Will the Corsair H90 liquid cooler fit in my Corsair Carbide spec 01 Case?

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daniel.lush

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Sep 14, 2017
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I was looking at liquid coolers for my PC build since the stock cooler is trash. I know the H80 v2 Should fit in my case but I wanted to know if could go a step up and put a h90 in there. And where would i put the liquid cooler since it wont fit on top. Would it fit in back? and the H80 v2 should fit in back correct? Thank You.
 
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Karadjgne
Your case fits 120mm mounts in rear, top or front so you can basically stick that H80i v2 anywhere where there is clearance for the 2x fans and the sandwiched radiator. Rear is usually the best option, with 2x exhaust fans on top and 2x intakes in front.
The H90 isn't so much a step up as it's a single fan radiator that's not quite as thick as the H80i v2. It's just that because it's a 140mm radiator, it has slightly greater area. 120mm vrs 140mm (squared). Because of being slightly thinner, and slightly larger, the overall balance in performance becomes almost equitable between the 2 coolers. The advantage of the H90 is more in that it doesn't take as much depth, so is far easier to mount in front or on top. Less obstacles.
As is, your...
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Karadjgne

Karadjgne

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Your case fits 120mm mounts in rear, top or front so you can basically stick that H80i v2 anywhere where there is clearance for the 2x fans and the sandwiched radiator. Rear is usually the best option, with 2x exhaust fans on top and 2x intakes in front.
The H90 isn't so much a step up as it's a single fan radiator that's not quite as thick as the H80i v2. It's just that because it's a 140mm radiator, it has slightly greater area. 120mm vrs 140mm (squared). Because of being slightly thinner, and slightly larger, the overall balance in performance becomes almost equitable between the 2 coolers. The advantage of the H90 is more in that it doesn't take as much depth, so is far easier to mount in front or on top. Less obstacles.
As is, your case has only 1 place to mount a 140mm, and thats as intake.

So, yes, it'll fit, front mounts aren't that much different overall, you get slightly elevated case temps, gpu temps, but lower cpu temps. ± @5°C on average.

A step up in performance from a H80i is the H100i. This is a 240mm cooler. Fits your case in 2x locations, either up top as exhaust, or in front as intake. Has the benefit like the H90 of being single fan depth, and very large cooling area (120mm vrs 2x120mm) but also has its drawbacks (never seen a 240/280mm mounted rear exhaust inside a case)
 
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Karadjgne

Karadjgne

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No. We've had that discussion before. Several times in fact. OP has a corsair carbide spec-01 case. That's a maximum cooler height of 150mm according to Corsair. So give up any dreams of the lovely Noctua NH-D15, which is where you are really basing all that noise crap. Aios don't really make any noise, just the fans (unless you get a junk pump) so comparing a Noctua fan to a crap corsair fan is in no way any contest. We'd not be having this discussion if the h100i came stock with Noctua fans and the NH-D15 has corsair junk. So please stop with the noise stuff.

As is, even the largest air coolers do not have a comparable surface area to keep up with some 240mm and most 280mm rads. The air coolers will perform similar, sometimes even beating the rads within the aircoolers range, but even the NH-D15 has a limit that's reachable and exceeded by the big aios.

Op can't use a really effective aircooler beyond the Cryorig H7 or many of the 92mm coolers like the Raijintek Aidos which have similar performance to a hyper212.

Best cooler for that case would be the Corsair h80i v2. There isn't an aircooler below 150mm that can touch it.
 
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Karadjgne

Karadjgne

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Ok, so you found one at 149mm. And it's actually very decent. I like the Scythe Mugen, I hadn't seen this one. If you flip the front fan to the backside, shouldn't be any real ram clearance issues there, but you will loose a few °C ability, nothing really to worry about. Unless there's clearance issues with the rear exhaust fan. Still, it's on par with the h80i so that's cool. Good find, I'll have to remember that one.
 
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Karadjgne

Karadjgne

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Hmm, $46 at Amazon. That's not that bad for that cooler. Biggest issue many overlook is the motherboard. I have an MSI Mpower z77, the heatsinks/heatpipe on the VRM's is huge, surrounds the socket. My first cooler I tried on it was the Raijintek Nemesis, basically the same as the NH-D15, didn't fit. The heatpipes on the cooler sat too low and came into contact with the mobo heatsinks. With that Fuma, as low as it sits, not having the taller heatpipes like most of those towers, I'd imagine I'd run into the same issue, as would many with a top-end board that's heatsinked like crazy by the socket.
It's the only drawback to many decent aircoolers, and my main disgruntlement with them. To get good performance at a higher level, you need a brick, and it's a guessing game as to whether you can make one fit the particulars of any given setup. A 120mm aio will work in any ATX case, even the ones with 80/92mm rear exhausts (how hard is it to overlay a fan and drill 4 holes in the back, really). I've even seen them mounted on side panels. (not exactly ideal, but it works), or strapped to the back of the hdd cage. (usually the hybrid gpu variety).

Air coolers work great on low end/mid range builds where cpu heat isn't often a problem. It's the higher end that usually has issues, especially in smaller cases like the Spec-01.
 
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n0ns3ns3

n0ns3ns3

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you did better search :) . my quick one resulted in 73$ for Fuma.
anyway, a 120mm AiO is not quiet and will not perform as well as much cheaper mid range air coolers. especially placed on exhaust.
is there a use case for them ? sure, even making liquid cooled GPUs with something like G12 or extremely small ITX cases.
will it be more convenient to install an AiO ? most probably yes. but AiO comes with it's own drawbacks like noise and reliability.
So for a normal people it is much more practical and cheaper to use air coolers and spend the money on getting other components that directly affect performance.
 
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