do not affect the performance of the block in any measurable way; this is a scientific assessment, not marketing talk: even in our lab, with instruments calibrated to the 100th of a degree, or 100th of a liter/minute, we could not measure the flow or temperature variations resulting from these iregular features. By the way, forgive me if I sound somewhat frustrated in saying this, but no one that I am aware of ever complained about the poor/rough CNC finish of the HK base plate; yet this block base plate isn't even lapped, you can clearly see the end-mill path.. and that has a known and measurable effect on block performance. Talk about quality
2/valid concerns about loose pins were addressed in my earlier post: throughout the manufacturing process, base plates are inspected, blown with heavy duty 120 psi air jets, cleaned, inspected again..

Hey Gabe! Great looking and performing block you have there! I was wondering if Swiftech has any future plans to include this block in a future set. That would be a great followup set for the H20-220 Apex Ultima

yes, and it is among our short term plans; but right now we can't make enough of the XT's to satisfy demand, so I'm waiting to build a little inventory to make kits.. I also have to have my AMD brackets for the kits, and those are in production. altogether I'd say 3 to 4 weeks before we can release the kits with XT inside.

[strike]

I have mine yesterday
testing it with no issue all is perfect
regarding with those pins
I have mine with some little imperfection
no loose pins (i´ll put some pictures later)

Gabe all is perfect

[Musho]

yes, and it is among our short term plans; but right now we can't make enough of the XT's to satisfy demand, so I'm waiting to build a little inventory to make kits.. I also have to have my AMD brackets for the kits, and those are in production. altogether I'd say 3 to 4 weeks before we can release the kits with XT inside.

That's great news! I was already looking into going with a WC setup, but I wasn't really sure yet because it all seems quite complicated! A high performance, easy to install kit will definitely make the plunge a lot easier for me! Is the kit going to use a 2x120 rad like the previous kits or are you going to opt for something bigger? I will start off with just a CPU loop, but I might watercool my 5870 later down the road. A bigger rad will definitely come in handy in that case.

[D_Empire]

I just got mine in the other day. Unfortunately it will be a while before I can test it and post any sort of results. However, I figured I would post a pic of it anyhow. Unfortunately I don't have my normal camera, so I had to use my near infrared one. So I am sorry the image is in black and white.

[ChielScape]

that doesnt look too horrible. not great but not too bad either.

[Spoiler]

I trust Swiftech's QC enough that I won't care too much how the pins look as long as the block PERFORMS as advertised.

I'm happy with the GTZ right now, but there is always an upgrade in the future.

[samurai]

some possibility in future to the acetal top for apogee XT ?

[woffen]

I received mine a while ago but haven't found a fitting "tool" for lack of a better English word to open it up. The base looks really nice at least

The tool that came with my GTZ wont fit and neither all the others I have at home.

[Vapor]

3/32", M2.5, and T-10 should all work, but none seem to be "just right"

[Main]

@ Tackleberry & talonz

All I can say to you all is this:
1/ minor irregularities in the pin matrix do not affect the performance of the block in any measurable way; this is a scientific assessment, not marketing talk: even in our lab, with instruments calibrated to the 100th of a degree, or 100th of a liter/minute, we could not measure the flow or temperature variations resulting from these iregular features. By the way, forgive me if I sound somewhat frustrated in saying this, but no one that I am aware of ever complained about the poor/rough CNC finish of the HK base plate; yet this block base plate isn't even lapped, you can clearly see the end-mill path.. and that has a known and measurable effect on block performance. Talk about quality
2/valid concerns about loose pins were addressed in my earlier post: throughout the manufacturing process, base plates are inspected, blown with heavy duty 120 psi air jets, cleaned, inspected again..



yes, and it is among our short term plans; but right now we can't make enough of the XT's to satisfy demand, so I'm waiting to build a little inventory to make kits.. I also have to have my AMD brackets for the kits, and those are in production. altogether I'd say 3 to 4 weeks before we can release the kits with XT inside.

XT gave me - WITH the skinee mod (thx skinee) a good 1.5 degree lower temp. (see signature)
No higher clock _ I now run 6 fans on the Monsta ~ 100 rpm lower and still maintain lower temperature than with GTZ

My baseplate also have some minor imperfections - in the "outer zone" - I never complained about it since I knew it wouldn't degrade performance.

