Corsair A50 to H110 Log and pictures (Corsair 750D) (benchmark results!)

Howdy!

Just got my new H110 today and heres my log going from air to AIO water for the first time, Heres my build log and the results are at the bottom!

Okay, im useless at explaining stuff in build logs but here goes lets start with picture number one.. New stuff!!



Okay, you guys will probably slate me for getting AF140's but there aren't no SP140's that have the colour rings yet, but when they are released, I will simply use these two AF140's in the front of my case where I have two stock 750D AF140s without the colour rings on them.

Next up to fit the fans



Now, lets look at the current setup:



Looks like I didn't apply my old thermal paste properly!




Lets get that old paste cleaned off. This is the first time iv ever used this cleaning stuff, and I was very impressed with the results, I used to just wipe it off and give it a buff up with kitchen roll and a bit of spit but I thought this time, if the jobs worth doing, its worth doing properly.




Next I was installing the radiator, when I noticed. I had used all 8 fan screws included with the H110, the way they want you to install the H110, is either using the fans as a intake, or a Pull setup pushing the air outside the case.
Or should I say, the way they want you to install it is to have the fans sandwiched between the radiator and the case, but I want to mount it as a push with the radiator mounted against the roof of the case rather than the fans sandwiched between them, so I had to find some more screws, and I stumbled across these, Pci-e bracket screws, same ones used to hold power supplys in place and they fit perfectly!




All mounted up and fitted, I opted to use the stock thermal paste that's applied already after seeing the state of my paste when I took my A50 cooler off



She lives!

Here are pictures of it up and running and doing its job. Pictures in random order some with and without flash:












Next thing to do at pay day is to buy some Corsair braided cables and get rid of them ugly black stock cables!

As I mentioned before this is my first water cooler though its a AIO....
When I first turned my pc on, It totally didn't register in my mind that it has water in it, and I heard the pump dragging the water through etc and I could hear running water, I pretty much **** my self haha. but then after around 20 seconds the water noise stopped and all is well, can't hear the pump at all its silent etc.

Okay for the results using prime95 small FTT for 10 mins and idle temps.

Ambient temperature for both tests 20c

Both using 2500k at 5ghz @ 1.415v

Fans @ full rpm (AF140 quiet editions & SP120 on A50)

Corsair A50 Idle: 42-44c
Corsair A50 Load: 71-74c

Fans @ Full rpm (AF140 quiet editions, Pretty quiet even at full rpm)

Corsair H110 Idle: 28-30c
Corsair H110 Load: 48c-51c

Fans @ Silent (not sure what rpm, but via the knobs on my fan controllers, Half of there maximum running speed, 100% silent)

Corsair H110 Idle - 33-34c
Corsair H110 Load - 54-56c

Also I have tested at stock cpu speed 3.3ghz stock volts with the fans @ full rpm to see how cool it will keep a stock cpu

Corsair H110 Idle: - 24c
Corsair H110 Load - 37c-39c

I got to say this cooler is pretty amazing, does what it says on the tin really, easy to install, only thing that's missing is extra screws to mount the radiator which ever way you want as I have showed with the pictures. apart from that all is spot on. Temperatures are so much better, and when the SP140's are out I bet they will drop even more.

Id give this a product 10/10 if it wasn't for the lack of screws, 9.9/10 because of that, it really is a superb bit of kit!

Thank you for reading, Hope you enjoyed!

Edit: Just been asked a question about how I have my HDD's mounted.
If you notice on my pictures, below my DVD drive is where I have my data drive mounted and its hung in place by elastic (the bunjee mod, See this post here of my old case and hdds)
And if you notice at the very top of my case from the picture showing the exterior roof of my case, you notice a HDD above my dvd drive, That is simply hung there by elastic, that's my backup drive mounted sideway with the connectors coming in from the back of the case from the rear of the motherboard tray, its never plugged in to power though its ran off a separate power cable, and it is unplugged from the psu completely when im not backing up my data so that's the reason why there is a power lead unplugged from my psu

Just wondering but would you not be better using the rear exhaust as an intake? Pulling in cooler air straight onto the liquid cooler, might need to get a fan mesh but might help temps when clocked up. As it is id think the rear fan would be fighting the one closest to it on the liquid cooler creating a dead zone.

Gerard said:

Just wondering but would you not be better using the rear exhaust as an intake? Pulling in cooler air straight onto the liquid cooler, might need to get a fan mesh but might help temps when clocked up. As it is id think the rear fan would be fighting the one closest to it on the liquid cooler creating a dead zone.

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I tried that with mine, but it pushes up the GPU temperatures a lot. I only have one GPU, but like these in the picture, it pushes air around the case.

With the back fan as intake, the GPU temp was over 10c higher because the air couldn't really go anywhere. With it as exhaust, temps were in check. Hot air goes up, so that just mixes up things

Gerard said:

Just wondering but would you not be better using the rear exhaust as an intake? Pulling in cooler air straight onto the liquid cooler, might need to get a fan mesh but might help temps when clocked up. As it is id think the rear fan would be fighting the one closest to it on the liquid cooler creating a dead zone.

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I have thought about this idea. But there is tons of unrestricted air flowing from the front of my case in and then up to the h110. And as you can see from the benchmark results it's doing it's job absolutely fine even with two hot 7950s below it. Also my top 7950 runs a little cooler now it doesn't have a cpu heatsink above it

looks good mate - interesting to see.

Still torn about whether something like a H110 is worth it - in particular from a noise perspective compared to, say, something like the Be Quiet! Dark Rock Pro 3.

It's definately worth the investment. The corsair a50 has served me well right back from the start of sandy bridge. If it's noise your worried about. Don't be, the pump etc is 100% silent. Any cooler is only noisy if you don't have silent fans on them which is why I have gone with the quiet series corsair fans for this h110 and connected to a fan controller they are 100% silent and keep it cool. Where as with the air cooler I had before I had to run the single fan at 100% to cool my processor so it was audiable slightly not much at all compaired with 1 stock cheap computer case fan etc for example.

So yeah the h110 cools a lot better and is silent given that you get good quality fans and controll them in the correct manner best investment iv made so far along side the 750D case.

Also there's not a bad word I can say about the corsair quiet series fans they are superb.

Cheers mate. Have seen they are noisy in reviews but guess better fans fix the problem. Then they start getting pretty pricy!

darkblueslider said:

Cheers mate. Have seen they are noisy in reviews but guess better fans fix the problem. Then they start getting pretty pricy!

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I didn't even bother getting the stock fans out of the wrappers actually, but they look to be the same as the corsair performance series rather than the quiet series because of the blade design and rpm etc as standard, just not the standard corsair shape, but even them fans can be made quiet/almost silent with a fan controller

IceShock said:

I didn't even bother getting the stock fans out of the wrappers actually, but they look to be the same as the corsair performance series rather than the quiet series because of the blade design and rpm etc as standard, just not the standard corsair shape, but even them fans can be made quiet/almost silent with a fan controller

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I hear and from experience with my H60 that the stocks fan are almost as good think I have read in most cases they are louder but actually provide just as good or even better cooling but still relatively quiet for the average user who isn't too picky.

But the Corsair fans add a nice bling factor with the interchangeable rings.

Great review very helpful, One day I think I will make the use of the top of my Corsair 450D with a larger rad than the H60 was just keeping cost down where I could when building.