Swiftech MC370-0A Review
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Here at OCA over the past year or so we've had a chance to look at several budget coolers, the MC370-0A I will tell you right now does NOT fall into that catagory. The MC-370 from Swiftech is a bit pricey compared to a lot of the coolers on the market today, weighing in at $USD47.00. What I plan to accomplish with this review is pointing out the features, performance, awe factor, and value. All of these are normal traits of a review, but value here is the trick, is the MC370-0A really worth all that jack? Let's find out...
Swiftech MC370-0A Review
Manufacturer: Swiftech
Availability: Now
Price: USD$47.00 (Sidewinder Computers)
Reviewed by: Jim (Justifier) Miller
Here at OCA over the past year or so we've had a chance to look at several budget coolers, the MC370-0A I will tell you right now does NOT fall into that catagory. The MC-370 from Swiftech is a bit pricey compared to a lot of the coolers on the market today, weighing in at $USD47.00. What I plan to accomplish with this review is pointing out the features, performance, awe factor, and value. All of these are normal traits of a review, but value here is the trick, is the MC370-0A really worth all that jack? Let's find out...
The Unit:
When I took the 370 out of the box I knew right away that this wasn't your run of the mill heat sink. From it's weight, quality workmanship, high quality Pabst fan, and clipping mechanism, all the way to it's foam base protector that Swiftech included. I'm not one that is afraid of challenging your bandwidth, so let me throw some clickable thumbnails up to show you exactly what we're looking at.
As you can see in the above pictures, the 370 is a rather large heat sink, but has a small enough footprint not to interfere with the capacitors on our relatively space limited Abit KT7-Raid. Another thing you may notice is the braided wire sheath that covers the fan cable, now this is a nice touch. If you are REALLY observant you'll see that the clipping mechanism is unlike any we've ever come across before, we'll get into that in a bit.
On thing that really impresses me is when a company packages a product well and includes the little things that make a difference. Swiftech did not hold back in this category. Not only does the 370 come packaged well enough the withstand the war with gravity that UPS is sure to put it thru, but also comes with a nice portion of heat sink grease as well as add on rubber feet to be used with the fragile AMD and Intel Coppermine CPU's. We didn't need the feet because we use a copper spacer, and we didn't use the grease because we wanted to use our standard paste for comparison purposes, but these are nice touches all the same.
For those of you that are accustom to breaking out the sand paper and lapping the bottom of every new heat sink you get, prepare to be surprised. This coolers bottom is actually smooth! That's right, not machine pits or deformities. I'm telling ya, this unit is top notch quality all the way around.
The Fan:
The fan on this unit is a Pabst 60mm, 6850RPM, and 33CFM fan. I can't tell you how impressed I am with this fan. Not only does it perform almost as well as the Delta vacuum cleaner, er, I mean 38CFM fan, but it is MUCH quieter. The Pabst fan weighs in at 43dB whereas the Delta is 46.5dB. This may not seem like a big difference, but believe me, it SOUNDS like a big difference! Where the Delta has a distinct very loud WHINING sound, the Pabst is more of a low hum. Don't be mistaken, the Pabst on the 370 is still louder than your standard 4800RPM Y.S. Tech 60mm fan, it is MUCH less likely to get you thrown out of your house than the Delta is.
Since the RPM's are very close to the Delta, the only thing I can attribute the reduced noise to is the number of fins on the fan. The Delta has 7, the Pabst just 6. I certainly wouldn't think 1 fin could make that much of a difference, but after listening to the two side by side I am obviously wrong.
The one complaint I have about this fan is that it comes pre-wired to a 4 pin Molex connector and there is not RPM monitoring capabilities. I have looked at the fan and I do see a third solder point that COULD offer that, but as I'm writing this I don't know.
The Clip:
If you're asking yourself right now why the clip is worth a separate section then you've obviously never put a GlobalWIN heat sink on a CPU! After performance the clip is probably the most important thing to consider when buying a heat sink fan unit. Let me make a statement right now, the clip that comes on the MC370-0A is the BEST AND SMARTEST CLIP DESIGN I HAVE EVER SEEN! I can make it no clearer than that boys, this thing is PERFECT. Every clip I've ever used relies on you putting pressure (sometimes a lot of it) on top of that CPU you just dropped your jack on. Not the 370, with the 370 the only pressure that will ever be applied to your CPU is that of two springs that are designed to hold the cooler in place.
Let me show you a few pics and then try to explain:
Alright, let me try to explain how this works without confusing the hell outta myself. What you see in the pics is a metal tab that is mounted onto the cooler with a spring loaded screw. The looser you make the screw the higher it the clip to go, the tighter you make it, it drops it down further. When you mount this you tighten the screws two turns each (this gives you plenty of room to slide the notched tabs over the Socket tits.) Once you have the heat sink in place, remember, you've still not put any pressure on the CPU other than sitting the cooler on it. Now loosen the screws, there is one on each side, until the head of the screw is just a little higher than the top of the clip. THAT'S IT! What that accomplishes is now the full strength of both springs are holding your CPU in place. Did I confuse anyone? One more way... When you loosen the screws, the tab that is over the tits will catch so as you back off the screw heads the clip is being held in place by the pressure of the springs and the tabs.
This PR pic above illustrates the clip with a peltier unit, which brings me to my next point. The height of this is completely adjustable. So if you want to use a peltier there's plenty of room, if ya don't, STILL plenty of room. I'm telling you, this is simply the smartest design I've ever seen. In a day where we have the CPU crushing Orb coolers, it's nice to see a company put thought into something that so many manufacturers today simply view as minor detail.
Moving on, let's take a look at performance and wrap this thing up....
Next: Conclusion page 2 >>
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