Corsair Hydro Series H60 Liquid CPU Cooler Review @ [H]

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FrgMstr

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Corsair Hydro Series H60 Liquid CPU Cooler Review - Corsair's H60 liquid CPU cooler comes to us with different technology than we saw with its H50 and H70 as Corsair has switched up supply sources. Corsair is touting a micro-channel cold plates and a split-flow designed manifolds. But, will it blend?
 
So what accounts for the reduction in noise; quieter fan, less pump noise, better radiator design?
 
Wait, I don't get it. The Thermalright Archon outperforms it a cheaper price and is an air cooler. So would I pay extra for something more complicated, expensive and less performance?
 
More important than if it will blend is if it will beat Antec's similarly positioned 620... and that answer, based off your own data, appears to be in the negative as the 620 offers better cooling stock speed, better cooling at moderate overclock, and less noise for approximately the same money.

So will the next test be the H80 and the double wide radiator H100 versus the H70 and the Antec 920?
 
Luthorcrow said:
Wait, I don't get it. The Thermalright Archon outperforms it a cheaper price and is an air cooler. So would I pay extra for something more complicated, expensive and less performance?
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space constraints/flexibilty

Also, the thermalright using google shopping is $80+while the H60 can be had for $70 or a couple bucks less. Not a huge price delta, but still a little less.
 
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Their review is wrong on the Antec price as well. I picked one up from Microcenter for $69.
 
Luthorcrow said:
Wait, I don't get it. The Thermalright Archon outperforms it a cheaper price and is an air cooler. So would I pay extra for something more complicated, expensive and less performance?
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Their review only used one fan (since that's all it comes with). However, if you use 2 fans in push > pull, you get better temps.

I have an Antec Kuhler 620 with a coolermaster sickleflow 120mm pushing and the stock fan it comes with pulling. Airflow goes from in the case > out to back. Below are my system specs and temps.

Coolermaster Advanced 690 II
Antec Kuhler 620 w/ CM Sickleflow 120mm pushing, stock pulling
SB 2500K OC'd to 4.2ghz @ 1.26v
MSI P67A - GD65 rev3
2 x 8800 GTS640 SC @ 567mhz core, 875mhz mem
2 x WD Black 640MB
1 x Hitachi 1TB
Thermaltake 700W Tough Power
1 x 120mm CM Sickleflow pushing air out of the case over vid cards
3 x 140mm, 2 came with the case, 1 Xitech 1800 rpm (IIRC)

Ambient temps are around 20-22c
Vid cards are set to static 75% fan
Load CPU on the hottest core top out @ 59c after running OCCT or P95 for 8+ hours
Idle CPU is 20c
Gaming, CPU loads are around 50-52 typically

When I have time, I'm going to cut the back mesh/grid 120mm fan spot and turn the airflow around so that it blow in from the back and out through the top of the case.
 
I thought the Antech 620 and the H60 were parts from the same company? regardless its easy to see how they perform similarily since they look almost identicle.
 
Trimlock said:
I thought the Antech 620 and the H60 were parts from the same company? regardless its easy to see how they perform similarily since they look almost identicle.
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Yea Asetek makes them, from what I've read. My brother has the H60 push CM Sickleflow push default fan pull, with a Core i5-750 @ 3.2ghz 1.3v, CM sniper case, GTX275 and gets similar temps to my setup.
 
H60 is made by Coolit like the new H80 and H100 will be. Asetek makes the H50, H70 and the Asus products.

My H60 keeps my 2600k @ 73c load Prime'd after 4 hours @ 1.36v. That is Push/Pull with CM Excaliburs at 75%.

Well worth the money imo.

In normal useage (games/browsing/etc) my cpu never breaks 60c.
 
OpStar said:
H60 is made by Coolit like the new H80 and H100 will be. Asetek makes the H50, H70 and the Asus products.

