Small Water Versus Big Air, Part 3: Cooling Questions Answered
Table of contents
- 1. The Equalizer(s)
- 2. Test Hardware
- 3. Cogage True Spirit Fan Configurations
Our quest to find an advantage—any advantage—in today’s maintenance-free compact liquid coolers began with CoolIT’s Domino A.L.C. sealed liquid system and the low-cost Cogage True Spirit 120mm tower. Unfortunately, the liquid cooler only performed as well as the air cooler when its custom-wired fan was forced to operate at its maximum speed of 2,800 RPM, versus the air cooler’s maximum fan speed of 1,600 RPM. The enormous increase in cost and noise for sub-par cooling performance put the Domino A.L.C. at an equally big disadvantage compared to the simpler sink and fan.
Our quest continued with Corsair’s H50 sealed-liquid system and Rosewill’s FORT120 air-cooling tower, where the air cooler’s fast 2,400 RPM fan gave it a cooling advantage comparable to its resulting acoustic disadvantage. Readers complained that the tradeoff between cooling and noise could only be addressed by using the same fan on both coolers, while Corsair pointed out that we weren't using the configuration the way it was designed, blowing cooler air through the radiator. In contrast, air coolers must typically use warm case air to cool the processor, which is a disadvantage not properly reflected on an open bench. End users typically don’t run open systems, and the H50 was designed to use the case advantageously.
This leaves us with a few additional configurations to test. How much better will the Corsair H50 and the Cogage True Spirit function with Rosewill’s FORT120 more powerful fan? How much worse will the Cogage True Spirit and Rosewill FORT120 perform in a closed system? Today we test each configuration inside a traditional oversized mid-tower case, using two different fan configurations for each unit.
Get ready. All of your questions are about to be answered.
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seems like air cooling will be here a long time...
Push/pull-equipped Megahalem/Megashadow is all you'll ever need - I don't see Intel topping 130W thermal again for quite a while. It's at the limit weight and size wise and with some fan speed control you can crank it for serious OC stints and dial back when running less aggressively.
Of course if the base of the TRUE or TRUE Black Rev C has been sorted (I'm not messing about with lapping when other people get it right first time) then I'll go with that as it's thinner than the Megahalem with only 1 degree difference.
"Reversing the exhaust fan as per Corsair’s H50 installation instructions has a significant impact on internal air temperature, increasing its rise over ambient by more than 100% compared to the original fan configuration."
No, degrees celcius are not scalar, the difference is nowhere near 100%.
On "real" watercooling we are seeing deltas of CPU temperature about 32-35C above the water temperature at CPU speeds around 4.2Ghz. In an average loop water temperature is around 10C above ambient, for a total of 45C above ambient. That can be halved easily enough, such that with 3x 120mm fans on a radiator running quiet fans can achieve temperatures around 40C above ambient.
The corsair solution isn't terrible, buts its not real watercooling.
True.
We need a review of real watercooling systems ... not these cheap low MBBTF kits designed for n00bs.
The continual reviews of cheap watercooling solutions is damaging the reputation of the quality watercooling systems providers, and their products are far better cooling solutions than the best of the heatpipe air coolers currently on offer.
May I suggest you review the 3 best systems on offer as a comparison?
I don't need to tell you which manufacturers they are ... or do I??
I can appreciate that you are trying to target a wider audience with the case choice but it's not necessarily the reading audience. Of the world this is probably a typical case choice but I couldn't say one way or the other whether it's a typical case for tomshardware readers.
Would have liked to have seen another case in there with better ventilation to see if there was a difference. After all the cooling fans are mounted in slightly different locations. Certain air flow patterns could be beneficial to either cooling system.