360° View - Corsair Hydro H50 Watercooling System Information on Frostytech's test methodology is available here.
The 120mm WPM fan on the Corsair Hydro H50 heat exchanger spins at 1000-1700RPM by default. A single 4-pin motherboard power connector is used for the fan, a separate 3-pin power connector for the pump. The radiator is keyed for 120mm fans and should be attached to the rear of a computer case through cases' 120mm fan mounting holes. Corsair recommend installing the fan and heat exchanger with the fan drawing cool air into the case, not exhausting out. The effective area of the aluminum heat exchanger is 118x116mm. Overall radiator dimensions are 120x156x26mm.

360° View - Corsair Hydro H50 Watercooling System Information on Frostytech's test methodology is available here.
Detailed specifications on the Corsair Hydro H50 pump such as pump RPM, pressure head and flow rate are not available. There are no provisions for removing the tubing for inspection, system refill or cleaning.
The copper baseplate is held in place with regular screws, a rubber washer just inside the flange means they are not in contact with the coolant. This is important as iron in contact with copper and aluminum can create a situation where the more electronegative metals cause the ferrous based materials to corrode. At left is the bottom plate removed from the pump heat to show the inlet/outlet diameters and captive screw wells. The copper plate in measures 47x54mm and ships with a pre-applied patch of grey thermal compound.

Base Finish and Flatness

Flipping a heatsink over to inspect the business end is often a simple indicator of overall cooler quality. More practically speaking, a heatsink is in many ways only as effective as the contact it makes with the processor - the flatter and smoother the better. Base finish is one of the criteria that Frostytech measure in the course of evaluating heatsinks, and it involves two distinct aspects. Surface Finish is the first; this is calculated with the aid of Surface Roughness Comparator that has a cross section of common machine surface finishes and their numerical surface roughness equivalents in microinches. The second is Surface Flatness. This is tested with an engineers straight edge or proven flat surface, in two axis.

The copper base of the Corsair Hydro H50 waterblock has a sanded finish with a surface roughness of approximately ~16 microinches. The manufacturer ships it with a pre-applied patch of gray thermal compound for ease of installation (shown with/without in the above pictures). The base is significantly convex in one axis and slightly convex in the opposite, so essentially the center of the copper base plate is domed up.

Next up Frostytech looks into the noise levels of this heatsink, then it's onto AMD and Intel thermal tests!