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
Temperature Results
Each Corsair Hydro Series cooler is mounted to blow air from outside the case over the radiator. We had to leave the top cover off of our 600T chassis during the H100 tests due to its restrictive design; otherwise the H100 results would have been horrendously skewed. The top cover didn't affect our other tests and was left on for those. Since the H60 has a PWM fan, we disabled any BIOS fan controls to ensure the fan was spinning at 100%. All three of the H80 and H100 speed settings are tested. We’ll start with our stock 3.5GHz test results and then move to the overclocked results.
The stock speed test doesn't provide much of a challenge for any of the Hydro Series coolers, leaving very little gap between them. Not surprisingly, all of the aftermarket coolers simply crush the stock Intel cooler; however, it’s also worth nothing that the Silver Arrow outperforms both the H60 and H80, and nips at the heels of the H100 set to Medium fan speed. Due to the relativity cool temperatures during this test, some of the speed profiles for the H80 and H100 never hit their maximum RPM. This keeps those coolers relatively quiet even when running on high or medium at stock speeds.
Now that we're overclocked to 4.8GHz, these coolers are finally showing a temperature difference worthy of their price difference. Also note that the stock Intel cooler didn’t handle the 4.8GHz load reliably, so we don’t have results for it in this chart. The H100 is the runaway leader here, sporting a comfortable 3.3C lead over the H80. The H60 falls 5.1C shy of the H80—not terrible considering its slimmer radiator and single fan design. The cooling advantage of the H100 on the high setting does come at a penalty though; it's substantially louder as you'll see next in the noise test. The potential spoiler in the midst of these results is the Silver Arrow, once again coming very close to the H100 at a lower price. It’s not without compromises, which we’ll cover in the conclusion.
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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?