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Swiftech Quiet Power Barebones Case - Since the original revision of the review, we've gotten a chance to test a faster Athlon, and made a few more observations about the Q-Power.
 
 
Date: December 8, 2002
Catagory: Cases & Cooling
Manufacturer:
Written By:


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The water block came screwed down to the back of the case with a piece of Styrofoam under it to protect the face of the block.  I was satisfied with the finish of the heat sink.  There were no discernable machining marks and it looked fairly smooth.  I probably could have polished it up a bit more but I got this case in the first place because I am just lazy that way.


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I was impressed that Swiftech thought to use thumbscrews on the most accessed panel on the case.  It is a nice little touch that makes my life easier.  The case did come without a power supply but that is to be expected and even preferred these days as the power supplies you get from manufacturers tend to be sub par.  Just subtract the price of the supply and I prefer to buy my own, thanks. 

There were a couple of annoying things about the case as well though.  There are four screws holding the top plate on, two in the rear and two in the front under the face plate.  To remove the plate you need to pull the face off the case.  Seems simple enough as the face looks to just pop off allowing access to the screws except for the fact there is a tiny screw holding the face on that is hidden by a rolled edge.  Luckily, in my excitement to get the face off nothing was broken.  The instructions were pretty lacking in the directions department as it looks like they just threw in the ones included with the Do-It-Yourself kit.  Instructions that are relevant to this particular case would have been handy.  I also would have liked to have seen a few more bells and whistles.  A motherboard tray would be a nice touch but I can understand that one with the placement of the radiator.  For the price it would have been great for Swiftech to throw in at least a temperature sensor that connected to the water block or, even better, monitored the temperature of the water itself as well as the CPU.  Just a thought.

They did include plenty of hardware.  All of the 5.25” drives have rails for easy install/removal.  The bag of hardware is more than enough even if you drop a couple of pieces.  They include an Allen wrench for the screws that secure the removable adapters for Intel motherboards and a small tube of Arctic Silver Alumina to make sure you are getting the most out of their setup.

Also included were two extra pieces of hose for filling/draining the system and the tool used to release the hoses from Swiftech’s intelligent, if simple, setup.  When you want to cycle the fluid or, if you have changed it to remove any air from the system, you simply turn the center valve to the off position and the two other valves to the on position (you will want the drain/fill hoses hooked up at this point) and supply power to the relay that controls the pump.  If you are working the air out of your system you just put the pickup side in the bottom of a container full of your cooling solution and the outlet pointed into the same container and let it run for a bit to work out all the bubbles. 

Swiftech ships the system with a 75%/25% water/propylene glycol (green antifreeze, NOT the red Dexcool stuff) solution.  I like to go one step further and add Water Wetter to the mix to get the maximum cooling effect.  The pump, as mentioned, is controlled by a relay that connects to one of your molex plugs.  When the system power is turned on the pump comes on as well.  A very handy setup.  The power for the pump comes into the case via a standard computer plug like the one that connects to the back of your power supply.

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