Corsair H70: Next-Gen Self-Contained Liquid Cooling

Features
By Marcel Binder
published

Liquid cooling still has the image of being expensive and complicated. Corsair, in cooperation with the cooling specialists at Asetek, now offers the H70 that aims to simplify the step up from air cooling. Can it beat less expensive premium heatsinks?

Conclusion

With the H70, Corsair brings a liquid cooling system to market that strives to address the challenges of liquid cooling while still exemplifying its benefits.

It relieves the user of the hassle of having to assemble individual components, which should appeal to those without much experience in liquid cooling. With a street price of around $110, it is reasonably priced compared to other liquid cooling systems. By pre-filling the closed loop system at the factory, it is ready for use immediately after unpacking, and does not have to be much more complicated to install than some air CPU coolers.

In addition, Corsair offers a two-year warranty, and the producer Asetek indicates that the average lifespan of the liquid cooling system is about 50 000 hours. Installing the liquid cooling system is easy, and the detailed installation instructions for the different supported processor interfaces should simplify the process for less experienced users.

There are a few weak points, however. We would have liked the tubing between the water block and the radiator to be a bit longer than 24 cm. The same goes for the fan cables, which are a bit short at just 21 cm. The fans included created mixed impressions. On the one hand, the radiator with its very dense fin structure requires a certain air throughput--something the fans handle just fine. But on the other hand, these fans are not exactly the most acoustically-friendly. Quieter fans with variable speeds would be something to hope for here. You could look around for alternatives, but then you'd only be adding to the cost of this unit, which already exceeds the upper range of the highest-end air coolers.

However, if you can live with the slightly elevated background noise level that comes with the Corsair H70 liquid cooling system, you get cooling performance in the good to very good range in the upper segment of CPU coolers.

In the light of air cooling alternatives like Zalman’s CNPS 10X Extreme, which costs roughly $69, Corsair’s new H70 remains a premium-priced product. It's perhaps best suited to environments where space around the processor is tight, and you don't have room for a cheaper, comparable-performing high-end air cooler.

Marcel Binder
Marcel Binder
83 Comments Comment from the forums
  • wribbs
    "street price of around $110, it is reasonably priced" -too high.
    "slightly elevated background noise" -understatement

    You will be better served by the h50, yes its weaker but its cheaper and quieter and performs close to the same. Do yourself a favor and avoid this product although it is quite good.
    Reply
  • chovav
    where's the H50 in the charts?
    Reply
  • Scanlia
    I think its stupid, just look @ the Prolimatech's...
    Reply
  • karma831
    Overpriced, equal to or gets beat by air cooling in temps, and is pretty loud...Doesn't sound like a very good product ?__?

    The prolimatech and noctua offerings are much better.
    Reply
  • maxal
    Would it be possible to post combined charts of idle temp/noise and full load temp/noise ? IMHO that would be more informative than plain bars, as many are interested in balance of those characteristics.
    Reply
  • gkay09
    I had expected to see even the CM Hyper 212+ results...
    IMO $110 for such a cooler not worth it,...Other good option if going for a closed loop cooler would be the CoolIT SYSTEMS ECO...
    Reply
  • cmcghee358
    I would have also liked to have seen comparison between a push/pull exhaust, and a push/pull intake.

    For my H50, it is quite explicit that the radiator should be pulling outside air through the fins. And yet, people keep it as an exhaust and then lament of their temps.

    One of the biggest perks of a closed loop water cooling system is you dictate what air is being used. Where-as big air is always restricted to case air(unless a side is removed and a box fan is added)

    I would have also liked to of seen it as a delta above ambient, rather than a flat CPU temperature comparison. I personally process the delta better, and lend more credence to it.
    Reply
  • uruquiora
    would have liked to see the temps in passive mode, with no fans, and on a more recent CPU...
    Reply
  • mjello
    I want one for my gfx card not the cpu. Its my gfx thats noisy. I don't care about cooling temps or overclocking as long as the cooling is adequate. I just want sweet silence :).
    Reply
  • cmcghee358
    9503478 said:
    I want one for my gfx card not the cpu. Its my gfx thats noisy. I don't care about cooling temps or overclocking as long as the cooling is adequate. I just want sweet silence :).

    I guess you missed the part where it was the noisiest thing on the list with a 57.3 dB at max?

    Also considering the TDP of some of these GPUs are between 190 and 300W, you can expect the H70 to work much harder thant he sample 130W CPU. So it will most likely be loud all the time because of the higher operating temps of the GPU.
    Reply