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The Corsair A50 and A70 coolers are without question very high quality products which go some way in helping Corsair to get a foothold in this lucrative marketplace. The performance from the duo is excellent, with the Corsair A70 able to compete against the Thermaltake Frio and the A50 able to compete against the Thermaltake Contac 29.
The biggest issue unfortunately for Corsair is the pricing. The A70 retails right now at £55 inc vat in the UK which means it is £17 more expensive than the Thermaltake Frio. Performance may be quite close, but the pricing certainly isn't.
The same problem rears its ugly head when we look at the Corsair A50 – which is selling in the UK for £43 inc vat, if we look at this subjectively then analyse we are totally bewildered as to the pricing. The Frio which outperforms the A50 significantly costs £7 less. So while Corsair may have wanted us to compare this cooler head to head against a stock Intel cooling solution we see no logical reason why we should. If you want to make your first steps up from a stock cooler you aim at the sub £25 marketplace. Things start to look a whole lot worse if we factor in the Contac 29, which is £23 inc vat in the UK.
Our impressions of both Corsair coolers remains positive, they are capable of handling a high end Core i7 980X, even when overclocked and they remain quiet at all times which is an added bonus. The mounting procedure is pain free and the fan design is the best on the market, the plastic mounting shrouds is ingenious and we hope other manufacturers take this idea on board and ditch the skimpy metallic clips.
When all is said and done however, the only way these units are going to be a first choice option is if the A50 drops in price to £30 and the A70 drops to around £40. As they stand they are up against some really tough competition but if you can find them on sale then we wholeheartedly recommend them.
KitGuru says: The pricing is out of wack, but the coolers themselves are very well designed with a very high level of engineering quality throughout.
EDIT: 23 July 4.00 PM Corsair have informed us that some UK dealers are selling the products for less already so be sure to Google the coolers for your specific region. Here are some other links in the UK.
A70 – Novatech £45.99
A50 – Overclock.co.uk £35.88
