jmke

Swiftech was once one of the biggest names in air cooling but eventually stopped designing new products for the retail market, shifting their focus to watercooling. This happened so long ago that the last last Swiftech heatsink SPCR reviewed was the MCX462-V for socket A! Swiftech continued to quietly produce the MCX series with its easily recognizable helicoid aluminum pin design for newer sockets, but the company has not been in the air cooling game for many years.


Swiftech's return to air cooling is a disappointment for quiet computing enthusiasts. Despite its five massive direct touch heatpipes, the Polaris 120 delivered middling cooling proficiency at best, at least with low airflow. The stock 2500 RPM fan easily exceeds 40 dBA@1m at full speed, so obviously it wasn't designed to be a quiet cooler. The fan sounds much better at low speeds, but it doesn't really become quiet unless you get it down to close to about 4V. It also isn't terribly efficient, getting beaten handily by our reference Nexus fan at comparable noise levels.

http://www.silentpcreview.com/swiftech-polaris120

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