Technical > Overclocking / Modding > [My Review] Adventures in Cooling - Corsair H50

[My Review] Adventures in Cooling - Corsair H50

All installed

offset retention bracket

Lower mounted fan & radiator holes

Header tank; reason for lowering mounting holes

reply to DKS
I've heard "meh" comments about this cooler. I'd be interested in hearing from you guys what you think as you have them longer and overclock. Noise, efficiency, that sort of thing?

reply to DKS
I ended up buying this too, as a result of having broken my Thermalright HR-01, and needing something immediate.

Definitely a better experience than the waterchill I had previously had for my old Athlon XP.
--
Front Line Force Fortress Forever

reply to Ken Peterson

reply to jchambers28

reply to Ken Peterson
I've completely abandoned air cooling for builds with quad/hex cores. I love the H50. The first install takes a bit of tinkering, but once you figure it out, it's simple to install. I've read several reviews that give it a "meh" rating and it's a mystery to me why.

It's not hard to install, it's not expensive and it's quiet.

If it helps you any, my hex core AMD 1090T OC'ed @ 3.8 runs in the mid 40Cs under full load and below room temp at idle.
--
-meh

reply to DKS

koitsu's Q9550 system

reply to DKS

reply to DKS
I think your misreading the intent of Koitsu's reply.

I think he is offering to help you get your temps down to better levels by showing you how he did it.

Temps at Idle

quote:

---

If the screenshot is from the system with water cooling, then those temperatures are a complete atrocity.

---

reply to DKS
Sorry, I should explain myself. There's absolutely no bragging going on here -- I happen to be one of those people who focuses strongly on temperatures, noise, and power draw (in that order). I don't overclock anything I own/use/manage, so that's something to keep in mind as well.

I've never built a water-cooled system before because I'm one of those old dudes who believes putting water near electrical components is an accident waiting to happen[1] -- but, I still occasionally check water cooling systems out because it's very interesting to see the results (cooling-wise).

Water cooling is, generally speaking, expensive. Meaning, the cost of the blocks, tubes, pump, clamps, etc. usually comes to a few hundred USD. The main reason people go with water cooling is to decrease CPU (and GPU, if they have a waterblock on their card) temperatures and sometimes decrease noise (depending on how loud the pump is). The intention, usually, of decreasing CPU temperatures is to provide room/capability for overclocking.

So when I see someone trying out water cooling and sharing their experience -- with screenshots of their temperatures -- my first assumption is to compare what they have to an air-cooled system.

All I'm saying is that I'd expect to see absolutely amazing temperatures, but my Q9550 has lower temps than yours at idle and load, yet I have very few case fans (all running at about 1200rpm) and a single CPU fan (running at between 1200-1500rpm). I'm not flexing my nuts -- I'm simply concerned that your water block may be not be mounted flush against the CPU or something along those lines.

The link I provided above basically says that on an i7 860 -- which runs significantly hotter than your Q9650 and my Q9550 by a longshot -- their idle temperatures are lower than what you're seeing, while their load temperatures are about the same. There's a couple other reviews I skimmed through which show similar behaviour, and one which basically shows there's no temperature improvement but there is an improvement (decrease) in system noise compared to the Intel stock fan (which we all know is absurdly loud, and thus works pretty good as a universal reference point).

Please don't take what I've said to mean "I'm here to piss in your cornflakes". Please take what I said to mean "Was your Q9650, prior to the H50 installation, really idling at 55-62C and 67-71C under load w/out overclocking? If so, maybe we should try to figure out why that is, as that seems awfully high compared to my Q9550 system".

My system consists of the following:

- CPU: Intel Q9550
- MB: Asus P5Q SE
- GPU: BFG nVidia 9800GT ("Low Power" model; model number BFGE981024GTGE)
- Disk: Western Digital WD5001AALS (internal temp 40C according to SMART)
- Case: Antec P182
- CPU HSF: Nexus LXM-8200 with fan powered off 5V header on mainboard, with system BIOS set to adjust fan speed dynamically (approx. 900-1200rpm)
- Fans: Case is using stock fans running at medium speed setting (maybe 1500rpm, not sure)
- Fans: Nexus D12SL-12, located in middle bay, powered via 12V header
- Ambient room temperature is about 76F / 24.4C

Again -- not bragging. This is a very simple air-cooled workstation that's running 24x7x365 in my bedroom. I can take external temperatures using a cheap external IR thermometer if you'd like.

I'm just concerned that something may not be connected quite right or flush with a surface. Quite possibly the temperatures you have are spot on -- I don't know. They just seem high for a water-cooled system, you know? Do you know what your ambient room temperature is? Maybe it's quite high and that would explain the overall difference. Again, I don't know.

[1]: A roommate of mine, many years ago (would have been in 2001) lost literally everything due to a well-known problem with the tubes the water cooling manufacturer provided gradually cracking after ~6 months of use. I forget who the manufacturer was, but it was a very well-known problem. And when I say everything, I do mean everything -- even portions of his hard disk PCB were blown. Not good.
--
Making life hard for others since 1977.
I speak for myself and not my employer/affiliates of my employer.

My i7 860 only gets to about 55c under load with my zalman cnps10x extreme. I will say though that it was only slightly cheaper than the h50 (at the stores here).

One advantage I can see of the h50 is that it doesn't take up alot of room. I can't fill my second RAM slots and probably couldn't use my top PCIe 1x slot with this huge cooler, but might be able to with the h50.

To me there are downsides though, I wasn't comfortable with the system in terms of reliability and durability. The fan on a heatsink/fan solution is the only moving part and can be replaced. When the pump in the h50 dies its finished. I think when I go watercooling I'll go all out with a loop that includes the GPU and a dual 120mm radiator.

reply to DKS
One thing I've always wanted to know from water cooling fans is, well, how often is there a leak, and is there a non conductive fluid instead of water?

reply to koitsu

reply to koitsu

reply to koitsu

Case Environment

Case Interior

Oh man, get that bad boy out of the cabinet or at least take the back off in that section.
--
-meh