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Review: Corsair Hydro Series H50 - taking on the air-cooled establishment

by Tarinder Sandhu on 30 June 2009, 09:03 4.0

Tags: Corsair Hydro H50, Corsair

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Final thoughts and rating

Corsair's Hydro Series H50 all-in-one liquid-based cooler, priced at £59, is aimed at the enthusiast who wishes to indulge in overclocking high-wattage CPUs and normally looks towards premium air coolers to keep the chip(s) running smoothly under load.

Based on the Asetek LCLC design but taking in a single head for cooling the CPU, with no means of adding further loops for, say, graphics, the Hydro H50 strength lies with just how easy it is to install - your gran could do it.

Once installed, performance is a touch better than a class-leading air cooler, the Thermalright Ultra 120 eXtreme, and significantly better than an Intel reference heatsink. The liquid-cooled nature of the design means it's less partial to increases in ambient temperatures, too, and that's an important consideration in the summer.

A cinch to fit and quiet for the most part, the Corsair Hydro H50 provides stiff opposition to the very best air coolers available on the market, meeting its design aim.  

Bottom line: Corsair's Hydro Series H50 is based on established technology and does well in keeping an overclocked, overvolted Intel Core i7 chip in check. It can be recommended to users whose previous cooling choices would have veered towards the premium end of the air cooling market, but another £10 off the etail price would make it that much sweeter.

HEXUS Rating

We consider any product score above '50%' as a safe buy. The higher the score, the higher the recommendation from HEXUS to buy. Simple, straightforward buying advice.

The rating is given in relation to the category the component competes in, therefore the cooler is evaluated with respect to our 'mid-range components' criteria.

80%

Corsair Hydro Series H50


HEXUS Awards


Corsair Hydro Series H50

HEXUS Where2Buy

The Corsair Hydro Series H50  is listed as pre-order at Scan.co.uk for £59.79, including delivery*

*As always, UK-based HEXUS.community discussion forum members will benefit from the SCAN2HEXUS Free Shipping initiative, which will save you a further few pounds plus also top-notch, priority customer service and technical support backed up by the SCANcare@HEXUS forum.

It's also available for £58.62 from C3Computers.co.uk.

HEXUS Right2Reply

At HEXUS, we invite the companies whose products we test to comment on our articles. If any company representatives for the products reviewed choose to respond, we'll publish their commentary here verbatim



HEXUS Forums :: 31 Comments

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Its not really worth the £60 price tag, hopefully they will have some sense and lower it to £45.
I agree. I already own the Thermalright. I have no real incentive to move on the Corsair for such minimal performance gains.
I have to be honest, I was interested in this cooler when it was shown at the Computex show, because of the price and the cooling potential.

I have since seen a preview of it from another website and their results weren't particular impressive. Is it true that the fan/radiator is blowing air into the case? If true, I think it is not good as the warm air from the radiator will stay in the case. So it may be better if you have a case with roof fans to exhaust the air, but why did they not reverse the fan, and design the radiator to be outside the case.
The unit is sealed completely, you can't mount the rad outside and the block inside without taking it apart.

Either way, this WC unit is supposed to be going against high end coolers and the price/perf is quite competitive considering.

I would say this would appeal most for those with small cases that don't have the room for a big tower but enough room on their rear 120mm exhaust.

Also probably much more safer with transporting to LANs perhaps.

I would have loved to see more testing like dual fans on the TRUE and dual fans on the rad and using the same fans for a direct comparison.
Anyone know if you can replace the fan with a Noctua or Akasa low noise fan? I have a couple knocking around and noise is quite important to me.

Also, would this fit in a micro-atx Silverstone TJ-08 (I think that's the number) - it can take 12cm fans.