Introduction and System Setup
Swiftech MCX-370 Aluminum HSF Review
This content was originally featured on Amdmb.com and has been converted to PC Perspective’s website. Some color changes and flaws may appear.
Gabriel Rouchon the founder and driving force of Swiftech has developed a well earned reputation for producing high quality HSF’s. Swiftech has introduced a new/revision of their very popular MC-370 all aluminum heatsink, the MCX-370. Never one to sit back on his laurels, Gabe has produced what I consider to be the best “All Aluminum” high performance HSF available anywhere in the world.The changes found in the MCX-370 range from new (Pat. Pending) pins to a much finer micro-finish on the bottom of the heatsink (contact area). But, I see I’m getting ahead of myself again, more on these later.
The test system is a high performance, well cooled Athlon 1.2 GHZ 266 FSB AXIA CPU on an Abit KT7A-Raid motherboard housed in a Lian-Li PC-60 Aluminum Case with all the amenities including Silver Series Rounded IDE Cables and three Panasonic Panaflo 80mm fans producing 47 cfm’s each.
Our tests are conducted under real world conditions in a closed case using a mix of software that best reflects the usage patterns of the great majority of computers used day in and day out.
Our tests run for a consecutive four day period. To record temperatures, we employ Award Bios, Via Hardware Monitor and a heat sensor applied next to the CPU’s core from the DigitalDoc5. The room temperature of 74 degrees Fahrenheit or 23 degrees Celsius is maintained +/- four tenths of a degree.
The mix of software used in our study consisted of business and accounting applications, a varied combination of utilities, AutoCAD Lite, graphic intensive packages, 3D games, surfing the net and burning our favorite CD’s.
Fifty readings per day are taken for a total of 200 separate readings, with the high and low readings for each day removed leaving a total 192 readings. This method is referred to as a Weighted Average.
It is important to note that our interests lay in high performance and that noise generated is not an issue. The MCX-370 is supplied with a very good Papst 33 CFM fan that was not used so we could maintain continuity in our comparison to other HSF’s. The exact same 60mm Delta 37 cfm fan that produces 46.5 dBA’s has been used in every one of our tests of heatsinks using a 60mm fan.
