This thing is super cheap, if it performs better than most air coolers. I had a Noctua air cooler that was about $80 plus the extra $20 fan, and it performed about the same as the H-50. I built a full on custom water cooling setup, and it cost me almost $1,000 so if the H-70 is at 10% of the cost of an excellent custom water cooling setup, I would call it cheap, and a great value!
$1000 for water cooling? Good God. It should be ~$70 for a pump, $40-60 for a radiator ($100-150 for an expensive one), $50-80 for a CPU block, and another $100 for tubing / clamps / barbs / reservoir. Add in another $100-200 for a GPU block, and you're looking at $300-600 for a really nice setup. That is, unless you're running 3x SLI or Crossfire or buying super expensive Iwaki pump, custom reservoir, etc.
In the years that i have read anandtech I have definitely welcomed heatsink reviews and the like. However, the last such review i remember was in 2008 or 2007. So when I saw this brief article I was hoping that y'all would review this cooler eventually. Even if this should end up not being the case, I hope that y'all will have a chance to review heatsinks/cooling solutions and current thermal greases (diamond, silicon, etc based) in an overall round-up fashion like you do with the PSU's or mobo's. I admit the technology in these parts of the computer world doesn't change drastically, but a comprehensive review every 2 years or so definitely would make sense in my mind.
Either way, thank you for letting me know of the introduction of this unit - keep it up.
Totally agreed. I also thought that this would be a full review/test. Would really like to see these things tested and compared against the H50/H51, full water cooling and top of the line air coolers.
really great idea! I really never heard of these H50 from corsair, and I'm now researching for what they can do to my i7/X6 in the OC level I want. would be great if anandtech gives us this comparison, good air coolers and this H** and a good WC.
Personally i don't like water cooling solutions. The technology should go in the way of developing better and better air cooling solutions. Air cooling also cools other components on the mobo. What's the point in having a cool CPU when other components nearby are cooking?
Air is possibly one of the worst mediums for thermal conductivity. Much better is water running over your components in a water cooling system. Even better heat sinks would be gold, copper, silver, diamond, or graphene. But any of those in mass quantity would be prohibitively expensive for heat sinks. Water is by far the most economical and best performing solution (not counting some industrial oil solutions that are better) for whisking away heat.
Personally, I like water cooling solutions. This technology when used properly is far better for cooling than air can ever be. Other components on the board can be cooled easily with a fan - if you are not capable of thinking ahead and doing that, you should not be near a PC in the first place. To top it off, I cannot think of any one air solution for CPUs that also cools an overclocked motherboard to the extent where nearby heat sinks are kept "cool" solely by its radiated air - at least not without a LOT of noise generation.
As we move further towards platform integration there will be less outboard cooling to do anyway.
Yea, but you just WOULD. I already compared it to other water cooing. Same performance. I would say that it's more important what thermal compound you will use than what heat sink and block you would use.
The part you're missing (that's pretty commonly overlooked) is that water coolers don't cool with water, they simply use water to move heat into a larger radiator that is still cooled with air, using the same kinds of fans you'd find on a heatsink. The water is serving the same purpose as the heat pipes in a traditional high-end air cooler. Heat pipes can move heat into a large tower radiator as efficiently as a pumped water system, and you don't have to deal with the noise and potential for failure of a pump. There's also no risk of leaks, since heat pipes are sealed and use a fluid that would vaporize on contact with air if the pipe were to be broken. Heat pipes really changed the game in performance cooling from the old days when we used aluminum coolers with copper baseplates and 60-80mm fans.
The reality today is that high-end air coolers are typically cheaper, perform better, and operate more quietly than consumer water cooling kids like this one. If space is very restricted around the CPU socket in your case but you have room to mount a radiator somewhere, water cooling may make sense, but for most overclockers a Noctua NH-D14 is simply a better choice.
No, we're not missing that. It's just that a flowing liquid will be much more efficient in transferring the heat away from the CPU. Heat pipes are an improvement over non-heat pipe air-cooling solutions, but even a small circuit involving a liquid medium and a radiator is an significant improvement over a heat pipe cooler when it comes to the ability to move the heat away from the CPU.
