The NEW Corsair H60 and H55 CPU Liquid Coolers Review @ [H]

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FrgMstr

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The NEW Corsair H60 and H55 CPU Liquid Coolers Review - Most computer hardware enthusiasts are no stranger to Corsair's closed loop system CPU water coolers. It has now redesigned the venerable H60 that many of us use and introduced a new model H55 unit in its Hydro Series. The H55 is billed as being it top "quiet" cooler while the H60 ranks as its entry to the "high performance."
 
Conclusion: closed loop water cooling is overrated. The H60 costs twice as much as the Thermalright and the Arctic and it gets stomped by both. I'd save my money and stick to air until they get better.
 
You need to grind a new channel in the heatspreader just because! :D

Seems like they needed to use thicker radiators. It doesn't matter how much better liquid is at transporting heat at some point the heat needs to go back to the air again. The radiators on these are pretty skinny, though for a SFF system these would be ideal.

They should produce a "thick" model with some low RPM fans (or a 140mm variant, now most cases seem to have 140mm slots) which would greater (or really low dB) cooling. You aren't going to get quiet with such a small radiance surface. Really they should do that, and make GPU coolers. :D
 
The only problem with the "thick model" is that it wouldn't fit into their current cases. I have an h100 running an the 500r, and it does relatively well with the back fan blowing in and radiator fans blowing out. They need to devise a system that takes air directly from the outside and exhausts it outside too.
 
You know, I like these coolers. If I am a budget buyer where noise and cooler size is an issue, these fit the bill perfectly. They provide vastly improved cooling over the stock cooler, leave room in the case to fiddle easily and have much lower noise at load than the air coolers out there. To me, that is a worthy product.
 
The default fans for the H series have been craptastically loud, particularly the H100 (holy shit.) The new H100i is much better though. I think that a fair amount of the modern air coolers I've encountered have been noticeably less noisy than the fans Corsair used on the Hydro series up until their new iterations.

I'd still like to try out that Arctic Freezing i30.
 
I think one of these could work well in an HTPC sized case where you just can't fith those giant air coolers. Might have to look into it for a future build.
 
Lets see a comparison of the H100 vs the H100i, reviews I've read show the 100i as being a supstantial improvement.
 
Maplehamwich said:
You know, I like these coolers. If I am a budget buyer where noise and cooler size is an issue, these fit the bill perfectly. They provide vastly improved cooling over the stock cooler, leave room in the case to fiddle easily and have much lower noise at load than the air coolers out there. To me, that is a worthy product.
Click to expand...

We must have read different reviews.
 
I really like my Corsair H100.
It is hard to recommend from a price/performance ratio but I appreciate the neat design (great look, no RAM obstruction), low temps and relatively low noise.
 
Maplehamwich said:
You know, I like these coolers. If I am a budget buyer where noise and cooler size is an issue, these fit the bill perfectly. They provide vastly improved cooling over the stock cooler, leave room in the case to fiddle easily and have much lower noise at load than the air coolers out there. To me, that is a worthy product.
Click to expand...

In a small case, you are absolutly right.

I just got my H55 today. The thermaltake cooler that i was using (just a cheap little one, biggest one that would fit in the case because of the layout) was 92F idle 138F 100% load, the H55 is 80F/109F with much less noise. It's only a Athlon II x3 445 (3.1ghz, not overclocked). Good temps and very very little noise.

Worth it in my book.

The H55 really isn't an "overclocking enthusiast" target product, it's more for compact, high power systems where are a large air cooler won't fit.
 
In the future maybe the guys could toss in an AMD OC'd cpu into the mix for testing. The original H50 couldn't cut the mustard trying to keep mine cool as my cpu has to be below 60 to operate. In the end I had to upgrade to a H80. Closed water loops are especially easy to setup for the AMD motherboards compared to the air coolers due to ram placement on the motherboard. That was another determining factor for me choosing to go with the H80.

Great review as always. I love the attention to detail and price comparison. Thx guys!
 
That rigid tubing to the point of wanting to tear the heat plate off the cpu is rather disturbing. That alone would keep me from buying it if I wanted to switch from air cooling (which I don't).
 
Oh dear...I think I bought the H60 a bit prematurely. >_<

I knew I shoulda gone for the H100i.
 
Wow, Thermalright stomped those closed looped systems in every aspect; temps, sound levels, and value.... How do you get away with trying to sell something like this at that price when competition utterly destroys you?
 
