Swiftech Apogee GTZ waterblock for Intel Core i7

The word Apogee means the farthest or highest point according to Merriam-Webster. With this definition in mind Swiftech gave this name to their top of the line water block. The Swiftech Apogee under various sub-names (GT, GTZ etc.) is one of the best water blocks out.  But can the Apogee keep Intel’s newest i7 965 cool running full out?
Read on to see if the Apogee GTZ can maintain its orbit or if it crashes to earth in flames.

Product: Swiftech Apogee GTZ for Core i7 (with H20 220 Apex Ultima)
Author: Sean Kalinich
Reviewed on: December 15th 2008
Product cost: $$69.99 (plus $9.95 for i7 mounting kit) $300 for Complete H20 220 Apex Ultima Kit
Manufacturer: Swiftech
Spelling and Grammatical editor: Planetx64 Staff

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Differences:
The Apogee GTZ, according to Swiftech, was designed to improve thermal interface material joint thermal resistance by up to 300% compared to older designs. This is an impressive number but is also based on the 775 and 771 sockets from Intel. The i7, socket 1366, although similar has a much larger area to contact and to maintain equal cooling across.  The difference in CPU and socket size also mandates the need to a different mounting bracket and back plane.
In almost all other respects the Apogee GTZ for i7 is identical to the one for the Socket 775.
For more information on the Apogee GTZ visit Swiftech.com

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Performance:
I know this is what you really want to know about so I will dive straight into the performance side, can the Apogee GTZ keep an i7 cool?

To test this I used a full H20 220 Apex Ultima kit complete with the Apogee GTZ for i7.
This was installed into a Cooler Master ATCS 840 case with the following other hardware:
Intel Core i7 Extreme 965 @ 3.2GHz and 3.97GHz
Asus P6T Deluxe OC Palm Edition
Kingston Tri-Channel  DDR3 2000MHz kit (3x1GB)
Seagate 147GB 15k RPM SAS HDD
2x Zotac AMP! Edition GTX 280 1GB (SLI)
Cooler Master Real Power Pro 850 PSU
Windows Vista Ultimate x64 W/SP1
Temperatures were taken with Core Temp.

I compared the Apogee to the Thermalright Ultra-120 eXtreme RT Air cooler. This high end tower cooler has been able to keep the i7 965 happily running at 3.9GHz for over a month with no thermal issues. I felt it was a good comparison for the Apogee and should give you an excellent idea on performance.

The Tests:
Idle temps were logged after the system was powered on and sitting for 45 minutes.

Load Testing:
HyperPi 0.99b
HyperPi was used as it is able to push both CPU cores up to 100% and keep them there for extended periods. I ran back to back 32M (8 core) runs and recorded peak temps.
AutoGK
AutoGK was used to transcode a full 2 hour movie from DVD source to Xvid at 100% quality; again maximum temps were recorded during the Transcoding.
Lightwave 9.3 x64
For my Lightwave load testing I rendered frame 32 of the moonbase scene (found on the Lightwave 8 content CD1) I used a resolution of 1920×1080 (1080i HD), a 7-Pass PLD AA filter and a Guassian Sharp reconstruction filter; as with all other tests maximum temperatures were recorded.
Gaming:
For Gaming I ran Crysis Warhead for one hour and recorded the high temps for each CPU
Overclocking:
My Overclock was at 3969MHz with the base clock at 189MHz Multiplier at 21. CPU vCore was 1.45 VDimm 1.65 all others set to auto.
Once the stable OC was achieved I ran through all of the tests again.

Thermalright Ultra-120 eXtreme RT

Apogee GTZ

Temps are recorded as Core0/ Core1/ Core2/ Core4. All temps are Celsius.

Notice that the Apogee performs much better under sustained load than the Thermalright Ultra-120 eXtreme. This is due to heat saturation. As I am sure you all know, when a system is under load everything puts out more heat. This causes the air in the case to become hotter, as the internal air temperature increases the cooling ability of any air cooler begins to decline as the fins on a heatsink will only cool down to around the internal ambient temperature. Since the CPU is located very close to other major heat producing parts (GPU, Northbridge, and power regulators) it receives a very concentrated doses of this hot air.
Conversely, since the radiator on most water cooling systems is away from the main concentration of heat (right over the CPU, NorthBridge and GPU) it is able to keep the CPU under the internal ambient temp and lower overall case temperatures.
Of course water cooling effectiveness will depend on the size of your radiator and external ambient temperatures. The larger your radiator is the more efficient the cooling will be.

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Installation:
The H20 2020 Apex Ultima kit that I used for this test was one of the easier water cooling rigs to install. This was mainly due to the CoolerMaster ATCS 840 which has a significant amount of room to maneuver in. The block itself was very easy to install and was actually much easier than the Ultra-120 eXtreme.
With the Ultra-120 eXtreme I had to remove the fan and then tip the case onto its side to mount it. Due to the need to use a long thin Phillips head screwdriver I had to be very careful not to slip as the pressure needed to ensure the screws connected with the back plate was pretty heavy.
The Apogee did not require any screwdrivers, I was able to use my fingers and still get a good firm mount.

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Value:
The Apogee GTZ all by itself (with the 775 mounting bracket) is only about $70. When you add the i7 mount you push this adds an extra $10 to the cost. In all not a bad price for the extra cooling if you already have a water cooling setup. If you are starting from Scratch the H20 220 Apex Ulitma kit that I used for test will set you back $300.00. Of course you will not have to buy the Apogee separate as it is part of the kit, but you will probably have to spend the extra $10 for the i7 mount.

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Conclusion:
I felt that the Apogee GTZ, combined with the Swiftech H20 220 Apex Ultima kit did a great job of keeping my i7 965 cool. This was very evident under sustained loads especially gaming where the GPUs started to heat things up. The installation was fairly simple and very straight forward. Filling the kit was also easy with the provided instructions even a first time builder would be able to safely setup the kit.
As far as price goes the block on its own is a very good deal if you already have a water cooling rig. However if you are starting from the ground up the $300 is somewhat pricey considering the cost of the i7 and other parts.
In the end if you are looking for a good quiet cooling system and water is your thing, well you really won’t get much better than Swiftech’s Apogee GTZ. When you combine it with the H20 220 Apex Ultima you get very good performance indeed.  

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Tags: Cooling, liquid cooling, swiftech