Corsair A50 - worth it?

[jester1176]

I see that the A50 is 50% off at Amazon right now -

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003IT6RDE/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?ie=UTF8&m=AZ8ZZL30AH7DI

I might dabble in overclocking it a bit, but certainly not looking to push the edges.

Thanks!

 

[Melon]

Worth it if you can't get a 212+ for cheaper.

 

[kirbyrj]

I got an A50 for $15 AR from Newegg. I just got a 212+ from MC for $20 AR. The fan on the A50 is full blast all the time. If you replace the fan it's not too bad. All those 120mm tower coolers are within a few degrees C of each other.

 

[Ocellaris]

I had one of these, the cooler was OK however I wasn't happy with the temps when overclocking. Traded the A50 to a friend and picked up a Corsair H50 on sale somewhere for about ~$15 more than the A50. I have been very happy with the H50.

 

[PGHammer]

I had one of these, the cooler was OK however I wasn't happy with the temps when overclocking. Traded the A50 to a friend and picked up a Corsair H50 on sale somewhere for about ~$15 more than the A50. I have been very happy with the H50.

The issue with water-cooling has *never* been cooling efficiency - not even in the early days of enthusiast-grade water-cooling. The issues have been twofold - complexity and price. The advent of closed-loop water-cooling has punctured the complexity argument for CPU-only water-cooling; competition in the space (between Antec and Corsair) is doing the same to price.

The Antec Kuhler 620 competes heads-up with the Corsair H60, resulting in the two basically having a price war (especially retail/e-tail, even at Amazon) - the same is true with the Kuhler 920 and the Corsair H80.

The venerable H50 has been discontinued (replaced with the H40) - however, the H40/50/60/80 all share the same surprisingly-easy mounting system for the radiator and fan (PUSH/PULL fans in the case of the H80) - the 120mm mounting space in the rear of the case. (Already have a fan in that space? Move it to the front and configure it as a PULL fan.)

The price advantage that air-cooling has traditionally had has shrunk - at MicroCenter, the Hyper212 EVO is only $23 less than the Corsair H60. The H40 - $10 less than the H60 - therefore has a smaller price gap. It's still up to the individual user/builder as to whether the better cooling and quiet is worth the remaining price gap to them.