LTT: Even Corsair Knows Water Cooling Sucks

[ColinLTT]

 

It’s been 10 years since Corsair was in the air-cooler game, so why come back? Can Corsair compete with the huge selection of already excellent CPU coolers from competitors like Noctua and Deepcool? Let's benchmark it and find out!

 

What are your thoughts on the A500? 

 

 

Buy Corsair A500 CPU Cooler
On Amazon (PAID LINK): https://geni.us/xzXI19b
On Newegg (PAID LINK): https://lmg.gg/9KS4S

 

Buy Noctua NH-D15
On Amazon (PAID LINK): https://geni.us/0HVD
On Newegg (PAID LINK): https://geni.us/foplrPc

 

Buy Deepcool Assassin III
On Amazon (PAID LINK): https://geni.us/g2i5
On Newegg (PAID LINK): https://geni.us/d0yqTU

 

Buy Intel 9900K
On Amazon (PAID LINK): https://geni.us/qgddV
On Newegg (PAID LINK): https://geni.us/n6TD

 

Buy Extech 407750 Sound Meter
On Amazon (PAID LINK): https://geni.us/6Qke
On Newegg (PAID LINK): https://geni.us/LqeNxe

[Sakkura]

Sometimes it blows...

[TempestCatto]

My pc is water cooled but I kinda really want this for the fan mount system alone. That and it actually looks really slick. I think I may have just turned into a Corsair fanboi..

[Professional Panty Thief]

$100 Corsair dual tower air cooler with no rgb? No buy.

[Guest]

4 minutes ago, Sakkura said:

Sometimes it blows...

That pun was exhausting...

[Juular]

Quote

excellent CPU coolers from competitors like Noctua and Deepcool

 

Buy Noctua NH-D15
On Amazon (PAID LINK)

 

Buy Deepcool Assassin III
On Amazon (PAID LINK)

Give me all your monies !

[Velcade]

Noctua still remains king.

 

Nice review and valid arguments against the product. 

[Grumpy Bear]

I don't understand why Linus keeps saying that an air cooler is the best option.

It's plain physics that water-cooling is the better option.

Otherwise I would still be driving my air cooled Citroën 2HP from back in 1976

[jiyeon]

Is it just a thing where all Corsair fans are inherently loud? That sound comparison between the A500 and the NH-D15 was nuts.

 

I'm fond of Corsair hardware and would've loved to see a 120mm version of the A500, but that sound level is a dealbreaker right there.

[ColinLTT]

1 hour ago, sowon said:

Is it just a thing where all Corsair fans are inherently loud? That sound comparison between the A500 and the NH-D15 was nuts.

 

I'm fond of Corsair hardware and would've loved to see a 120mm version of the A500, but that sound level is a dealbreaker right there.

Do you mean 140mm? because the A500 is 120mm. 

Can confim airplane noises at full load. 

 

[Deli]

1 hour ago, sowon said:

Is it just a thing where all Corsair fans are inherently loud? That sound comparison between the A500 and the NH-D15 was nuts.

 

I'm fond of Corsair hardware and would've loved to see a 120mm version of the A500, but that sound level is a dealbreaker right there.

The Noctua fans have a 1500rpm max, while Corsair with its smaller 120mm fans need to spin to 2500rpm to keep up. That explains the loud noise of the Corsair cooler at max fan speed.

[Deli]

11 minutes ago, ColinLTT said:

Do you mean 140mm? because the A500 is 120mm. 

Can confim airplane noises at full load. 

 

The Noctua NH-U12A also uses 120mm fans. However it can more or less keep up with its bigger brother NH-D15. You can say Noctua fans simply are better. Or Corsair fans suck regardless of their size.

[Deli]

2 hours ago, Grumpy Bear said:

I don't understand why Linus keeps saying that an air cooler is the best option.

It's plain physics that water-cooling is the better option.

Otherwise I would still be driving my air cooled Citroën 2HP from back in 1976

Depends on what is your priorities. A good air cooler performs just as good as a 240mm AIO. While far better in terms of reliability, longevity and in general less expensive. If you need cooling capacity beyond a 240mm AIO. Then water cooling is the way to go.

[jiyeon]

33 minutes ago, ColinLTT said:

Do you mean 140mm? because the A500 is 120mm.

Oh my god, you know what, I just noticed it was the sheer size of the A500 that led me to believe it was the same size as the NH-D15. That's kinda ridiculous.

 

 

23 minutes ago, Deli said:

The Noctua fans have a 1500rpm max, while Corsair with its smaller 120mm fans need to spin to 2500rpm to keep up. That explains the loud noise of the Corsair cooler at max fan speed.

I use 120mm Corsair SP120s in my own PC and they run at constant 1000-1200RPM due to being DC-only, and they're audible as well. If there's a Corsair fan out there that runs quiet, I want it.

[ColinLTT]

13 minutes ago, Deli said:

Depends on what is your priorities. A good air cooler performs just as good as a 240mm AIO. While far better in terms of reliability, longevity and in general less expensive. If you need cooling capacity beyond a 240mm AIO. Then water cooling is the way to go.

