Above you see the SwiftTech MCX462-V beside an all-copper Thermalright SLK900-A. Of all the many heatsinks that have come across the PCA testing board, that SLK900-A is the best. That is the one we'll be comparing this MCX462-V to. So no slack will be cut here. We'll soon find out if this SwiftTech is a contender, or another pretender.

• Chieftec case (2 80mm fans as intake, 2 80mm fans as exhaust (no side fan)
• Shuttle AN35N Ultra
• AMD 2500+ overclocked @ 3200+ (11x200)
• 2 512MB sticks of Mushkin pc3200 DDR
• BFG 5600U
• Fortissmo III
• Maxtor 160GB 7200
• WD 120GB 7200
• TV Card
• CDRW & DVD
• Coolmax 550W psu (3 fans)

Testing was done with room temp maintained at 75 degrees. Idle temp is taken after a fresh boot and waiting at least 30 minutes and while surfing the net. Load was accomplished by running the prime95 cpu torture test for at least an hour. Side panel is closed.

First test below is with both heatsinks using the very quiet 80MM NMB fan which puts out about 26.5cfm.

*Please Note: All temps are in fahrenheit, not celsius.

The graph below shows the results using an 80MM Tornado fan on both heatsinks with the fan on a more quiet speed of 3100, and on the top speed of 5700rpm, using a fan controller:

Below you see results when using the 92MM Tornado first on a more quiet 2600 speed, and on the top speed of 4800:

Asking a combination of aluminum and copper to beat a heavy all-copper heatsink is asking a lot. And as you can see, all copper wins out in each test. These results stayed the same on two motherboards and several installs of the SwiftTech heatsink. I wanted to be sure I installed it correctly.

Ok, so this SwiftTech MCX462-V isn't the king of cpu cooling. But those results are not bad at all and will most certainly keep your processor cool, even when overclocked. It is competitive and it does rank among the best. And as you can see, you do not need a intolerable fan on it to keep your cpu cool and stable.

• Cooling is excellent
• Accepts either 80 or 92MM fans
• Very secure fit
• Good instructions included
• Cools well with quiet fans
• Solid copper baseplate
• Sturdy and Very well built

• Rather heavy at 650g (23.2 oz)
• Price is a bit high
• Can be a challenge to install and remove

SwiftTech has made a very interesting heatsink with this the MCX462-V. Honestly, I really thought it would cool better than the SLK900A, that's why I tried many installs with it to be sure I had it set right. I also learned the more I installed and removed it, the easier it became. So if you do get this heatsink, I suggest to try it with no cpu a few times to be sure you have the hang of it.

As for the looks? You be the judge of that. From reading around the net it seems many either hate it, or love it. And hey, if a heatsink performs what you want, who cares about the looks. One can always place a lighted or led fan on top for that matter. No it doesn't beat the solid all-copper slk900a heatsink, but the results are not bad at all. This would be a fine choice for any cpu and for overclocking too.

Many thanks goes out to the people at SwifTech for making this review possible. Direct Link to the MCX462-V page. It IS Made in the USA!

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