Archives
Contact
Contests
Downloads
Forums (down)
History
Links
Reviews
Home

Swiftech MCP350™ 12 VDC Pump

     Seeing as how water-cooling has really become mainstream, the pioneers of the industry still must remain the yardsticks from which to measure good performance. Quite often I have seen people buy anything that mentions PC cooling with water, and its sad to se them buying anything that is just cheap. Of course they are able to gain nothing but a bit of quiet. I guess you get what you pay for, but what if you could find a reasonably priced kit that gave you the kind of plug and play, no hassle performance you've wanted from an alternate form of cooling, like water? Well you've got it. Swiftech has not only started putting their water-cooling systems in mainstream computers like Alienware, but they have been doing it for a REALLY long time. Of course this is a review of their pump, but this pump is the heart of most, if not all of their ready-made systems, so we figured lets throw it in a 3 block dual bay reservoir loop and see if it can hold its own.

Specifications

Small Footprint: 2.4" x 2.4" x 1.5"
50,000 hours MTBF (Mean Time Between Failure) equivalent to 5 years lifetime.
Superior 12 Volts DC convenience: plugs into the computer power supply
The MCP350™ can be used with full confidence in any MP servers, and high-end workstations.
Superior real world performance thanks to its high pressure characteristics (13ft of head). The MCP350™ is particularly well adapted to the proliferation of daisy-chained liquid cooling devices in a single circuit: Multiple Processors, Chipset, Graphics, and Hard Drives.
Quiet Operation thanks to brushless motor: 24 to 26 dBA
3/8" barb fittings.
No maintenance when used with de-mineralized water, and anti-fungal additives (Our HydrX™ additive is recommended)
Quick installation with adhesive neoprene pad, or permanent installation with screws and grommets.
RPM sensor plugs to 3 pin motherboard fan connectors and reports impeller rotational speed (effective 1-24-05)

Technical specifications

Nominal voltage
12 V DC
Operating voltage range
9 to 13.2 VDC
Nominal power (@ 12 V)
8.3 W
Nominal current (@ 12 V)
0.69 amps
Nominal head (@ 12 V)
13.05 ft (4 m)
Nominal discharge (@ 12 V)
~ 92.4 GPH (350 LPH)
Connection size
3/8" barbs (10mm)
Maximum pressure
22 PSI (1.5 BAR)
Temperature range
Up to 140°F (60°C)
Electrical connector
Molex 4 pin
Weight
7.3 oz (207 gr.)
Our noise measurement (non lab environment)
24 ~ 26 dBA in a quiet room @ 2'
Motor type
Electronically commutated, brushless DC, spherical motor
Pump MTBF (Mean Time Between Failures)
50,000 Hours
RPM Sensor
3 pin connector

Features

          What you see is what you get. The MCP350 is essentially a replacement part or an upgrade so I consider it a complete kit since they were so kind as to give us some double-sided sticky tape. Instructions are also included.

          More evidence of Swiftech's care in this kit. The foam backing is hardly needed since the pump is so small and compact it hardly vibrates at all. Of course vibration is to be expected

Throw the backing on the pump and you're good to go. This thing fits anywhere!

The little Swiftech pump rests nicely on a Coolermaster case. Even the side cover clears the low height of the MCP350.

Conclusion

     The Swiftech MCP350 does a really great job at cooling. It was 2.3-3C higher than the DangerDen D-$ pump that I pitted against it at idle conditions, and just 5C higher under load. I would say that this pump is more than capable of performing well under stress! Our test system consisted of a Soltek K890 board, and Winchester 3500 at 1.6v, but it also had 3 blocks, and a dual bay reservoir! For the amount of liquid this little pump had to push that makes it even more impressive! I'd say the only nitpicking things I can pick out is that the wires are not sleeved, and it only comes in a 3/8 ID size. This meant that we had to conjure up some adapters to fit to our 1/2 ID tubing.