Noctua NH-14D vs Corsair H50 in high (tropical) ambient temperatures

[kimp]

Hi everyone,

 

I've been lurking in these forums for a while, and now have a question I'd love to get some input on.

 

I am about to put together a new system running an overclocked i7 920 and either the Noctua NH-D14 or the H50 kit watercooling kit from Corsair.

(Using Gigabyte GA-X58A-UD7 mainboard, 6GB OCZ 2000MHz Blade RAM, and Corsair 800D case)

 

I live in the tropics so the ambient temperature will be between 28 and 32 degress celcius, and humidity mostly around 80-95%.

 

Having a quiet / low noise system is important to me, but still like to fiddle with overclocking.

 

 

From the various reviews and reports I've gathered the Noctua will perform better than H50, but these test results are typically

done at ambient temperatures of 21-23 degrees, leaving me wondering whether the water and air cooling results would displace evenly when the

the ambient changes significantly.

 

So in short I am trying to figure out whether the watercooled H50 would be a better choice at my expected ambient temperature 28-32 degrees, considering I am looking for

silent/quiet and overclocked operation.

 

 

I'd love to hear your thoughts.

 

 

KimP

[Zertz]

Interesting inquiry! I would think both will scale similarly, but I've been wrong before

[kimp]

Interesting inquiry! I would think both will scale similarly, but I've been wrong before

 

It is interesting - I would have thought the same or that water based cooling would be better off, but came across a ambient temperature discussion on another site where a person claimed water cooling would be worse off with an increase in ambient temperature, because the entire reservoir would be heat up.

 

Seems to me it is the same situation with air - but a lot more air than water moves over the heatsinks, so maybe it is different for water?

 

I am without a clue on this one

 

 

KimP

[Zertz]

Seems to me it is the same situation with air

Yeah, both solutions are limited by ambient temperature. Just not sure what the effect of high humidity might be and, if there is one, does it have the same performance hit on both air and water cooling.

[nanoprobe]

I'm assuming that your computer will be in an air conditioned environment. Computers and 80-95% humidity don't work well together. I'm guessing that either of your suggested cooling systems would give about the same results and probably limit your overclocks. There are too many variables to say for sure. i7s can be well overclocked but the more you OC them the better your cooling must be so if your looking for high OCs you might want to consider a better liquid system then the H-50.

[Boinker]

you know this also has me curious. Just for the record and to set some results in the books when it gets to about 90 degrees I will bring the comp outside and do some idle and load stock and overclocked. so ill let you know when it gets that way but it may be a month or two. but I'm going to do it to see the results for myself at least. Ill put out my sweiftech set-up to it and ill find a heatsink fan that will be ok to test it against.... But i doubt ill spend the money for a Noctua but it would be a trip.

 

Ill get started as soon as temps move up.

 

Boinker.

[CM810STACKER]

Well I just bout a Noctua NH-D14. Its is massive as in the hight I only have about 10mm gap between my cover and the heat sinks.

 

Anyways yes I believe the H50 in the tropic's wont be any real differance to air cooling as mentioned before the whole system heats up so unless you can fork out for a huge radiator with little piping to the cpu its not really worth it. Same happens with the air cooler but the loop is not so big so you could hope for a slightly better result.

 

But like I said before if you can affored a custom water cooling system with a big radiator and a short pipe from the radiator to the cpu then it should be all buisness.

 

Personally I would go Air cooled unless you want around the 4.5 to 5 GHz mark.

 

On another note. I can say that the Noctua is dead quiet my case fans are louder, so if quiet cooling is what you want then it can't be beat.

[kimp]

I'm assuming that your computer will be in an air conditioned environment. Computers and 80-95% humidity don't work well together. I'm guessing that either of your suggested cooling systems would give about the same results and probably limit your overclocks. There are too many variables to say for sure. i7s can be well overclocked but the more you OC them the better your cooling must be so if your looking for high OCs you might want to consider a better liquid system then the H-50.

 

Paying $0.50/KWh for electricity here, so that is one of those things I learn to live without.

 

Computers can deal alright with the humidity and temperatures as long as the environment is somewhat stable - but throw in an AC unit in your room and you are in trouble! The air cools and dehumidifies - great at first, but at some point the AC unit is turned off and you now have 28+ degrees humid air meeting equipment that has been held at 20-22 degrees, and you'll get condensation faster than you realize!

 

I imagine one day I'll take the plunge into enthusiast water cooling, but at the moment I just want to get the base system going - I don't feel like getting my feet wet by experimenting on $2500 worth of new equipment (just yet) - It'll be either the H50 or Noctua

 

Thanks for your input though

[Zertz]

Paying $0.50/KWh for electricity here, so that is one of those things I learn to live without.

Ouch. That's about 10 times as much as we pay up here

[kimp]

Thanks everyone for your thoughts - I think I'll be getting a Noctua if I can find one at one of my regular suppliers.

 

But then again, maybe I'll get the H50 too and do some comparisons as Provantage has the H50 in stock - Can't let it sit on me that someone is going to haul his system into the sun just to find out.

 

 

 

Thanks

KimP

Edited January 26, 2010 by kimp

[kimp]

Ouch. That's about 10 times as much as we pay up here

 

Sorry, realize I made a mistake - That was Barbados dollars, which is pegged 2-1, so it would only be $0.25-0.30/KWh.

 

Bought a couple of Kill-a-watts a few months ago - amazing how much you are willing to change bad usage habits once you have a meter on saying how much it costs per hour!

 

 

 

Kims

[Boinker]

That is true. and a pair of large fans will likely draw less then half of the pump I have. I'm not going to put the numbers too it though. lol.

 

looked it up for myself.... as usual... I found that my swiftech pump draws @ 12 volts 24 watts or 2 amps

whats disturbing is the one 140 mm fan on the end of your cooler only @12 volts draws 1.20 watts or 0.10 amps.... OUCH.

 

Maybe considering the power cost is enough. Noctua FTW.

Edited January 26, 2010 by boinker