Swiftech Apogee XT review

I have received new Swiftech Apogee XT waterblock on the New Year’s Eve. This new top waterblock became the leader among other competitors by combining high performance, low flow resistance and convenience of tubing setup. More details concerning waterblock’s specification can be found in this news.

Finally, I can lay my hand on this new arrival. Let’s see what exactly is this Swiftech Apogee XT made from.

The box is pretty stiff making it hard to damage its content during shipment:

First thing that I didn’t like — the box black paint smears. And it was a surprise for me to know that this waterblock was made in China. The manufacturer never mentioned that fact anywhere.
Well, I was little disappointed — $80 for a Chinese waterblock.

Like the other Swiftech products this box includes standard kit:

• Waterblock with a pre-installed Socket type LGA1366 backplate
• Socket type LGA 1156 backplate
• Manual in English, Italian and Spain
• Two fitting for ID 1/2″ tubing
• Two hose clamps for OD 3/4″ tubing
• Arctic Ceramicue TIM

There were no hex-nut wrench inside. Top plate is universal — mounting holes make this waterblock compatible with Socket type LGA775, LGA 1156 and LGA1366 motherboards. Only Swiftech APOGEE XT Ultra Extreme version has two backplates inside the box. The AMD platform mounting kit is optional. Backplate for Socket type LGA775 is shipped personally after you sent request to company and confirm waterblock purchase. When I took off the pre-installed backplate I noticed another small drawback — the bolt-trough screws had poor quality of the thread, in some places there were no thread at all. The base of the waterblock is covered with a protective tape that has to be removed before installing:

When removed tape there was surface of quite high quality, lapped liked the mirror:

Unscrew six bolts that are holding the top and the base of the waterblock together. Micro-pin structures is very similar to the one HK v.3 has, but without insertable distributor plate:

I was curious — if bent matrix pins were “designed in USA” or “made in China”. The top is made from one piece of copper and black chrome painted. I am not a specialist in this field but I think it was coated using galvanization. I hope that paint won’t come off like it did on previous Apogee GTX models, thereby, the waterblock became cluttered. Now just put all the waterblock parts together and lets move on to the fitting installation. My favorite Bitspower Fat Boy 1/2″ fittings and Apogee XT:

OD 3/4″ tubing when installed leave a small space for hose clips. Compression fitting for OD 5/8″ and OD 3/4″ tubing won’t fit. The manufacturer took this aspect into confederation and came up with the following decision — modular inlet plate allowing alternate inlet positioning, therefore, even the largest compression fittings can be installed without problems. This plate is secured with six small hex-nut bolts. Underneath it there is a small chamber:

The modular inlet plate is symmetric. Turn it round by 180° and install any compression fittings with ease. This is how Apogee XT looks together with Feser ID 1/2″ OD 3/4″ compression fittings:

Let’s not forget that such plate positioning will surely increase the Flow resistance and decrease waterblock’s performance. The manufacturer demonstrates it on the following graph:

This is where the current review of the new CPU flagship waterblock ends. There are lots of performance results of it in Internet, for example, here is one in English. If you are worried about every tenth of the degree of the CPU temperature and installation convenience — Apogee XT is an option for you. As for me personally, I was a bit displeased about all the drawbacks found: it is surly not worth to pay $80 and quality of it needs to be controlled better.

In addition:

Made a short comparative test and became upset:

WC Loop: DDC3.2 + XSPC Res Top -> RX360 -> Enzotech Sapphire -> MCW30 -> SW-16 MOSFET -> MCW60

A change of waterblock only – Enzotech Sapphire to Swiftech Apogee XT – decreased water flow level from 380 l/h to 180 l/h.