Swiftech Roundup Featuring the MCX462+

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I was browsing through the Swiftech website the other day and found some pretty good information about them. They currently have about 15 employees, making them a small company. Swiftech, however, has a big name. They are very well known throughout the overclocking community. Their heatsinks can only get better, bringing overclockers to higher overclocks while keeping temperatures at a minimum. Today we have the complete set of Swiftech Socket A heatsinks. (all but one were purchased myself) It goes way back to the beginning of the MC370 to the present MCX462+. Does it get better as newer models and revisions come out? See what I have to say...

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Introduction
I was browsing through the Swiftech website the other day and found some pretty good information about them. They currently have about 15 employees, making them a small company. Swiftech, however, has a big name. They are very well known throughout the overclocking community. Their heatsinks can only get better, bringing overclockers to higher overclocks while keeping temperatures at a minimum. Today we have the complete set of Swiftech Socket A heatsinks. (all but one were purchased myself) It goes way back to the beginning of the MC370 to the present MCX462+. Does it get better as newer models and revisions come out? See what I have to say...

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History Background
I don't normally do background checks and dig up company information but since this is a Swiftech Roundup I figured why not. I have been a big fan of Swiftech heatsinks ever since the MC370. A big note I have to make before going any further is that I am in no way biased towards Swiftech. I don't say good things about this company just because I like them, their products just amaze me. I like many heatsink companies for many different products, such as Zalman for their P4 solution, Alpha Novatech for the best price/performance ratio, and Thermaltake for their awesome GPU coolers. Swiftech is plain and simple, the best solution out there for socket A cooling applications. OK enough chattering, back to the background.

Swiftech was founded in 1994 by Gabriel Rouchon. They began to have sudden interest in the overclocking business due to the success of the early Celerons that were about to outperform the Pentium IIs. Swiftech eventually made cooling solutions for socket processors and also researched into thermo-electric (TEC) cooling technologies. Now, they manufacture watercooling barebone systems (Such as the Swiftech QPower)and kits, air cooling heatsinks, and both air and watercooled TEC blocks. It is quite obvious that Swiftech didn't take long to become well known amongst the PC enthusiast crowd.

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MC370
This was the very first socket processor solution, compatible with both the Socket A and Socket 370. It is made entirely of aluminum. This was their very first heatsink that used pins instead of the traditional fins. It was a strange idea at first that Swiftech decided to use pins instead of fins. Many people doubted the performance, but they soon find that that was not the case. I have come to believe that pins really do work better than fins. From the look of the picture it is slightly noticeable that my heatsink has been used. There is an imprint of the AMD stepping and codes from the core. The bottom of the base does have a nice smooth flat finish to it. The thing I love Swiftech the most is the installation system. Unlike conventional heatsinks that uses clips, Swiftech uses springs to put pressure onto the processor. This gives it just enough pressure to make good contact without crushing the core. Installing and removing the heatsink was a breeze. I did not have to remove all my hardware and motherboard to install this heatsink. A definite plus! The MC370 comes with 4 screws for the 60mm fan. It is very straightforward. No hassles there.

 

MCX370
The MCX370 is a revision of the older brother. Swiftech uses their patented helicoid pin design that gives the pins twice the amount of surface area, thus increasing cooling performance. The ribbed helicoid pins also promote micro-turbulence which helps airflow. Swiftech also changed the prong on their clip. It now clamps onto all 3 teeth of the socket instead of the just clamping onto 1, like the MC370. Another difference was the inclusion of 4 dual-layered rubber spacers. These rubber spacers absorb fan vibration, thus emitting less noise. The rubber spacers also give the fan an uplift so that the air blown will cover the entire heatsink.

 

MCXC370
The MCXC370 is the last revision of the budget line of Swiftech coolers. The extra "C" at the end should mean "copper", since it has a copper base. The use of copper allows the heatsink to have higher heat capacity and obviously perform better. Other than the base being different material, the MCX370 and the MCXC370 are identical.

 

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