Water cooling is typically seen for an enthusiast, requiring pumps, reservoirs, tubing, know-how, and a cautious mind not to spill water all over your precious components.  The benefits of water cooling are obvious to many – having your system run cooler, better stability at higher overclocks, and aesthetics.  Lower down the order of water cooling, manufacturers like CoolerMaster, Corsair and Coolit have over the years come to the market with all-in-one solutions, requiring little knowledge to reap water cooling benefits.  These early models were readily slated in reviews, for being more expensive than high-end air cooling, yet performing worse.  It wasn’t until the Corsair H50 and H50-1 models came along that these all-in-one water coolers were taken seriously, because here was a product that performed as good as a high end air cooler, in certain situations quieter, could easily fit in many cases, and only for a small premium.  So now Corsair is due to release the next model in their line – the Corsair H70.


The new cooler itself has been redesigned to almost half height, yet the principle is still the same – get excess heat away from the processor.  The radiator is now double the thickness (to 50mm) compared to the H50, and bundled with two dual-speed 120mm fans (1600 to 2000RPM, 31.5 dBA) for a push-pull configuration.  The coolant channels are now redesigned in the cooling block, allowing for quicker heat transfer from the CPU.

If the H70 performs better than the H50, as Corsair claims, the unit could be well placed between the high-end air coolers and full blown water cooling setups.  However, two major platforms stand in the way of this product.  The double thickness radiator will reduce the compatibility of the H70 in smaller cases – the H50 radiator is already quite thick, so double that and add a couple of fans, and it will hopefully fit in most ATX cases.  Next, is the price: pre-orders currently range in the $110-$115 (or £75-£85 in the UK), representing a $30 premium over the older H50-1.  This makes the H70 rather expensive for a CPU cooler, so in order to match this price, it should perform better than any air cooler available.

The Corsair H70 will feature brackets for Sockets 1366, 1156, 775, AM2 and AM3, and is expected to start shipping next week.
 

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  • gookpwr - Wednesday, August 4, 2010 - link

    This thing is super cheap, if it performs better than most air coolers. I had a Noctua air cooler that was about $80 plus the extra $20 fan, and it performed about the same as the H-50. I built a full on custom water cooling setup, and it cost me almost $1,000 so if the H-70 is at 10% of the cost of an excellent custom water cooling setup, I would call it cheap, and a great value!
  • CurseTheSky - Wednesday, August 4, 2010 - link

    $1000 for water cooling? Good God. It should be ~$70 for a pump, $40-60 for a radiator ($100-150 for an expensive one), $50-80 for a CPU block, and another $100 for tubing / clamps / barbs / reservoir. Add in another $100-200 for a GPU block, and you're looking at $300-600 for a really nice setup. That is, unless you're running 3x SLI or Crossfire or buying super expensive Iwaki pump, custom reservoir, etc.
  • mikbe - Sunday, November 6, 2011 - link

    Liquid nitrogen is expensive.
  • jfelano - Wednesday, August 11, 2010 - link

    If you spend $1000 on water cooling, you should spend more on a good therapist cause obviously you got issues.
  • Nimiz99 - Wednesday, August 4, 2010 - link

    In the years that i have read anandtech I have definitely welcomed heatsink reviews and the like. However, the last such review i remember was in 2008 or 2007. So when I saw this brief article I was hoping that y'all would review this cooler eventually. Even if this should end up not being the case, I hope that y'all will have a chance to review heatsinks/cooling solutions and current thermal greases (diamond, silicon, etc based) in an overall round-up fashion like you do with the PSU's or mobo's. I admit the technology in these parts of the computer world doesn't change drastically, but a comprehensive review every 2 years or so definitely would make sense in my mind.

    Either way, thank you for letting me know of the introduction of this unit - keep it up.
  • trajan - Wednesday, August 4, 2010 - link

    Agreed!
  • niva - Wednesday, August 4, 2010 - link

    Totally agreed. I also thought that this would be a full review/test. Would really like to see these things tested and compared against the H50/H51, full water cooling and top of the line air coolers.
  • matheusber - Thursday, August 5, 2010 - link

    really great idea! I really never heard of these H50 from corsair, and I'm now researching for what they can do to my i7/X6 in the OC level I want. would be great if anandtech gives us this comparison, good air coolers and this H** and a good WC.
  • Alexvrb - Sunday, August 8, 2010 - link

    Better yet, a shootout between similar CPU-only all-in-one units such as this.
  • Stokestack - Saturday, August 7, 2010 - link

    "These early models were readily slated in reviews"

    I wonder if he means "slagged."

    Slated means "scheduled."

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