Corsair to release the H70
by Ian Cutress on August 4, 2010 5:00 PM EST- Posted in
- News
- Corsair
- Cases/Cooling/PSUs
Water cooling is typically seen for an enthusiast, requiring pumps, reservoirs, tubing, know-how, and a cautious mind not to spill water all over your precious components. The benefits of water cooling are obvious to many – having your system run cooler, better stability at higher overclocks, and aesthetics. Lower down the order of water cooling, manufacturers like CoolerMaster, Corsair and Coolit have over the years come to the market with all-in-one solutions, requiring little knowledge to reap water cooling benefits. These early models were readily slated in reviews, for being more expensive than high-end air cooling, yet performing worse. It wasn’t until the Corsair H50 and H50-1 models came along that these all-in-one water coolers were taken seriously, because here was a product that performed as good as a high end air cooler, in certain situations quieter, could easily fit in many cases, and only for a small premium. So now Corsair is due to release the next model in their line – the Corsair H70.
The new cooler itself has been redesigned to almost half height, yet the principle is still the same – get excess heat away from the processor. The radiator is now double the thickness (to 50mm) compared to the H50, and bundled with two dual-speed 120mm fans (1600 to 2000RPM, 31.5 dBA) for a push-pull configuration. The coolant channels are now redesigned in the cooling block, allowing for quicker heat transfer from the CPU.
If the H70 performs better than the H50, as Corsair claims, the unit could be well placed between the high-end air coolers and full blown water cooling setups. However, two major platforms stand in the way of this product. The double thickness radiator will reduce the compatibility of the H70 in smaller cases – the H50 radiator is already quite thick, so double that and add a couple of fans, and it will hopefully fit in most ATX cases. Next, is the price: pre-orders currently range in the $110-$115 (or £75-£85 in the UK), representing a $30 premium over the older H50-1. This makes the H70 rather expensive for a CPU cooler, so in order to match this price, it should perform better than any air cooler available.
The Corsair H70 will feature brackets for Sockets 1366, 1156, 775, AM2 and AM3, and is expected to start shipping next week.
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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.
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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.