[woffen]

3/32", M2.5, and T-10 should all work, but none seem to be "just right"

Yea, even the one that came with the GTZ didn't fit the GTZ properly

[santiagodraco]

@ Tackleberry & talonz

All I can say to you all is this:
1/ minor irregularities in the pin matrix do not affect the performance of the block in any measurable way; this is a scientific assessment, not marketing talk: even in our lab, with instruments calibrated to the 100th of a degree, or 100th of a liter/minute, we could not measure the flow or temperature variations resulting from these iregular features. By the way, forgive me if I sound somewhat frustrated in saying this, but no one that I am aware of ever complained about the poor/rough CNC finish of the HK base plate; yet this block base plate isn't even lapped, you can clearly see the end-mill path.. and that has a known and measurable effect on block performance. Talk about quality

Come on. You have to resort to competitor bashing again to divert attention from your own issues?

[Main]

one free internet for the first to guess this block. (see attachment)

Thermalright XWB-1

U owe me

[ChielScape]

there you go

[talonz]

My block came in good shape as expected. The mounting mechanism is the best I've ever used

[PiLsY]

Mine arrived yesterday. Didnt have chance for more than a glance last night. Looked awesome.

Had a close look this morning and im now of the opinion its distincltly less than awesome.

First off I had a peek through the inlet and outlet to see what the base looked like and immeadiately noticed metal strands sticking off the threads. They were a right pain in the ass to get rid of as I couldnt grip them hard enough with tweezers and couldnt get any pliers down the ports. Score down from a 10 to a 9 so far for annoying me and wasting 20 mins.

Next had a go at trial fitting my comp fittings and so forth. The outlet port is cross threaded just over half way down. Only noticeable on deep thread parts, but im using a male to male on the outlet. Thankfully have an EK spacer ring spare, as to fix that it would mean a complete disassembly of the block and re-threading the port with a hand tapper (or send it back and be delayed a week). Score now down to an 8.

Well at least the inlet should be easy eh? Wrong. Half my TFC fittings dont fit, they go in 1/2 a turn and stop. This happens on no other hardware I have, these TFC fittings go straight in to everything else I have from unbranded to bitspower. Thankfully after going through my 45 comps I found 2 out of 6 that will fit. Score now down to a 7.

No other mishaps surely? Wrong again. Boy am I glad I had a good look at the backplate because the damn thing is broken. One of the press fitted screw hole pillars has literally just fallen out. I say press fitted as theres no other sign of any other join - infact both surfaces were rusty. Score now down to what, a 4 maybe? I've checked the other three, one is fixed firmly and doesnt move at all, one is a little loose and moves in a couple of directions, the third is very loose and is easily and fully moveable up and down in the backplate.

The sad thing is this is all quality control. My XSPC Delta v3 had no such issues @ £26 and my Supreme LT was likewise perfect @ £28. This block cost me £57 (which is damn cheap compared to other retailers @ £65+, well done chilledpc) and I expect it to be perfect. The baseplate issue found by others wouldnt bother me as long as there were no loose bits of metal to go floating around. It'll have a microscopic impact on temps, well within margin of error for readings. This has really annoyed me though. I've not decided what to do yet - I may contact chilledpc and ask for the block to be swapped or take it direct to swiftech. I don't see why chilledpc should have to pay for cross shipping a new block when its manufacturing defects that have caused the swap. I'm also all set to do a big rebuild on Sunday which now looks like it wont happen. I think I'm going to go through all my backplates and see if I can jerry rig something to last me, and contact swiftech for a replacement backplate (and the missing s775 and s1156 backplates). May have a good moan about the QC on the block while i'm at it too.

I'll get a better pic of this later as the Mrs. digicam battery is flat, but this should suffice for now (useless 2mp nokia 6300):

[WaterFlex]

Gabe, i have just ordered your new wb from here.
I use LGA 775. Could you mail me lga775 backplate and other neccesary parts?
Thank you.

[Mazlov]

I received my XT a week ago, but I'm still waiting on the LGA1156 backplate. USPS seemes to take forever to fly from LA to Europe.

I did notice a couple of things upon receiving the block.

The XT came with far less accessories than my 'old' GTZ; I am on 3/8 tubing and the block came with 1/2 only, no reserve bolt+spring (the GTZ came with two!). I'm reading about a tool to open up the block... never seen it.
I would have been happy to wait until a LGA1156 bracket was available before I received the XT. Unboxing was a bit of an anticlimax now.
The block looks unfinished. It has the machine markings on it, which is a shame.

[gabe]

Gabe, i have just ordered your new wb from here.
I use LGA 775. Could you mail me lga775 backplate and other neccesary parts?
Thank you.

