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I've seen a few posts about the H50 and also watched Kyles preview of it (where it failed pretty miserably lol) so I felt inclined to post my own experience with this cooler.
I read a few other reviews online and it looked like it could run with the top air coolers. I found this on sale for $60 after rebate and that looked a fair price compared the Megahalem and other top end coolers. I wanted to try something new as I've used aircooling on all my builds so far. I also looked into a legit water cooling setup and I came to the conclusion that it is initially quite expensive to get into. Not to mention portability goes down a fair bit.
So anyways let me get to the H50 now.
The packaging was quite good and everything was in one piece when I got it. It looked nice and efficient. There was no bling factor (which I like).
I got ready to install it but I wanted to use my own thermal paste (shin etsu - thx magnetik
) and removing the stock paste was a real pain. It was on thick and removing it took at least 30 cottonswabs. But finally it came off.
Installation was pretty easy. Just a little trickier then usual as you have both the pump and radiator to deal with. I connected the block first and connected the radiator second. It was easy enough and everything fit nicely.
Only issue I had was that the sleeving for the 3 pin header came out slightly when I was trying to route the wire. Otherwise everything went quite smoothly. I set it up in a push n pull configuration. Should help keep my i7 temps further in check.
Now onto the actual cooling ability of the unit. My reference unit is an OCZ Vendetta 2 with the 1336 Bracket.
I am using Prime95 small FFT's to stress the CPU. Ambient temp is 27.5c.
3705mhz
1.35vcore (yes my i7 is a dog)
HT enabled
OCZ Vendetta 2 would get an average of ~81c. 84c on the hottest core and 77c on the coolest.
Corsair H50 is getting around ~72c. 74c on the hottest core and 70c on the coolest. Its a good 9c drop in temps.
Also my particular 920 does run a bit hot. I borrowed my brothers 920 and at the same speeds and voltages it would run an average of 4c cooler. But that's neither here nor there.
Lows 70's for an overclocked i7 is pretty fair. I think it does pretty well against the other high end air coolers.
I got it for $60 which makes it worthwhile but for $80 (avg price for the h50) I would probably opt for a megahalem or TRUE. But still I am impressed with this cooler. Some more tinkering and I should be able to knock off a few degrees. Almost 28c ambient temp is also pretty high.
Here are some pics of it in my case (which has inverse ATX and airflow is back to front - perfect for the H50)
heres a screenshot of a 5minute run of Prime95
So overall 8/10. Nifty little cooler that does perform quite well.
I read a few other reviews online and it looked like it could run with the top air coolers. I found this on sale for $60 after rebate and that looked a fair price compared the Megahalem and other top end coolers. I wanted to try something new as I've used aircooling on all my builds so far. I also looked into a legit water cooling setup and I came to the conclusion that it is initially quite expensive to get into. Not to mention portability goes down a fair bit.
So anyways let me get to the H50 now.
The packaging was quite good and everything was in one piece when I got it. It looked nice and efficient. There was no bling factor (which I like).
I got ready to install it but I wanted to use my own thermal paste (shin etsu - thx magnetik
) and removing the stock paste was a real pain. It was on thick and removing it took at least 30 cottonswabs. But finally it came off. Installation was pretty easy. Just a little trickier then usual as you have both the pump and radiator to deal with. I connected the block first and connected the radiator second. It was easy enough and everything fit nicely.
Only issue I had was that the sleeving for the 3 pin header came out slightly when I was trying to route the wire. Otherwise everything went quite smoothly. I set it up in a push n pull configuration. Should help keep my i7 temps further in check.
Now onto the actual cooling ability of the unit. My reference unit is an OCZ Vendetta 2 with the 1336 Bracket.
I am using Prime95 small FFT's to stress the CPU. Ambient temp is 27.5c.
3705mhz
1.35vcore (yes my i7 is a dog)
HT enabled
OCZ Vendetta 2 would get an average of ~81c. 84c on the hottest core and 77c on the coolest.
Corsair H50 is getting around ~72c. 74c on the hottest core and 70c on the coolest. Its a good 9c drop in temps.
Also my particular 920 does run a bit hot. I borrowed my brothers 920 and at the same speeds and voltages it would run an average of 4c cooler. But that's neither here nor there.
Lows 70's for an overclocked i7 is pretty fair. I think it does pretty well against the other high end air coolers.
I got it for $60 which makes it worthwhile but for $80 (avg price for the h50) I would probably opt for a megahalem or TRUE. But still I am impressed with this cooler. Some more tinkering and I should be able to knock off a few degrees. Almost 28c ambient temp is also pretty high.
Here are some pics of it in my case (which has inverse ATX and airflow is back to front - perfect for the H50)
heres a screenshot of a 5minute run of Prime95
So overall 8/10. Nifty little cooler that does perform quite well.
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