Is Air Better Than H50 Water ?

paulselhi

paulselhi

paulselhi

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Looking around the net it seems that test seups continually show that the better air coolers out perform the Corsair H50 and are generally cheaper.

What reason is there to go with the more expensive water cooling ? Is there some top end effect that kicks in at extreme overclocking where the air coolers ability to cool max out while the water cooler has more effect?

I often wonder what people seem happy to accept the loss of a ram slot with monster air coolers, to me RAM is lifeblood ans so it seems the H50 would be better in that it has good clearance, though maybe the Zalamn CNPS10X allows all banks to be used.

What of dust and "gunk" ? how often do you clean out your air cooler, buildup of gunk must have a negative effect, is water cooling immune to this?

I am planning on building an I7 based system and want o overclock to the Max, i know it would use triple channel ram so is the loss of a forth bank that drastic?

So is the H50 really worth it for serious overclocking ?
 
paulselhi said:
So is the H50 really worth it for serious overclocking ?
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No.

I've not tried one, but for a start a 120.1 rad will limit your cooling.

Serious overclocking, would need a good high end w/c setup.

Depends on what you are cooling , cpu/nb/sb/mosfets/gfx cards/ All etc..

I would budget ~ £200 for good watercooling as a minimum.

The H50 is for simplicity in water cooling, not performance.
 
I was considering the Zalman CNPS10X it has good test results but am concerned about gunk and dust build up inside all those fins. Any ideas on how easy it is to clean these large air coolers ?
 
I've had one for a while for my i7 920. At 4.4 odd with ht on it was maxing at 80 something degrees in ibt iirc, i forget the voltage but it wasn't too bad - I've got a reasonably good chip (nothing special). This was too high for me so my OC profile run's at 4.2 (21x200) HT on and it maxes in the mid 70's under ibt. In normal use it's hitting 50 something - nothing I do atm taxes the i7 hard or long enough to get it hot.

It's not aimed at serious overclocking and isn't suitable for it, full stop. In my mind it's comparable to top end air cooler's and trades blows with the true or megalahems with a few advantages for the slightly higher temp-

size - doesn't foul any ram slots on my board (or any others iirc, although some need 'adjusting')
noise - cools well using a single fan intaking cold air over the rad. Stock fan isn't great so swap this for something like the redwing - cheap, quiet and effective. A second fan increases noise (not exponentionally) but only improves cooling marginally.
Weight - no lump of copper hanging off my mobo - means I can move/transport my rig with less risk.
 
I will be using my setup for continual 3d rendering ( many hours at full load - some simulations are near 100 % load for several days !!) should this affect my choice of air or water ?
 
Well if your gonna be on the pc for AGES at full load, it depends if the noise will start to **** you of, if so, for comfort purposes W/C will be more quieter.
 
paulselhi said:
I will be using my setup for continual 3d rendering ( many hours at full load - some simulations are near 100 % load for several days !!) should this affect my choice of air or water ?
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I dont think this matters beyond the noise problem. So long as your chosen method keeps temps in the safe range then it does not matter if it is air or water.
 
I'm not sure I'd trust a H50 with 24/7 operation. After all, what if it leaks? I can't be bothered tracking down examples right now, but at £50 a unit it's not at all surprising that such examples exist.

Air gets the same temperatures and can't leak. If a heatsink will fit, use a heatsink.
 
JonJ678 said:
I'm not sure I'd trust a H50 with 24/7 operation. After all, what if it leaks? I can't be bothered tracking down examples right now, but at £50 a unit it's not at all surprising that such examples exist.

Air gets the same temperatures and can't leak. If a heatsink will fit, use a heatsink.
Click to expand...

This doesn't make sense :confused:

Either you're worried about it leaking so you don't get it, or you're not worried about it leaking so you (may) do. It's illogical to worry more about it leaking if it's on 24/7 than if it's not - the change in conditions/temperature of it not being on 24/7 makes it more likely to leak if it isn't on 24/7.
 
If you're taking off the heatsink, washing in a bath is meant to be good - obviously let it dry properly afterwards. Otherwise compressed air, but it's best to leave the computer plugged in in case of static build-up.
 
Compressed air is best for getting dust/fluff out, just hold the fans still so they don't knacker the bearings (if you're using high pressure stuff not the canned rubbish). Others suggest paintbrushes for hard to reach areas or bits that won't go under air. As for 24/7 use, my main concern would be how quickly such a small loop would get saturated and lose some of its effectiveness, though in this case an extra rad fan might make a difference. Have any of you H50 owners had any experience of this?
 
Adding another fan does make a difference of a few degrees under load. Unfortunately I don't have static pressure graphs at different RPM, but there's next to no temperature difference between medium and high RPM of my Antec Tri-cool on there - so that could be because an increase in static pressure makes no difference after Corsair fan+Antec[med], or it could be that Antec[high] has the same static pressure as Antec[low].
 
Apologies miniyazz, you're right in that I wasn't clear. A computer which is running code 24/7 is likely to need to be reliable. As such a potential source of leaks for little to no benefit is a particularly bad idea. If a gaming machine fails because the H50 leaked, it's expensive and annoying to the user, but at least no work (and so no further income) is lost. I'm assuming that the continual 3D rendering is work related, and that it's difficult to explain to a client why you're running a few weeks late.

I wouldn't want a H50 in a gaming computer either, for much the same reason, but I'd be a lot more inclined to take risks with a machine that my income wasn't reliant upon.

Static pressure from a case fan should vary quadratically with rpm, so four times higher at 1600 than at 800. I have a nasty suspicion that static pressure doesn't dictate radiator performance, but is simply the best figure we're likely to have available.
 
Ah, in that case I agree with you. Although I still feel the chance of it leaking is fairly remote :p

As for the static pressure, I suppose it does make sense that it increases with fan rpm. I was getting mildly confused by this graph:



where the higher the cfm, the lower the static pressure, as a general trend - but ↑cfm depends on more things than ↑rpm!

But obviously, a radiator is able to transfer x amount of heat from the fins into the air every second, and x will vary with the temperature gradient (amongst other things). So when only a small amount of air is being pushed through, there will be a much smaller temperature gradient at the rear of the radiator than at the front, so there is a big increase in cooling performance by increasing the airflow. Once the fans are pushing through sufficient air that the temperature gradient at the back is practically the same as that at the front, any increase in airflow will have next-to-no gains.
So static pressure data is useful, but would be more useful if we knew the 'max static pressure/cfm' the radiator would benefit from.
Definitely a case of diminishing returns after a point, anyway. If any of that made any sense!
 
Just get a custom loop and use non-conductive liquid if you're that worried about leaking. As for the H50 itself it depends a LOT on the circumstances. If you have a good fan as intake in a cool room, it performs a lot better.

I've burned my CPU for 24 hours before using it and the temps hardly budged, ended up at 55°C. (Have yet to test my new loop, waiting for my graphics card replacement)
 
non-conductive liquid??? All will go conductive pretty fast that's why most of the coolants are a con. The H50 may allow slightly better temps but they will be very very close.
 
Might as well update this, I bought a cheap (100€, only 20€ more than the H50) water loop and fitted it, and I get better temps than the H50, with my fan only running at 25% speed instead of 100%.

Custom loop > Air > H50
 
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