It is just been few months past of Corsair's H70 and about a year for Corsair's H50 release and it already have a lot of users all around the world. Altough it is quite good hybrid cooler, but some extreme overclockers may find it not suitable when they push theire CPU to the limits. In this article with a rather simple modification we will show you how to increase it's performance even more!

Page 1: Introduction

WARNING! Please note that doing any kind of modification to your Corsair H70/H50 will void your warranty, Also ElectronicsPub is not responsible for any kind of damage may caused by this mod altough by following this guide carefully and doing everything right, there should not be any risk of damage. This mod may also reduce life cycle of H70/H50 pump which I do not know by how much. So please do this mod on your own risk, If you are planning to do!

So, You are one of the overclockers out there that already purchased Corsair's hybrid cooler H70 or H50 and you fall in one of the following categories: You are pretty happy with a mild overclock and enjoying the temperatures it gives you OR you was expecting more headroom for overclock provided by Corsair's H50/H70.

If you consider yourself in the first category, you may not need to mod your H70/H50. But if you are in the second category or still in the first but curious to see how you can improve your cooling efficenty, just be with us for few minutes and learn how to do it!

Another reason for doing this mod can be because of loudness of default fans on H70. Doing this mod you can lower fan's RPM while you don't lose performance.

There are lots of review out there on the net about how well H70/H50 can perform. But personally I rate these coolers excellent for stock CPU speeds because it can provide you with decent tempreature thus longer life cycle for your cpu (I doubt that you would like use your cpu more than few years, far less than actual life cycle of your CPU). I rate them good enough for a medium overclock while maintaining enough expected tempreatures. But if you plan for a higher overclock, you may find it possible with these coolers but with tempreatures near the limit! So what should you do? Going for a custom water loop? Or spend a few bucks and try to get most out of your H70/H50? Well, Making the desicion is on you but here is a modding guide which you might consider also!

This guide is actually for modding Corsair's H70, but it is easily can be done to H50 since they are almost the same.

Page 2: Requirements

Why and how this mod will improve H70's performance? First due to manfacturing design limits I personally think there is not enough cooling liquid in H70 for a extreme overclock. Also I found out there might be some air trapped in the H70, If you are familiar with water cooling you should know that air will decrease cooling performance dramatically in a water cooling loop.

How to overcome these problems? It is quite easy! Adding a reservoir to your H70/H50 will allow for more amount of liquid into the loop while also reservoir will help greatly to eliminate air bubbles trapped in the tubes, blocks and the radiator.

Requirements:

• Watre Reservoir - Swiftech MCRES rev2 recommended
• 6mm ID 8mm OD tubes (hous) - transparent anti klink tubes recommended
• Coolant liquid - Feser Aqua ultra pure watter is highly recommended
• Anti corrosion additive for coolant (if required) - PT Nuke recommended
• two 6mm pressure fittings (highly recommended) or normal 6mm barbs
• Screwdrivers
• Sharp cutter

As I mentioned in the requirements list, This mod will work best with the things in the picture. You may use other kind of reservoir, coolant or fittings but I do not guarantee the same result as we are going to achieve after modding.

Swiftech MCRES micro rev2

This reservoir is fairly popular among overclockers and well known for its build quality, ease of install and lots of installation mods it will provide. Doing this mod can be done with different reservoirs as well, But it is just my thinking that this one will work the best. you can find this reservoir for around 25 Euros in your local water cooling shops or online stores.

 6mm ID 8mm OD tubes (hous)

Since the inlet and outlet of the H70 and H50 at the both radiator and block are 6mm, the best idea is to use the same size of tubing for this mod. A good 6mm ID 8mm OD tube will stick strong enough into the radiator and pump's barbs if done correctly.

Compression Fittings 6mm

Since Swiftech MCRES micro rev2 is not shipping with 6mm barbs which is required for doing this mod, I highly recommend to get two 6mm fittings. They better to be compression fittings since they will minimize the risk of leaking in your loop.

 Coolant

You may end up ordering any kind of well known coolant for this mod, But as a matter of personal experience I do recommend Feser Aqua ultra pure water. Please have in mind Feser Aqua ultra pure water is not anti corrision by itself and you will need to mix it with a known anti corrosion additive. Feser Aqua ultra pure water is also not conductive, but adding anti corrosion to it will increase it's conductivity, so it is vital to make sure there will be no leak in your mod.

Housing clips

You may not need to use housing clips, it is optional if you want to make sure there will be no leak at the radiator and/or pump's barbs.