Dizon248 said:
Wow, Thermalright stomped those closed looped systems in every aspect; temps, sound levels, and value.... How do you get away with trying to sell something like this at that price when competition utterly destroys you?
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Easy

It fits into HTPC cases
 
Any info on pump noise on the H55 vs. the original H50 or other AIO coolers?

My original H50 developed a bit of a ticking sound, that while quiet by most peoples standards, was very annoying to me (any hint of a mechanical fault bothers me). A replacement for it, the Antec Kuhler 620 had a similar noise right out of the box. I don't think it is something that is reflected in standard sound level tests though. I'm curious about what makes the H55 designed to be 'quiet'? More than just a fan change hopefully...
 
XacTactX said:
Conclusion: closed loop water cooling is overrated. The H60 costs twice as much as the Thermalright and the Arctic and it gets stomped by both. I'd save my money and stick to air until they get better.
Click to expand...

I don't know about those results but I can say that my H60 out performed my Venomous X with the same Kama Flow 2 fans in push/pull. I know that true spirit doesn't perform as well as a Venomous X.

I don't use stock fans on most cpu coolers. I also find a cpu cooler review without an apples to apples comparison with the same fans and if possible push/pull results pretty useless.

My old H50 performed on par with my old True with the same low speed yate loon fans in push/pull.

I love these LCLC solutions. Its nice not having some massively heavy heatsink hanging off of my motherboard and to not have to worry about clearance issues.
 
BababooeyHTJ said:
I don't know about those results but I can say that my H60 out performed my Venomous X with the same Kama Flow 2 fans in push/pull. I know that true spirit doesn't perform as well as a Venomous X.

I don't use stock fans on most cpu coolers. I also find a cpu cooler review without an apples to apples comparison with the same fans and if possible push/pull results pretty useless.

My old H50 performed on par with my old True with the same low speed yate loon fans in push/pull.

I love these LCLC solutions. Its nice not having some massively heavy heatsink hanging off of my motherboard and to not have to worry about clearance issues.
Click to expand...

I'm going to look like a flip-flopper but you are right. Right now this site isn't working for me but later on when it loads, look at the apples-to-apples results with the Antec Kuhler 620 and 920. http://www.dexgo.com/index.php?site=artikel/view.php&rubrik=&id=636

When you run the S-Flex fans at 1300 RPM or higher then the closed loop coolers are excellent. But at 700 RPM they lag far behind air coolers. So it depends on what you are looking for, if you want silence then closed loop isn't very good, if you want high performance then it's good.
 
Dizon248 said:
Wow, Thermalright stomped those closed looped systems in every aspect; temps, sound levels, and value.... How do you get away with trying to sell something like this at that price when competition utterly destroys you?
Click to expand...

I agree. Lots of bling in a closed loop but the performance simply isn't there when compared to a good fan and heatsink unit. Thanks for the excellent review and shedding more light on the subject of CPU cooling. I'm keeping my "old" Arctic Cooling Freezer Pro 64. ;)
 
i have no problems with my ol h50 and it cools tons better than the stock i7 cooler. ive got it oc'd a little and its fine, i never hear the fan either.
 
Dizon248 said:
I find it hard to believe you can't fit a thermalright true spirit 120. It is a small heatsink.
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How the heck do you think that a heatsink that is 145mm tall is small? That means that on a motherboard it sticks out farther than a full size graphics card, let alone a half-height card.

1351693272ZeNpxmp4Kx_2_11_l.jpg

I mean come on
 
I have the h100i and it is fantastic!! Was great timing since I was looking at the h100 and my friend called me and picked it up that same day! Having the software controlled instead of opening up the case is probably the biggest plus ontop of the new hoses that are on the h100i.
 
Any word from Corsair on why they kept the H60 model #? That has to be one of the dumbest things I have heard lately. Even with them phasing out the older model H60, seems like there were enough changes to justify a different model #.
 
bds1904 said:
How the heck do you think that a heatsink that is 145mm tall is small? That means that on a motherboard it sticks out farther than a full size graphics card, let alone a half-height card.

1351693272ZeNpxmp4Kx_2_11_l.jpg

I mean come on
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Oh, because a 120mm radiator is that much smaller? Cmon....
 
Dizon248 said:
Oh, because a 120mm radiator is that much smaller? Cmon....
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Yeah that's true but I think what's important is that as long as your case has one 120mm fan mount you can use AIO water cooling. It is very versatile because of this. Tower heatsinks not so much.
 
