Closer Examination

As mentioned before, Swiftech sent the acrylic top version at my request as this is a new step for them, Swiftech having been stern believers in reliability over aesthetics. The pump also comes with an acetal top option for those worrying about possibly overtightening the plugs on the top and cracking it. Both have the same functionality otherwise, except for that the acrylic top can help you see the coolant and any air bubbles through the pump's top of course. The MCP655, as with any other Laing D5, is a fairly bulky pump and thus, you have to make sure you have the space for it. Nearly all D5 pumps, including this very one, use a square form factor top on top of the cylindrical pump motor rotor assembly.


There is a Swiftech sticker on the rotor, and two cables come out its bottom. One of these is the RPM/tachometer + PWM control cable that plugs into any fan header for RPM signal monitoring - preferably the CPU fan header in case your motherboard wants a "fan" signal. Just make sure you plug it into an actual PWM header and not just any four-pin fan header that may or may not be a PWM header. The best way to confirm would be to look at the pinouts as mentioned in your motherboard manual to see if a pin corresponds to a PWM signal vs. a VCC signal. The second cable is to help power the pump and terminates in a full-size female MOLEX adapter for a male MOLEX from your PSU. No sleeving on the cables, which is a shame, although this is exactly how Laing provides them to their customers. I would have liked Swiftech to offer a sleeving service, although since this is not their forte, I do respect them for staying away from it at the same time.


The best part of having an acrylic top is the use of coolants that can be seen, as done here with distilled water and one drop of Mayhems UV Green dye. This also helps show the direction of the coolant's flow through the pump. Note the use of two pairs of stop plugs here, the Swiftech ones and two others, with each pair being on an inlet and outlet section accordingly. As such, the top here has an option of two inlet ports and two outlet ports to use, which helps out a lot since you can now have a lot more flexibility in your tubing and plumbing layout. All four ports were threaded perfectly too.


Disassembly is fairly easy, although not encouraged if you have already purchased the pump top unit to begin with. Four countersunk hex head screws on the bottom keep everything in place, and the pump itself is held in place inside the top using a housing plate (the top itself is often also referred to as the pump housing). The top has a well-designed volute, which looks no different from most others visually, but has a big impact on performance, and we will take a look at this soon. The pump itself has the usual magnetic impeller, a closed vane one at that, on a ceramic ball bearing. A Laing D5 needs coolant to lubricate the impeller as it spins and pushes the coolant out, and so, you do not want to run it dry. This also means that the coolant actively cools the pump, and thus, the MCP655 runs cooler than, say, a Laing DDC.

Installation

Installing the MCP655 is fairly straightforward. You want to have the mounting brackets aligned outward, such that the Swiftech logo is facing out, before screwing both in using the provided screws. As such, you will need a Philliips head screwdriver here, so this is not a tool-less installation. Once done, mark the holes in the feet of the bracket and use a 4.5 mm (3/16") drill to cut holes into your case or wherever else you want to install the pump. With that done, use the provided case-mounting screws, washers, and nuts as described in the manual. You might be able to get away with double-sided tape or even go with a more intricate solution, such as the Shoggy sandwich, to isolate pump-case vibrations even further.


If you get the newer installation kit, it will be similar, except with the grommets in place above the case and the washers and nuts below. Swiftech is considering having the grommets secured in place on the pump brackets out of the box, which I think is a nice move and will help a lot with installation, especially with other cables in the vicinity blocking hand access.