Corsair H40 Hydro Series Review

What’s to like

  • Priced similar to mid range 120mm air coolers
  • Similar to H50 in terms of radiator design
  • Similar to H70 in terms of cold plate design except that this one uses all aluminum instead of all copper
  • Uses rubber tubing, more flexible than the tubes used in the other models.
  • Complete package sealed and low maintenance.
  • 1yr warranty from the local distributor (2yrs total from corsair)
  • Compatible to Intel LGA 775 1156 1155 1366, AMD AM2 AM3 (also the FM1 socket)
  • From Asetek a well known water cooling company

Although this is branded as Corsair , the real manufacturer of this model is Asetek. Asetek is well known in the water cooling business. Other models also by Asetek includes the H50, H70 , Antec Khuler h20 620 and Antec Khuler h20 920. Since they do come from the same manufacturer, they would share some similarities. They have the same mounting style, they may also share the same radiator from model to model, they may also share the same cold plate design except for the label printed on top.
The H40 is very close in terms of pricing with Antec’s H20 620. I wish I had Antec for testing too. Their main difference, Antec h20 620 has copper in its cold plate while the Corsair H40 has all aluminum. This also explains why the H40 is sold a little cheaper, I would assume too that the H40 would perform a little less than the 620 considering that the copper contact on the cold plate is suppose to dissipate heat faster than aluminum, but aluminum is a little cheaper.

 

 

Installation
Installation wise, while it was not hard to install, it took me quite a bit longer than usual to install compared to installing air coolers even on even ones which may also include their own mounting plates and screws. Comparing the installation experience I had with the Corsair H60, which happens to be manufactured by a different supplier, the H60 seem to be a little easier to install. Nevertheless the picture guide was helpful enough to complete the process.

 

Hardware Setup for Testing:
Intel i5 750 2.6Ghz overclocked to 4Ghz
Gigabyte H55M UD2h
2x4GB G Skill Value DDR3 1333 overclocked to DDR3 1600
Silverstone Precision 01
Corsair GS 600
WDC 500GB
WDC 1000TB

HIS Radeon HD 5750

 

One thing that I would like all to take note is Im using a Silverstone Precision 01 case which has a top mounted PSU which means there is no exhaust facility on top of the case. As standard configuration, the case uses the rear fan as its exhaust .

 

Initial test results.
Following the recommendations of Corsair I first installed the radiator as an intake. Meaning the cold air is blown to the radiator of the cooler making passing cooler water to the cpu cold plate. But since my case has no top fans as exhaust. Hot air builds up inside my case in this set up. Making the graphics card and the motherboard warmer than they used to be using air cooling. I did not find this setup beneficial to my casing and cooling configuration.
Here are the temps I got using this config.

 

 

Second configuration I did was to reverse the airflow making the fan attached to the radiator act as an exhaust , meaning it will pull the hot air from the radiator. This turned out to be a better cooling solution to my case as the heat does not build up inside my case, while the processor seem to still get the same cooling performance.

 

If you have spare 120mm fans and spare mounting screws that would allow you to install 2nd fan for push pull configuration much better. The rationale is, since the radiator has very small opening for really good airflow, while the first fan that acts as an exhaust for the radiator, the other fan pushes air to the radiator. This further helps cool the case as there is better suction of air inside the case going out through the radiator fins then outside of the case.

 

Here are my resulting OCCT tests. shows a drop in temperature by as much as 4deg Centigrade.

 

 

 


Initial conclusion
While I cant compare it at the moment to other sealed water cooling  systems. I'm quite satisfied with the purchase and the resulting cooling performance. I have some generalizations that I have used in terms of price and performance,  If they are priced very close together and they are both coming from competent suppliers, they would most likely perform similarly. Maybe +- of each other. This includes the water cooling and the air cooling systems as a whole. The system seemed quieter compared to air cooling. Not sure why, i guess its how the air sounds against the fins with the air cooler compared to the fins of a radiator. Is it a good buy? its really up to you, as i said for the price , it will generally perform similarly to competing models of the same price.

 

There are some questions that always gets raised, to water cool or not to? I've have used air coolers too, tested some of them and found them just as effective. They of course become bigger, wider and heavier as we expect more performance from them. There are ones that have more efficient mounting compared to that of the H40, there are of course more expensive one than that of the H40 and should also perform better than the H40. Well for me the sealed water cooling has one look that is very clean compared to large air coolers, that's one appealing feature of the sealed type water coolers. Its generally lighter too. Another advantage of the sealed type cooling, is that you can use memory with tall heatspreaders as there is no danger of being in the way of large coolers that usually get the space of your high end memory sticks. 

 

There are still of course some advantages to air cooling and here is one of them, since it does not require water, there's lesser elements to consider in time. water might eventually evaporate, i don't know how long. Anyways Corsair at least provides 2yrs warranty , though local Philippine warranty just gives 1yr warranty. If you check the higher end models of Corsair like H60 and above, they even have 5yrs warranty, that means even after 5yrs, users are assured that water will not evaporate from the system.

 

The the Corsair H40 is not in any way near the high end water cooling nor air cooler in the block for your PC, it will provide descent cooling performance for users not wishing for the ultimate overclock, it will however provide very descent overclock for the price.

 

Post 1 Year and Maintenance and possible issues

After more than a year of usage, you have no choice but to either use a vacuum to clean the radiator as dust are stock in between them. When i removed mne i had a problem afterwards, where when i place my pc on its side not standing up. meaning the coolers position has also changed, the pump will have a cracking sound very loud as if its broken. When you bring it up, the sound will go away. If you go search the internet, Corsair confirms this issue, so what do you do especially that your unit is already out of warranty since for the h40 its only good for 1year? Corsair recommends that you tap the top side of the pump or the cold plate. Slowly, if the sound does not go away tap a little harder. What you're actually doing is , youre trying to clear the pump with air bubbles. When there is air in the pump , that's when you hear the noise, cracking noise. Thank God, that solved my issue. if you do encounter the same, try it cause it will most likely solve your issue too. I really thought I had to buy a new cooler or what a waste hydro coolers like this are. But it proved me wrong. Lets see after another year.