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Originally Posted by nikhsub1
I just wish that Lee did the CPU test with a known dog, IE maze 3 or 4, I bet either of those would have performed in that test as well as the storm or the apogee. Then what? All blocks are suddenly equal?
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My old Maze3 is on the CPU and testing now...
I contacted Swiftech and expressed my concerns about the shavings and thickness of the top housing. I was not surprised to receive an immediate reply and hear they were already aware of the concerns, had investigated them in-house, and have implemented corrective action where necessary. Here is a direct quote from Gabe:
Copper shavings: Nothing is loose shavings when delivered. Each base plate is inspected in production, and cleaned up. Some might have escaped scrutiny. After all, these pins are really tiny. The lady doing this is now using a big magnifying glass to see well. In any case, you really have to scrape them with a sharp tool to remove them, which is what she is doing. Also note that the bigger pieces (on the outside perimeter) that you showed on your site are actually left over pins from the machining not “shavings” or burrs. These are normally solidly attached to the base. Finally, we have also taken steps in production to completely eliminate any shavings using a new process.
Gabe is correct about the few tiny shavings I found. Too small to see until I hunted them down with a magnifying glass, and they did have to be pried out with a fine dental tool.
I inspected the “thin” areas as you mentioned, and they completely meet our specs. Pressure tests at 40 PSI resulted in no problems on 100’s of blocks (the pressure we test at). We also did some destructive testing this morning on 20 of these housings, using a heavy hammer and hitting the top of the housing (inlet & outlet), which places a direct stress on the alleged “weak” spots, and NONE failed. The entire housing will eventually disintegrate when hit hard enough, but we found absolutely no signs of stress related failures.
I read in Pro Cooling that some people are concerned about pushing the tube in and breaking the housing. Well, we “pushed the tube” on 20 blocks with repeated blows of a hammer… When you “push” hard enough, the housing will explode in pieces. I will therefore advise users who push the tubing that hard to wear protective glasses… Joke aside; I think your concerns with respect to the thickness of the wall are unfounded. The fact that ONE user reported a problem, problem that we cannot even verify since he epoxied the water-block does not mean that there is a problem with the housing. It means that either we did a poor job at QC, or that something else happened with this water-block that the user is not reporting.
I also decided to abuse the Apogee top cover I had sectioned, and found it to be very tough. Pushing, pulling, prying, etc. – in general applying a lot more force to the hose barb than I ever would under normal circumstances, without any signs of cracking or failure. I even gave it a few good whacks with a hammer and nothing.