| Corsair Hydro H70 Liquid CPU Cooler |  |
| Reviews - Featured Reviews: Cooling | |
| Written by David Ramsey | |
| Monday, 07 February 2011 | |
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Corsair CWCH70 Detailed FeaturesThe H70's pump is much smaller than the pump used in the H50, and has another welcome feature: swivel attachments for the hoses, which makes arranging things inside your case somewhat easier. This image shows the pump unit with its plastic protective cap, which you'd remove before installing it.
Even with the swivel fittings, the pump and radiator assembly is unwieldy. The hoses are short and much stiffer than you'd expect. The hoses, pump, and radiator are all permanently attached to each other.
The base of the H70's pump comes with pre-applied thermal compound, but our testing regimen requires that we use the same thermal compound for all heat sinks. Removing the included compound reveals a base that's flat, with a pronounced texture. This finish is common to all the Asetek-derived water cooling systems I've seem from various manufacturers, and the H70 is a Corsair-labeled version of Asetek's 570LC liquid cooling system.
The thicker radiator, with both fans installed, will take up quite a bit of room in your case. The width of the entire assembly is exactly 3 7/8", and the fans are installed in a "push-pull" arrangement. Corsair recommends that they be oriented so that cool air from outside the case is pulled through the radiator into the case. Corsair H50 owners have added dual fans to their single-fan systems since the the day H50 was introduced, and Corsair even has a configuration guide on this very subject.
Reading the H70's installation instructions will pay off. I didn't, and installed the radiator/fan assembly first. As this picture of the mounted assembly shows, doing so will leave you unable to reach the rearmost two screws that secure the pump retaining ring. Corsair rates the original H50's fan at "about 50CFM"; assuming the two H70 fans are similar to the H50 fan, that means that if you follow Corsair's instructions, you'll have up to 100CFM of hot hair being blown intoyour rig's case. If you have one or two high-end video cards you might want to experiment with orienting the fans to blow air out of the case.
Installing the unit is a little clumsy: first, you must support the radiator/fan assembly while installing the pump, and the relatively short hoses mean that you can't hang it outside the case. And once you have the pump secured, securing the radiator/fan assembly is even trickier: while the inside fan can be pre-mounted to the radiator, the outside fan cannot. You must thread a long screw through the back of your case, through the rear fan, and into a screw hole on the radiator. This is hard to do since you must precisely position the large and relatively heavy assembly while the "springiness" of the water hoses is working against you. A second person helping to support the radiator/fan assembly can make the whole process much easier. And with the cooler is installed, it's time to start the testing.
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Comments
I'll add to your note regarding the 'secret' pump performance. Besides the fluid flow, the fluid itself makes a difference and custom systems certainly have another advantage here. Different fluids and additives can increase heat transfer by decent margins. So if one is involved in serious overclocking, an open system has many advantages. But the simple and sealed packages such as the ALC and Corsair offerings are, as you said, a reliable, quiet, affordable, and easy way to increase heat displacement from the CPU.
Also note, the dual fan, push/pull configuration mounted to the radiator doesn't necessarily increase the CFM across the radiator by doubling the air flow (think of a fan as a pump for the fluid named 'air'). The same air moves through one fan, across the radiator, and then through the second radiator, fan speeds being equal. The air doesn't 'hover' around the radiator but is drawn more efficiently across the fins, and consistent pressure is maintained. To move more air, the fan speeds must be increased. Just as with any fluids, to increase flow, pumps must increase the fluid pressure. Adding more in-line pumps (fans) that all run at the same RPM doesn't increase flow, just maintains consistent pressure.
The h70 however has to be placed in the top of my cooler master cosmos s because otherwise it would interfere with the side intake fan. It runs on 1600 rpm and makes a lot more noise then my h50 (also had two fans) and runs 5C higher then the h50. Both are configured as exhausts btw.
I don't understand what causes this difference. Offcourse the sound is understandable since I had two of my own thermaltake iscg fans on it running at 1000 rpm! But still the h70 with 1600 and bigger radiator is 5C above the h50 with 38C in idle and around 42c when playing games.
If or when I get the backplate I'll do some testing wether or not there still is a big difference when I put it up in the same configuration and use the same fans as the H70.
A double-thick 120mm radiator offers the same surface area as a single-thickness 120x240mm radiator, although I think the latter would probably have a performance advantage due to better air flow.
60°C ? ... at the cores?
A highend aircooler will operate cooler even with a(good)silent 1200RPM fan like the Scythe S-Flex. I know this because i have one and its virtually silent on a Thermalright cooler. I have tested many, many fans and only the best 1200RPM fans are virtually silent, fans spinning at 1600/2000 RPM are just ridiculous.
Why would you put up with noise and pay a lot more for H70 when you can have a cheaper and virtually silent high end cooler. I can only assume some people have never experienced a silent system or know what is possible or have been sucked in by "water" cooling marketting.
And before anyone says "You can run the H70 with 1200RPM fans" the H70 suffers badly with fans at that speed and you can add 10 Degrees to temps.
I have a gpu which seems to make in non silent even at its factory de tuned super low power usage rates. as soon as it gets beyond 32% it is audible to my old ears and after 34% it is noisy. I have a good aftermarket cooler on one 5870 and it is quieter but not silent. so the notion of a silent system as far as the cpu cooler goes is out. But, there are some good 'quiet' fans which push a fair amount of air enough dramatically reduce my Phenom II 965 in the hot summer. I do not think these liquid all in ones ready for me and my price point as yet. It is good to know how much progress is being made. I have used enough of the well reviewed air cooler/heat sink types and changed fan with good sale silent fans or 100+ cfm represented ones with 'some' noise.
i enjoy the input here on this side of the review as well for the reservoir of experience and info.
your efforts are greatly appreciated here.