Introduction
As some of you know, I was stuck with an H50 for a few days and I was wondering if I should give it a go myself. The price was just about fine for this piece of kit and it sure looked good. So what I did do in the end was run a few tests against the Thermolab Baram to see what all the noise was about. Let me say that I was not disappointed.
Before I get ahead of myself, lets take a short look at the company that produces the H50 and also take a look at the H50 itself.
Corsair, as all of you already know, is one of the premier players in the PSU market today. They also do have a sizable reputation in the memory department and are now looking to use some of that goodwill to enter two new markets, the computer case market with the 800D and the cooling market with the H50 and the Ice Series T30. The 800D has been successful in getting a lot of the water cooling crowd interested, but the H50 has had a mixed reaction in most international forums. The T30 is a liquid cooling solution for RAM and is not as easily available in India.
Corsair is also known for great support and a very fast and reliable RMA service and this has made it an even bigger hit with the enthusiast crowd.
So lets get on with this review and take a look at the Corsair H50.
[BREAK=Corsair H50 - Closer Look]
Corsair H50 - Closer Look
The H50 is essentially a closed loop liquid cooling system. This particular system is geared towards keeping the CPU cool, but similar systems are available with waterblocks for a GPU as well. The H50 is made by Asetek, and was used in a couple of Alienware systems before morphing into the H50. Corsair have taken the initiative to make some positive changes to the OEM product before stamping their brand on it.
Lets take a look at some of the main features of this product:
And lets also take a look at a few pictures of the product.
The H50 comes packaged in a nice colorful cardboard box with a picture of the system up top. Inside the box, the whole system is held in place with plastic molds and since it reached me without a single scratch, I have no complaints. The system is mainly made up of the radiator, the attached cpu cooler head and pump, the fan and the mounting systems.
One thing to note here is the attention to detail with all the wires nicely sleeved. The sleeving is done on the fan wire and the pump wire, giving it a quality finish.
Now onto the the base, and probably one of the most important parts of the cooler. The base is nice and flat, but it does not have a mirror finish. The machining can still be seen on the base. A point to note here, the base comes pre applied with TIM, but I would advice you to take that off and use your own. This gave me 2 degrees better temperatures at load. I think the main reason for this improvement is that the amount of pre applied TIM is a bit too much.
[BREAK=Installation and Test Setup]
Installation and Test Setup
Installation of the cooler is relatively simple and in my case I didn't even need to take the motherboard out. For AMD users, you can use the stock back plate as well and the advantage with this is that since the standoffs are a bit shorter than the one which comes with the H50, the fit of the cooler is a bit more snug and gives you more pressure.
I started with the installation of the bracket and then went on to the radiator and fans. Once this was done I finally applied the TIM onto the CPU and then fixed the cooler in. It did take me a few tries to figure out the perfect configuration, but what worked for me was two side panel fans throwing air into the cabinet and the H50 in push-pull exhausting air out of the cabinet.
As you can see, this setup leaves a lot of space around the CPU slot and suddenly you have all the DIMM slots available to you. This also helps keep board temperatures a lot lower than with a tower cooler.
Test Setup
AMD Phenom II 965 BE @ 3.8 Ghz, 1.475V - A little extra Vcore for higher temperatures.
MSI GD70
OCZ Platinum 1333 CL6
Sapphire 4870 Vapor
OCZ Modxtreme 700W powering it all up.
We sued OCCT to load up all four cores.
The testing will be done with two sets of fans:
1. Scythe Gentle Typhoons 1450 - Pushes 50 CFM of air at 21.5 dBA. Is regarded as one of the best quiet solutions for radiators.
Chilled PC, Water Cooling, Modding - One stop shop for all your Watercooling and PC Modding
2. Yateloon D12SH-12 - Pushes 88 CFM of air at around 40dBA. Nice high speed fan.
Chilled PC, Water Cooling, Modding - One stop shop for all your Watercooling and PC Modding
PS: I always buy fans from this site as shipping is way cheaper than from the US.
So lets get on to the test results.
[BREAK=Test Results - Scythe Gentle Typhoons]
Test Results - Scythe Gentle Typhoons
So lets start the testing with low speed fans. The GT's are extremely quiet and you really have to put your ear to the case to hear them. They do push a good amount of air, and like I have said before, are probably one of the best fans for radiators.
Starting with the Thermolab Baram at 3.8 Ghz and push pull with the Scythe GT's.