My H60 keeps my 2600k @ 73c load Prime'd after 4 hours @ 1.36v. That is Push/Pull with CM Excaliburs at 75%.

Well worth the money imo.

In normal useage (games/browsing/etc) my cpu never breaks 60c.
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Funny thought they were all made by the same company. The H60 and 620 rads are almost identical. Did you have trouble mounting your waterblock? My bro busted one of the screws from over tightening and also crushed some of the capacitors next to the socket a bit.
 
OpStar said:
H60 is made by Coolit like the new H80 and H100 will be. Asetek makes the H50, H70 and the Asus products.

My H60 keeps my 2600k @ 73c load Prime'd after 4 hours @ 1.36v. That is Push/Pull with CM Excaliburs at 75%.

Well worth the money imo.

In normal useage (games/browsing/etc) my cpu never breaks 60c.
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Should've said that I agree with you on well worth the money. I will never buy another air cooler again for any of my gaming rigs. Used to DIY watercool with a mag5, little river / dtek spiral and a black ice extreme back in the day, and the new all in one closed system units finally give you results close to a DIY setup at the cost of highend air cooling.
 
The H60 is actually a CoolIT sourced part, while the H50 and the Antec are Asetek sourced parts.

They're very similar from a functional standpoint, but in our lab tests our H60 outperforms our H50 by about 3C (counting for margin of error) with an overclocked Core i7 920 (3.8 GHz). But variations in ambient temp, TIM application, test setup, etc, can make those differences change. We test all our coolers in a temp control "oven" unit at 25C ambient, and even in our tests we figure a margin of error of about 1C.
 
Thanks for another good review. I considered waiting on one of these, but went with the Kuhler 620 when they were on sale for the Japan aid Antec was offering. Glad I did. I do like these closed water systems since they're just so much easier than the DIY watercooling, which I've done before. I'd love to see a closed GPU water setup, but I understand why we don't have them. I doubt I'll ever go with normal air cooling again though.
 
Luthorcrow said:
Wait, I don't get it. The Thermalright Archon outperforms it a cheaper price and is an air cooler. So would I pay extra for something more complicated, expensive and less performance?
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Agreed man, it's also MUCH more toward the silent end of cooling. I know that everybody who works for the [H] runs cases with thirteen fans running at 1500 RPM each, and each and every one of them is is deaf anyway...so I guess to them 3 dB is nothing :D

The H60's reduced fan noise finally makes Corsair water coolers approachable, but they still can't beat air coolers in the same price range.
 
Redbeard said:
The H60 is actually a CoolIT sourced part, while the H50 and the Antec are Asetek sourced parts.

They're very similar from a functional standpoint, but in our lab tests our H60 outperforms our H50 by about 3C (counting for margin of error) with an overclocked Core i7 920 (3.8 GHz). But variations in ambient temp, TIM application, test setup, etc, can make those differences change. We test all our coolers in a temp control "oven" unit at 25C ambient, and even in our tests we figure a margin of error of about 1C.
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Even if these low profile coolers didn't cool better I have to say that I like the low profile better. I'll be using either the Corsair or Antec low profile, self contained, water cooler in my next build to achieve low noise, ultimate case cooling.

Right now I have 2 case fans and that is it, the CPU is cooled by the massive scythe ninja and the gpu only has a heatsink. My next build will try to eliminate one of these fans and just use the fan on the refrigerator.
 
The Kuhler H20 620 is slightly cooler, and slightly quieter, and it currently has a slightly lower street price IIRC. Makes the 620 a winner in my book.
 
They need to increase the hose size and pump output to increase the cooling in these closed watercoolers. The pipes are very small restricting waterflow which I would think is why they arent better than air coolers.
 
Two things I noticed is that the h60 and the antec 620 are within $3 dollars of each other off of amazon and also the difference between the two are very slim, but the 620 has 3 year warranty while the corsair has a 5 year warranty.

