****Corsair H100i liquid cooler review****
Corsair homepage - http://www.corsair.com/us/hydro-series-h100i-extreme-performance-liquid-cpu-cooler.html
OcUK product page - http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HS-015-CS&groupid=701&catid=2330&subcat=2262
I have been sent a Corsair H100i for testing, this improves on the previous H100 by having new static pressure style fans, larger diameter tubing, new designed copper plate and also features CorsairLINK for monitoring and control.
Packaging.
The fan specifications are higher than the SP120 Performance Editions that I reviewed Here.
Installation guide, warranty card and a guide to other Corsair products.
The cooler and accessories.
The H100i comes with a silver thermal compound already applied. The copper plate has a patterned finish rather than being polished to a mirror finish.
There are magnets on the corners that hold the front mounting plates in place.
There are fittings for AMD AM2, AM3, FM1 and Intel LGA 1155, 1156, 1366 and 2011
A cable to link the H100i to a USB port for the Corsair Link, two "Y" adapters to run up to four fans in a Push/Pull combination.
The fans have the same fin design as the SP120 range, but lack the changeable trim ring and rubberised corners.
CorsairLINK software.
It starts for the first time looking like the above.
The temperatures and fan speed etc results can be dragged to where you have them situated in your case.
Fan control is separate for each fan, if you had push/pull with four fans then it will still only be controlled in pairs.
Startup options/display options and logging is also available.
RGB LED colour control for the Corsair logo on top of the pump, below is a nighttime video recorded of the LED lighting.
Some of the colours (Yellow for instance) don't come across very well as they appear in the flesh.
Subjective noise test.
I positioned my camera 2ft away from the actual H100i while recording the on-screen RPM fan control, the cameras microphone is set to the same default level as used in my fan review.
Now after the firmware update, the fan low speed rattling is gone, but there seems to be a "whining" noise now present from the fans which stops the H100i from being fully silent in the quiet mode, looks like they fixed one problem but introduced another at the same time
Test setup and results.
After I installed the H100i I updated the firmware to the latest one provided which fixes a known fan fault where at minimum speeds the fans would make a rattling sound which I also experienced.
I've run the H100i and a Antec Kuhler 920 (with Corsair SP120 performance edition fans fitted to the later) on two platforms,
• GA-X79-UP4 + i7 3930K
• GA-Z77X-UP5-TH + i5 3570K
• Gelid solutions thermal paste used (no curing required)
I ran the CPU's at stock and also an overclocked speed and recorded the results at idle and after 20 minutes of Prime 95, coretemp64 was used to monitor the core temperatures and the values added up and divided by the number of cores for the average.
For the overclocks I ran both CPU’s at 4.5GHz which is a good overclock for both chips. I didn't touch the BCLK (base clock), the multiplier was set to x45 (with Speedstep etc disabled). The only difference was the Vcore, I used 1.43V for the i7 3930K and 1.3V for the i5 3570K respectively (I know you could have used a lower Vcore to get both of these chips stable but I really wanted to test this cooler to its limits). If you have either of these CPU’s you may experience different results at these settings and I wouldn't tell anyone to try the same settings as me but there are many guides about that will help you with your overclock and no two CPU’s are the same (silicone lottery).
I have a Hilka Thermometer & Hygrometer to measure the ambient air temperature.
Conclusion.
The results are extremely good when used on a nice hot CPU such as the i7 3930K (especially overclocked) and are a great improvement over the Kuhler920 even with the latter fitted with SP120 performance edition fans which are noisy fans when run at their maximum speed but are solid performers.
When you consider the RRP is only £10 more than an Antec Kuhler920, it's value for money looks great for the increased performance offered if you have tall RAM and a case with room for a dual 120mm radiator in the roof then it is a good solution.
The magnetic mounts are a nice idea and I found the actual fitment of the device to each setup to be much simpler than with the Antec Kuhler.
The major downside is the "rattling" noise from the stock fans at low rpm with the early firmware and the new "whining" noise from the fans with the new updated firmware, hopefully there will be another update that removes both, or maybe having the option to flash back to the earlier firmware would be good also as then you can just set the minimum rpm to a bit above stock and that fixes the rattle while remaining silent.
Pros.
• Easy fitting.
• Great cooling capacity.
• Good software options and adjustment.
Cons.
• Either have a "rattle" with the early firmware or a "whining" noise with the update.
• The opportunity to be able to flash the unit back to the earlier firmware would be good.
• Should have been supplied with proper SP120 fans which don't "rattle" or "whine" and give you the option of altering the trim ring to suit your case innards.
• Why aren't 16 fan screws supplied in the box for the option of push/pull? especially when the rad has the tapped holes on both sides for extra fans and the cabling from the pump can support four fans, it would have only added a few pence to the cost of the unit
Scoring.
I am scoring this unit 8/10.
If Corsair can fix the fan noise problem then it will get 9/10.
If they decide to add a complete set of fan screws to do Push/Pull and decide to package the true SP120 performance fans with the unit instead, then it would be 10/10
Thanks to.
