Installation and Conclusions
To achieve the best airflow through this case I cut out several of the stamped fan openings.![]() |
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The new H2O 120 compact fully installed
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H2O 120 compact, MCW30 chipset blocks, stealth blocks, rads and pumps fully installed and running |
All temps taken by on-board sensors via NVIDIA software and are for comparison purposes only, individual results may vary depending on type of case used among other things.


As well I was able to over clock my Q6600 to 3.3 GHz and run it for approximately 12 hrs before it would crash [under full load] however my motherboard has from day one been very flaky and before I could complete testing at 3.3 GHz it died and needed to be sent in for RMA. I will be doing a follow up review at a later date and hope to include these readings in it at that time.
As you can tell the air-cooled solution was destroyed compared to the water cooled solution in the Mozart TX case While I never had the water cooling installed in the Antec 900 gaming case the air-cooled solution did much better compared to the Mozart by about 15c-20c lower on the CPU, 10-15c on the GPU and 5c on the chipset.
Conclusion:
Pros:
The New H2O-120 compact kit from Swiftech delivers what it promises: very easy to install, simple design, and excellent cooling abilities with the option of expanding the system to cool other components. While it is not for everyone, Swiftech has accomplished a very economical compact water cooled solution that will meet the needs of the average enthusiast while being quite cost effective.
As always from Swiftech, detailed instructions providing easy installation were included, along with all components needed to install everything.
The Stealth water blocks cover not only the GPU but the ram as well and look quite sharp.
The entire setup greatly reduced the system noise levels [at least when not over clocking as then the CPU fan needed to be on full] and temperatures.
Cons:
The down side [in my opinion] is that when all four cores are under load on a quad core that the fan needs to be on high to provide sufficient cooling abilities, this can be quite loud and the extra noise can be a turn off for many people. If no over clocking is done and the computer is used for gaming, etc. Then running the fan at a slower speed reduces noise levels greatly while still providing excellent cooling.
I do however think that a dual rad/reservoir would address the noise issue while still providing maximum cooling capabilities for over clocking, Gabe has assured me that this option will be made available later in the year.
All in all, the H2O-120 Compact from Swiftech is a truly effective cooling solution for today’s hardware providing the option of cooling more then just the CPU.
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