XacTactX said:
I'm going to look like a flip-flopper but you are right. Right now this site isn't working for me but later on when it loads, look at the apples-to-apples results with the Antec Kuhler 620 and 920. http://www.dexgo.com/index.php?site=artikel/view.php&rubrik=&id=636

When you run the S-Flex fans at 1300 RPM or higher then the closed loop coolers are excellent. But at 700 RPM they lag far behind air coolers. So it depends on what you are looking for, if you want silence then closed loop isn't very good, if you want high performance then it's good.
Click to expand...

Due to the tight fin spacing these coolers scale very well in push/pull and that includes lower speeds. I never run my fans over 1000rpm and my H60 still out performed my Venomous X. Its also generally easier to fit a pair of fans on something like an H60.

The AIO coolers with thinner rads when using a pair of fans seem to perform on par with a mid sized heatsink like a True.
 
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Just a little note on the True Spirit 120M: I see it available in very few places and your Amazon link has it at $42.90, not $29.95. So what's up with the price listed in the article?
 
Yeah, it looks like in the Hardware Canucks review when using the same Noctua fans that both the H55 and H60i out perform a Venomous X. I'm not surprised.

Thats why I'm not a big fan of apples to oranges reviews like this.
 
Reviewing the H80i would be more interesting then the lower ranked WC setups like the H60
 
1911Shootist said:
Any info on pump noise on the H55 vs. the original H50 or other AIO coolers?

My original H50 developed a bit of a ticking sound, that while quiet by most peoples standards, was very annoying to me (any hint of a mechanical fault bothers me). A replacement for it, the Antec Kuhler 620 had a similar noise right out of the box. I don't think it is something that is reflected in standard sound level tests though. I'm curious about what makes the H55 designed to be 'quiet'? More than just a fan change hopefully...
Click to expand...

I picked up an H55 yesterday - I'm very happy to report the pump is damn near silent (and I am quite picky about noise). Coupled with a Scythe T.B.Silence PWM fan at ~600rpm, it is far quieter than my PSU or GPU. Cooling performance isn't quite as good as I hoped for, but it will suit my needs perfectly :)
 
so anybody suggest it for quite cooling at mini itx ?

i hope will be not noisy like the previous models..:)
 
good to hear. these reviews need to spend more time on the pump noise, imo.
many of us would put in aftermarket fans, or put the fans on pretty low, and that is where pump noise matters.
 
As far as I'm concerned, a big perk of closed loop water cooling like this is that you don't have a heavy piece of metal hanging off the CPU/motherboard ... this has been important for me in the past when I was moving every few months. Removing a big heatsink was just one more thing on my moving checklist that I'd rather not have to deal with.

Sure the sockets are obviously strong enough to handle a static load but I wouldn't ship a desktop with an air cooler still attached. Too much metal, too much movement, too much danger of damaging something.

For a desktop that's going to sit at the same desk for life? IDK ... I just like not having to worry about a big chunk of metal hanging off the board. Not to mention you don't have to worry about clearance around RAM slots or GPU slots or anything like that. Both make the Corsair units attractive for me when family calls me and asks me to build and ship them a computer. Sure its a little costly but its convenient.

I paired my H60 with push-pull Noctua F12-PWM's. I have my PWM curve set so that I'm running a few degrees cooler than the stock fan provided by Corsair while also putting out less noise.
 
ok,so i can confirm that the new upgraded H60i,its really silent(pump),but installed the radiator with noiseblocker NB-eLoop(950Rpm).
The corsair fan still noisy for me, paired and connected by low noise adaptor(noctua) to the motherboard.
Perfomance of the H60i generally,is really good !

15q6vb9.jpg
 
bds1904 said:
Easy

It fits into HTPC cases
Click to expand...

I don't have an HTPC case but I used the H60 for the cleaner look. no pump noise issues and I have a GT15 fan connected to it at 40% speed using Asus thermal monitor.

but tbh, I don&#8217;t know how Corsair and others offer coolers without PWM control, even the GT15 is very loud imo at full speed.
 
Watercooling has never been easier than this,and at that price?That could be your next upgrade if you like to messing and spending for your pc rig.The results may be on par with the air cooling solutions yet the noise for your media center is a BAD point.At least , it is more of an investment than the neon lights,my 2 cents......
 
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