Corsair H60 not performing on i7 920

[AnubisOne]

No problem. Good luck with the upgrade.

Just be gentle with this one

 

[Tech Tweaker]

What were you using, an impact wrench!? haha, jk.

If you are planning on staying with the AIO water coolers I would suggest taking a look at an Corsair H100 or equivalent. Or if you wanna go the air cooling route a Hyper 212+ or Hyper 212 EVO, both are low cost with good cooling.

Or you could look at High end air, Noctua NH-D14 or 15 are really good, but are very large and need a large case to fit.

Hope this helps

I really can't agree with your recommendation on the Cooler Master Hyper 212+. I've tried one and it was junk/rubbish. Temps were consistently higher than my Thermalright Ultra 120 Extreme and Corsair H60, by 8-10°C. It just doesn't have enough thermal mass (metal to conduct heat away) or heatpipes to compete with higher-end air coolers (not to mention the TRUE is the same price as the 212+, or lower on the used market in the USA) or lower-end All-In-One liquid coolers.

The Noctua NH-D14 seems decent though.

To the poster of the thread, I've owned two H60's. They're a decent cooler, but meant for lower power chips. I used them with Intel Core 2 Duo and Core 2 Quad chips (LGA775 socket) and they worked fine, but the H60 really can't transfer the heat fast enough with LGA1366 i7 chips (they tend to run hot). It's also a decent cooler for lower-end LGA1155 quads (locked i5, maybe locked i7). Tried it with my i5 2400 and it worked fine.

I've also had a Corsair H80, H80i, H100 and H100i. All have been good coolers. The H100 and H100i generally have a faster, more efficient heat transfer than H80/H80i. They are a good choice if the case can fit a 240mm/2x120mm radiator.

Don't know how you snapped the screw off, didn't know it was possible to get them that tight.

 

[Mandrake4565]

There is no cutout at the back to get at the motherboard backplate so I may just buy a new case as well.

Do you have access to a jigsaw? It will take you 10 minutes to modify the motherboard tray and make a Cpu cutout. I've done it a bunch of times already.

 

[GTXJackBauer]

I really can't agree with your recommendation on the Cooler Master Hyper 212+. I've tried one and it was junk/rubbish. Temps were consistently higher than my Thermalright Ultra 120 Extreme and Corsair H60, by 8-10°C. It just doesn't have enough thermal mass (metal to conduct heat away) or heatpipes to compete with higher-end air coolers (not to mention the TRUE is the same price as the 212+, or lower on the used market in the USA) or lower-end All-In-One liquid coolers.

The Noctua NH-D14 seems decent though.

To the poster of the thread, I've owned two H60's. They're a decent cooler, but meant for lower power chips. I used them with Intel Core 2 Duo and Core 2 Quad chips (LGA775 socket) and they worked fine, but the H60 really can't transfer the heat fast enough with LGA1366 i7 chips (they tend to run hot). It's also a decent cooler for lower-end LGA1155 quads (locked i5, maybe locked i7). Tried it with my i5 2400 and it worked fine.

I've also had a Corsair H80, H80i, H100 and H100i. All have been good coolers. The H100 and H100i generally have a faster, more efficient heat transfer than H80/H80i. They are a good choice if the case can fit a 240mm/2x120mm radiator.

Don't know how you snapped the screw off, didn't know it was possible to get them that tight.

Not sure if your Hyper 212+ was seated right or possibly debris or bubbles in the TIM but I have a 212+ on a nice hot i7 950 (1366) and get great temps, especially for the value and the Noctua NH-D14 would perform much better let alone blow the doors wide open on any single radded AIO. You seem to critic the air coolers too much and feel the AIOs are better. Too many variables can be in play but they've all been tested. Its actually the other way around as some will come close and some close to being tied. The dual rads (H100 etc) can keep up with the Noctua but can also be outperformed at times. I like AIOs cause they can be quieter but run warmer or you get a air cooler that can run cooler but sometimes run louder. It all depends on what you prefer.

Either or OP is fine. If you go AIO, stick with the dual rad AIOs but you won't have any place to put that in a older design case. I have the Antec 1200 that won't let me fit a 120.2 AIO rad but only allow me to fit the fattest AIO (H80i) single rad in it. If you're not upgrading the case than your best bet is to grab either a Hyper 212+ or a Noctua NH-D14.

 

[Tech Tweaker]

Not sure if your Hyper 212+ was seated right or possibly debris or bubbles in the TIM but I have a 212+ on a nice hot i7 950 (1366) and get great temps, especially for the value and the Noctua NH-D14 would perform much better let alone blow the doors wide open on any single radded AIO. You seem to critic the air coolers too much and feel the AIOs are better. Too many variables can be in play but they've all been tested. Its actually the other way around as some will come close and some close to being tied. The dual rads (H100 etc) can keep up with the Noctua but can also be outperformed at times. I like AIOs cause they can be quieter but run warmer or you get a air cooler that can run cooler but sometimes run louder. It all depends on what you prefer.

Either or OP is fine. If you go AIO, stick with the dual rad AIOs but you won't have any place to put that in a older design case. I have the Antec 1200 that won't let me fit a 120.2 AIO rad but only allow me to fit the fattest AIO (H80i) single rad in it. If you're not upgrading the case than your best bet is to grab either a Hyper 212+ or a Noctua NH-D14.

It's not that I don't like air coolers. I just don't like bad air coolers with poor performance.

The 212+ I've got is just truly not good. I mounted it 5+ times on the same system with the same brand of paste (Arctic Cooling MX-4) on each test and temps were always consistently higher than my TRUE, Phanteks PH-TC14PE, and Corsair H60. That was on my LGA775 rig with an E8400 IIRC. I also tested the 212+ on my LGA1366 rig with an i7 930 against the TRUE and Phanteks PH-TC14PE. Even with a brand new mounting kit the heatsink always feels loose when it's fully tightened down and can swivel easily.

I also don't like the Zalman CNPS9500 or 9700, the fans make a lot of noise and spin fairly fast, but airflow isn't directed well so it goes everywhere, and they don't have enough mass to wick heat away from the processor fast enough.

I haven't actually tried a Noctua NH-D14 yet, so don't know how they perform, but reviews seem good.

I normally run air cooling on my benching setups.

My main rig has been liquid cooled by AIO coolers for probably about two years now though. That was mainly due to a problem I ran into when I was trying to mount my heatsink, it prevented installation of one of my fans. So, I tried AIO cooling. It's also gives decent cooling though, even with quieter fans (much quieter than the stock fans that came with it).

The warranties on some of the AIO's are nice. Five years is pretty decent. Had to have a couple replaced under RMA, but luckily the process was relatively painless with no further problems and the replacements worked.