8 Pack tests Corsair H100 against custom dual fan solution.

[8 Pack]

I had finished speed binning one tray of 3770 CPU and decided to start on 3930K for my systems. For the previous graphics test I used the Corsair integrated H100 water cooler on the X79 rig but when binning CPU's for 100% stability I wanted to see how much better I could do in terms of temps and clocking when using a custom solution. My systems will contain the best cooling available water and up so it makes sense to bin CPU's on such a water loop.

Its the V8 kit I am looking at here which has a dual rad like the Corsair so it will be interesting to see how much better a kit of similar dimensions in the case dissipates the heat of X79.

I mounted each cooler using arctic silver paste and left the loops running at stock with 100% load using Prime blend for one hour before I started taking actual values. At each level I then ran the system with prime for a further 20 mins plus.

On each test RAM is in quad channel 16gb at 1866mhz.

Here is how the Corsair solution performed:

Stock:



Top temperature was 51C on any core after 20mins Prime.

Overclocked to 4.6ghz which on this cooler needed 1.41v



Top temperature was 72C on any core after Prime 95. This was realistic the limit in terms of 24/7 overclock on this cooler as 1.41, 24/7 is really pushing it.

Overclocked to 4.7 which on this cooler needed 1.47v



Top temperature was 78C on any core after 20 mins Prime 95. I could not get any further clock stable with this cooler as heat was becoming a massive problem along with volts required.

Heres how the OCUK V8 Kit Performed:

Stock:



Top temperature was 49 which was 2C better than the Corsair.

Overclocked to 4.6 which on this cooler required 1.395V:



Top temps on this overclock was 65 which was 7C better than the H100.

Overclocked to 4.7 at 1.47



Top temps on this overclock was 71 again 7C better than the H100.

The top overclock I got out this CPU with the Custom loop was 4.8ghz with 1.455 volts.



The maximum 24/7 clock on the Custom kit was 4.7 compared to 4.6 on H100.



With voltage around 1.4 and temps under 70C your good to go.

This clearly shows that temps where the limiting factor for overclock on the H100 which did perform admirably in its price bracket and surprised me abit.

Furthermore with two 1850 Sythe GT fans the Custom V8 Kit was much quieter than the H100. On both coolers I ran the fans on maximum speed to get best cooling possible.

To sum up

The Corsair does very well at taming the heat of X79 to a 4.6ghz CPU clock 24/7 and a max of 4.7ghz. The V8 Kit did 100mhz better and 7C better on heavily overclocked CPU. Attaining 4.7ghz 24/7 and 4.8ghz max safe. The V8 was considerably quieter then the Corsair in operation.

Any questions or comments please fire back!!!

 

[8 Pack]

The kit was very easy to put together I must say and looks great too. It also has the flexibility of mounting the rad where you want as the tube lengths are not fixed. The other plus for me with the kit is you can add to it with another rad and fans for graphics. With the Corsair there is no upgrade path.

The H100 did do a good job in its price bracket though.

CPU's speed binning means we see how fast they can do. It makes things much easier when building a system to a certain spec.

 

[8 Pack]

Thats only an hours worth of testing so temps should improve when the as5 has time to settle.

Saying that I'd love to see temps whilst running ibt maximum lol

Intel engineers cringe at how users on such forums as this use that silicon destroyer. I would never subject my chips to this.

 

[8 Pack]

I don't want people jacking all the good chips! At least now it's up to chance, I don't want to pay a premium to get a decent chip when I might get one for the same price. Ivy is pretty much guaranteed a 4.5GHz OC, so maybe some really exceptional chips would sell, but why bother otherwise.

The really exceptional chips I find out of the system OEM stock will be kept for 8 Pack system builds. The next best will be put in the high end overclocked builds and so on. Retail chips will not be binned at all so thats a silicon lottery. I dont want average chips in my systems, hence the binning process.

Bundles will be available yes later but I doubt just chips will be for some time as there is too much room for end user error.

 

[8 Pack]

Are you saying here that the chips supplied in OCUK stock speed 3770K systems have been tested and found inferior to the ones supplied in the 4GHz systems which in turn were found inferior to the ones in the 4.5GHz systems? (Asking for clarification as it certainly sounds like that).

No chip is inferior to any other!!! where do people get this from.

So long as it runs to Intel spec in a stock build, 4.0 in 4.0 build and so on and so on there is no issue at all of inferiority. They are just CPU.

Here at OCUk we have hundreds of CPU I can only test a fraction of them. In the real world its pot luck what a cpu will clock to. I am helping the tech dept as they now know what a specific CPU can be expected to reach.

 

[8 Pack]

8 Pack systems will be highest safe overclock for 24/7 on all components. So an 8 Pack build will have Overclocked CPU, Overclocked RAM which will be highly tuned and Overclocked single and multi GPU.

Exact specs are yet to be determined as we need to know what silicon we have in hand before finalizing this. Hence the binning procedure.

 

[8 Pack]

Use your PC then not IBT!!!! If your applications are so intensive use them!!

Yeah manufacturing variability is the key difference but as long as they run to spec the CPU manufacturer is not so bothered about this. Overclocking is not there priority.

 

[8 Pack]

Totally worth £180, better performance, noise not to mention the potential expansion into GPU's. Custom water isn't cheap though so I can see how the initial cost can be off putting to many.

IMO 8 Pack probably had room on the custom water to push the max OC past 4.8ghz too.

I did have capacity yes but I wanted to stay below 1.4 v which Intel recommends as maximum.