Considering coolers - someone convince me please!

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starfury6

Limp Gawd
Joined
Feb 8, 2005
Messages
401
Hi all,

I have the system in my sig and want to upgrade the cpu cooler from stock to allow for some mild overclocking.

I am currently considering the following 2 coolers:

Corsair H50-1 Hydrocooler

Noctua NH-C12P SE14

The P193 wont allow me to have a tower cooler since the side fan intrudes and these two will fit. i dont know of any better performing top down coolers and the H50 looks great. I'd have to filter the fan inlet in the rear of the case to prevent dust buildup in the rad, was thinking magnetic 120mm filter for that.

I'm worried about leaks. I know its supposed to be closed system etc etc but never had any water anywhere near my machine before and I am a bit apprehensive.

What do you all think? I cant make my mind up.

Thanks
 
You can use the H50 to exhaust instead of intaking so you don't have to waste a 120mm slot. Exhaust moves air, while intaking with an H50 just has a negative effect on your system temps.

Temperatures will probably be better if you're exhuasting with good airflow setups, or negligibly worse.
 
Well you can always set up the case to exhaust up the top as to keep the back as intake for the H50. As long as there is proper setup in the case it shouldnt make that much of a difference.
 
Another vote for the COOLER MASTER Hyper 212 Plus. It's an awesome cooler at a very reasonable price. It got a 10 rating from Maximum PC. My suggestion would be to add another fan for push/pull air flow. Make sure you get the "Plus" version.
 
Thanks for the replies guys, the Megahalems is too tall for the p193 with the case unfortunately. It was actually my first choice.

Just reading about the coolermaster one since i hadnt seen that one.

Getting closer to ordering the H50 tbh. Just got to get over water leak fears!

Will let you know what i go with.
 
i chose a air cooler over the H50 cause if it might leak, and i wont have to worry about changing fluid ect, i hear where your coming from.
 
jjolin said:
i chose a air cooler over the H50 cause if it might leak, and i wont have to worry about changing fluid ect, i hear where your coming from.
Click to expand...

The H50 is a self-contained unit so none of that should be necessary. Someone correct me if I'm wrong.
 
I really like the H50. I have 3 of them in operation. They are equal to the high end air coolers. What I really like about them is not having the big bulky air cooler sitting in the middle of my cases. No worry about memory clearance and access to the CPU area. If you have a case with access to the back of the MB changing the CPU is very easy also. Leakage has been a minimal problem from the threads on the Corsair support forum. I have 2 fans in push/pull pulling air into the cases with exhaust fans on the top. CPU temps are slightly better then the Noctua cooler I was using.
 
h50 ftw. there is no way it could leak and if it does (only one case ive heard of on a forum) corsair has your back and will replace any damaged components ontop of a new h50.

some examples of mine
running 3.33 GHz
idle temps are 33-34C
Max temps (prime95 for 1 hour) 55-57C

i have mine in an exhaust push pull config using the fan that comes with the h50 and my stock case fan (going to be buying new fans soon though).

Also if you break your fear of water leaks (once you have the h50), i saw instructions online for a really cool mod for the h50. it adds a reservoir to the system which has computers running at temps of 35C at max load. also this allows you to replace water as some evaporates and add dye to it. (mod costs about 25 total i think plus some work)

i want to do the mod but not right now. i'm thinking of waiting till it needs replacing, and then trying it out.

and its light and easy to install. dont have to worry about your mother board bending
 
I was in the same situation with the Antec p193 and the H50 looked like the perfect solution. It's a great cooler, but has some issues with the case.

Long story short, it's not a perfect solution. Far from it.

Yes, the cpu cooler does not interfere with the side fan as expected, BUT the large side intrudes with the 120mm back fan. They bump and the side panel isn't able to close at the back.

I honestly haven't had the time or bothered to fix it, so I've had to run it with the side panel off. I'm trying to figure a way to run it from a top (exhaust) fan with longer screws. I've also heard of people removing the big boy side fan and filling the gap with material to block the air gap.