The sticking point in how well a liquid-based *sheds* that heat, however, is wrapped up in the size and design of the radiator.
No, we're not missing that. It's just that a flowing liquid will be much more efficient in transferring the heat away from the CPU. Heat pipes are an improvement over non-heat pipe air-cooling solutions, but even a small circuit involving a liquid medium and a radiator is an significant improvement over a heat pipe cooler when it comes to the ability to move the heat away from the CPU.
The sticking point in how well a liquid-based *sheds* that heat, however, is wrapped up in the size and design of the radiator.
Heatpipes in my opinion, can actually move heat faster than water because it has a much higher thermal conductivity and the coolant used has low boiling point. The advantage of watercooling is heat capacitance, it can absorb more temperature compared to metal but conductivity, not that much which is why a good water block is needed for an efficient heat transfer from CPU to water.
Oh sir... i mean idiot. Yes they can! Actually heatpipes move heat MUCH faster than water. The move heat almost instantly unlike water which needs to be pumped out using relatively lots of energy, noise and vibration
I have the Asetek water cooling system. First it is quieter than most other hi-end air coolers, the only thing I hear are my case intake and exhaust fans (and it sits 24 inches from my head). There is no vibration, and the pump which could cause any vibration is within 1 inch of the CPU placing very little stress on the motherboard and the exhaust fan is attached to my case. Unlike these huge air coolers that are coming close to weighing a Kilo and sticking out 5 to seven inches from the mother board. Any vibration caused by the fan or dirt build up on the fan is amplified which results in adding a lot of stress on the motherboard and you better not drop your system unit more than an inch or you could definitely damage your motherboard.
The only drawback to these units is the fact that the hoses are very stiff and can cause some installation problems.
I don't know where you live, but here ambient temps are quite 40°C when in summer. Air is hot for itself, so when inside the case and add to that all those IC warming up the environment, not to have VGA and mostly CPU to melt everything is great. the air cooling should be enough to cool the other stuff in there.
There are asetek set ups with dual 120MM radiate/fan set ups. Such as the 570LX. In fact the a Corsair H50 is licensed and made by Asetek and is comparable to the Asetek 550LC. The only difference is that Asetek only sells directly to PC builders and not consumers. So how does it compare? We nee benchmarks!
Doesn't anyone realize that "water cooling" is really AIR COOLING? How does heat leave the system? By AIR being blown across the radiator! The only advantage these "water" systems have is in separating the radiator from the heatsink itself, thus allowing a larger surface area & higher AIR flow in the radiator.
Yes, we all realize that. It's just easier to say "Water cooling" than "Two stage heat transfer solution involving both liquid and air cooling components".
Depending on the radiator design, your "only" advantage can be a huge one. Even the largest heat-pipe cooler can only radiate the heat from the point-of-contact of the surface area of the heat pipes themselves.
The liquid in a radiator, on the other hand spreads that point-of-contact throughout all of the individual cores of that radiator.
Consider how much cooling you could get out of an H50 or an H70 if their radiators were as large as the finned portion of a large heat-pipe cooler.
Actually, you CAN make a pure water cooling sollution. If you have the option of drawing the water pipes to an unused sink, you can put a fishbowl in it as a reservoir and have the water going out of the system go directly in the sink. Some places this is not an option due to water availibility, but where i live, i could do this if i wanted to. It would get me water around 10C (+- 5C) all year round.
If you use an air cooler, your cases interior will be hotter than using an H50/70 and exhausting 130w of heat directly out of your case. That way your video cards and other components stay cooler. Duh.
p.s. take a look at the [H] article for inital results with an H70 versus a H50.
I'm using all OEM cooling devices and two case fans (intake at the front, exhaust at the back) and my case temp is always just 5 or 10 degrees above ambient. Air cooling and, more importantly, case design has really improved in the last ten years.
Oh, and even overclocked today's CPUs aren't going to be generating that much heat.
I've been using a dehumidifier with the cool dry air that comes out of the vent piped via. 4inch dryer duct into the back of my tower. That with an heatpipe cpu air cooler works very well to keep the whole kit cool and dry.
