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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dagamer34 - Monday, November 7, 2011 - link
Seems that even the lowly H60 is good enough that I should replace the stock fan in my HTPC.**USA** - Monday, November 7, 2011 - link
See: "Corsair H100 Install in 600T case" for effective cooling with push/pull fan configuration.KingstonU - Monday, November 7, 2011 - link
Great review! Been looking for a review to cover these exact topics on comparing pros/cons of high end air-coolers to mainstream water coolers. Thanks!I can see now that the only downside of the high-end air cooling solution compared to these is the weight off the motherboard, but has any motherboard actually failed under the load of one of these heavy air coolers? I supposed you could also just your case on it's side and problem solved.
Beenthere - Monday, November 7, 2011 - link
The HSF back plate is there to distribute the load, so the mobo isn't over-stressed.ajtyeh - Monday, November 7, 2011 - link
any users that have done this? it looks like there may be room for 4 screws to attach an equivlant fanDeath666Angel - Monday, November 7, 2011 - link
Yes, you can use an H60 with 2 fans, but since the radiator is still much more narrow you don't get the same results @ same fan rpm. :-)noeldillabough - Monday, November 7, 2011 - link
I know this must exist, is there a such thing as a case that is covered with fins with liquid channels? We could hook up our videocards and cpu to the loop.Then we'd only hear the noise of the pump; or am I mistaken? Seems like a no brainer but perhaps cost prohibitive.
I've always been scared to do a water cooling system, because of leaks, but I don't see the advantage of this closed loop system quite yet. How reliable are current open loop systems and how much plumbing knowledge do i have to have to get it working safely? I'd love to use it on a dual cpu dual vdeocard setup (four blocks)
Beenthere - Monday, November 7, 2011 - link
You can always build extreme H2O units but why bother when refrigeration systems are far superior and easy.Mjello - Monday, November 7, 2011 - link
I don't remember if it was zalaman who launched a commercial product a few years ago. But that was a tower exactly as you describe. Where the sides was cooling. And heatpipes attached to the sides from the cpu.Anyways. You can do that with h100 and a PII X4 3 Ghz stock speed. If you mount the radiator outside like I did. The temp goes up when you turn off my 900 rpm fan but the system isn't overheating. I'll just check the temps for you for fun ;). Give me half an hour
ggathagan - Monday, November 7, 2011 - link
Yeah, Zalman produced two fanless cases (TNN-500 and TNN-300) that used heatpipes to conduct the heat from internal components to the case.That was different from what noeldillabough is talking about; where you are, in essence, making a case out of radiators.
That would be too cost prohibitive and too complex, especially if you factor in the delicacy of such a case.
Radiator fins and water channels have to be thin to be efficient, and that spells disaster without some sort of protection.
Adding that protection to the outside of a case would add even more complexity and create a nightmare as far as being able to ship it without fear of damage.
There's also the issue of weight to consider and we haven't even started on what customer support would be like.
Zalman still makes the Reserator, which is an external cooling system along the lines of what you mentioned.