Corsair Hydro Series H50 Review

[onethreehill]

Current high-end x86 processors are hot, hot beasties. AMD and Intel's best chips are manufactured on a 45nm process and need up to 125W and 130W, respectively, of cooling power to keep them chugging along within tolerances. The ever-increasing TDPs have lead to both companies bundling in larger, more efficient air coolers with retail chips, to the extent that they can be considered enthusiast-class.

A well-designed PIB cooler is good enough to keep the chip(s) running at their native speeds, obviously, but the enthusiast who wants to extract more 'free' performance from their system may well indulge in some robust overclocking, usually by adding voltage as the frequency tops out. That's why there's a whole raft of aftermarket air coolers for Intel's LGA775/1,366 and AMD's AM2+/AM3 CPUs, ranging from anywhere between £10 to £60.

Air cooling has the inevitable drawback of being limited by the ambient temperature, no matter how efficient the transfer from chip to fan. The next step up is to use a liquid-cooled setup that is better at absorbing and dissipating the heat produced by the CPU. This is where budget all-in-one, easy-fit systems come in, costing around £50 and purporting to have better cooling credentials.

Corsair recently teamed up with Asetek and launched such a cooler last month. Dubbed the Hydro Series H50 and currently etailing at £59, the memory specialist is aiming to destroy the high-end air-cooling market.

Is it better than a Thermalright Ultra-120 eXtreme when tasked to cool a near-4.0GHz-clocked Core i7 chip. Read on to find out.

http://www.hexus.net/content/item.php?item=19073&page=1

[labs23]

That's a decent performance over the TRUE, but I bet it won't stay long on the market. Yup, beaten the TRUE but not that much. And most that used water-cooling have full fledged water-cooling systems. The price is a bit tempting though.

[Smartidiot89]

That's a decent performance over the TRUE, but I bet it won't stay long on the market. Yup, beaten the TRUE but not that much. And most that used water-cooling have full fledged water-cooling systems. The price is a bit tempting though.

This isn't meent to compete against watercoolers, its meent to compete against air coolers and it does so very well. It outperforms the TRUE enough for me to want it

[Jonny Manc]

I wonder if the TRUE backplate would hold it so I dont have to remove my motherboard.......

[zerotol]

Only real comparison is with the same fan IMO.

I also wonder how it would fare with a silent,slowspinning fan.

[dingdong555]

Great product for all those TRUE owners out there You've done well here Corsair.

[sosna]

This isn't meent to compete against watercoolers, its meent to compete against air coolers and it does so very well. It outperforms the TRUE enough for me to want it

+1!

[labs23]

This isn't meent to compete against watercoolers, its meent to compete against air coolers and it does so very well. It outperforms the TRUE enough for me to want it

Of course it does, the performance is there. Yet again I was more specific on its place in the watercooling market - since it is an entry level water-cooling product.

[zalbard]

The results are predictable. It's doing very well.
On the other hand, looks like heavily tweaked True will beat it. And Megahalem should beat this Corsair unit, too.
I'm curious how it's going to perform with a more silent fan as well. And what about the pump noise? My previous pump annoyed me a lot, and I couldn't control its noise like I could control my fans. The review mentions it's noisy, would be nice to see some db figures.
In any case, I think it's a decent product for the price. Should sell well I believe.

[Jonny Manc]

The results are predictable. It's doing very well.
On the other hand, looks like heavily tweaked True will beat it. And Megahalem should beat this Corsair unit, too.
I'm curious how it's going to perform with a more silent fan as well. And what about the pump noise? My previous pump annoyed me a lot, and I couldn't control its noise like I could control my fans. The review mentions it's noisy, would be nice to see some db figures.
In any case, I think it's a decent product for the price. Should sell well I believe.

Funny you mention figures and all I have seen are charts.

Would be nice to see some screens of realtemp (or whatever method is being used) etc to backup these charts, like we see on the forums.

[Redbeard]

I wonder if the TRUE backplate would hold it so I dont have to remove my motherboard.......

The TRUE backplates for 1366 and 775 use the same thread as the screws in the mounting bracket we currently send out, so you can use the same backplate.

[Jonny Manc]

The TRUE backplates for 1366 and 775 use the same thread as the screws in the mounting bracket we currently send out, so you can use the same backplate.

Cheers RB.....good to hear

[crash5s]

It's good for what you get, not a bad product. I won't buy it, I prefer to do my own loops, but it's a good kit.

[zalbard]

Funny you mention figures and all I have seen are charts.

Would be nice to see some screens of realtemp (or whatever method is being used) etc to backup these charts, like we see on the forums.

Hopefully we'll get lots of feedback once XS users start buying these. Usually better than most reviews.

[MpG]

Interesting and food for thought, but the fan differences are kind of glaring, especially since the TRUE is an air cooler that can really take advantage of higher fan speeds.

[ILikeCosmosS]

Doesnt Swiftech have the same thing on the market as well?

[Jamesrt2004]

Doesnt Swiftech have the same thing on the market as well?

there's is a lot more pricey iirc

[MpG]

Doesnt Swiftech have the same thing on the market as well?

Swiftech's offering is technically in a different niche than this. Corsair's solution is all-in-one, while Swiftech's unit has two main parts. On the other hand, Swiftech's offering has a much stronger pump and can easily be expanded with other waterblocks in the future. And while it would be difficult to proper compare them, Swiftech's radiator looks like it would be more efficient as well.

[vengance_01]

Does the kit come with AM2+ mounting hardware?

[GAR]

Should have compared it to the Noctua P12SE 1366, since thats better than a TRUE, i dont know why everyone thinks the TRUE is still the best, i have both coolers in front of me, after doing some tests, the Noctua is 2-5c better. Push/Pull obviously, the TRUE comes close with a push pull, but Noctua still is the winner. This unit will hamper rear exhaust, the hotter your case gets, the hotter the radiator will get, this is a bad product for people with closed cases.

[GAR]

Does the kit come with AM2+ mounting hardware?

No you need to get it from corsair, its free but you need to ask for it, why it wasnt inclued in the retail kit is unknown.

[vengance_01]

Thanks for the quick response Gar.

[faster3200]

This unit will hamper rear exhaust, the hotter your case gets, the hotter the radiator will get, this is a bad product for people with closed cases.

A rad should NEVER be used with an exhaust fan. Putting case air through a rad is a good way to increase temps. Flip your fans around and problem solved.

[GAR]

A rad should NEVER be used with an exhaust fan. Putting case air through a rad is a good way to increase temps. Flip your fans around and problem solved.

True. But i still see this kit being an issue for Mid Towers with only 1 exhaust fan in the rear, in a HAF 932 or Antec 1200/900/902 where you have the extra exhaust through the top, this would be a very good performer.

[clayton]

there's is a lot more pricey iirc

http://www.driverheaven.net/reviews/...20/testing.php

For the price it's not even worth it.