Otherwise, I may have to look for a quality air cooler (was looking at noctua before I saw the h50) that can fit (or a new case :( )

Hope that helps.


starfury6 said:
Hi all,

I have the system in my sig and want to upgrade the cpu cooler from stock to allow for some mild overclocking.

I am currently considering the following 2 coolers:

Corsair H50-1 Hydrocooler

Noctua NH-C12P SE14

The P193 wont allow me to have a tower cooler since the side fan intrudes and these two will fit. i dont know of any better performing top down coolers and the H50 looks great. I'd have to filter the fan inlet in the rear of the case to prevent dust buildup in the rad, was thinking magnetic 120mm filter for that.

I'm worried about leaks. I know its supposed to be closed system etc etc but never had any water anywhere near my machine before and I am a bit apprehensive.

What do you all think? I cant make my mind up.

Thanks
Click to expand...
 
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dont worry about leaks I have been watercooling for years and not had a problem...... you just need to pay attention to what you are doing
 
Okay I went with the H50-1 and also ordered the filter I was talking about to stop dust on the inlet at the rear. Should be delivered tomorrow so will have a go at installing it then. The corsair vid for installation was good.
 
meh. Got my H50 and installation went a dream until I tried to put my side panel back on. The one with the 200mm fan. The fan itself is far enough away but has a surround over the edge which interferes with the radiator by about 2mm which just prevents the top of the side panel from being pushed home. To start off with I thought the side panel was stuck on something else. It can be wedged down a bit and gets close to allowing me to screw it on but this puts pressure on the radiator.

I am thinking... Dremel the edge of the fan cover to remove a mm or 2, or get a slimmer fan to replace the Corsair one.

Any other options I have? I can see that I could place the rad anywhere else. In the top it would affect the airflow badly due to there being the 2 exhaust fans on top at the moment.
 
Did you ever get this mod done? Need to do it myself, curious on these solutions to get the case fitting right.
 
no yet but someone sent me the instructions. here is the message courtesy of haadij404 :


Message 1:
i followed this guide on overclock.net

http://www.overclock.net/water-cooling/647943-guide-h50-replace-tubes-res-mod.html

only difference is that I used 1/4inch vinyl tubing from home depot (6.35mm) and also for the microres i bought two 1/4inch barbs from danger den.

i picked up both the res and barbs from microcenter for a combined $30 and the tubing was like $4.

Messsage 2:
thx!

a couple questions if you dont mind =D
(ive never done water cooling before)

how do you figure out which way the pump flows?

When tightening the tubes over the barbs do you use some type of silicone sealant?

and in the guide when he says "remember to use o rings". where is he using them and how? (do the go under the tube when fitting over the barb, and then tighten on either side with a zip tie?) also would hand tightening the zip ties be enough? and what are alternatives to zipties?

i dont have an extra power supply. what would be the best way to test the system and check for leaks?

Message 3:
the barb on the left of the corsair logo is pushing water out.

I didn't use any silicone. It was tight enough to not worry. Using zipties was more then enough to secure it imo. I drove my pc with the modded h50 100miles back to college and the zipties held firm.

O rings come with the barbs you need to buy for reservoir. Check out the link I sent you before and you can see those rubber black things around the barbs. Those help keep any thing from leaking.

you can't really use anything else except zipties for the rad and pump. For the res though you can get compression fittings but those get expensive but they offer the tightest connection.

You can buy something like this or check out this thread for other solutions to power the pump w/o a psu.

Hope this helps


**** Edit****
And just to add: if you see in the guides bottom pics the fan setup he is using; that is the best setup for the h50 i have found thus far.
it goes Fan--->Shroud (gutted 120mm fan)---->Rad---->Shroud--->fan
i cant find the screws anywhere to put on the shrouds so i haven't done this setup yet (#6-32 2 1/4" machine screws)
if anyone finds them please let me know

also here are some other useful links for those new to this (like me)
Fitting clear tubes to corsair h50
H50 with 240mm radiator
 
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