I have an H50 and am very happy with it. I picked it up for $59 and at that price it makes no sense to get an air cooler. It has lowered my temps by about 10 degrees C on an Phenom 9600 BE (95W). From low 40s to 30s (C) over the stock cooler. I just need to replace the processor now. I wouldn't go for an H70 unless it was under $90, preferably $70-80. It is possible to squeeze another 3-4 degrees of cooling by replacing the fan with two identical fans for a push-pull on the H50, which is partially what they did with the H70. Socket compatibility and the install simplicity are really attractive for the Corsair solution with performance being a no brainer.
I have a H50 and its an absolutely nice cooler... Don't regret the money for it, especially when I bought it there were so few good 1156 coolers, and when u count in eventual mounting kit for the old 775 models the premium wasn't so high. Now, it still makes sense o buy one, imho. The H70 could not be worth the cash, but that only depends of the results. I don't think it is going to be a super-smart buy. I'm only wandering how they fit a pump on such a small surface. And what is H51 (H50-1)??
always liked that it was a cheap liquid solution it's nice and small and performs similar to high end air my next cooler will definitely either be a H50 or H70
I'm surprised to see how personally some of your are taking PC cooling. Sad really. My problem with air cooling is the sheer weight of the 'high performance' units. Some of these get close to or even cross 1000 grams. That is 1 kg ladies and gents. Strapping 1kg of metal to my motherboard to cool my processor makes me uncomfortable. With all water cooling setups, the weight is generally carried buy the case, which makes common sense.
I've been water cooling on and off since the late 90s when the ideas first surfaced and from my experience building them... H2O is vastly superior to Air and at the high-end/extreme of things, superior to AHPs. AHPs have caught up significantly in the last 5yrs... enough that I quit H2O cooling lol. At the time when I was H2O cooling, there was NO die-electric liquid (aside from oil/flowinert =$$$), so LEAKs were a grave fear of everyone! _Technology has improved the efficiency of die-electric fluids to about .5C of H2O cooling, so bothering with anything but die-electric = Russian Roulette. I primarily quit bc of the hassle of dealing with algae, bactericides, LEAKS and transport issues etc. I will say though that today's H20 improvements HAVE caught my eye again and I might build up a system. _Back in the day, most if not all of the H2O-blocks were home-DIY and not that efficient, so you had to run big 1/2" lines and a very high-head pump to keep GPM flow up. Now you can get a smaller, quieter, high-head pump and use 3/8" lines, which are much easier to conceal and don't kink up like the big tubes. --- The main thing about making your own is getting a robust (thick) heater-core! It's ALL about the heater core. People spending $100+ for H2O are getting RIPPED off big time. Some 5yrs ago when I built a really nice setup I spent maybe;
$20 on a Via-Aqua 1300 GPM pump $15 in 1/2" tubing + metal clamps $10 made my own block + brazing tools/materials $10-20 heater-core from the scrap yard $10 reservoir + materials (optional)
Total $55-70 for a DIY unit that often out-performed the All-in-1 units easily.
That was waaaay back... Now I could build that same unit for prob 20-30% cheaper. I was getting about .12-.15 C/W ratings from a "decent" block and superior core. These so-called PC heater cores are a CON! They are waaay overpriced and a marketing gimmick; for the 30-100% price market up, they don't perform much better than the scrap yard unit.
Right now, I think I'll stick with simplistic Air+Heat-Pipe bc it's just set-and-forget simple, allows for a med-high OC and requires only the occasional air-duster to clean it.
Note: Those comments about needing extra cooling for IC is nonsense. You must have very poor case-air-flow if removing your CPU-HSF is causing temps to soar. Make yourself a fan bracket from card-board/plastic/use your imagination and rig a fan over them.
lastly... Even the AHPs of today are still in the stone age in design. If a big financier like Intel/AMD/Apple (etc) would put some real money into the engineering aspect of AHPs... they'd eventually make water cooling a thing of the past, OR even more superior in a small-foot-print unit as Intel has already shown that they can and have been interested in the idea... that is until AHPs came along and put the idea on the back burner.
