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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prime2515103 - Monday, November 7, 2011 - link
"Each Corsair Hydro Series cooler is mounted to blow air from outside the case over the radiator."compudaze - Tuesday, November 8, 2011 - link
You can always mod your grill like this: http://i.imgur.com/FQiID.jpg -- but you're right, it sucks and you shouldn't have to do that.mschira - Monday, November 7, 2011 - link
Then this would solve the compatibility issues right from the start...M
Earthmonger - Monday, November 7, 2011 - link
Kind of disappointed you didn't open the coolers up. I'd like to know just what kind of build quality one can expect; whether it is deep-fried korean junk, or pristine japanese craftsmanship. It does a lot to ease the mind.Mjello - Monday, November 7, 2011 - link
Why isn't anyone making a "ready to use" closed circuit cooler for gpu's ?My gpu needs watercooling more than my cpu.
ggathagan - Monday, November 7, 2011 - link
It's a matter of market scale.You can accomodate any CPU from the last 5 years with a single design and two styles of mounting mechanism.
For GPU's, there are too many variations of design that would have to be considered to make it anywhere near as profitable.
cjs150 - Monday, November 7, 2011 - link
I rather like these kits. They are a lot worse than a custom loop but for someone just starting on water cooling they are a good introduction.Water cooling CPU only is not particularly sensible because air coolers are just as good (although big). A custom loop would cool both CPU and GPU at very least.
Nice review
Hauk - Monday, November 7, 2011 - link
I bought the H80 last month and was less than impressed with the quality of the mounting hardware. Perhaps I've been spoiled with the superb quality found with Thermalright mounting hardware. In any case, the hardware Corsair provides is cheap garbage in comparison. Yes it works, but it's poor quality, soft metal. Hold this mounting hardware in one hand, and typical Thermalright hard metal (and chromed) hardware in the other. It's easy to see which was designed for multiple mounting and unmountings.The installation instructions are poorly written as well. I learned more from this article about how the push button affects fan speed than I did from anything Corsair provided. And no words Corsair? Just pictures? You'd think there'd be something written, if anything, a paragraph explaining the push button, or how to properly torque the fittings.
Other than that, meh, so I got water in my case now.
Mjello - Monday, November 7, 2011 - link
I have had the h100 for a year or two now. Could have done with the H60. I don't care about 3-4 degrees difference or overclocks.I want absolute silence and water does that. Just need something for my gpu as well. It gets a bit noisy when gaming.
Big cpu coolers are also silent. However the heat tends to build up in the case and then you need extra fans to move the air out of the case. With water you can place the radiator outside the case with a 900 rpm fan on.
When my gpu isn't working hard, all i hear is my harddrive. So please, someone make a gpu version of this.
kg4icg - Monday, November 7, 2011 - link
I don't seehow you had the H100 for over a year, when it just came out this year. It's less than 6 month's old. Try that again?