OcUK
Corsair
And special thanks to Ethermaster for help with the chart designs
Corsair homepage - http://www.corsair.com/us/hydro-series-h100i-extreme-performance-liquid-cpu-cooler.html
OcUK product page - http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HS-015-CS&groupid=701&catid=2330&subcat=2262
I have been sent a Corsair H100i for testing, this improves on the previous H100 by having new static pressure style fans, larger diameter tubing, new designed copper plate and also features CorsairLINK for monitoring and control.
Packaging.
The fan specifications are higher than the SP120 Performance Editions that I reviewed Here.
Installation guide, warranty card and a guide to other Corsair products.
The cooler and accessories.
The H100i comes with a silver thermal compound already applied. The copper plate has a patterned finish rather than being polished to a mirror finish.
There are magnets on the corners that hold the front mounting plates in place.
There are fittings for AMD AM2, AM3, FM1 and Intel LGA 1155, 1156, 1366 and 2011
A cable to link the H100i to a USB port for the Corsair Link, two "Y" adapters to run up to four fans in a Push/Pull combination.
The fans have the same fin design as the SP120 range, but lack the changeable trim ring and rubberised corners.
CorsairLINK software.
It starts for the first time looking like the above.
The temperatures and fan speed etc results can be dragged to where you have them situated in your case.
Fan control is separate for each fan, if you had push/pull with four fans then it will still only be controlled in pairs.
Startup options/display options and logging is also available.
RGB LED colour control for the Corsair logo on top of the pump, below is a nighttime video recorded of the LED lighting.
Some of the colours (Yellow for instance) don't come across very well as they appear in the flesh.
Subjective noise test.
I positioned my camera 2ft away from the actual H100i while recording the on-screen RPM fan control, the cameras microphone is set to the same default level as used in my fan review.
Now after the firmware update, the fan low speed rattling is gone, but there seems to be a "whining" noise now present from the fans which stops the H100i from being fully silent in the quiet mode, looks like they fixed one problem but introduced another at the same time
Test setup and results.
After I installed the H100i I updated the firmware to the latest one provided which fixes a known fan fault where at minimum speeds the fans would make a rattling sound which I also experienced.
I've run the H100i and a Antec Kuhler 920 (with Corsair SP120 performance edition fans fitted to the later) on two platforms,
• GA-X79-UP4 + i7 3930K
• GA-Z77X-UP5-TH + i5 3570K
• Gelid solutions thermal paste used (no curing required)
I ran the CPU's at stock and also an overclocked speed and recorded the results at idle and after 20 minutes of Prime 95, coretemp64 was used to monitor the core temperatures and the values added up and divided by the number of cores for the average.
For the overclocks I ran both CPU’s at 4.5GHz which is a good overclock for both chips. I didn't touch the BCLK (base clock), the multiplier was set to x45 (with Speedstep etc disabled). The only difference was the Vcore, I used 1.43V for the i7 3930K and 1.3V for the i5 3570K respectively (I know you could have used a lower Vcore to get both of these chips stable but I really wanted to test this cooler to its limits). If you have either of these CPU’s you may experience different results at these settings and I wouldn't tell anyone to try the same settings as me but there are many guides about that will help you with your overclock and no two CPU’s are the same (silicone lottery).
I have a Hilka Thermometer & Hygrometer to measure the ambient air temperature.
Conclusion.
The results are extremely good when used on a nice hot CPU such as the i7 3930K (especially overclocked) and are a great improvement over the Kuhler920 even with the latter fitted with SP120 performance edition fans which are noisy fans when run at their maximum speed but are solid performers.
When you consider the RRP is only £10 more than an Antec Kuhler920, it's value for money looks great for the increased performance offered if you have tall RAM and a case with room for a dual 120mm radiator in the roof then it is a good solution.
The magnetic mounts are a nice idea and I found the actual fitment of the device to each setup to be much simpler than with the Antec Kuhler.
The major downside is the "rattling" noise from the stock fans at low rpm with the early firmware and the new "whining" noise from the fans with the new updated firmware, hopefully there will be another update that removes both, or maybe having the option to flash back to the earlier firmware would be good also as then you can just set the minimum rpm to a bit above stock and that fixes the rattle while remaining silent.
Pros.
• Easy fitting.
• Great cooling capacity.
• Good software options and adjustment.
Cons.
• Either have a "rattle" with the early firmware or a "whining" noise with the update.
• The opportunity to be able to flash the unit back to the earlier firmware would be good.
• Should have been supplied with proper SP120 fans which don't "rattle" or "whine" and give you the option of altering the trim ring to suit your case innards.
• Why aren't 16 fan screws supplied in the box for the option of push/pull? especially when the rad has the tapped holes on both sides for extra fans and the cabling from the pump can support four fans, it would have only added a few pence to the cost of the unit
Scoring.
I am scoring this unit 8/10.
If Corsair can fix the fan noise problem then it will get 9/10.
If they decide to add a complete set of fan screws to do Push/Pull and decide to package the true SP120 performance fans with the unit instead, then it would be 10/10
Thanks to.
OcUK
Corsair
And special thanks to Ethermaster for help with the chart designs
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