ap·o·gee: The farthest or highest point; the apex; a final climactic stage. In this case they are no doubt referring to the PC "Apex". :)

"Holy synchronicity Batman", chalk one up for C. G. Jung. Synonyms aside we are here to look at Swiftech's latest water cooling creation, the Apogee CPU Block. Swiftech has come a long way since the first "Fisher-Price" looking kits they released upon entering the water cooling arena. But by jumping into a untapped market early and aligning themselves with some very talented people from a ever growing community and employing the engineering skills that had propelled them to the pinnacle of the air cooling market, Swiftech has come to be a major player in the water cooling market place. When Swiftech introduced the Storm some months ago, many may have thought they would probably rest on their laurels for awhile and let others play catch-up. Nope.

When Swiftech acquired Stew Forster's design for the Storm cpu block, they immediately had a very high performance block in their stable. But at a cost, the Storm is a rather expensive block to manufacture with all the intricate machining required. The average price is still around $80 and can be found listed as high as $129 (ack!). The Storm also requires a more expensive pump to operate at peak efficiency. Plus, impingement style blocks such as the Storm are not always the best choice for use with multiple block applications. In an effort to cut costs and still produce a block that could cool the current crop of larger die and dual core processors, Swiftech developed the Apogee.

Swiftech has gone back to basics with the Apogee adhering firmly to the first rule of water cooling:

The more water flowing through a water block, the better it cools.

The second rule being:

When in doubt, see rule number one.

For the record, Swiftech calls it Computational Fluid Dynamics analysis and it's actually a great deal more complicated than what I describe, but the basic principal holds true.

In the process they have managed to cut the cost of the Apogee by nearly half that of the Storm. Like the very successful MCW6000 series blocks before it, the Apogee is a low restriction block that should play very well with other blocks in a cooling loop while utilizing a fairly modest pump. The 6000's were one of the lowest restriction blocks available, the Apogee is even better in that respect.

Packaging

The Apogee arrived well packed for its trip from Signal Hill California. The packaging is uninspired to say the least, no fancy graphics, no bright colors, no fancy vacu-formed plastic. If it helps keep costs down, I'm all for the simple approach. Pictures of half naked barbarian women and such on the box, while nice to look at, are not going to end up inside your computer. Like me, you'll paint 'em on the side where you can see them. Ultimately any packaging is going to end up in the same trash can as the Apogee's plain brown wrapper.