Corsair H50 Owners?

Finally got my hands on the H50 i'd bought and i'm hoping to get it installed and at least get my PC running this weekend. I seem to recall though that Corsair recommend using the rad as an intake instead of exhaust?.

To me this seems just plain wrong?, i was going to add a second fan for push/pull and have it exhausting out of the case (Lian Li V1010) as it doesn't have a top fan, just a single 140mm intake in the bottom compartment at the front...seems to me i'd just end up with a load of hot air stuck in the case even if i reversed the intake?.

Any comments welcome!.
:)

Theory is air is cooler out side of your case, so your get a better thermal gradient from that inside the case (air can absorbe more energy before getting to a given temperature), however this is dependent on the case venting the heat and not building up to a significantly higher temp. There are believers in active pressure, so your not losing a fan. Personally i thing its nuts to move the heat source to the edge of the case only to vent the heat back in, as its making a heat well out of the case. I think the best thing to do would be to vent outside and duct a intake to the fan. That way your not havingto use heated air from other components.

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Originally Posted by jon bda

To me this seems just plain wrong?

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I thought that too when I read the instructions. The around the back of my PC is pretty warm already as a result of the graphics card and PSU exhausts and the proximity to the wall/desk so there's no obvious advantage of pulling in air rather than expelling it to my mind.

Surely the proper thing to do is not just guess which is best but simply try both and make some measurements?

If you do some tests, please could you post your findings for the benefit of the rest of us. :)

In terms of absolute cooling performance, there's a decent argument for venting through a rad into the case, as the air outside *should* be cooler than the air inside. However, everyone's mileage is going to vary, and if you have your computer positioned in such a way that hot air from other venting components, like the PSU and GPU, gathers behind the case, there's every chance that it won't make much difference.

I believe the absolute ideal would be to position the rad at the bottom front of the case (rather like a car radiator) so it can draw cool air from low down in front of the case, which can then be vented by rear exhausts. But I assume the H50 doesn't come with long enough tubes to allow that...

I am looking at modding my shuttle and getting shot of the shuttle cooler and fans and squeezing one of these in there instead. Just need to get hands on with a cooler to see if it will go in my style of case first.

I think a lot would depend on your graphics cards - if they're pushing air out the back of the case, then using the H50 as an exhaust would be a good idea. The air inside the case shouldn't be too hot and it will aid the internal airflow. You'll also maintain a nice convection current moving up behind the case. Putting it as an intake in that situation would pull hot air that's just been vented out of the graphics cards and pump it straight back into the case.

If you've got aftermarket cooler(s) on the graphics card(s) that recirculate air inside the case, then it'll be hot inside the case and to keep the CPU cool you'll probably want to pull cold air in from outside. You'll need decent air flow inside the case though or you'll just cause a massive internal temperature rise internally until the entire lot overheats. Obviously this isn't an ideal situation though.

The best solution, I would say, is as scaryjim says: H50 as a front intake to bring in cool air, then graphics cards and a couple of 120mm fans all venting out of the back/top, so you've got a strong convection current going behind the back of the case and cool air going into the CPU, and just slightly warmer air going in the graphics cards. Probably impossible for reasons previously stated, but hey.

I use mine as an exhaust. Can't be bothered with dust. I have an anted 300 with a single 120mm intake and a very low end GPU which obviously makes a difference. However, 4ghz 1.46vcore and cool with exhaust config :)