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PCExtreme.net - Swiftech MCX462+T Review.
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Swiftech MCX462+T


Review Date: March 12, 2003
Reviewed by: Chad Rose
Edited by: Roman Robinson
Sponsored by: SwiftTech

First of all I would like to say that this was one of the most frightening experiences of my life. Hence the procrastination, since I have had this item for well over a month now. I mean think about it, you are about to strap something to your motherboard to cool your processor which in turn might burn up your processor if you don't do everything right. Right?! Well let's get it on. Here is the review.






First of all you will see what I got from the box 'o' goodies. There was a ten ton monstrosity hidden inside with the almighty 226-watt TEC bolted to the bottom of it. I have to say that I do like this heat sink in its standard form. It must have kept the engineers at Swiftech quite busy for a while developing this setup.




With all the parts ready and available for assembly except for the dielectric grease, that's not included for some odd reason, and some 'basic' instructions, which you must follow step by step skipping nothing, it's time to mount this thing up to give it a go.




Nothing could have been easier to install, except for the fact that you have to literally remove your motherboard from your case to add the adapters to the four holes that you hopefully have in your motherboard. I say hopefully because I have noticed on at least one of my Socket A motherboards it does not have these required holes. You also must fear from this point on that this hunk of dead weight doesn't just accidentally shear your processor socket with the 4 mounting holes straight out of your motherboard.






I have also forgotten to mention till now that you must have a dedicated power supply for this thing, because your standard 300watt 10-amp power supply you have running your machine right now won't cut it. Swiftech recommends that you have an ATX Power Supply with at least 26-amp on the +12v circuit. Now how many power supply's have you seen out there with that rating? Not very many. There is also the alternative of buying a literal dedicated power supply for around $115US, with no less than 20-amp on the +12v, and powering it that way. But if you just have to have peltier cooling this would be the one to get. Well to get past my rambling this is what we used to power it:






It's the almighty Thermaltake ATX420-watt Dual Fan Power Supply you asked the spouse or relatives for Christmas and never received. I must note that this power supply is only capable of supplying 18-amp and 226-watts on the 12v circuit, but came highly recommended by others, including Thermaltake, to power this beast.




Well as you can see the motherboard looks awful top heavy with this combination mounted to it. It towers off the board way beyond your imagination. I chose to test this combo with the mobo dismounted from the case so I could see what was going on with the setup throughout testing



System Spec's:
The MCX462+T specifications: Temperatures:


As you can see from the tests it, faired pretty well. I kind of regret running the tests open board because it didn't give closed case values for you readers. After running the peltier for one hour, I didn't notice any condensation at all. Of course, the room temperature at the time was around 14C. I did notice, however, that the heatsink gets extremely warm so it is very important that you bolt a very well meaning 80mm fan to the top of it. I used the Vantec Tornado to do the required job. I do know that if you don't use the included foam seals, the condensation that will be produced will be allowed to run rampant over your very sensitive circuitry. I would also like to point out that insulating the socket is very important because temperatures could reach below freezing when setup correctly. But as far as overall performance, I was pretty pleased considering that I am a first time user of these wicked beasts.


Conclusion.

Being this is my first time dealing with a peltier of any kind I did my best to not be overly critical and tried hard not to show my lack of knowledge. Dealing with Swiftech products in the past I have never been disappointed by their level of expertise, quality and outstanding workmanship. This was one fine product in my book. From the first time I opened the box containing the MCX462+T I couldn't keep from looking at it over and over again. If you purchase this product you will admire the amount of care and attention to detail that was put into the engineering of this product. It is worth every cent that you pay to have it. With its fine looks it will be the focal point of bragging rights to all your buddies, although, it may tick you off that it is the center of attention from time to time. It just boasts pure power in pure form. Ok, enough of all that. I figure once you have made the investment into one of these, I don't think you would be disappointed one bit. Well for my rating of this fine product I have got to give it 5 out of 5 X's because of the ease of install, good looks and decent performance. I was very pleased with the overall results of this monster.




For more info, go here.






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