Corsair H50-1 water CPU cooler

[hero9989]

Anyone had any experience with this CPU cooler? Considering buying it for my brother for xmas since he's planning on upgrading to either an Phenom II 955 or Core i5 750 and plans on overclocking (another question you can answer if you want, which of these CPUs is best, taking overclocking into account), reviews seem pretty good but I was wondering if any of you had any real life experience with it.
What's the noise like? Has anyone had any problems with it? I've always been wary about water cooling cos I don't trust myself not to connect a tube too loosely and for it to fall out and ruin my PC, this seems to be totally self contained though, and corsair warrenty is usually good.

http://www.scan.co.uk/Product.aspx?WebProductID=1083945

also found it from
https://www.pricelover.com/product/Corsair_Cooling_Hydro_Series_H50_High-performance_CPU_Cooler_-_supports_LGA1156_LGA775_LGA1366_AM2_and_AM3_processors/CWCH50-1/
for quite a bit cheaper

 

[LePhuronn]

It's a nice unit if you're keeping your CPU at stock, but regardless of what Corsair's videos say in the real world the single 120mm radiator is insufficient to keep an overclocked i7 920 cool.

Now granted the 900 series are very hot chips so running it on an overclocked i5 or Phenom II might be OK, but if you're doing any serious overclocking I'd get a hefty air cooler (you can keep them quiet) or proper watercooling system.

Also bear in mind that there are some issues with the CPU socket on LGA 1156 motherboards (for the i5) that have caused death to boards and CPUs when doing extreme overclocking - check to see if the board uses a Foxconn socket.

There's an article here on Toms somewhere...

 

[vznoobie12]

You are right in the h50 being self-contained. Regarding noise, its pretty low. And don't worry about tube tightness or water leaking.. the reservoir is sealed and its a closed-loop system.

One radiator definitely keeps an i5 warm and prevents it from being too hot. As LePhuronn suggested, a premium air cooler works just as well under a high OC/big loads. Because the h50 is just that... it's an "entry level" water cooler, which would make sense that its performance rivals that of a premium air cooler .

To answer your parenthesized (is that a word? ;o) question, the TL;DR version would be i5. Definitely stick with the i5.

Lastly, as for the foxconn socket problem previously discussed, I wouldn't worry too much about it. As noted in the anandtech article, the faulty sockets are as a result of EXTREME overclocks, which the h50 isn't even capable of (talking about 24/7 overclocks). You can get 4.0 easy with an i5 and h50 and your chip shouldn't suffer any immediate damage.

Now, the question of longevity concerning foxconn sockets and moderate overclocking is largely unknown. I'll let you know in 2 yrs

 

[Guest]

It's a nice unit if you're keeping your CPU at stock, but regardless of what Corsair's videos say in the real world the single 120mm radiator is insufficient to keep an overclocked i7 920 cool....

I wouldn't say that. I have H50 on a OC'ed i7 running at 3.9GHz with core temps not above 65°C. So it is clearly sufficient to keep it cool.

However I have the radiator sandwiched between a two 120mm fans. One pushing, one pulling, with cool air coming from outside the case to the inside. Plus I have a 200mm fan pulling the hot air out of the top of the case.

 

[Starges]

I wouldn't say that. I have H50 on a OC'ed i7 running at 3.9GHz with core temps not above 65°C. So it is clearly sufficient to keep it cool.

However I have the radiator sandwiched between a two 120mm fans. One pushing, one pulling, with cool air coming from outside the case to the inside. Plus I have a 200mm fan pulling the hot air out of the top of the case.

You managed to attach 2 extra fans to the H50?? Wow.. post some pics please [:lectrocrew:8]