READ THIS if you are getting high temps with the H50

UPDATE: The Corsair H50 and H70 are HIGHLY DEPENDENT on the ambient temperature of your room. Reason being is that the radiator can only be cooled down so much if the air around you is warm. If you are in a cooler environment, you are giving the radiator more "potential" to be cooled down. I have determined my cpu temperatures to average 10 or 15 degrees above ambient temperature.

 

I own an H50 and having had some unpleasant high temperature experiences I would like to share with everyone the steps you can take to solve it.

 

For reference, I have my Intel i7-930 overclocked to 3.2GHz. I am getting average idle temperatures of 35 and max load temps of 60 (running Intel Burn Test at maximum).

 

Initially, I was getting idle temps of 40-50 and load temps of 70-90. I thought this was normal.

 

Turns out I mounted the cooler incorrectly. Take a look at these steps to see if it solves your high temp problems:

 

 

1. Are you sure you mounted it correctly?

I realized I had used the AMD retention bracket mounts (one screw hole) instead of the Intel mounts (two screw holes, one for socket LGA1156 and LGA1366). MAKE SURE you are using the correct mount.

 

2. Is the mount ON TOP OF the retention bracket?

During installation I had put the retention bracket mount UNDER the retentention bracket. This caused a 1-2mm gap between the base of the CPU and the base of the cooler. From top to bottom, the order should be as follows:

H50

Retention bracket mounts

Retention bracket

CPU

Motherboard

Backplate

 

3. Are your backplate screws in all the way?

Make sure your screws are aligned perfectly and push that screw all the way in.

 

4. Has the thermal compound smeared outside of the CPU base?

If it has, just clean it up with a tissue. Careful not to touch the CPU. I recommend using latex gloves during this process.

 

5. Is air blowing to the INSIDE of the case?

Reason being is that the radiator will get washed over by cool air as opposed to being washed over with warm air from within your case.

 

6. Is your H50 firmly in place?

Don't be afraid to use your hand and apply some force on the H50 to make sure it is firmly in place. If it moves around even a little bit, make sure you've mounted it correctly and that your screws are all the way in.

 

 

If none of these solutions seem to be doing it for you...consider an RMA with Corsair.

 

If you have fixed an H50 high temperature problem in the past, feel free to post your solutions below.

Great checklist, this thread is now a sticky! Many of these items would also be good to check with the H70 as well.

 

So how come this stuff isn't covered in the instructions?

Added some information about the effect of ambient temperatures.

 

If you are concerned about your H50/H70 temperatures, it very well may be because your ambient temperature is too high! Please see the update in the first post.

UPDATE: ......I have determined my cpu temperatures to average 10 or 15 degrees above ambient temperature.

......

 

Are you referring to the cpu (surface/Tcase) temperature, or the core temperature?

 

 

I've seen many people asking whether 48C idle is too high and I don't know is it core or the surface

How did you get the AMD mounts out of the bracket? I can't seem to change mine without risking bending up the bracket. :\

Great post. I also suffred through an extended heatwave. Ambient temps in the computer room was way up there, to the point where the cpu temps exceeeded 80c and my system shut down.

 

If i can add a point to the checklist:

 

Check your rad for dust build-up! I was shocked to see how clogged it was. And a clean radiator in my case made a big difference. I also re-aligned my push-pull to vent into the case rather than out. There seems to be some contention on this latter point, so I will not propose one is better than the other.

It would be really usefull to show with pics what do you mean with retention brackets etc. because some of us dont have the English language as our native one.

But it deserves to be sticky this thread nevertheless.

I have my H50 blowing out.... I was thinking would it be better if I had a push pull configuration or to replace the stock H50 fan with a high performance High airflow aftermarket fan. My case runs pretty cool as I have a slightly larger than 120MM intake fan in the front.

My H70 Push-pull is Exhaust. CORSAIR is right when talk about Intake but only for CPU.

I try Intake configurationa and that is better 2-3C for CPU, but other components is 5-6C warmer for short time. Because of that I install Exhaust.

I have my H55 running as exhaust out the back push-pull config .

yes best have outside hit rad not the recycled case air

The simple fact of the matter is that if you have the air blowing into the housing from the outside through the radiator then within a very short time the radiator will be clogged with dust, a lot less heat exchange will take place and your CPU temperature will skyrocket - end of story.