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The H70 delivers a new fitting design when compared to the older model. Intel solutions use an ‘all in one' back plate system with three holes on each corner to cater for 775, 1156 and 1366. We normally concentrate on mounting these coolers on a 1366 motherboard, but today we decided to show installation on a 1156 ASrock board with an i5 processor.
The ASrock P55 Extreme 4 board we are showing on this installation page features 2 sets of holes cut into the PCB, to allow it to accommodate 775 coolers, even though it is a 1156 based motherboard. This is a cool idea, but when combined with 3 holes on each corner of the Corsair backplate led to a little confusion. What you see above is actually how the backplate has to be fitted, at a slight angle. It looks wrong, but its actually spot on !
The Intel retention ring takes four little ‘plugs' which allows for screws to be threaded through and into the backplate. It looks fiddly, but it only takes a few seconds to get ready.
The retention ring is aligned with the PCB holes and backplate, then they are screwed together. Simple, but again due to our motherboard having two holes on each corner, was a litle trickier.
A simple check on the rear of the motherboard shows that all the screws are threaded in correctly. It is important to leave a little play on the screws at this point as the CPU mount on the H70 has to be inserted under the retention ring, turned clockwise, then locked.
While the image above shows both fans connected to the radiator, it is important to note that one of these has to be connected to the inner wall of the PC chassis.
We removed the rear 120mm fan from our Antec P193 and screwed in the outside fan to the radiator via the chassis.
The images above show the final build with the H70 hooked up to the ASrock motherboard.
Before we go any further however we would like to briefly discuss the recommended fitting approach by Corsair for the H70 (and the H50). They recommend that fans are fitted to suck in cool air from outside the case to be pushed over the radiator – we have noticed two trains of thought on this but KitGuru falls midway between both and we will explain why.
Above we can see an image of the Antec P193 with arrows indicating the method of airflow (before fitting the H70)… fans at the front are used as intake with 3 at the rear/top used as exhaust. This is a traditional airflow design and works well.
Above is how Corsair recommend the H70 should be fitted (far left arrow), sucking in air from outside the case with the 2x120mm fan configuration blowing cool air across the radiator. As there are two fans in the P193 at the top being used as an exhaust this is perfectly acceptable. But what about cases which don't have top mounted fans in exhaust positions?
There would be no exhaust flow at all, with both front mounted and rear mounted fans forcing air into the central area of the chassis. In this instance we would reverse the H70 fan positions to ensure we would have some exhausted air. Remember with a hot running motherboard, memory and graphics card(s) it is important that at least one fan is enabling the removal of warm air. Increased ambient temperatures mean hotter running components.
Let us look at cases which fall outside a ‘traditional designed' ethic.
Above is a side view of the Silverstone Raven 02. The pink arrows are the airflow as Corsair would recommend from the H70, pulling in cool air from outside the chassis (in this instance above).
This is not how we would mount it as the air flow would be fighting against the 3x 180mm fans at the bottom of the case. Again we would reverse the fans on the H70 so all flow was directly from bottom to top.
This may seem like a logical thing to do, but we know many people experienced some problems with the H50, and we are a little concerned that Corsair's stance is always to install the fans in an intake position – sucking in cool air from outside the chassis. This is only ideal with traditionally designed cases with top mounted exhaust fans. If you still don't understand this, then please feel free to discuss it with me on our forums.
fuck, what a review Zardon. great testing. and very good performance from all three coolers ! I will never be able to afford a CPU like that.
Awesome ! Still not able to knock the NH D14 off the top spot I see !
Very very good test idea, I love how you throw things on their head Zardon – what performance out of the noctua ! H70 did better than I thought
Christ, the test to end all tests. liked the section on air flow, that was very informative and I never thought about it like that either.
YEAH !!!! I have been waiting for this one, and I have to say, hand on heart, the results played out EXACTLY as I imagined they would. Great cooler from corsair and the price is a little steep, but still quite good.
Yeah baby. I need to get this cooler. the noctua NH D14 is still awesome, but its far too big for my case. I cant deal with that, especially the strain on the mobo long term, bound to cause damage and strained parts.
