Product Comparison and Installation

Quick ECO A.L.C. and Corsair H50 Comparison

One of the key competitors on the market that rivals Coolit System’s ECO A.L.C. liquid cooler is the Corsair H50 liquid cooler. Their designs and specifications are quite similar so compared them side-by-side to give consumers a better perspective about these two products.

 

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As our readers can see from the first photo above, both of these liquid cooling systems use very similar designs. After taking a look at each system’s mounting systems, fans, radiators, liquid relay lines, and other intangables, we began to see some key differences in these systems that consumers should take note of.

 

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One of the first differences we noticed was how Corsair and Coolit Systems integrated the fluid heat exchanger and pump right over the copper base of each unit. Corsair’s fluid heat exchanger and pump is a little taller and shaped differently from the ECO A.L.C. Corsair went with a round design, which creates different challenges for installation. The ECO A.L.C. has a more traditional, rectangular model that uses different retention brackets for Intel and AMD configurations.

 

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The copper base surface area is much larger on the ECO A.L.C. than the H50 and also has fewer screws securing the copper base to the fluid heat exchanger and pump housing. The H50’s base also looks to have a less smooth finish than the ECO A.L.C. We’ll hold judgment on which design is better after we see both of these cooling solution’s performance testing results. Both of these units also use 120mm fans and radiators so they can be mounted to the back or top of any PC case. Both are also universally-designed to be installed in all of Intel and AMD’s current processor product lines. As for price, the ECO A.L.C. can be had for around $74, while the H50 sells for $79.99. It will be interesting to see which one of these liquid coolers comes out on top during the performance testing portion of our review.

 

Installation

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We chose to install the ECO A.L.C. into one of our LGA 1366 test benches. The first thing users will need to do is adjust the retention bracket to accommodate installing the unit on an LGA 1366 processor. This is simple to do by adjusting all four screws on the retention bracket to the correct position outlined above.

 

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The next step is to find the LGA 1366 back plate (shown above) and prepare the adhesive tape to mount the bracket behind the PCB.

 

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Mounting the backplate is as simple as placing it on the back of the PCB and lining it up with the heatsink mounting holes shown above. Press down firmly on the adhesive strips to ensure they have a good seal on the aluminum backplate located behind the CPU socket.


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Use the four included screws to mount the fan and radiator to the back of the PC case as shown above.

 

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Next, align the fluid heat exchanger and pump housing over the CPU and tighten down each screw on the retention bracket equally. This will ensure the unit has equal pressure over the CPU so the thermal paste makes contact with the CPU evenly.

 

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Here’s a final shot of the ECO A.L.C. liquid cooler installed on our LGA 1366 test system. The entire installation took around 15 minutes because we had to remove the motherboard to install the LGA 1366 backplate. If we didn’t have to do that, the installation would have taken less than 5 minutes. This was one of the easiest installations I’ve ever done — for either air or water-cooled systems. Normal water cooling setups have numerous steps, but the ECO A.L.C. sports a self-contained system that requires no maintenance by the user. Very impressive.

 

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