Introduction

The patent Pending MCR Drive™ series of heat exchangers represent yet another world-first innovation from Swiftech® . For many years, it has been our goal to integrate and combine several elements of a standard liquid cooling kit in order to save space and reduce cost of ownership, while preserving performance and enhancing functionality.

Integrated liquid cooling systems are not new: water-block & pump, reservoir & pump, even heatsink & pump have been on the market for several years. In fact Swiftech's own patent pending Apogee™ Drive series which integrates pump and CPU waterblock have been in service since 2007.

Enters the MCR Drive™ concept: a unique computer radiator with a built-in pump housing and a reservoir. This concept is the foundation for a simple, powerful, yet versatile liquid cooling system where only CPU and/or Graphics waterblocks need to be added. Among many others, one of the great benefits of this solution is to guarantee immediate and future compatibility of the core cooling system with any CPU and/or GPU form factors available on the market.

If we look at competing products, many of the entry level liquid cooling kits which are now available to the public only provide incremental performance improvements when compared to high-end heat pipe heatsinks; they also offer limited compatibility with various CPU form factors, and most feature a hermetically closed loop thus disallowing the addition of graphics or chipset cooling in the loop. With this in mind, we believe that if one is to make the jump to liquid cooling, he might as well enjoy the full benefits of the added performance headroom afforded by the use of dual, triple or even quad radiators.

On the other hand, many new comers to the liquid cooling technology face serious difficulties in integrating the multiple components that are commonly used in traditional DIY kits in their space constrained PC environment. Thus, by combining a high-performance radiator with a powerful pump and including a reservoir to form a single unit, we aim at simplifying the task of building a world-class cooling system in just about any PC, as well as one that is future-proof by allowing users to simply swap their CPU or GPU water-block whenever they will upgrade their system.

The implications of this new invention are fairly far reaching, because there finally is a truly high performance cooling solution that is safe, easy to integrate in a PC, and future proof. This solution solves many of the issues faced not only by consumers, but OEM's and system builders in search for a reliable and effective system-wide cooling system.
At the time of release, the MCR Drive™ heat exchangers are available in two versions: dual 120mm, and triple 120mm.

The pump used in this application is the MCP350, probably one of the most sold PC pumps in the market today. The heat exchangers are the MCR220-QP and MCR320-QP, also two of the most commonly used radiators in the DIY enthusiast community because of their exceptional noise/performance and price/performance ratios.

MCR220 DRIVE™ EXPLODED




The MCR Drive units are sold in two configurations:

Features and Benefits

Performance

Performance curves of the radiators and pump are similar to their respective non-integrated counterparts. However, overall system pressure drop is noticeably improved compared to a traditional setup due to a substantial reduction in the length of the flow path, as well as in the number of fittings (2 fittings instead of 6). An additional performance benefit is the new-found ability to run the MCP350 pump with 1/2" lines.

Links to individual performance curves and specifications:

• MCR220 QP Radiator
• MCP350 Pump
  

Installation (orientation) guidelines

•  Installation against a computer panel:

Overall Dimensions, Including pump

Width	5.0"(128mm)
Height	12.1"(309mm)
Thickness	2.9"(74mm)
Weight	36.5oz(1079g)

    
Radiator general construction

• 2-pass, single row construction
• Brass body and tubes, louvered copper fins
• Brass pump housing
• Optimized fin-density for max heat dissipation at low noise
• Patent-pending integrated pump housing
• M3.5 threaded fan and case-mounting holes
• Slim form factor 11.2 x 5 x 1.3" (284 x 128 x 34mm)
• 1/4" NPSM threaded hubs
• High-durability acrylic paint finish
• ROHS compliant
  

Pump specifications