Page 3: Modding

It is btter to start modding with cutting your new tubes. For doing so, first spot the place of reservoir and radiator in your case, then cut the tubes such they will reach the block, radiator and reservoir with the shortest possible length. I am going to spoil the mod by showing you what I mean:

This picture was ment to be showed in leak test part. But you now know what I mean by finding the shortest possible length for the tubes for the loop. the loops is going to be Reservoir > Block inlet > Radiator > Reservoir.

We start modding by removing stock tubes from the unit. This is a rather easy process and will take only few minutes. For this part, you will only need a sharp cutter.

Make sure you have something to drain water into it right after cutting the tube from radiator. Cut the tube on the radiator barb about a centimeter. The barb on the radiator is build out of metal so don't worrey about it being scratched.

Try to let out as many as the coolant possible, then you will need to do the same with the pump block. Unlike the radiator, the barbs on the pump are made of plastic so pay a lot of attention not to cut the barb itself while trying to remove the tube from pump's barbs:

When this step is done, it is the time to put on the new tubes and connect them to reservoir, pump and radiator.

Page 4: Modding continued

After cutting the stock tubes off the unit, start with putting on your new tubes. the first tube that should installed is from reservoirs outlet to the pump inlet.

As shown in the picture, find the inlet of the H70 pump and push in the tube into the pump's barb. Connect the other end to the reservoir's outlet. Then connect pump's outlet to radiator, then radiator to the inlet of the reservoir. Double check all the connections and make sure they are installed correctly and the tubes on the pump and radiator are pushed in enough into the barbs.

Then prepare your coolant. If you are going to use Feser Aqua ultra pure water, make sure to mix in a proper amount of anti corrision additive.

Now open the reservoirs fill port and fill it to maximum with the coolant you made. Then hold the reservoir above the pump and radiator so the liquid goes inside radiator and pump (By gravity). You may need to do this untill the pump and reservoir are full of liquid and there is enough liquid left inside the reservoir (Not less than the minimum amount of liquid inside the reservoir. please refer to manual of your reservoir).

Then it is time to turn on the pump out of your case and leave it working for few hours to make sure there is no leakage. Also during this time try to get rid of any air which are traped in the tubes, radiator and pump. For doing so you need to tap the tubes on places that you see air bubles. Also shake the block and radiator gently so the air bubbles go out. If you didn't manage to eliminate air bubbles, don't be panic they will go over time while the unit is working. Infact the air bubbles will go to reservoir and stay there. You may need to open reservoir's fill port so the air can go out. This can be tricky, sometimes the air pressure makes the water jump out so make sure if you are doing this inside your case, you are ready to eliminate the risk of your components getting wet (For example by holding a peace of cloth under the reservoir).

For turning out the pump out of the computer, you can use a 12v adapter capable of providing about 650mA. Or other ways! For sure you can find a way, if not, ask it in our forum.

Here is a video of finished modding and during the leak test. the water drops you see on the paper was there since I cutted the stock tubes of the H70. So for leak check make sure you know where was wet and where was not! Also have an eye over the level of water in the reservoir.

Page 5: Testing and results

For having a benchmark, I recorded some data of a mild overclocking, and data from a higher overclocking after doing the mod. Here is the system specifications used for the benchmark. Please not the fans stayed at same RPM before and after modding the unit. You may say why I did not the fans at full speed, because they are loud as hell at 2000 RPM! And seriously, I want to use my ears for some more years atleast!

Before modding:

• Intel Core i7 930 overclocket to 3600MHz @ 1.264v
• ASRock X58 Extreme3 mainboard
• Corsair H70 Push/Pull both fans at 1200 RPM

After modding:

• Intel Core i7 930 overclocket to 3990MHz @ 1.272v
• ASRock X58 Extreme3 mainboard
• Corsair H70 Push/Pull both fans at 1200 RPM

Please note that after moding, the CPU is overclocked about 400MHz more and also core voltage is increased, but you still see the temps are much better after modding the unit.

Results before the mod

Results after the mod

Conclusion

Altough I think Corsair H70 and H50 are good enough for stock speeds and a mild overclock, expending a few bucks will make you able to get more out of your H70/H50. I know some people out there that only did this kind of mod for the sake of looking, by adding some UV dye color and stuff to make theire computer more fashioned! Anyway it is up to you to decide wheter or not you need to do such a mod. For me it was a bit of fun challenge and a bit of better performance I got out of my H70.

So for finishing this story, I put a video of this mod in action:

If you want to discuss this article or the mod itself, or if you have done this mod or other mods to your H70 or H50, Feel free to discuss on a topic dedicated to this article on our forum!