CoolIT ECO A.L.C. and Corsair H50 Comparison / Review

If you mean that paddle, then fair enough. I thought you were meaning the pin was higher on that side than on the other ones, which since you can't see the height of the other ones above the mobo, to judge whether it's higher or not, seemed somewhat tricky..
 
Sorry I haven't posted my results yet - unfortunately I ran out of thermal paste but should have some more delivered tuesday. From the testing I have done with the same fan (so far) it looks like the Corsair may be a couple of degrees cooler but this will be confirmed when I have finished testing.

Has anyone used the ECO with an AM3 CPU - I tried to install it to see how they compare and couldn't for the life of me get it to fit!
 
@Andy, are you able to repeat using the same fan, blowing in the same direction (i.e. both push or both pull)? The designs of the two look similar enough that I'm struggling to explain a ten degrees difference.

Do you know what power the processor was consuming, or the stock voltage so that it can be estimated?

@henry, Barry & Andy, if one of you would loan me a coolit to test myself I'd appreciate it. If you want it back intact that's cool, if not I can determine the weak point in the system (pump / block / radiator / mounting) by substituting in more expensive alternatives. I want to know where this is going wrong.
 
JonJ678 said:
@Andy, are you able to repeat using the same fan, blowing in the same direction (i.e. both push or both pull)? The designs of the two look similar enough that I'm struggling to explain a ten degrees difference.

Do you know what power the processor was consuming, or the stock voltage so that it can be estimated?

@Henry, Barry & Andy, if one of you would loan me a coolit to test myself I'd appreciate it. If you want it back intact that's cool, if not I can determine the weak point in the system (pump / block / radiator / mounting) by substituting in more expensive alternatives. I want to know where this is going wrong.
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Hey Jon, just sent you a message on your trust.
 
JonJ678 said:
@Andy, are you able to repeat using the same fan, blowing in the same direction (i.e. both push or both pull)? The designs of the two look similar enough that I'm struggling to explain a ten degrees difference.

Do you know what power the processor was consuming, or the stock voltage so that it can be estimated?

@Henry, Barry & Andy, if one of you would loan me a coolit to test myself I'd appreciate it. If you want it back intact that's cool, if not I can determine the weak point in the system (pump / block / radiator / mounting) by substituting in more expensive alternatives. I want to know where this is going wrong.
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Hi mate

No more time with the ECO - 5 month old baby at home here now and stripping my system down to rest on just a bench has taken up more time than the wife will allow :D My system is ALL watercooled with custom kit so its been an epic job ;)

Having so little time was the main reason I focused on "out of the box" performance. To be fair, if a reviewer bowed to every request for different configurations, we would literally be here for years. So, I based my review on manufacturer recommended setup and manufacturer supplied parts in the hope that readers can be realistic and get a decent review of BASE performance and, following on from that, can make an informed decision on which cooler suits them best. If they wish to 'mod' it afterwards, happy days. ;)

My 920 CPU is a DO stepping and uses just over 1V at stock speed of 2.66GHZ

TDP of a 920 DO is 130W

I think the temp difference is easily explained by the cool IT ECO having a slightly slimmer RAD, insisting on a pull rather than push airflow through the RAD and having a much 'Wobblier' mounting mechanism.
 
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Congratulations :)

I think Helios has one going spare, so I should be adding to the results shortly. I sympathise with the time taken to extract a motherboard from a watercooling loop, takes me a good few hours when I want to do anything.

TDP of the 920 is 130W, so estimate of worst case power consumption is 130 (3.8/2.66) (1.35/1.1)^2 = 280W. I measured 281W for my i7 + motherboard when folding so this won't be too far off.

Air/ihs delta of 58 for the H50, 67 for the coolit, imply C/W values of 0.21 and 0.24 respectively.

Pull vs push shouldn't matter much at these rpm. If anything I'd expect pull to be more effective, is there some small shroud built into either radiator? Slimmer radiator and less mounting pressure would do it though.
 
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JonJ678 said:
Congratulations :)

I think Helios has one going spare, so I should be adding to the results shortly. I sympathise with the time taken to extract a motherboard from a watercooling loop, takes me a good few hours when I want to do anything.

TDP of the 920 is 130W, so estimate of worst case power consumption is 130 (3.8/2.66) (1.35/1.1)^2 = 280W. I measured 281W for my i7 + motherboard when folding so this won't be too far off.

Air/water delta of 58 for the H50, 67 for the coolit, imply C/W values of 0.21 and 0.24 respectively.

Pull vs push shouldn't matter much at these rpm. If anything I'd expect pull to be more effective, is there some small shroud built into either radiator? Slimmer radiator and less mounting pressure would do it though.
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Yeah, motherboard, CPU and GFX all Water cooled - borrowed a mates vanilla 280 card to save me some time.

Both RADs have a bit of a 'shroud'/ lip around them but the corsair RAD definitely looks slightly thicker - every little would help with surface area I'd have thought.;)
 
Quick disconnects combined with a removable motherboard tray make life far easier, well worth the added restriction I think. Being able to split it into two leaves free space to work in the case and a motherboard exposed on the bench. My motherboard is still air cooled, but there's four radiators and two graphics cards involved, so there's lots of tubing.