Not to mention an air cooler has less moving parts, and is generally speaking quieter than a pump. 

[RoseLuck462]

Yea I love how you don't have to worry about RAM clearance with an AIO, but I don't really mind what kind of CPU cooler to use.

[relaxation]

isn't it weird Alex measured around 30dB(a) in-office with beanbags, but a hemi anechoic chamber with a noise floor of 28.5 dB? was that Z-weighted (flat) and not A-weighted (est. human perception)? was measurement performed by them with their equipment? or perhaps yours with a reliable range above 30dB(A)?

[TrostAft]

A bit disappointing that it both costs more and performs worse than other solutions, but I think I agree with your conclusion. At this moment, this product is basically just a Corsair fashion statement. I wonder how it would perform if you slapped Noctua's 120mm fans on it and 3d printed a shroud to slide them onto Corsair's mechanism? Of course, you're killing the price/performance (and much of the point of this product) in the meantime, but it could be interesting,

[Grumpy Bear]

9 hours ago, Deli said:

Depends on what is your priorities. A good air cooler performs just as good as a 240mm AIO. While far better in terms of reliability, longevity and in general less expensive. If you need cooling capacity beyond a 240mm AIO. Then water cooling is the way to go.

 

9 hours ago, ColinLTT said:

Not to mention an air cooler has less moving parts, and is generally speaking quieter than a pump. 

Thanks for your input.

But for me this doesn't make sense at all.

At the moment I am using an NZXT kraken AIO cooler. Before that I had a very cheap Corsair h60 AIO cooler. I never had any problems with noise coming from the pump, no leaking,... No problems whatsoever and the kraken keeps mij i7 7700 at a nice 50-60 degrees under load. 30 degrees idle... Without any audible noise. I guess I have to do the test myself because I cannot believe to get these results with an air cooler. 

And who needs more cooling capacity than a 240 AIO for home use? 

[Sakkura]

11 hours ago, Grumpy Bear said:

I don't understand why Linus keeps saying that an air cooler is the best option.

It's plain physics that water-cooling is the better option.

Otherwise I would still be driving my air cooled Citroën 2HP from back in 1976

There's nothing in physics that makes water-cooling better by default. Evaporative cooling can be just as good as forced convection in a liquid, if not better.

 

Bear in mind air coolers do still use liquid.

[Deli]

1 hour ago, Grumpy Bear said:

 

Thanks for your input.

But for me this doesn't make sense at all.

At the moment I am using an NZXT kraken AIO cooler. Before that I had a very cheap Corsair h60 AIO cooler. I never had any problems with noise coming from the pump, no leaking,... No problems whatsoever and the kraken keeps mij i7 7700 at a nice 50-60 degrees under load. 30 degrees idle... Without any audible noise. I guess I have to do the test myself because I cannot believe to get these results with an air cooler. 

And who needs more cooling capacity than a 240 AIO for home use? 

You have a sample size of two.

 

If you overclock a 9900K all core to 5GHz or over, and the chip isn't particularly binned. A 240mm AIO could be marginal for cooling. 

[Grumpy Bear]

1 hour ago, Deli said:

You have a sample size of two.

 

If you overclock a 9900K all core to 5GHz or over, and the chip isn't particularly binned. A 240mm AIO could be marginal for cooling. 

What do you mean by a sample size of two?

 

I do not overclock but yes you have a point there. But then again in your scenario a typical air-cooler would be evenly or even more marginal for cooling

[Grumpy Bear]

4 hours ago, Sakkura said:

There's nothing in physics that makes water-cooling better by default. Evaporative cooling can be just as good as forced convection in a liquid, if not better.

 

Bear in mind air coolers do still use liquid.

Yes but there is a difference if you use the air from the intake fan to cool your radiator or if you use the air in your case for cooling. The latter is a lot warmer.

 

But I think I will let it go here :)

I think I have my facts straight and I will stick with the water cooler with pump and radiator on the intake fan ;)

[spartaman64]

20 minutes ago, Grumpy Bear said:

Yes but there is a difference if you use the air from the intake fan to cool your radiator or if you use the air in your case for cooling. The latter is a lot warmer.

 

But I think I will let it go here

I think I have my facts straight and I will stick with the water cooler with pump and radiator on the intake fan

nobody is saying you have to switch from one to the other but if your case has good airflow then it actually would perform better with it in the case so unless your case is really starved of air open air wont help with the cooling

[an actual squirrel]

Yea, there are weird complications with cases. If you use the radiator fans as a front intake, then the cpu cooling is likely going to be better on the aio just because the air outside the case is cooler, especially if you have like a 300w gpu. But then the lack of negative pressure above the gpu and the warmer case temps end up making the graphics card run hotter, afaik.

 

I personally will tend to go with an aio when possible, just because the idea of 1+ kg of weight hanging off the motherboard socket is pretty disconcerting. And the flexibility in radiator placement gives you a lot of control over the air flow pattern in your case.