I guess there is a reason most people mod these things if they get 'em..
As for awesome overclock, I'm simply fishing in new waters(Pun intended), I've never used water cooling or any premade kits. Certain reviewers praised the h50 to the skyes, and some did almost hate it. So I don't that much of an understanding about how these things work really.
I own a H50. It is crap. Infact it's fair to say it's
beyond crap. It all starts off rather well. You fire up your machine and you see these really wicked temps. You think it works really well and then it happens. After about 45 mins the temps begin to soar. Your idle temps shoot up 5c min and if you run anything to warm the CPU (a game, an app ETC) the temps have trouble coming back down.
The reason is rather simple. As the coolant heats up there is simply not enough of it to cool it down before it passes over the CPU again. Then it gets warmed again, then it passes over the CPU again. So then you add another fan to it and the noise doubles. And it gets marginally better (2c off). However then you realise that you have a dead spot in the center of one of the fans so you add two shrouds. Then you look at your reciepts and realise you have now done close to £100 on a cooler that gets its ass handed to it by a £30 air cooler.
And as time goes on you realise it doesn't really look all that cool and you feel like a bit of a moron (see - me).
I had a chat about this with a mate of mine on MSN earlier. We both agreed that with these coolers sooner or later you are going to have to admit you are wrong. Whether you do it publically or just in private you will do it. Me? I don't care admitting when I am wrong. I really have no problem with that. However, the general rule on OC3D is to be completely unbiased when offering advice.
Let's move onto the H70. Again at that price level you can have a NH-D14. Again the H70 will lose. Again the coolant will heat up and your results will become skewed. You can fool the benchmark temps (posting them right after you switch it on) and you can fool people, but you can't fool yourself.
Modding an eco is a completely false economy as out of the box they are over priced garbage mate. I'm not being horrible but when you ask for advice or what people think and they are honest they are not trying to cause you crap. They are simply trying to offer you the
right advice.
And, from what I can see at least two of the people who have told you these things are poo have both owned them. Mine? is cooling a media PC with two fans on it. I hate it BUT I'm not Ahole enough to stick it in the FS&W section here and try and palm it off onto some one else. Lesson learned, listen to what is being said to you. I did ask whether they were any good (not on here, I've had mine ages). People told me they are a toy and don't resemble a true water cooling set up in any way. I chose not to listen, lesson learned I guess.
At a Lanparty I would not take off the side off of my rig (padlock FTW) nor display what is in there. It just gives some one an excuse to steal it. If you want to build a good looking rig then by all means show it off. We love that here. However I wouldn't do it at a place where people will be able to get to it.
Without being predjudice the only places you will see raving about the H70 will in the USA. I have never seen an honest to god UK reviewer say one good thing about a H70. And that Eco thing is the closest thing to it.