Also to the dude above wondering why he should spend a little more vs. the Thermalright. The big one being that these coolers exhaust all the heat outside the case, instead of blowing it all around the inside of your case as all the air coolers down.
Also you gain access to all your ram slots, where as in some configurations you might lose one with the air coolers.
And lastly the size of the cpu cooler is so much smaller that you should gain better airflow throughout your case (assuming you have good airflow to begin with).

I'm a little torn but will prob go with Corsair's 5 year warranty.
 
Gixxerdude said:
Also you gain access to all your ram slots, where as in some configurations you might lose one with the air coolers.
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That's something I forgot to mention. I have a Thermalright 120 Ultra I attempted to use the P67 mounting adapter for on my board. Not only did the adapter not work because of how the screws would've gone right into the capacitors next to the socket, but it would've also blocked the first ram slot. Other brother has a Noctua cooler with the MSTp67-gd65 and that blocks the first ram slost as well.
 
steve30x said:
They need to increase the hose size and pump output to increase the cooling in these closed watercoolers. The pipes are very small restricting waterflow which I would think is why they arent better than air coolers.
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The hose size and pump output are not the bottleneck for performance in these coolers. Putting larger hoses on would significantly affect performance. These systems are designed for low flow operation, and would not see a performance jump from those changes.

If you design from the beginning with low flow in mind, you can make fantastic strides in performance by optimizing for it.

As for being competitive with air coolers, there's a lot to be said for a huge hunk of metal with tons of surface area as your heat exchanger. Heatpipes can be fairly efficient, and with giant 3lb+ heat exchangers (heatsinks) on them, you get a ton of surface area. What's really impressive is that coolers like the H60 can be competitive with coolers that have 2-3x the surface area like the Noctua D14 or Thermalright Silver Arrow. No matter how effective you are at getting the heat from the processor to the heat exchanger (whether you use an active fluid pump like a Hydro series or a passive fluid wick like a heatpipe) at the end of the day you're limited by the amount of surface area that can exchange the heat.

A lot of science there - thickness, fin density, fin shape, louvered fins, airflow, static pressure, flow rate, # of fluid runs, etc. All these things can have an effect and require some looking at. That being said, the H70 is competitive with just about any aircooler on the market and more flexible from an installation standpoint since it doesn't violate any CPU socket keep out areas.
 
Can I use 38mm fans on the H60 rad even though it's really thin? What screws would I need? Thanks.
 
Can I use 38mm fans on the H60 rad even though it's really thin? What screws would I need? Thanks.
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Yup. My guess is the screws are 6x32, so you'll probably want 6x32 x 1 5/8" long screws.
 
No need to move from my H70 with Scythe 1500GTs then =D

However, I like the mounting of the CPU block better, the H70's method left a bit to be desired.
 
Wow, great review guys. After everything we've seen so far, i'm really glad that you guys have evaluated cpu cooling solutions again. I'm a bit disappointed that the performance isn't really better than the H50, but the decrease in noise definately must be worth something for those who like quieter systems.
 
Kyle, why do you ignore the Antec H20 cooler performance in your review? Seems that that would be the best comparison rather than the first generation H50/H70.
 
I added another fan on my H60 for a push pull configuration and it really rocks now. My cpu is a AMD Phenom X6 1055T. With the stock cooler it usually idles at 28-32C and goes up to 57C under load. With the H60 in a push pull set up the cpu idles at 19C and goes up to 36C under load. I thought that was pretty good. Maybe [H] could add push pull results to the review?

P.S. Temps were taken with CoreTemp.
 
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spartus4 said:
I added another fan on my H60 for a push pull configuration and it really rocks now. My cpu is a AMD Phenom X6 1055T. With the stock cooler it usually idles at 28-32C and goes up to 57C under load. With the H60 in a push pull set up the cpu idles at 19C and goes up to 36C under load. I thought that was pretty good. Maybe [H] could add push pull results to the review?