The Thermolab gives us 37 degrees at idle and the load temperatures just crossed 59 degrees. Not a bad result for a very low noise setup.
Lets move on to the Corsair H50 with the same set of fans.
The H50 gave us an idle temperature of 41 degrees and a top load temperature of 60 degrees.
With low speed fans, the Thermolab closely beats the H50 setup. Lets now move on to testing with High Speed fans.
[BREAK=Test Results - Yateloon High Speed]
Test Results - Yateloon High Speeds
Lets now take a look at the Thermolab Baram with two Yateloon High Speed fans in a push pull configuration. These are great fans for what they cost and I recommend them for case as well as CPU cooling usage. Be warned that they are a bit load on full tilt and you would be well advised to sue them with a fan controller.
The Thermolab gives us idle temperatures of around 37 degrees and tops out at clsoe to 56 degrees. The Yateloon manages to take off around 3 degrees from the load temperatures at load and shows the potential of these fans. Overall a great result for the Baram.
Now lets move on to our competitor the H50.
The H50 gives us an idle temperature of close to 36 degrees the load temperatures top out at 57 degrees. On load with high fans its about a degree off from the Baram.
[BREAK=Conclusion]
Conclusion
Well the H50 did get beat by the smallest of margins under heavy overclocked loads, but it did manage to stay at around the same temperatures as the Baram on stock settings.
The H50 has lost the battle, but one thing to note before closing this review is that the temperatures of the Northbridge and Southbridge were about 3-4 degrees lower with the H50, as compared to the Baram. This coupled with the immense amount of room freed up around the heatsink is not something that I would ignore.
PROS:
CONS:
In conclusion, its a great little system from Corsair, but I would probably look forward to a 2X120 mm radiator with the same CPU mount and pump. Asetek does make a dual radiator setup and its only a matter of time before Corsair gets something similar.
Till next time...happy cooling
As some of you know, I was stuck with an H50 for a few days and I was wondering if I should give it a go myself. The price was just about fine for this piece of kit and it sure looked good. So what I did do in the end was run a few tests against the Thermolab Baram to see what all the noise was about. Let me say that I was not disappointed.
Before I get ahead of myself, lets take a short look at the company that produces the H50 and also take a look at the H50 itself.
Corsair, as all of you already know, is one of the premier players in the PSU market today. They also do have a sizable reputation in the memory department and are now looking to use some of that goodwill to enter two new markets, the computer case market with the 800D and the cooling market with the H50 and the Ice Series T30. The 800D has been successful in getting a lot of the water cooling crowd interested, but the H50 has had a mixed reaction in most international forums. The T30 is a liquid cooling solution for RAM and is not as easily available in India.
Corsair is also known for great support and a very fast and reliable RMA service and this has made it an even bigger hit with the enthusiast crowd.
So lets get on with this review and take a look at the Corsair H50.
[BREAK=Corsair H50 - Closer Look]
Corsair H50 - Closer Look
The H50 is essentially a closed loop liquid cooling system. This particular system is geared towards keeping the CPU cool, but similar systems are available with waterblocks for a GPU as well. The H50 is made by Asetek, and was used in a couple of Alienware systems before morphing into the H50. Corsair have taken the initiative to make some positive changes to the OEM product before stamping their brand on it.
Lets take a look at some of the main features of this product:
- Pre-filled, closed-loop system is easy to install
- Copper CPU cooling plate for maximum cooling performance
- Integrated pump and reservoir is sealed for zero maintenance and improved leakage protection
- Large 120mm radiator for fast heat dispersion
- High-efficiency, low-noise 120mm fan for drawing cool air across the radiator
- Two-year warranty
And lets also take a look at a few pictures of the product.
The H50 comes packaged in a nice colorful cardboard box with a picture of the system up top. Inside the box, the whole system is held in place with plastic molds and since it reached me without a single scratch, I have no complaints. The system is mainly made up of the radiator, the attached cpu cooler head and pump, the fan and the mounting systems.
One thing to note here is the attention to detail with all the wires nicely sleeved. The sleeving is done on the fan wire and the pump wire, giving it a quality finish.
Now onto the the base, and probably one of the most important parts of the cooler. The base is nice and flat, but it does not have a mirror finish. The machining can still be seen on the base. A point to note here, the base comes pre applied with TIM, but I would advice you to take that off and use your own. This gave me 2 degrees better temperatures at load. I think the main reason for this improvement is that the amount of pre applied TIM is a bit too much.