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gookpwr - Wednesday, August 4, 2010 - link
This thing is super cheap, if it performs better than most air coolers. I had a Noctua air cooler that was about $80 plus the extra $20 fan, and it performed about the same as the H-50. I built a full on custom water cooling setup, and it cost me almost $1,000 so if the H-70 is at 10% of the cost of an excellent custom water cooling setup, I would call it cheap, and a great value!CurseTheSky - Wednesday, August 4, 2010 - link
$1000 for water cooling? Good God. It should be ~$70 for a pump, $40-60 for a radiator ($100-150 for an expensive one), $50-80 for a CPU block, and another $100 for tubing / clamps / barbs / reservoir. Add in another $100-200 for a GPU block, and you're looking at $300-600 for a really nice setup. That is, unless you're running 3x SLI or Crossfire or buying super expensive Iwaki pump, custom reservoir, etc.mikbe - Sunday, November 6, 2011 - link
Liquid nitrogen is expensive.jfelano - Wednesday, August 11, 2010 - link
If you spend $1000 on water cooling, you should spend more on a good therapist cause obviously you got issues.Nimiz99 - Wednesday, August 4, 2010 - link
In the years that i have read anandtech I have definitely welcomed heatsink reviews and the like. However, the last such review i remember was in 2008 or 2007. So when I saw this brief article I was hoping that y'all would review this cooler eventually. Even if this should end up not being the case, I hope that y'all will have a chance to review heatsinks/cooling solutions and current thermal greases (diamond, silicon, etc based) in an overall round-up fashion like you do with the PSU's or mobo's. I admit the technology in these parts of the computer world doesn't change drastically, but a comprehensive review every 2 years or so definitely would make sense in my mind.Either way, thank you for letting me know of the introduction of this unit - keep it up.
trajan - Wednesday, August 4, 2010 - link
Agreed!niva - Wednesday, August 4, 2010 - link
Totally agreed. I also thought that this would be a full review/test. Would really like to see these things tested and compared against the H50/H51, full water cooling and top of the line air coolers.matheusber - Thursday, August 5, 2010 - link
really great idea! I really never heard of these H50 from corsair, and I'm now researching for what they can do to my i7/X6 in the OC level I want. would be great if anandtech gives us this comparison, good air coolers and this H** and a good WC.Alexvrb - Sunday, August 8, 2010 - link
Better yet, a shootout between similar CPU-only all-in-one units such as this.Stokestack - Saturday, August 7, 2010 - link
"These early models were readily slated in reviews"I wonder if he means "slagged."
Slated means "scheduled."
AstroGuardian - Wednesday, August 4, 2010 - link
Personally i don't like water cooling solutions. The technology should go in the way of developing better and better air cooling solutions. Air cooling also cools other components on the mobo. What's the point in having a cool CPU when other components nearby are cooking?Ninhalem - Wednesday, August 4, 2010 - link
Air is possibly one of the worst mediums for thermal conductivity. Much better is water running over your components in a water cooling system. Even better heat sinks would be gold, copper, silver, diamond, or graphene. But any of those in mass quantity would be prohibitively expensive for heat sinks. Water is by far the most economical and best performing solution (not counting some industrial oil solutions that are better) for whisking away heat.dia - Wednesday, August 4, 2010 - link
I agree with Nin.Personally, I like water cooling solutions. This technology when used properly is far better for cooling than air can ever be. Other components on the board can be cooled easily with a fan - if you are not capable of thinking ahead and doing that, you should not be near a PC in the first place. To top it off, I cannot think of any one air solution for CPUs that also cools an overclocked motherboard to the extent where nearby heat sinks are kept "cool" solely by its radiated air - at least not without a LOT of noise generation.
As we move further towards platform integration there will be less outboard cooling to do anyway.
AstroGuardian - Thursday, August 5, 2010 - link
Obviously you don't know much about cooling solutions eh mate?I suggest you don't come near a computer.
dia - Thursday, August 5, 2010 - link
Show me a decent CPU heat sink that cools all surrounding heat areas when the system is overclocked to the extent where an extra fan is not required.AstroGuardian - Friday, August 6, 2010 - link
Be my guest. Check this out:http://www.overclockersonline.net/reviews/50001031...
