H80i V2

beefybarn

beefybarn

beefybarn

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Going to be using this to cool a I7 6700K and was wondering if I could use it with just one fan and how much difference that would make.

Probably not going to be doing any overclocking on the chip.
 
Why just the one fan? I'd expect it to be a little over half the usual cooling, as the fluid will have to pass that fan anyway.

Are you trying a really low-noise build or have you broken a fan?
 
What Habakkuk said.

While I don't think it will cooling ability (because of less airflow) by almost have, it will definitely lower cooling ability of radiator dramatically, and the lower fan rpm is the more apparent the loss will be.. H80 radiator has high fin density that requires powerful airflow to cool which is why it has fans in push/pull. Push/pull on a radiator almost doubles the pressure compared to one fan, so push/pull can ovecome the dense fin's airflow resistance and move more air through radiator at lower speed so hopefully lower noise level.

Best way to find out if will work for you is try it and see.

If you want less noise the best way to go is a good air cooler. They cool as good as H80 and are much quieter.
 
The trouble with Corsair AIO’s, and especially the H80i v2 - the radiators are crap. The fins are far to closely spaced together which has a real negative effect on airflow. As previously mentioned you’d be just as well, if not better off with a decent air cooler.
 
If you want a slimmer install and are limited to 120mm the H45 preforms better than the H60 and is close to the H80i especially if you only run 1 fan. Better pump design mounted in the rad helps with the cooling but adds some bulk. Only down side is the cheaper fan which has a whiny motor where the pump is quiet. Cools an i7 5820K @ 4.0 GHz no problem.
 
Indeed CLCs have low quality raidiators, that use dense fin count and high airflow to transfer heat into air.

If you want similar cooling with less noise, more dependability, longer life, less noise and lower price get a good mid-level to top tier air cooler.
 
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Depending on how much you look at the back of your case you could mount the back fan outside the case and the front one inside...

I have the H80i v2 and I was running it on 1 fan while testing and it did work but struggled under load and was noisy
 
I wouldn't recommend running an H80i V2 with just one fan for the same reason everyone else mentioned. If you're planning to reduce noise, running only one fan on the H80i V2 will have the opposite effect as the single fan will ramp up to higher RPM's to compensate for the lost fan. Haven't tested or tried this, but Corsair ML fans work very well at moving air, and typically can run at lower RPM's.
 
beefybarn said:
Going to be using this to cool a I7 6700K and was wondering if I could use it with just one fan and how much difference that would make.

Probably not going to be doing any overclocking on the chip.
Click to expand...

I am appalled to read all trolls posts in this thread, they all are clueless about small difference in temps and how noisy fans are with single vs dual fans on CPU air coolers or 120mm water coolers, dual vs quad fans on 240mm water coolers and triple fans vs hexa fans without read reviews and tests over the last 10 years like one review below tested single and dual fans showed only 2 to 3C difference which was not huge but very small difference.

http://martinsliquidlab.petrastech.com/Radiator-Fan-Orientation-And-Shroud-Testing-Review.html

I have 1 old Noctua S12-1200 fan on my Corsiar H80i GT which has same spec as H80i V2 is cooling my 8700K OC 4.7GHz just fine, dual fans are a massive waste of time with very little difference in temp and very noisy dual fans compared to silent 1 fan I preferred after so many tried and tests. My PC now run CPU fan in push config on back of radiator all the time totally silent on Performance Mode pushed air flow into case while Corsair AX860 PSU fan are in 0dB Mode at both idle and full load all the time and it never hit 50% load that would see PSU fan spinning and also my MSI GTX 1070 Gaming X fans are on 0dB Mode did not spinning at idle when it now at 45C and fans will spinning at 60C and above when playing games. But I had not tried out my Gigabyte Z370 Gaming 7 motherboard new CPU Fan/Pump Stop feature yet which is basically the same function as my MSI GTX 1070 0dB Mode fans stopped when temp go down lower than 60C and CPU fans will spin when it hit 60C or above as it is disabled at the moment, not sure if my Corsair H80i GT supported this new CPU Fan/Pump Stop feature. My PC chassis did not used 2 120mm case fans as I removed both 13 years ago because they were very noisy.

Someone asked same question 4 years ago about 1 fan vs 2 fans on CPU cooler and one tested it with H80i cooler similar as your cooler.

http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/answers/id-1976698/fan-fans-corsair-h80i-cpu-liquid-cooler.html

I actually did some testing on that exact cooler with NF P12 fans.

Room 21c 2x NF P12
Core 1 52 - 21 = 31
Core 2 56 - 21 = 35
Core 3 58 - 21 = 37
Core 4 57 - 21 = 36
Package 57 - 21 = 36

Room 22c NF P12 + NF P14(push, no adapter its just bolted on)
Core 1 54 - 22 = 32
Core 2 57 - 22 = 35
Core 3 59 - 22 = 37
Core 4 58 - 22 = 36
Package 58 - 22 = 36

Room 21c Single NF P12
Core 1 57 - 21 = 36
Core 1 59 - 21 = 38
Core 1 61 - 21 = 40
Core 1 60 - 21 = 39
Package 60 - 21 = 39

As you can see, the difference is not huge(5c tops).
Click to expand...

I am very impressed at my 12 years old Noctua S12-1200 fan still going strong, may consider to upgrade to next generation Noctua NF-A12x25 Sterrox fan which has only 0.5mm fan clearance and capable to push double air flow at impressive 102.1 CFM at silent 21dB with just a single fan that do much better job than noisy dual fans with same air flow pressure after read reviews first. :D
 
Not sure about the thing about stopping the fans when the CPU is under a certain temp - might work fine for an air cooler but for water, the coolant is going to be at quite a high temp level before the fans kick in if you're only doing light work and then if it's put under heavy load again temps are going to go through the roof, and stopping the pump is not going to work out well at all

I'll do some testing on mine including water temps, I'd love to know how long the test above was run for, and noise levels, wouldn't matter if there was 1 fan or 12 if the tests were only running a couple of minutes :D

Of course that's not going to take into account better fans, just the Corsair SP120s that come with it, they aren't the quietest but the specs on them are quite beefy to be fair
 
Thanks for the replies, I have fitted it with just the one fan for now and going to do some testing over the weekend. Worse case is I could as mentioned above fit the second fan onto the back of the case but will see if I need to first.
 
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