Comparing Corsair Hydro Series H60 Fans

• Comparing Corsair Hydro Series H60 Fans

In this article, I`ll show you the results obtained from tests that were aimed at comparing the Corsair Hydro Series H60 high performance liquid CPU cooler Fans; the Quiet, the Loud, and the Ridiculous.

First of all, I would like to make it clear that these tests were not performed by me, but was done by Mike Clements, from the Corsair blog. The results were posted on the 5th May 2011. So, it wanted to let you know that he did all the work, and I`m only sharing his results.

Normally, the Corsair Hydro Series H60 high performance liquid CPU cooler contains a stock fan rated at 1700RPM, with the purpose of delivering effective static pressure against the radiator, without excessive high RPMs, and noise levels.

The test for comparing the Corsair Hydro Series H60 high performance liquid CPU cooler Fans was done together with an EVGA® 759 Classified motherboard, an Intel® Core™ i7 920 D0 stepping CPU, and Corsair Dominator® GT 2000C7 DDR3 memory under the following conditions and tweaks:-

• stable overclock of 189 x 20 on the CPU for a CPU frequency of 3.770GHz
• memory clocked in at 942MHz, 7-8-7-24 1T timings

The actual voltages under load, measured with a DMM, differed a bit from what was set in the BIOS. Measured, the CPU Vcore was 1.33v, Vdimm was 1.65v, and CPU VTT was 1.41v. He said that the CPU did not respond well to voltage increases after this point and that this was the maximum stable overclock using Prime95 over 24 hours.

For comparing the Corsair Hydro Series H60 high performance liquid CPU cooler Fans, the most recent beta performed of AIDA64 was used. AIDA64 is a system utility that monitors various parameters. The results from AIDA64 were compared with those from EVGA Eleet monitoring utility, and were practically the same with both.

The test for comparing the Corsair Hydro Series H60 high performance liquid CPU cooler Fans, was done for a minimum of 1 hour in a room of ambient temperature of about 23 degrees Celsius. The results were compared with other tests with the Corsair Hydro Series H60 installed on 3 different pairs of fans, namely the Quiet, the Loud, and the Ridiculous.


The 3 different pairs of fans were 2 x Enermax UCAP12 fans rated at 700RPM – 1700RPM, 2 x Sunon KD1212PTB1-6a fans rated at 3100RPM, and 2 x Delta QFR1212GHE fans rated at 6000RPM. The pump and the fans were attached directly to the PSU to ensure a solid steady 12v power delivery.


Below are the results:-
[Click the images for full size view]

The Stock Fans



The Quiet







The Loud




The Ridiculous



And finally, here is the conclusion that Mike Clements came to:-

I have to admit that I expected a much larger delta between the stock fan and the two Delta fans, no pun intended. Based on the testing, which is admittedly limited in scope, I do think that we can determine that the single stock H60 fan in combination with the radiator and block/pump assembly is a very efficient setup. After that, yes, you do get increased cooling with the higher speed fans but it comes at quite a cost in terms of decibel level.

My conclusion is that two low or moderate speed fans are a great option for cooling on the H60 for users that wish to upgrade over the stock fan and maintain acceptable noise levels. And for those that want ultimate cooling and can stand being in the room with a food processor, there’s always the 6000RPM Deltas!

Share this post on Comparing Corsair Hydro Series H60 Fans