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H50 in a P183: nice combo or airflow disaster?

B

BadOmen

Senior member
I'm ordering a p183 online and for the first time I am ordering a case that I have never seen in front of me. Only know the thing by pictures.

I also need to get a CPU cooler, and was wondering: would that be too crazy to sacrifice the rear fan in such a case to use it for the H50 rad? As that case is not exactly the king of airflow, maybe that would make the H50 a bad choice for the p183? Or that's totally irrelevant due to the top exhaust, and the H50 would do just fine?

I'm between the H50 or some Noctua air cooler. Do they all fit the P183? Any recommendations/preferences?

(
- The system will count on an i7 860, asus p55-e mobo, Sapphire 5770 graphics - not the VapourX -, and an Antec CP-850 PSU.
- I do a lot of video editing, graphic editing, some gaming here and there, audio recording, am a conservative overclocker and an ASAP (As Silent As Possible) rig is my priority
).

thanks a lot for any tip you can share 🙂
 
I'm not really familiar with the P183 but from looking at some quick pics I see no reason why it wouldn't fit in a P183. Its fits in a SG03 so it has to fit a P183. With a top exhaust I wouldn't think hooking it up to the rear exhaust would be bad. Also, the H50 factory fan is not the most silent fan (its not the worse but if you are looking for real quietness choose another fan) so you may want to consider swapping it for a better fan thats not as noisy.
 
If quiet / silence is your priority, invest in some good quality fans first. Either Yate Loon L's (cheapest), or Scythe GentleTyphoons (expensive) should do the trick. Noctura and others have some great, but pricey, fans as well.

Other than that, you can't go wrong with either setup. the H50 may cool a bit better, but you're adding a radiator to the equation which your fans will have to overcome. P182s / 183s aren't difficult to make quiet, but they are difficult to keep quiet and cool at the same time.
 
Many thanks for your answers.

CurseTheSky said:
Other than that, you can't go wrong with either setup. the H50 may cool a bit better, but you're adding a radiator to the equation which your fans will have to overcome. P182s / 183s aren't difficult to make quiet, but they are difficult to keep quiet and cool at the same time.
Click to expand...

So, would changing the Antec case fans and the Corsair fans possibly create a fair noise/temp balance?

Skott said:
Also, the H50 factory fan is not the most silent fan (its not the worse but if you are looking for real quietness choose another fan) so you may want to consider swapping it for a better fan thats not as noisy.
Click to expand...

I also read somewhere that besides the fan, the H50 has a noisy pump. Would that be true?


I`m trying to picture the airflow diagram for the case. Hot air from the back coming in, cool air from the front coming in, hot air exhausting through the top. Would that be it? Does it work?
 
You don't want hot air coming in from the back. I know Corsair recommends that you use the radiator coupled with an INTAKE fan, but that just isn't going to happen with the P180 series. They're borderline starved for air as is.

Yes, changing the fans would help. Depending on where you place the case, I recommend two medium-speed fans for the front, and two quiet fans for the top / rear. You want that hot air exhausting from the processor area as soon as possible. Having an actual heatsink with additional fans on top of the processor would also be a benefit, as it would help to keep things moving inside the case.

Personally I would lean towards the Noctua. Just make sure it's not too tall, and that it won't block your RAM slots.
 
CurseTheSky said:
You don't want hot air coming in from the back. I know Corsair recommends that you use the radiator coupled with an INTAKE fan, but that just isn't going to happen with the P180 series. They're borderline starved for air as is.
Click to expand...

That's exactly what I thought and made me open the thread, it's just that comparison charts like the one below get you thinking.

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/cooling/2009/07/29/corsair-hydro-h50-cpu-cooler-review/4

It seems that the H50 actually needs the intake fan. That, or add one more fan for it for a push/pull.
But two fans for a water cooling solution?
 
I asked Antec about that. As always, their online support is the quickest I have ever seen. Got the answer same day. The guy said the H50 would be totally ok in the P183 and Corsair's recommendation of using the intake fan should be followed.

But then come reviews like this one

http://www.legitreviews.com/article/1212/6/

Which shows the H50 with the oddest and worst idle temp among 19 coolers. I mean... higher than stock???? How can that be???
 
It should be more like the V8. The V8 is the closest air hsf that compares to the H50 in performances but the H50 is suppose to be slightly better. This from all the reviews I have seen about it. That idle temp they are showing is suspect in my book. Not sure what they did wrong there.
 
I plan on using an H50 in a p182. The top exhaust fan should be able to exhaust the hot air taken in through the radiator right away.

The air is coming in much slower by the time it gets through the rad, and the exhaust fan is RIGHT on top of it, unrestricted. I also have a 120mm fan pulling air in from the front cooling the video cards. Depending on how you want the pressure to be in the case, the top fan should be able to handle the exhaust.
 
If you plan on overclocking, don't forget about cooling for the voltage regs. I built my first water cooling loop a little over a week ago, and I initially mounted my single 120 rad in the space for the rear case fan. When I tried to bump my i7 920 past 2.66, the system would throttle after a few mins even when the cpu temps were lower then what they had been on air.

Turns out, my rad was preventing the voltage regs from getting enough air to run at higher clocks/vcore. So, I reworked my loop so my rad is at the bottom, and I'm using the 120mm case fan and the little fan Asus includes for the mosfets. Currently, my rig has been running at 4.2GHz (21.0 x 200 vcore 1.375) Prime 95/Linpack stable for the past few days.

Granted, my rad (XSPC 120) alone is probably thicker then the H50 rad+fan, but I just figured I'd mention that you don't want to forget about your voltage regs if you plan on OCing.
 
Skott said:
It should be more like the V8. The V8 is the closest air hsf that compares to the H50 in performances but the H50 is suppose to be slightly better. This from all the reviews I have seen about it. That idle temp they are showing is suspect in my book. Not sure what they did wrong there.
Click to expand...

Only a midrange WC setup will give you good idles.
 
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