Legit Reviews

Corsair Hydro Series H50 CPU Water Cooling Kit Review

The recently released Corsair Hydro Series H50 CPU water cooling kit is aimed at bringing water cooler to the mainstream computer user. Will the much anticipated successor to the old Nautilus 500 system have enough spunk to get the job done against more than a dozen other Intel Core i7 coolers on our LGA 1366 test platform?



Article Title: Corsair Hydro Series H50 CPU Water Cooling Kit Review
Article URL: http://legitreviews.com/article/1025/1/

Wow the H50 has really surprised me. Great review and great results.

If you like please Digg http://digg.com/hardware/Corsair_Hydro_ ... eview_Cors

Interesting. How was the sound of the pump and stock fan?

I use a Domino self contained water cooler in my 1366 rig and at stock 920 speed I haven't seen idle temps higher than 36 or load temps higher than 57. That's in an Antec 1200 with pleanty of air flow and replacing the thermal paste that came already on the Domino with Arctic Silver Ceramique.

gwolfman wrote:Interesting. How was the sound of the pump and stock fan?

in the case it wasn't all that noticeable, even with it on top of the desk. I ball park it mid high 20's dBa for the fan, slight hum for the pump.

Sowser wrote:I use a Domino self contained water cooler in my 1366 rig and at stock 920 speed I haven't seen idle temps higher than 36 or load temps higher than 57. That's in an Antec 1200 with pleanty of air flow and replacing the thermal paste that came already on the Domino with Arctic Silver Ceramique.

Yup getting the air flow right is the key. My Ultra isn't the best flowing case in the world, but way better then most, no where near the 1200 though.

gwolfman wrote:Interesting. How was the sound of the pump and stock fan?

I checked with Corsair and the fan is 29.75 dB(A) at full speed. As for the water pump they tested it internally and said they room they tested it in had a noise floor of 21dBA and the pump was at 28dBA. So the pump is below the fan noise level if they remember correctly.

For the price, this isn't bad at all.

Awesome!

Curiosity - did you ever try to change the fan direction flow to the normal (out the back) ? If so, did it make a difference? 2 fans in the same config, blowing out?

I actually yelled at my monitor - NOOOOO - when I saw you took it apart Is it still able to be used? if not, what liquid is inside?

Mike

With the extra cost of the fans, it is neat to have, but it would only save a bit of noise, if any, compared to one of the high end air coolers

Should have spent my money on this instead of the hunk of **** I have now.
http://forums.legitreviews.com/about21686.html

I wonder if you used 38MM thick fans rather than 25MM if the results would improve? Don't the thicker fans produce more pressure? In turn wouldn't the added pressure help to get the fan's air through the crowded radiator core? I have a few Scythe Ultra Kaze fans and at even low RPM they throw a lot of air.

It would of been nice to see it tested against the Sythe Mugen 2, but all in all a very informative article.

I asked Scythe if they would be interested in sending over the Scythe Mugen 2, so if they are we'll be sure to review it and add it to the chart.

KnightRid wrote:Awesome!

Curiosity - did you ever try to change the fan direction flow to the normal (out the back) ? If so, did it make a difference? 2 fans in the same config, blowing out?

I actually yelled at my monitor - NOOOOO - when I saw you took it apart Is it still able to be used? if not, what liquid is inside?

Mike

With the extra cost of the fans, it is neat to have, but it would only save a bit of noise, if any, compared to one of the high end air coolers

When I had the dual NF-P12's they are exhausting the air from the case, so not only is it pulling air out of the case, its pulling air across the block/pump. I'm thinking this is what helped get the better performance.

I did also install the stock fan in an exhaust config, temps were very similar with only half degree difference.

bubba wrote:I did also install the stock fan in an exhaust config, temps were very similar with only half degree difference.

Similar to what? The single fan numbers or the dual fan push/pull setup?

my bad, stock single fan.

bubba wrote:my bad, stock single fan.

Nice - really interesting that it didnt make much of a difference - hmm

Thanx for the info!

Mike

I'm sorry if I missed this in the article but is there a reason why Corsair is stating such stringent stipulations on how you install the unit? It goes against everything we know pulling air into the case from the rear case fans.

Major_A wrote:I'm sorry if I missed this in the article but is there a reason why Corsair is stating such stringent stipulations on how you install the unit? It goes against everything we know pulling air into the case from the rear case fans.

Corsair stated to us that is how they wanted it tested, it also says to reverse the flow in the directions. If a company wants their product tested a certain way that is fine by me. Doing the push/pull testing was something that Corsair did not ask for and that we did on our weeks ago. We've been working on this review for nearly two months, but it got held up to some product revisions.

I was reading somewhere online about having the back fans blow INTO the case if you have a top fan for exhaust - dunno if that would work better or not, but it does seem counter productive to me.

Mike

KnightRid wrote:I was reading somewhere online about having the back fans blow INTO the case if you have a top fan for exhaust - dunno if that would work better or not, but it does seem counter productive to me.

Mike

Yeah and many people are talking about the pros and cons of positive or negative air pressure inside a case... who knows on half of it.