Enhancer4004 Posted October 30, 2010 Share Posted October 30, 2010 My first post here, so bare with me. I wanted to show my H70 install and how it made a huge difference in my temps. I had purchased a CM V8 when I built my rig based on a friends recommendation and I had been happy with the cooler until here recently. I had been seeing the reviews for the H50/H70 in several of the PC mags I read and was familiar with the cooler, but had little interest in actually purchasing one just because I was under the impression that the V8 was a solid cooler. Well, last week a friend and I were at Fry's and noticed a display of H70's and he immediately noticed that they were priced at $84, $15 or $20 cheaper than anywhere else I had ever seen. Come to find out, apparently they had ran a sale on them the night before and had forgotten to change the price back to $104. They honored the price and I bought it with the intention of selling it on eBay or something, but the box just kept staring at me on the table, convincing me to rationalize keeping it. I had been oc'ing my i7 920 from 2.66 to 3.6 with the V8, but hadn't ever run Prime or Orthos to really stress test it and see the temps. I decided to run a test, and within minutes one of the proc's reached 90c so I immediately shut it down. I tried again and it BSOD'ed after 12 or 15 minutes. I started reading more into the H70, and where most people's idle temps were similar to mine (around 37 to 40c), it was under load that the H70 really shined. So that was it, I had decided to un-box the H70 and see how it does, and I am sure glad I did. I have an older case, a Lian Li V1200B, and looked at the design and decided that I would attempt to mount the rad on the outside of the case. Yeah sure, some say it didn't really make that much of a difference, but I just thought letting that heat dissipate outside the case had to be better. I would have to make some modifications to do so (as in cutting the case), but nothing real major. I used a Dremel and made a cut below the 120mm fan opening to accommodate for the water lines, and it fit perfectly. See pics below (taken with a cell phone so I apologize about the quality): http://i622.photobucket.com/albums/tt307/Jinn2000/photo4.jpg After the cut was made it went right together. I used the paste that came on it and other than the cut in the case and replacing the front fan with the Antec fan, there were no other modifications. And yes, please excuse the tri-cool fan I put on the front, I know they are not the best fans and I was thinking it would be quieter than the Corsair fan and I had it just laying around. I have plans to replace the fans either with Gentle Typhoons or Yate Yoon's. http://i622.photobucket.com/albums/tt307/Jinn2000/photo8.jpg http://i622.photobucket.com/albums/tt307/Jinn2000/photo7.jpg Once it was done, I was anxious to see what it would do. Firstly, I will say I was surprised as to how loud it was. I really don't care about that, but none he less, it's loud. I opened Real Temp and noticed the idle temps were around the same, maybe 2 degrees c better than before, but that was sort of expected since that was what I had read. I opened Prime95 and let it run for 30 minutes or so and it never got above 74c on any of the cores and hovered mostly in the mid 60's. I was very happy about that, and since my temps were significantly better under load, I decided to oc it from 3.6 to 3.8ghz. Temps were almost exactly the same (as I had been running a higher voltage on the 3.6ghz oc than I should have) and I decided to let Prime95 run overnight just to see what would happen. I went in the next morning, machine was still running and the highest temp on any of the cores was 76c. From what I have read, those are acceptable temps for that overclock. The case temp inside is around 82 to 83f and the room is around 74f, just for reference. Bottom line, I am very happy with the H70. I would imagine that with the new fans I might see a degree or two temp reduction AND a more quiet rig. And I do know that there are air coolers out there that perform just as well, if not better, but compared to my V8, it made a very significant difference. Sorry for the long post, but I wanted to document the install and the difference it made. As with all of the Corsair products I have bought, this was a quality project as soon as I opened the box. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LordVampyre Posted October 30, 2010 Share Posted October 30, 2010 most excellent.. man that H70 is huge. thanks for sharing this information. Does tend to give one ideas :D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
650hpAMG Posted January 13, 2011 Share Posted January 13, 2011 Thank you for posting this, I realize it is a couple of months old, but useful nonetheless. I have the same case which I love since I bought it new since release date and it has seen at least 20 builds since. I will also be drilling out the back vent and filing it nice and smooth for my H70 setup. I have a very nice I7 950 that reaches 4.0ghz on STOCK cooling 24hr Prime stable. Really looking to see what the capabilities will be once this H70 is installed. Will also be going with a a couple of nicer fans vs the Corsair loud units. With two GTX480 cards and 24gb ram, 3 hard drives, I hope the heat is not an issue since the setup reverses the airflow in the case. I will also flip the front fan around. Thanks again Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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