Question regarding coolers to use for certain case

Hello all, First post here!

 

I was actually looking into some of the H series coolers as a possible alternative to a large heatsink for a new case I'm interested in getting.

 

Haf XB EVO.

 

My concern is, mentioned within the reviews on newegg, they say that there is a clearance issue for a top mounted fan if you use anything like a Hyper 212+ EVO, or anything around that coolers height dimensions. I currently have a NZXT Phantom(original version), and was, I guess, spoiled by the shininess that is twin 200 mm fans, and a 230 mounted on the side.

 

Its really a tough game to play, too tall, and you loose the large 200mm fan on top, or too short, and ram clearance becomes an issue. non tower based coolers are an option, but are more or less lacking in cooling performance as compared to their tower cousins, mostly due to fan orientation only really allowing it to act as an exhaust and not a pass-through.

 

I'm at a loss, and the next best step is water cooling...Thus The H series are of interest.

 

I just have a perpetual fear of placing anything involving a pump into my systems.

 

If your fans fail on an air cooled system, it can still dissapate some heat with reliability. If they fail on a Water cooled loop, It has effectively lost its cooling capabilities, to my understanding.

 

I'm thinking of getting the H80i or gt(Whats the difference anyways?), and have it sit on the rear exhaust panel in the back, with a 200 mm exhaust on top, with the two 140 mm fans as intake. Thoughts?

 

PS, sorry for long post!

If the fans fail on a water cooler the pump still pumps fluid through the radiator which dissipates some of the heat. The temps will go up but it won't lose it's cooling altogether.

Yes, but the pump failing is what has me concerned.

 

I was referring to the air cooling loosing the fans as a means of dissapation, and the pump on the H series failing. That is what has me concerned on it. Pump dies, things go bad, to my understanding.

If you connect the pump to the CPU header you'll be notified if it stops working, but pump failure seems fairly rare but Corsair's customer service is really good. If you're in the States or UK, you should be able to get express RMA service to replace your defective cooler quickly.