P.S. Temps were taken with CoreTemp.
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What clocks and how much vcore are you running? I'm curious as i'm debating on upgrading my PII 965 to a Thuban in the next few months.
 
wowcro said:
Kyle, why do you ignore the Antec H20 cooler performance in your review? Seems that that would be the best comparison rather than the first generation H50/H70.
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He didn't.
Look at the charts again, particularly the part that's labeled "Antec Kuhler 620".
 
I picked up one of these units a few days before the review was posted. Right in the middle of a system re-build and it was a lot nicer to install compared to the H50 (and probably H70 looking at the install method for it).

Maybe my H50 did not have the right amount of thermal paste or something (I definitely consider myself a novice at heatsink installation as far as thermal interfaces are concerned), or maybe it is because I had to switch to an Antec 300 and the airflow is different (because the post office destroyed my full tower case in a cross-country move and I needed a replacement ASAP), but the H60 is outperforming the H50 by a few degrees with a push-pull setup and fewer case fans. Either way, I'll take it.

Actually debating getting another one of the H60 units for my wife's soon-to-be desktop computer.
 
gathagan said:
He didn't.
Look at the charts again, particularly the part that's labeled "Antec Kuhler 620".
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I was more thinking in the detailed terms of ease to install, look, and feel. The numbers are there but no additional insight.
 
Luthorcrow said:
Wait, I don't get it. The Thermalright Archon outperforms it a cheaper price and is an air cooler. So would I pay extra for something more complicated, expensive and less performance?
Click to expand...

Some systems dont fit well with a large air cooler.
 
wowcro said:
I was more thinking in the detailed terms of ease to install, look, and feel. The numbers are there but no additional insight.
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roadiemike said:
Info on the Antec 620 is all in [H]'s full Antec 620 review and can be compared directly against the H60.
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The H50, H70 and Kuhler 620 use identical mounting hardware, so the difference in installation wouldn't be worth discussing. The H70 and 620 have lower profiles than the H50 and both have swiveling side-mounted hose connections, while the H50 connections come out of the top of the unit.
For Intel CPU's, you can use the backing plate from any of the four coolers (H50, H60, H70 and 620) on each other.
I have the H50, the H60 and the 620. Even though the H60 backplate is different, all use the same screw threads, so the H60 backplate will work fine with the other units, and vice-versa.

The AMD mounting mechanism for the H60 is a far better idea, as it uses the stock mounting bracket. This greatly simplifies installation.
 
gathagan said:
The H50, H70 and Kuhler 620 use identical mounting hardware, so the difference in installation wouldn't be worth discussing. The H70 and 620 have lower profiles than the H50 and both have swiveling side-mounted hose connections, while the H50 connections come out of the top of the unit.
For Intel CPU's, you can use the backing plate from any of the four coolers (H50, H60, H70 and 620) on each other.
I have the H50, the H60 and the 620. Even though the H60 backplate is different, all use the same screw threads, so the H60 backplate will work fine with the other units, and vice-versa.

The AMD mounting mechanism for the H60 is a far better idea, as it uses the stock mounting bracket. This greatly simplifies installation.
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I have the 620 and my brother has the h60 and while they're very similar mounts, there are some differences that might be worthy of discussion. For one, the 620's WB is round and the H60 is square. The 620's bracket and rotation locking are quite nice and make it nearly impossible to squash anything close to the socket. If you google around, you'll find that more than a few people have mashed their capacitors with the H60. Unfortunately, my brother did too. When he mounted his h60 his temps were awful at first (like idle temps @ 60c). He remounted a couple of times but couldn't figure it out. Turns out he did the same as others have done and had the WB sitting on the capacitors next to the socket.

Take a look at this thread (there are others if you google around): http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/showthread.php?p=2280135

One negative for all of the mounting systems seems to be no way of knowing if you have the WB mounting screws tight enough or what which point you're over tightening them.
 
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