AstroGuardian - Friday, August 6, 2010 - link
Here is another one:http://img.hexus.net/v2/cooling/CMGii/4.jpg
I owned one of these once. Lowered the CPU and NB temps by 50% from around 65c to 30-35c under load
dia - Friday, August 6, 2010 - link
Look at the size of it. I would rather have a radiator of that size for my CPU and put a couple of small fans near the NB and RAM.AstroGuardian - Friday, August 6, 2010 - link
Now that would be stupid. Why would you do that for triple cost when you can have better results with this set?dia - Friday, August 6, 2010 - link
I'd get myself a PA120.2 and a decent water block and it would have more capacity than this.AstroGuardian - Saturday, August 7, 2010 - link
Yea, but you just WOULD. I already compared it to other water cooing. Same performance. I would say that it's more important what thermal compound you will use than what heat sink and block you would use.LtGoonRush - Wednesday, August 4, 2010 - link
The part you're missing (that's pretty commonly overlooked) is that water coolers don't cool with water, they simply use water to move heat into a larger radiator that is still cooled with air, using the same kinds of fans you'd find on a heatsink. The water is serving the same purpose as the heat pipes in a traditional high-end air cooler. Heat pipes can move heat into a large tower radiator as efficiently as a pumped water system, and you don't have to deal with the noise and potential for failure of a pump. There's also no risk of leaks, since heat pipes are sealed and use a fluid that would vaporize on contact with air if the pipe were to be broken. Heat pipes really changed the game in performance cooling from the old days when we used aluminum coolers with copper baseplates and 60-80mm fans.The reality today is that high-end air coolers are typically cheaper, perform better, and operate more quietly than consumer water cooling kids like this one. If space is very restricted around the CPU socket in your case but you have room to mount a radiator somewhere, water cooling may make sense, but for most overclockers a Noctua NH-D14 is simply a better choice.
dia - Wednesday, August 4, 2010 - link
Just because people are using the terms water cooling and air cooler - don't assume they are unaware what is used to cool the radiator.ggathagan - Wednesday, August 4, 2010 - link
No, we're not missing that.It's just that a flowing liquid will be much more efficient in transferring the heat away from the CPU.
Heat pipes are an improvement over non-heat pipe air-cooling solutions, but even a small circuit involving a liquid medium and a radiator is an significant improvement over a heat pipe cooler when it comes to the ability to move the heat away from the CPU.
The sticking point in how well a liquid-based *sheds* that heat, however, is wrapped up in the size and design of the radiator.
ggathagan - Wednesday, August 4, 2010 - link
No, we're not missing that.It's just that a flowing liquid will be much more efficient in transferring the heat away from the CPU.
Heat pipes are an improvement over non-heat pipe air-cooling solutions, but even a small circuit involving a liquid medium and a radiator is an significant improvement over a heat pipe cooler when it comes to the ability to move the heat away from the CPU.
The sticking point in how well a liquid-based *sheds* that heat, however, is wrapped up in the size and design of the radiator.
boochi - Wednesday, August 4, 2010 - link
You sir are an idiot. Heat pipes can never move heat away from a cpu faster than water can.pjconoso - Wednesday, August 4, 2010 - link
Heatpipes in my opinion, can actually move heat faster than water because it has a much higher thermal conductivity and the coolant used has low boiling point. The advantage of watercooling is heat capacitance, it can absorb more temperature compared to metal but conductivity, not that much which is why a good water block is needed for an efficient heat transfer from CPU to water.JohnMD1022 - Thursday, August 5, 2010 - link
Ad hominem attacks add nothing to the discussion.AstroGuardian - Thursday, August 5, 2010 - link
Oh sir... i mean idiot. Yes they can! Actually heatpipes move heat MUCH faster than water. The move heat almost instantly unlike water which needs to be pumped out using relatively lots of energy, noise and vibrationwildbill10 - Thursday, August 5, 2010 - link
I have the Asetek water cooling system. First it is quieter than most other hi-end air coolers, the only thing I hear are my case intake and exhaust fans (and it sits 24 inches from my head). There is no vibration, and the pump which could cause any vibration is within 1 inch of the CPU placing very little stress on the motherboard and the exhaust fan is attached to my case. Unlike these huge air coolers that are coming close to weighing a Kilo and sticking out 5 to seven inches from the mother board. Any vibration caused by the fan or dirt build up on the fan is amplified which results in adding a lot of stress on the motherboard and you better not drop your system unit more than an inch or you could definitely damage your motherboard.The only drawback to these units is the fact that the hoses are very stiff and can cause some installation problems.
