Corsair H50 or air !?

Damien.

Damien.

Damien.

Soldato
Joined
20 Nov 2006
Posts
6,893
Hi.

On Friday I bought myself some upgrades;

AMD Phenom II 965 BE, Asus Crosshair III and 4GB of Corsair ram.

Now I am after something to keep the chip cool as im looking to overclock to atleast 3.8 GHZ.

I am just wondering, is it worth getting the H50 or at that clock, is it enough to get an aftermarket air cooler ?
 
ive just gone from the corsair to a venomous x... if i want the risks of watercooling i will have a proper setup and see proper results otherwise it isnt worth it.
 
Thanks guys, ill leave the H50 be for now then.

Could any of you recommend a hefty air cooler, i dont really want to spend a fortune mind.
 
Titan fenrir, keeps my B50 maxing at 57 at 3.8 :)

If the noise is an issue you can switch out the stock fan :)

Great cooler, great price :)
 
H50 working great here on my cpu in sig temps don't exceed 60c on prime etc, idles at 28-33 across the cores, no noise its totally silent more than happy.
 
+1 on the above post. My H50 keeps my Q9550 cool under load and is far more efficient at cooling than any of the air coolers I have had, ie freezer pro, thermalright etc
 
A definite vote for the H50 here. I went from a Noctua setup to the Corsair and it is more efficient, quieter, takes up a heck of a lot less space (ie internal airflow space) and thus tidyier than any unsightly air cooler. Air coolers seem to be to the PC what sports cars with long bonnets are to insecure middle aged men. (jk)
 
Depends, how much do you want to OC it? I have a Titan Fenrir on mine, on stock it never goes over about 45C, at 3.8ghz @ 1.55v about 55C.
 
cupofchow said:
ive just gone from the corsair to a venomous x... if i want the risks of watercooling i will have a proper setup and see proper results otherwise it isnt worth it.
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Superewza said:
Air coolers of the same price are far superior to the H50.
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The H50, being a sealed unit, doesn't have the normal risks of watercooling. The only way anything's gonna come out is if you seriously mistreat it.
While air coolers of the same price are usually indeed superior, they are not superior by much, and depending on situation, not always superior at all (for example in a hot case).

Not to mention the noise levels are epic on any air cooler approaching the efficiency of the H50, which in contrast remains relatively quiet.

I wouldn't rule it out so easily, read some comparison reviews (google should reveal many).
 
There's still far more to go wrong than with a normal air cooler though. The pump could break, for instance. Add to that the fact that without being replaced (which lets be honest, isn't going to happen) the fluid looses its capacity to absorb heat over time and you've got a time bomb on your hands.

If you've got a hot case then no amount of water or air will help, since water is effectively air cooling but with 'heatpipes' you can direct easily.

Not at all, a high quality cooler will be just as quiet (if not more so, since the H50 still has a fan but has the added noise of the pump).

Performance wise the H50 is beaten by the Megalahems, which is no longer absolute top end. The Noctua SE2 for instance is far better and even at max is below 20dB (according to them anyway).
 
Superewza said:
There's still far more to go wrong than with a normal air cooler though. The pump could break, for instance. Add to that the fact that without being replaced (which lets be honest, isn't going to happen) the fluid looses its capacity to absorb heat over time and you've got a time bomb on your hands.

If you've got a hot case then no amount of water or air will help, since water is effectively air cooling but with 'heatpipes' you can direct easily.

Not at all, a high quality cooler will be just as quiet (if not more so, since the H50 still has a fan but has the added noise of the pump).

Performance wise the H50 is beaten by the Megalahems, which is no longer absolute top end. The Noctua SE2 for instance is far better and even at max is below 20dB (according to them anyway).
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It's a sealed unit and therefore the fluid composition doesn't change over time, so neither does its thermal capacity. Mine came with a ten-year warranty, which I think is quite respectable really, so not so sure about this 'time-bomb' thing :p
With a hot case, directing the case fan to bring cool air in over the H50 radiator will keep the CPU the same temperature no matter how hot the inside of the case is (e.g. due to multiple graphics cards), whereas with an air-cooled CPU, case ambient temperature hugely affects cooling performance.

Of course, appearances won’t tell the whole story, as the FORT120 is very noisy. We thought we’d rid ourselves of elevated noise levels with the retirement of Pentium D retail-boxed coolers. That noisy fan can be replaced, but don’t be surprised if the performance level approximates that of the Cogage True Spirit when a similarly-capable fan is used.

At the other end of the noise scale is Corsair’s H50. Almost as quiet as the Cogage True Spirit, it also provides nearly as much cooling performance in our open-air test bench. The H50’s somewhat remote radiator could be advantageous in especially hot systems if its rear-mounted fan is used as an intake, an installation method so effective that it has been adopted by many boutique builders. Cases with lid-mounted exhaust are designed to compensate for the change in rear fan orientation.

At only $80, it’s difficult to exclude the H50 from our recommendations, but its performance level is not what we'd consider exceptional, either. We’d choose it for situations where a 120 mm semi-remote radiator fits, but a 6.25” air-cooling tower doesn’t, or whenever additional space it required around the CPU socket. Otherwise the big air coolers provide better overall value. The $50 FORT120’s performance advantage is offset by its far higher noise levels compared to the $40 True Spirit.
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FWIW, subjectively, the pump is almost silent - certainly not audible once you've added in a couple of (quiet) case fans. I haven't compared it to any of the newer high-end air coolers though, so can't speak from first-hand experience which is quieter, only what comparison reviews have shown. :)
 
Well with custom water you can have compression fittings which are leak free, and i know that from my last setup last year. Also the tubing doesnt inspire a lot of trust on the H50 as its very stiff and i dont see it lasting longer than tygon for example.

To get good results you have to use 2 x fans like on an air cooler (push and pull) so defeats the object on being silent as its exactly the same noise wise.

Its just too much messing about and you always have that worry of it leaking due to manufacturing processes or anything else. At least if you build your own loop you know in yourself how well you put it together :D
 
Can't say I'm impressed with the H50 tbh, I fitted one in my dads i7 rig, and his temps are higher than mine was with my TRUE with 1 fan..
 
:/

The H50 is better in specific circumstances vs top end air blocks.

If you don't have the space for such an air block then the H50 looks better compared to what else you'd be able to fit in there.

Best cooler arguments don't have the same answer for all cases.
 
The life of the H50 is 2 years and lets be honest what socket will be around then that it uses, i was worried going for one of these but i can't fault it i have tried a number of air coolers but its the noise that comes with most of them.

I have a couple cheap ass fans running on mine from overs the akasa 120m ones in push/pull but i have it blowing out of the case rather than in, push/pull is very important for me with this cooler makes a huge difference in cooling, now i could put some snazzy fans in this and it would no doubt do a even better job but for 2 fans that were £8 for both at the time who can complain.

Most of those top end air coolers you need decent fans that shift lots of air and are quiet at it, when i was looking most advising to use something like the Apache fans which are £13 a fan.

You only have to ready the H50 thread there are very few posts of users disappointed with its performance, if this lasts me until i change my whole pc out probably next year then its done its job for me.


DavyBoy said:
Can't say I'm impressed with the H50 tbh, I fitted one in my dads i7 rig, and his temps are higher than mine was with my TRUE with 1 fan..
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Did you set it push/pull with 2 fans as this is important.
 
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