My criticism of the H50 was always that the radiator was too small, but I wouldn't have expected it to be that sensitive to thickness. Wonder if google will show me the internals design of the waterblock/pump assembly.

Success
 
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JonJ678 said:
Quick disconnects combined with a removable motherboard tray make life far easier, well worth the added restriction I think. Being able to split it into two leaves free space to work in the case and a motherboard exposed on the bench. My motherboard is still air cooled, but there's four radiators and two graphics cards involved, so there's lots of tubing.[/URL]
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Agreed

Just bought myself an 800D this week - problem solved :D

JonJ678 said:
My criticism of the H50 was always that the radiator was too small, but I wouldn't have expected it to be that sensitive to thickness.[/URL]
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To be fair, its sub £100 water cooling. Its never been pitched as a Coolance/ Enzotech/ DD beater. Dual rad would probably put another £20 on the price and yield little benefit against cost.

JonJ678 said:
Wonder if google will show me the internals design of the waterblock/pump assembly.

Success
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Good find matey - some tasty blood and guts internal shots further down the pics :D
 
Temi_D said:
now i'm even more confused. I need either the eco or h50 and i need to order now/early tomorrow so i can get it by tuesday
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If time is an issue I would go for the H50 - if there are performance gains to be had with the ECO, they aren't going to be huge. The H50 may have flaws but I've been using one for the last few months and I'm sure you won't be dissapointed.
 
Interesting results.

News to me that the ECO uses a thinner rad.

The push/pull factor if it is one at all isn't a difficult thing to get around, just attach the fan on the other side.

But stock and installed as per manufacturers instructions certainly looks as if the H50 wins solidly.

There is the upside that the ECO costs £12 less in the first place but if you're looking to drop this much on a CPU cooler in the first place, I suspect many would go the extra few notes to make sure of their investment in the "better" cooler.
 
Awesome thread guys its good to have this talk but I am absolutely choked to see the ECO installed incorrectly. Pressure against the IHS is one of the most critical aspects of performance and with that paddle twisted to the side it just simply isn't being screwed down all the way and that is without a doubt the cause for the temp difference.

So Close!!! AndYOCUK I was so looking forward to your results. I understand if you cant' retest (life does come first) :) but your methods were sound and I agree with your logic. Unfortunately with that paddle skewed, its not a valid result. As Jon was saying, a 10 degree swing is just not logical / feasible considering the similarities in rad pitch and fan speed.

Jon - if you or anyone else want to test the same way w/ the ECO properly bolted down, I am happy to provide a sample.

In a configuration like that, ECO should win by a degree or two.

Regarding the installation, this is the first time I have heard anyone say ECO was more difficult to install. We have made an improvement to the retention system (based on customer feedback) so it can't swing anymore (as seen in the pics above) but even before... the universal intel retainer and included amd retainer gave ECO the edge in installation over any other cooler I've used.
 
barrolde said:
Awesome thread guys its good to have this talk but I am absolutely choked to see the ECO installed incorrectly. Pressure against the IHS is one of the most critical aspects of performance and with that paddle twisted to the side it just simply isn't being screwed down all the way and that is without a doubt the cause for the temp difference.

So Close!!! AndYOCUK I was so looking forward to your results. I understand if you cant' retest (life does come first) :) but your methods were sound and I agree with your logic. Unfortunately with that paddle skewed, its not a valid result. As Jon was saying, a 10 degree swing is just not logical / feasible considering the similarities in rad pitch and fan speed.

Jon - if you or anyone else want to test the same way w/ the ECO properly bolted down, I am happy to provide a sample.

In a configuration like that, ECO should win by a degree or two.

Regarding the installation, this is the first time I have heard anyone say ECO was more difficult to install. We have made an improvement to the retention system (based on customer feedback) so it can't swing anymore (as seen in the pics above) but even before... the universal intel retainer and included amd retainer gave ECO the edge in installation over any other cooler I've used.
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Hey Barrolde, I have a sample here and I can safely say that it was very easier to mount. As you say, it's very crucial that it's mounted properly and since redoing so yesterday, I'm getting far better results than the initial sample I received.

Saying that, I'm not sure why the two samples gave different results because they both look exactly the same. However, I have tested the second sample (the retail version) several times and I'm getting very consistent results.
 
Hi Helios, thanks for the quick feedback. I am glad to hear it.

Are you going to post a comparison scenario as well? I dont think its been done justice yet... another thing I just noticed about AndyOCUK's results was that the H50 fan was going 1592 RPM and the ECO fan was going 1339 RPM - thats going to explain a few degree's as well.

Cheers,

Barry
 
barrolde said:
Hi Helios, thanks for the quick feedback. I am glad to hear it.

Are you going to post a comparison scenario as well? I dont think its been done justice yet... another thing I just noticed about AndyOCUK's results was that the H50 fan was going 1592 RPM and the ECO fan was going 1339 RPM - thats going to explain a few degree's as well.

Cheers,

Barry
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Hey Barry, just sent you an email. Let me know what you think. :)
 
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