Reviews - Corsair Hydro Series H70 CPU cooler review

[aXeR]

I was a little disappointed with the results of the H70 as I awaited its launch with eager anticipation. I wonder if the H70 would perform better with some decent fans on it, perhaps 120mm Apaches, that's what I have on my H50 and they perform much better than the stock supplied fan!

[Carfanatic]

I was a little disappointed with the results of the H70 as I awaited its launch with eager anticipation. I wonder if the H70 would perform better with some decent fans on it, perhaps 120mm Apaches, that's what I have on my H50 and they perform much better than the stock supplied fan!

That's what I been wondering and awaiting the H70 to hit the USA and for a real 1 vs 1 comparison with the H50 using the same fans for both and hopefully not stock fans.

[ta2]

Your results seem very strange. I have an i5 750 @ 4GHz. I had an Akasa 'Freedom Tower' and I was hitting 105C on Prime95 after about 60 seconds. (Yes, I didn't do that for long). I have a H50 with two fans in an Antec 902 case (tons of fans) and I'm down about 20C on the Akasa.

Your review puts the H50 in dual fan configuration just a couple of degrees better than the stock cooler?

[Carfanatic]

Your results seem very strange. I have an i5 750 @ 4GHz. I had an Akasa 'Freedom Tower' and I was hitting 105C on Prime95 after about 60 seconds. (Yes, I didn't do that for long). I have a H50 with two fans in an Antec 902 case (tons of fans) and I'm down about 20C on the Akasa.

Your review puts the H50 in dual fan configuration just a couple of degrees better than the stock cooler?

What are your ambients to get down to 20C you must be at like 10C or so to be hitting 20C load temps(no one lists idle temps pretty useless). People can't hit lower than ambient temps unless your using refrigeration with WC or something like that.

[ta2]

What are your ambients to get down to 20C you must be at like 10C or so to be hitting 20C load temps(no one lists idle temps pretty useless). People can't hit lower than ambient temps unless your using refrigeration with WC or something like that.

I'm down from about 105C load to 85C load... not down to 20C load or idle.

[Carfanatic]

I'm down from about 105C load to 85C load... not down to 20C load or idle.

Ah ok that makes a lot more sense. I did close to the same with my H50 going from Akasa Apache fans in p/p(tried intake and exhaust in back of my case) changed to Scythe GentleTyphoons AP15 fans added two shrouds and put it as front intake went from 65C to 45C or lower. Using an AMD chip so about the same when you consider the two different temp ranges for the CPU's.

[HW_90]

Your results seem very strange. I have an i5 750 @ 4GHz. I had an Akasa 'Freedom Tower' and I was hitting 105C on Prime95 after about 60 seconds. (Yes, I didn't do that for long). I have a H50 with two fans in an Antec 902 case (tons of fans) and I'm down about 20C on the Akasa.

Your review puts the H50 in dual fan configuration just a couple of degrees better than the stock cooler?

don't forget that the 980x stock cooler is a heatpipe+fins based cooler instead of just a fin based cooler which increase performance a lot.

[Azza]

Happy I got my H50 for the tidy price of £35 now.

[kmufc77]

I wonder how a H70 compares to the Prolimatech Megahalems?

Will it cool say a i7@4ghz better than a Megahalems

I Currently have a Prolimatech Megahalems.

I used to own a H50 but have since sold it on

[johnjohn]

Bare in mind that the H70 actually dumps the heat into you case, not exhaust out. Meaning its like blowing a hair dryer onto your motherboard, ram, graphic card.

[jim]

You choose which way to point it.

[shaffaaf27]

why not test it with the fans exhausting?

[tickleonthetum]

I decided to try connecting the two H70 fans to the Fan controller of my CM Storm Sniper case. The results are very positive indeed, and interesting.

To test out the Load temps I ran Prime95, and set the fan speed to a % based on the dial position. The temps are in the form of coolest core - hottest core, as displayed by CoreTemp 0.99.8.

Test System:
i7 920 D0 4GHz (200 x 20)
CPU Voltage: 1.3500
CPU PLL Voltage: 1.88
CPU/DRAM Core Voltage: 1.3500
HT: On
All speed step etc off.

Old TRUE-120 (1600rpm Push/Pull)
IDLE: 38° - 41°
LOAD: 79° - 84°

H70 (fans set to intake)
Fans connected to CPU Fan Header
IDLE: 32° - 41°
LOAD: 69° - 73°

Fans connected to cases fan controller
Minimum (20% ish I think)
IDLE: 36° - 40°
LOAD: 76° - 80°

50%
IDLE: 34° - 39°
LOAD: 69° - 74°

100%
IDLE: 33° - 39°
LOAD: 68° - 72°

Volume
I don't have any Db meter or anything so this is subjective but anyway:

TRUE-120: LOUD rushing noise, annoying when room is quite.
H70: CPU Fan power: LOUD rushing noise and irritating whine, annoying even when room noisy.
H70 20% Fan speed: Very Quiet! Gentle shush, fine even when room quite.
H70 50% Fan speed: Average, fan noise not annoying but there in background all the time.
H70 100% Fan speed: LOUD rushing noise and irritating whine, annoying even when room noisy.

So all in all a very good outcome, and even with the fans turned down to minimum the H70 still beats my old TRUE-120, so I am a happy chappy.