This is handled by our Master distributor for Europe, Bacata.

Please contact rma@bacata.net by providing them with your shipping address, and copy of invoice, they will mail the back-plate immediately.

[gabe]

Mine arrived yesterday. Didnt have chance for more than a glance last night. Looked awesome.

Had a close look this morning and im now of the opinion its distincltly less than awesome.

First off I had a peek through the inlet and outlet to see what the base looked like and immeadiately noticed metal strands sticking off the threads. They were a right pain in the ass to get rid of as I couldnt grip them hard enough with tweezers and couldnt get any pliers down the ports. Score down from a 10 to a 9 so far for annoying me and wasting 20 mins.

Next had a go at trial fitting my comp fittings and so forth. The outlet port is cross threaded just over half way down. Only noticeable on deep thread parts, but im using a male to male on the outlet. Thankfully have an EK spacer ring spare, as to fix that it would mean a complete disassembly of the block and re-threading the port with a hand tapper (or send it back and be delayed a week). Score now down to an 8.

Well at least the inlet should be easy eh? Wrong. Half my TFC fittings dont fit, they go in 1/2 a turn and stop. This happens on no other hardware I have, these TFC fittings go straight in to everything else I have from unbranded to bitspower. Thankfully after going through my 45 comps I found 2 out of 6 that will fit. Score now down to a 7.

No other mishaps surely? Wrong again. Boy am I glad I had a good look at the backplate because the damn thing is broken. One of the press fitted screw hole pillars has literally just fallen out. I say press fitted as theres no other sign of any other join - infact both surfaces were rusty. Score now down to what, a 4 maybe? I've checked the other three, one is fixed firmly and doesnt move at all, one is a little loose and moves in a couple of directions, the third is very loose and is easily and fully moveable up and down in the backplate.

The sad thing is this is all quality control. My XSPC Delta v3 had no such issues @ £26 and my Supreme LT was likewise perfect @ £28. This block cost me £57 (which is damn cheap compared to other retailers @ £65+, well done chilledpc) and I expect it to be perfect. The baseplate issue found by others wouldnt bother me as long as there were no loose bits of metal to go floating around. It'll have a microscopic impact on temps, well within margin of error for readings. This has really annoyed me though. I've not decided what to do yet - I may contact chilledpc and ask for the block to be swapped or take it direct to swiftech. I don't see why chilledpc should have to pay for cross shipping a new block when its manufacturing defects that have caused the swap. I'm also all set to do a big rebuild on Sunday which now looks like it wont happen. I think I'm going to go through all my backplates and see if I can jerry rig something to last me, and contact swiftech for a replacement backplate (and the missing s775 and s1156 backplates). May have a good moan about the QC on the block while i'm at it too.

I'll get a better pic of this later as the Mrs. digicam battery is flat, but this should suffice for now (useless 2mp nokia 6300):

No need to complain by email, I already read your post.

In summary:

It looks like this block has bad threads on the inlet and outlet ports. Cross-threaded, that would explain the strands sticking out, and your difficulties with various fittings. The tap must have been badly worn-out, and this block should have been rejected out right. This warrants replacement.

I'll copy the QC people, this is unacceptable. Please accept our apologies.

Fallen-off PEM insert in back-plate. This isn't a common occurence. I think this could have happened in transit so i can't yell at the QC people, but for this to happen, the insert must not have been pressed properly to begin with. Again, not a common occurence.

Please return the block to chilled-pc, they will exchange it for you. RMA's aren't done factory direct with Europe, it all goes thru our Master Distributor in France.

Email me with your information at gabe@swiftech.com so I can inform the ppl at chilled-pc.

[PiLsY]

Thanks for the personal reply and a slight apology for the tirade towards the end of my post - I was very frustrated at the time! Just glad I had a good check over the block before pulling my loop apart.

I'll email you tomorrow gabe with my details and chilled pc order number etc, will also let tom know to expect to hear from you.

My sister is visiting next weekend so unless I get some unexpected free time im not going to be able to get this fitted now for a good 10 days ( 2 days off then \o/ ). I know its wrong to wish these mishaps on other people but im sure others are as its always happening to me .

[Edit - by "mishaps" I meant the water block issues, not my sister visting . Although...]

[ChielScape]

@ PiLsy, referencing Post #294 -

lets hope this is just a freak occurrence.

[PiLsY]

I'm certain it is. Its just my luck dude .

I think I just got what you could call a "Friday afternoon Ferrari".