First looks - Corsair revisits CPU cooling: introducing the Hydro Series H50

[HEXUS]

Corsair's set to expand on its range of Hydro Series cooling products, we take an early look at the H50 CPU cooler.

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[explicit4u]

You know what, with me being such a total n00b when it comes to watercooling i might have just been saved by corsair :-P

Im not an extreme overclocker so i don't need top of the line £200+ water coolers, when this is tested by a non corsair company ill be sure to observe and see if i should buy it.

[Brewster0101]

This looks like a good, clean cut product... But personally water cooling should offer two things over air cooling. Lower temperatures and quieter operation. The problem with a lot of these complete kits is to achieve lower temperatures, they usually end up be louder...

[Redbeard]

This looks like a good, clean cut product... But personally water cooling should offer two things over air cooling. Lower temperatures and quieter operation. The problem with a lot of these complete kits is to achieve lower temperatures, they usually end up be louder...

We have tested this one to have nearly identical noise levels to the Noctua NH-U12P SE1366 cooler.

The fan runs at 1700 RPM at full 12V but is stable down to 5V.

[Anosh]

We have tested this one to have nearly identical noise levels to the Noctua NH-U12P SE1366 cooler.

The fan runs at 1700 RPM at full 12V but is stable down to 5V.

That's perfect!
Just switch the corsair fan with a Noctua and get even lower noise levels!

[Brewster0101]

We have tested this one to have nearly identical noise levels to the Noctua NH-U12P SE1366 cooler.

The fan runs at 1700 RPM at full 12V but is stable down to 5V.

Thanks for the reply, good to know about the fan. Do you know if the pump makes much noise and
also the length of the tubing ?

[Darth Sidious]

Im getting one of these baby's if what corsair say is true it should allow me to nuke my q6600, dont let me down corsair my Akasa Nero is pretty damn good too and its less then 30 quid

[Hicks12]

hmm, not bad at all just a shame no NB cooling . Id really like to cool the nb aswell as the cpu as a water cooling system costs ~£125 for nb and cpu and could perform better than this(i expect?). Great price though and might be a very good option for me .

[Philipp]

Looking forward to seeing this cooler come into our labs

[Blitzen]

Looks OK as long as its under £50.
Any more than that and its money badly spent for the difference between this and a good air cooler.

[kingpotnoodle]

I'll wait for a fuller review, I'm not too worried about low low temperatures but something that can be as quiet as my Scythe Kama Angle would be great, the Angle is enormous and seriously hard to work with in an Antec Solo case...

[tickleonthetum]

If this has the same noise roughly as a single fan Noctua or Ultra-120 and is within a degree or 2 of cooling level, what's the point of it? I don't see why someone would want to put a water based cooler in over an air cooler all things being equal?

I would have thought that these days liquid cooling is only better than air cooling if some form of refrigeration is used?

Is there some other advantage to water cooling that I'm not aware of?

[simonw]

I've never really fully understood the ins and outs of water cooling even after reading several articles, so this pre-built easy to install cooler would be ideal for a beginner such as myself. And the £50 price point looks extremely attractive to me, especially when you compare it to a high-end air cooler such as a TRUE which is around the same price.

Since this is a closed loop system, does anyone know if the coolant inside the tubes will evaporate over time? If so, what is the average life expectancy before it is of no use?

[Gareth - ASUS]

It uses low-permeability tubing so evaporation is very close to zero.

The H50 does use liquid cooling 'technology' but it's best described / thought of as a CPU cooler, not a water-cooler. It's a direct alternative to a HSF, basically, so to answer the question "what's the point of it?" the point is the same as for a HSF - i.e. to cool your CPU

Based on our tests it outperforms high-end HSFs at the same or lower noise levels. I would argue that it's easier to fit than a monster HSF too, and easier to work with.

[Blitzen]

Based on our tests it outperforms high-end HSFs at the same or lower noise levels

Only by a tiny margin though.
Also, there is no cooling for mosfets etc so this would probably negate the same CPU temp decrease.

[Gareth - ASUS]

Well, we saw close to a 7C improvement at 100% load, which is not insignificant, and every little helps as Tesco likes to point out

Fair comment about mosfet/VRM cooling, but many high-end HSFs offer no cooling for these either, and VRMs are now often cooled by chunky heatsinks and heatpipes attached to NB coolers, anyway. Good airflow inside the case is important, of course.