[BREAK=Installation and Test Setup]
Installation and Test Setup
Installation of the cooler is relatively simple and in my case I didn't even need to take the motherboard out. For AMD users, you can use the stock back plate as well and the advantage with this is that since the standoffs are a bit shorter than the one which comes with the H50, the fit of the cooler is a bit more snug and gives you more pressure.
I started with the installation of the bracket and then went on to the radiator and fans. Once this was done I finally applied the TIM onto the CPU and then fixed the cooler in. It did take me a few tries to figure out the perfect configuration, but what worked for me was two side panel fans throwing air into the cabinet and the H50 in push-pull exhausting air out of the cabinet.
As you can see, this setup leaves a lot of space around the CPU slot and suddenly you have all the DIMM slots available to you. This also helps keep board temperatures a lot lower than with a tower cooler.
Test Setup
AMD Phenom II 965 BE @ 3.8 Ghz, 1.475V - A little extra Vcore for higher temperatures.
MSI GD70
OCZ Platinum 1333 CL6
Sapphire 4870 Vapor
OCZ Modxtreme 700W powering it all up.
We sued OCCT to load up all four cores.
The testing will be done with two sets of fans:
1. Scythe Gentle Typhoons 1450 - Pushes 50 CFM of air at 21.5 dBA. Is regarded as one of the best quiet solutions for radiators.
Chilled PC, Water Cooling, Modding - One stop shop for all your Watercooling and PC Modding
2. Yateloon D12SH-12 - Pushes 88 CFM of air at around 40dBA. Nice high speed fan.
Chilled PC, Water Cooling, Modding - One stop shop for all your Watercooling and PC Modding
PS: I always buy fans from this site as shipping is way cheaper than from the US.
So lets get on to the test results.
[BREAK=Test Results - Scythe Gentle Typhoons]
Test Results - Scythe Gentle Typhoons
So lets start the testing with low speed fans. The GT's are extremely quiet and you really have to put your ear to the case to hear them. They do push a good amount of air, and like I have said before, are probably one of the best fans for radiators.
Starting with the Thermolab Baram at 3.8 Ghz and push pull with the Scythe GT's.
The Thermolab gives us 37 degrees at idle and the load temperatures just crossed 59 degrees. Not a bad result for a very low noise setup.
Lets move on to the Corsair H50 with the same set of fans.
The H50 gave us an idle temperature of 41 degrees and a top load temperature of 60 degrees.
With low speed fans, the Thermolab closely beats the H50 setup. Lets now move on to testing with High Speed fans.
[BREAK=Test Results - Yateloon High Speed]
Test Results - Yateloon High Speeds
Lets now take a look at the Thermolab Baram with two Yateloon High Speed fans in a push pull configuration. These are great fans for what they cost and I recommend them for case as well as CPU cooling usage. Be warned that they are a bit load on full tilt and you would be well advised to sue them with a fan controller.
The Thermolab gives us idle temperatures of around 37 degrees and tops out at clsoe to 56 degrees. The Yateloon manages to take off around 3 degrees from the load temperatures at load and shows the potential of these fans. Overall a great result for the Baram.
Now lets move on to our competitor the H50.
The H50 gives us an idle temperature of close to 36 degrees the load temperatures top out at 57 degrees. On load with high fans its about a degree off from the Baram.
[BREAK=Conclusion]
Conclusion
Well the H50 did get beat by the smallest of margins under heavy overclocked loads, but it did manage to stay at around the same temperatures as the Baram on stock settings.
The H50 has lost the battle, but one thing to note before closing this review is that the temperatures of the Northbridge and Southbridge were about 3-4 degrees lower with the H50, as compared to the Baram. This coupled with the immense amount of room freed up around the heatsink is not something that I would ignore.
PROS:
- Easy mounting and setup for a base water cooling system
- Frees up a lot of space around the CPU area
- Very solid construction with very little chance of a leak
- Lower motherboard temperatures, keeping the whole system nice and cool
- Great warranty service from Corsair
CONS:
- Need to spend a lot of time figuring out the right setup for your case
- Will be beaten on CPU temps by most of the top coolers
- A bit pricey for the results
In conclusion, its a great little system from Corsair, but I would probably look forward to a 2X120 mm radiator with the same CPU mount and pump. Asetek does make a dual radiator setup and its only a matter of time before Corsair gets something similar.
Till next time...happy cooling
