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Swiftech MCX478-V Pentium 4 CoolerReview Date: April 18, 2004 Reviewed by: Cory Zerkee Sponsored by: Swiftech With the speed of today’s processors topping 3GHz, the advancements in the cooling market are keeping pace with the rapidly advancing processor technology. Although new architecture from Intel and AMD makes for lower VCore voltages resulting in lower temps, those who overclock and push up the voltages raise the Wattage output significantly, resulting in a need for nothing but the best in HSF market. For those with fat wallets, there is the route of the water cooler or even vapor cooling (oh yea!). If you are like me and money doesn’t sprout in your garden every summer, then air coolers are about the most economical choices out there. Don’t get me wrong, there are some excellent heatsinks out there from companies such as Swiftech, Thermalright, and Zalman. Swiftech is known for making top of the line air cooling solutions as well as water kits. They cover the full spectrum of the cooling market save for the extreme end such as vapor cooling. I have owned Swiftech products before and was nothing but impressed with all of them, so when Swiftech agreed to send me their MCX478-V cooler, I was all over it. The MCX478-V arrived in a small cardboard box with a picture of the heatsink, the Swiftech logo, and a listing of what’s in the box as well as what’s NOT in the box, i.e. a fan. What IS in the box is a bag of goodies including instructions, 80mm and 92mm fan brackets, plastic fan retention rivets, and a small tube of Arctic Alumina thermal paste. Firstly, I want to note that I was extremely impressed that Swiftech included Arctic Alumina with the kit. I am used to the no name thermal crap that I quickly toss and replace with AS3 when I get a new HSF; kudos to them for that bonus. 
 Click for larger view. Firstly, I have to state one thing about this heatsink before I go any further. It is a bloody work of art. Pulling it out of the box made me realize how large and heavy it really is. Weighing in at 22oz (620g), the beast is heavy. The MCX478-V features a massive ½” thick hybrid copper base which is machined to 0.0003” (three ten-thousandths of an inch) and polished to a perfect shine; the thought of lapping this myself did not even cross my mind as it would be a sin to even touch it. The base dimensions are 3"x3.3"x1.66" and the top dimensions 3.75" x 3.5". 
 Click for larger view. The top contains exactly 374 helicoidally machined pins that are press fit to the copper base. The pins are concentrically aligned and bent at varying angles to increase cooling efficiency and cut down on fan noise. I literally said ‘wow’ when I first saw the pins; like I said earlier, this HSF is a work of art.
 Click for larger view. Although the MCX478-V does not come with a fan, it does come with the mounting hardware needed to mount either a 80mm or 92mm fan. The metal brackets attach firmly to the base via 4 screws and can be easily removed or changed using a small screwdriver. This is explained using the exploded diagram included in the instructions. Mounting a fan to the MCX478-V is done using four small plastic reusable rivets that are included also. They easily snap in and lock the fan down although it is much harder to do with the HSF already mounting in your case. The heatsink mounts directly to the stock Intel retention bracket so you don’t have to remove your motherboard. This made me a very happy man as I just finished doing that to swap cases for the Thermaltake review and I wasn’t too thrilled at the idea of having to do it again. 
 Click for larger view. I would highly recommend that you install the heatsink first before the fan because if you are using a 92mm fan, the brackets and fan get in the way of hooking in the hold down clips. I recommend removing two of the fan brackets beforehand to make hooking in the retention clips easier. The clips Swiftech included are somewhat finicky to install as the heatsink is so large it JUST fits in the Intel bracket and the spring pressure of the clips is very high. This is good in that the heatsink is held firmly to the motherboard, but it does make the clips hard to install. Make sure you apply a THIN coat of the included Arctic Alumina paste before installing the heatsink for better thermal conductivity. Once the heatsink is clipped down, the fan can be installed using the rivets. This caused me a bit of grief because there is not too much free room in my case to wrestle with the small rivets. No big deal though, once they are in the fan is mounted firmly and can be removed without tools if needed.  Click for larger view. Well, now that I have told you how it mounts and how much of a masterpiece it is, how does it work? That is what REALLY matters, as we all know, looks aren’t everything, right guys? I ran the idle tests after letting my rig sit for 30 minutes with an ambient temp of 24.5C (as measured with the ambient temp probe in my case). Load temperatures were measured after running Prime95 for 30 minutes also. Temps were taken with Asus Probe v2.22.04 and verified with Motherboard Monitor v5.3.6.0. My test rig is as follows:
I tested temps at the stock speed of 2.8GHz first, and then overclocked to 3.4GHz. Since it is well known that the Prescott CPU’s make great space heaters and scream for water cooling, I was curious to see how the Swiftech MCX478-V fares against the stock Intel cooler. As you can see, the Intel cooler showed an idle temp of 41°C and a load temp of 55°C at the Prescott’s stock speed. The Swiftech, when equipped with a 42.7CFM 92mm Panaflo fan, fared better at 38°C idle and 52°C load. That is an improvement of 3°C idle AND load, for the arithmetically challenged.  Cranking up the speed to 3.4GHz raised the temps to 44°C idle and 59°C load for the Intel cooler, which is dangerously close to the 60°C mark; too hot in my opinion. The Swiftech fared much better keeping the idle temp at 41°C and showing 55°C under load. That is a definite improvement, keeping it a decent distance from the 60°C mark.  There are several companies making heatsink and fan combinations to suite any PC, whether you are a normal user or a crazy overclocker like me. Swiftech is well known in the cooling market as they make high quality cooling solutions for everyone. If you are looking to keep your Pentium 4 running cool, then I strongly urge you take a look at the MCX478-V. The design of this cooler just screams sexy, but as we all know, how well it works is more important. Well, in that department the MCX478-V fares just as well. With a mirror like copper base and Swiftech’s patented helicoidally designed pins, performance is excellent when paired with a decent 92mm fan, although you can use an 80mm if you prefer. Installation is easy if you mount the heatsink before attaching the fan. All in all, I could not find a flaw in this beautifully designed heatsink, so I am going to give it a perfect score. Good job Swiftech.
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