matheusber - Thursday, August 5, 2010 - link
I don't know where you live, but here ambient temps are quite 40°C when in summer. Air is hot for itself, so when inside the case and add to that all those IC warming up the environment, not to have VGA and mostly CPU to melt everything is great. the air cooling should be enough to cool the other stuff in there.adonn78 - Wednesday, August 4, 2010 - link
There are asetek set ups with dual 120MM radiate/fan set ups. Such as the 570LX. In fact the a Corsair H50 is licensed and made by Asetek and is comparable to the Asetek 550LC. The only difference is that Asetek only sells directly to PC builders and not consumers. So how does it compare? We nee benchmarks!hmcarlin - Wednesday, August 4, 2010 - link
Doesn't anyone realize that "water cooling" is really AIR COOLING? How does heat leave the system? By AIR being blown across the radiator! The only advantage these "water" systems have is in separating the radiator from the heatsink itself, thus allowing a larger surface area & higher AIR flow in the radiator.ggathagan - Wednesday, August 4, 2010 - link
Yes, we all realize that.It's just easier to say "Water cooling" than "Two stage heat transfer solution involving both liquid and air cooling components".
Depending on the radiator design, your "only" advantage can be a huge one.
Even the largest heat-pipe cooler can only radiate the heat from the point-of-contact of the surface area of the heat pipes themselves.
The liquid in a radiator, on the other hand spreads that point-of-contact throughout all of the individual cores of that radiator.
Consider how much cooling you could get out of an H50 or an H70 if their radiators were as large as the finned portion of a large heat-pipe cooler.
GullLars - Friday, August 6, 2010 - link
Actually, you CAN make a pure water cooling sollution. If you have the option of drawing the water pipes to an unused sink, you can put a fishbowl in it as a reservoir and have the water going out of the system go directly in the sink.Some places this is not an option due to water availibility, but where i live, i could do this if i wanted to. It would get me water around 10C (+- 5C) all year round.
rvl - Thursday, August 5, 2010 - link
If you use an air cooler, your cases interior will be hotter than using an H50/70 and exhausting 130w of heat directly out of your case. That way your video cards and other components stay cooler. Duh.p.s. take a look at the [H] article for inital results with an H70 versus a H50.
Spivonious - Thursday, August 5, 2010 - link
I'm using all OEM cooling devices and two case fans (intake at the front, exhaust at the back) and my case temp is always just 5 or 10 degrees above ambient. Air cooling and, more importantly, case design has really improved in the last ten years.Oh, and even overclocked today's CPUs aren't going to be generating that much heat.
AstroGuardian - Saturday, August 7, 2010 - link
That's why you have exhaust fans so the hot air gets out instantly.boden - Thursday, August 5, 2010 - link
I've been using a dehumidifier with the cool dry air that comes out of the vent piped via. 4inch dryer duct into the back of my tower. That with an heatpipe cpu air cooler works very well to keep the whole kit cool and dry.eanazag - Thursday, August 5, 2010 - link
I have an H50 and am very happy with it. I picked it up for $59 and at that price it makes no sense to get an air cooler. It has lowered my temps by about 10 degrees C on an Phenom 9600 BE (95W). From low 40s to 30s (C) over the stock cooler. I just need to replace the processor now. I wouldn't go for an H70 unless it was under $90, preferably $70-80. It is possible to squeeze another 3-4 degrees of cooling by replacing the fan with two identical fans for a push-pull on the H50, which is partially what they did with the H70. Socket compatibility and the install simplicity are really attractive for the Corsair solution with performance being a no brainer.gr00 - Thursday, August 5, 2010 - link
I have a H50 and its an absolutely nice cooler... Don't regret the money for it, especially when I bought it there were so few good 1156 coolers, and when u count in eventual mounting kit for the old 775 models the premium wasn't so high. Now, it still makes sense o buy one, imho. The H70 could not be worth the cash, but that only depends of the results. I don't think it is going to be a super-smart buy.I'm only wandering how they fit a pump on such a small surface.
