Corsair Hydro Series: H60, H80 and H100 Reviewed
by Jared Bell on November 7, 2011 12:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Cases/Cooling/PSUs
- Corsair
- Water Cooling
Test Setup
| Cooling Test System | |
| Case | Corsair Graphite Series 600T |
| Processor | Intel Core i7-2600K (4x3.4GHz, 3.8GHz Turbo, 32nm) |
| Motherboard | ASUS P8P67 Pro (BIOS version 1502) |
| Memory | G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3-1866 Kit |
| Graphics Card | MSI GTX 580 Lightning |
| Solid State Drive | OCZ Agility 2 120GB |
| Hard Drive | Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 1.5TB |
| Power Supply | Corsair HX850 Power Supply |
| Operating System | Microsoft Windows 7 Professional 64-bit |
| Test Coolers |
Stock Intel HSF Corsair H60/H80/H100 Thermalright Silver Arrow |
| Thermal Compound | Arctic Cooling MX-2 |
Testing Procedures
For temperature testing we load our Core i7-2600K's four cores and eight threads using Prime95 version 26.6. For the sake of consistency, we use the Small FFT stress test. Most likely in daily use, your CPU will rarely reach the temperatures Prime95 and other applications used for stress testing will produce. This should present a worst-case scenario for CPU temperatures and allow us to really see how these CPU coolers handle heavy loads. Due to fluctuations in the ambient temperature during testing, albeit minor, we use delta temperatures to compare results.
Real Temp version 3.67 is used to monitor and log temperatures with samples taken once every second. We run each test for 15 minutes, take the average temperature of all four cores, and use a three minute rolling average to calculate the results. The final temperature is the average of the last three minutes from the test. We then take the final calculated temperature and subtract the room’s average ambient temperature to get our delta temperature. This method has the least temperature fluctuations and is the most consistent.
In addition to the Corsair Hydro Series coolers, we’re testing with Intel’s stock HSF as a baseline, and representing high-end air-cooling is the frankly massive Thermalright Silver Arrow. The Silver Arrow comes with two 140mm fans, with one fan sandwiched between the two large radiator towers. It also weighs in at a hefty 825g without the fans, or around 1.2kg with the fans and clips. Thankfully, it comes with a good mounting solution so as to avoid putting too much strain on your motherboard, but there’s no denying the fact that this is a heavy cooler.
Each cooler is mounted and retested three times to verify good contact was made. We use Arctic Cooling MX-2 instead of the thermal interface material (TIM) that comes preinstalled on the test CPU coolers. There is no curing time allowed between mounts or changing CPU coolers—the MX-2 TIM we use claims not to need curing anyway. These methods help ensure consistency across all tested coolers as well as provide comparable results.
We test each cooler at the Core i7-2600K's stock 3.5GHz frequency, which is the speed it runs at if all four cores are maxed out at 100% and Turbo Boost is enabled. For testing purposes, we disable Turbo Boost and manually set the clock speed to 3.5GHz, with Hyper-Threading enabled; the stock speed runs at 1.16V. We also perform the same set of tests with the CPU overclocked to 4.8GHz using 1.4V, again with Turbo off and Hyper-Threading on.
For noise measurements, we use a Check Mate CM-140 SPL meter. All noise tests are conducted between 1 and 3 AM to ensure the lowest possible ambient noise. In our test environment, we measured ~29 dBA with the test system turned off. Before and after each noise test, the same ambient ~29 dBA measurement was verified. We measured 1 foot away from the test chassis with all doors installed. Our goal is that this method for measuring noise will best mimic a typical usage scenario, though obviously the choice of case, power supply, and graphics card also plays a role.
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Mjello - Monday, November 7, 2011 - link
Mine is the old version with the bulky cooler/pump unit. May even be other make. I dont remember and don't care to open the computer to check. However its a dual 120mm fan radiator in a closed loop ready to use. Just as this one. And I don't think there is much diff. if any at all ;). I actually thought mine was the h100.Gonemad - Monday, November 7, 2011 - link
I am a bit concerned about systems that consider the placement of the Fan on top of the CPU to cool everything else around it, like the ram, and so forth. This radiator installation inside the case seems to help this unease feeling.Mjello - Monday, November 7, 2011 - link
I found that the power supply fan alone is creating sufficient airflow in the kabinet for cooling the motherboard components when there is no cpu fan. But I dont overclock in the extreme. And motherboards are not all the same.Oberst - Monday, November 7, 2011 - link
Hello,could you please also post the dimensions of the cooling unit (cooler, pump unit, fan controller)?
That would be quite interesting for people mounting the radiator externally and putting the cooling unit through a fan hole ore something similar into the case onto the mainboard.
As the price difference in Europe between the H80 and H100 is quite low (only about 9 Euros), i'm interested in upgrading my quite old case with a external mounted H100.
k.r. Oberst.
haplo602 - Monday, November 7, 2011 - link
I have a dual CPU system with 92mm coolers (no space for larger ones). However the case has holes on top for 2x140mm fans. Would to H60 radiators fit there next to each other ?I know I can do a better and cheaper open loop with one radiator and the CPU waterblocks in series, but I like the idea of cooling both CPUs as they needed and not as the more loaded one needs.
geniekid - Monday, November 7, 2011 - link
This is definitely a niche product, even for enthusiasts. One of the biggest selling points of water cooling is to reduce fan noise, but it looks like the fans on these things aren't much quieter than the stock fan for low load usage (i.e. normal HTPC use). For gaming machines, the biggest noise offenders (in my anecdotal, personal experience) are usually the GPU and the power supply fans.Maybe if your goal is to overclock as much as possible with a cooling solution around $100, then this is for you, but I would have to see many more comparisons to air coolers and alternative water coolers before I'd be convinced of that.
kg4icg - Monday, November 7, 2011 - link
Have no problems what so ever mounting the H100 inside a Corsair Carbide 400R case. 500 and 600 Carbides are the same way.[IMG]http://i445.photobucket.com/albums/qq175/kg4icg/te...[/IMG]
WT - Monday, November 7, 2011 - link
I bought an H80 for my new build to cut down on the noise that my current air cooler (Nirvana NV120) created, and to that end it is an amazing difference, so I consider it a worthwhile purchase for what I wanted.As far as the directions, I agree that they are pitiful, and I even had to do a google search (Corsair tech support hours = Mon-Fri) to find out where the 4 included washers were to be mounted.
I did end up replacing the 2 stock Corsair fans with Gentle Typhoon AP-15's, and I mounted them so that they blow out of the case rather than pulling air from outside as Corsair recommends.
Beenthere - Monday, November 7, 2011 - link
There are plenty of quiet HSFs that perform as well or better than the Corsair CLCs and cost less. Having to spend more moeny for quiet fans makes a Corsair CLC an even worse value. The biggest liability with H2O cooling however is the damaged from leaks that can destroy hundreds of dollars in PC hardware and for what when there is no advantage to a Corsair CLC.Buy what makes you happy but don't buy the Corsair or other brands of CLCs for thermal efficiency, quietness, value or reliability because they suffer in these areas compared to a decent HSF.
pcfxer - Monday, November 7, 2011 - link
And yet liquid cooling is still FAR too loud for any SPCR reader, that's for sure!