New
#1
Corsair Hydro series H50
Just wanted to post this in case anyone was on the fence about this cpu cooler.
I came into some (rare) extra money. Been reading that this all-in-one liquid cooling solution is pretty darned good--so I bought one today.
About a 45 minute install as I had to remove my motherboard.
Even though I haven't had a chance to put it through a good test run yet, I am very impressed with the idle temps thus far. I was using a Core Contact Freezer and my idle temps at stock cpu speed was 35~39, depending upon room temperature. The last time I tried to put an overclock to this cpu, my idle temps were about 39~44 idle, 45~52 load--again, depending upon room temperature. (And only in non-summer months)
I installed this H50 as the instructions stated--with the fan drawing air from the outside--and I mounted the fan and radiator to the rear of the case. First run--temp leveled off at 32 idle. Pretty cool. But, the more I had my PC on, the warmer it got... up to about 37. It turns out I mounted it in the wrong spot--my case is under a desk, with the rear of the case about 3 inches from the wall--and 2 Radeon 4870s exhausting their hot a$$ air right below the intake fan for the radiator. So I moved the fan and radiator to a spot on the top of the case and after about an hour of relatively doing nothing (watching football and running firefox--I call that idle pretty much), temps never got above 33.
I'll be sure to put some numbers here when I put an overclock to the cpu (I'm gonna shoot for 3.8--I could probably shoot for 4.0, but I'm a scardy cat! I don't want to risk burning anything up until I have some cash reserve to replace parts if anything frys. )