And what is H51 (H50-1)??
Sunburn74 - Thursday, August 5, 2010 - link
Release a similar product for gpus (all enclosed, easy install gpu kit) and then I'll be interested.TheFlyingSquirrel - Friday, August 6, 2010 - link
always liked that it was a cheap liquid solutionit's nice and small and performs similar to high end air
my next cooler will definitely either be a H50 or H70
net_neutral - Friday, August 6, 2010 - link
I'm surprised to see how personally some of your are taking PC cooling. Sad really. My problem with air cooling is the sheer weight of the 'high performance' units. Some of these get close to or even cross 1000 grams. That is 1 kg ladies and gents. Strapping 1kg of metal to my motherboard to cool my processor makes me uncomfortable. With all water cooling setups, the weight is generally carried buy the case, which makes common sense.v12v12 - Sunday, August 15, 2010 - link
AHP=Air+Heat-PipeI've been water cooling on and off since the late 90s when the ideas first surfaced and from my experience building them... H2O is vastly superior to Air and at the high-end/extreme of things, superior to AHPs. AHPs have caught up significantly in the last 5yrs... enough that I quit H2O cooling lol. At the time when I was H2O cooling, there was NO die-electric liquid (aside from oil/flowinert =$$$), so LEAKs were a grave fear of everyone!
_Technology has improved the efficiency of die-electric fluids to about .5C of H2O cooling, so bothering with anything but die-electric = Russian Roulette. I primarily quit bc of the hassle of dealing with algae, bactericides, LEAKS and transport issues etc. I will say though that today's H20 improvements HAVE caught my eye again and I might build up a system.
_Back in the day, most if not all of the H2O-blocks were home-DIY and not that efficient, so you had to run big 1/2" lines and a very high-head pump to keep GPM flow up. Now you can get a smaller, quieter, high-head pump and use 3/8" lines, which are much easier to conceal and don't kink up like the big tubes.
---
The main thing about making your own is getting a robust (thick) heater-core! It's ALL about the heater core. People spending $100+ for H2O are getting RIPPED off big time. Some 5yrs ago when I built a really nice setup I spent maybe;
$20 on a Via-Aqua 1300 GPM pump
$15 in 1/2" tubing + metal clamps
$10 made my own block + brazing tools/materials
$10-20 heater-core from the scrap yard
$10 reservoir + materials (optional)
Total $55-70 for a DIY unit that often out-performed the All-in-1 units easily.
That was waaaay back... Now I could build that same unit for prob 20-30% cheaper. I was getting about .12-.15 C/W ratings from a "decent" block and superior core. These so-called PC heater cores are a CON! They are waaay overpriced and a marketing gimmick; for the 30-100% price market up, they don't perform much better than the scrap yard unit.
Right now, I think I'll stick with simplistic Air+Heat-Pipe bc it's just set-and-forget simple, allows for a med-high OC and requires only the occasional air-duster to clean it.
Note: Those comments about needing extra cooling for IC is nonsense. You must have very poor case-air-flow if removing your CPU-HSF is causing temps to soar. Make yourself a fan bracket from card-board/plastic/use your imagination and rig a fan over them.
lastly... Even the AHPs of today are still in the stone age in design. If a big financier like Intel/AMD/Apple (etc) would put some real money into the engineering aspect of AHPs... they'd eventually make water cooling a thing of the past, OR even more superior in a small-foot-print unit as Intel has already shown that they can and have been interested in the idea... that is until AHPs came along and put the idea on the back burner.