Absoultely brilliant review Kitguru, this is just what I wanted to see. not a clear win really for noctua, due to size.
Well its a clear win if you are only looking at performance figures !
Noctua NH D14 is incredible, but I agree, its ridiculously sized for most people.
Really thought this review was one of de best I have seen in a longe time. thanks you.
Incredible results for the Noctua NH D14 – had to laugh at the picture of it with 3 fans, its basically a chassis, inside a chassis!
Very good product from corsair again – this is a much better deal IMO than NH D14, its far too big to be sensible for most people. You get limited with memory selection too.
So – Noctua is £60, Corsair is £85 and Coolit is £105.
The cheapest performs the best, the middle performs middle best and the most expensive is the worst.
Its not quite as black n white as that, but its interesting.
I love the look of this corsair unit, the coolit one didnt appeal to me, you are paying 30 quid for the screen. I dont need a screen, I also dont need a heatsink the size of a small county in england.
Great review, was contemplating which one to get, now I know. but its a secret :p
Noctua have made such a damn good cooler, every site loves it. some sites dont test it against H70 so its good to see this. Very impressed with corsair unit however, the head is so small.
I might be alone in my thinking, but the noctua cooler scares me to look at. fitting it and putting such a strain on my 200 quid motherboard? the corsair seems best to me, but I like the noctua options and screen quality.
Very good testing, it puts things into a ‘im a rich bastard and have loads of money to spend, and I will also overclock the balls of my processor’ category. most of us will have a core i5 or AMD cpu and these will ALL run much cooler.
great review.
All of these are very expensive. even the noctua, although you are paying for the metal ! coolit is my favourite, Im probably in the minority. I dont need these insane overclocks, so I would say with a reasonable OC and a mid range cpu it would be awesome.
Noctua is just impossible to beat, but it seems such a brute force solution to me, make the biggest heatsink you can build and slap multiple fans on it.
Guess it works though !
Great review, found it on google, very helpful for my purchase. Corsair here I come !
This is a fantastic review Kitguru, bookmarked for another read tomorrow after work.
Nice review!! thumbs up – all 4 of them 😀
great idea for the review – all of the coolers seem really capable !
Amazed how good the corsair and noctua really are 🙂
Would there by any way to test this vs the Coolit Eco 240. This is a great review and I have been reading alot of them for the H70, Coolit Vantage, and the Eco 240 but have not seen this against the Eco 240 yet. I also have been in talks with Coolit about getting a custom Vantage 240 but don’t know if the price is worth the performance. Any Help or Guidance will be greatly appreciated. Thanks.
Another great review mate, I might consider the H70 when i decide to upgrade my system… 🙂
Now that’s what I’m talking about! So sick of these sites using the True120 for all their top air tests when the D14 is the ultimate air cooling…I didn’t even know 3 fans was possible I’ll have to give it a shot.
Hello just wondering how the hell you mount a H70 in a Antec p 193 case, I can hardly fit the H50 in it due to the big boy 200 mm side panal fan.
I moved the fan and radiator to the front of the case intake threw the front, Though I do not think I could fit a huge h70 that way either.
Yeah I have a P193 and I fitted one in mine, but I ditched the standard massive fan side door and ordered one without it.
I think comparing the H70 vs the Coolit Vantage could be reconsidered. The H70 comes with two 120mm fans (push-pull setup) while the Coolit Vantage comes with only one 120mm fan. The thing is the Coolit Vantage also has the capability of adding an additional 120mm fan for a similar push-pull setup. I’ve personally used the H70 and then converted to the Coolit Vanatge (with the extra fan added). Happy to say I achieved a decrease in temps by 3 degrees on an overclocked 965BE at 4.22ghz.
IMO get the Coolit, buy the additional fan and have the bonus of the digital display.
How much better is this cooler versus the H50?? Is it really much more powerful or is it comparable to the H50 plus another fan…? I am asking because a vendor I am thinking of buying from only carries either the H50 or the VANTAGE! I am wondering if it worth the trouble for me to buy after market and install it or just screw it and go with the H50 or Vantage.. 😀 What do you say guys…? Or just go with the Noctua — right? …jeje