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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Mjello - Monday, November 7, 2011 - link
If you don't mind temps howering in the 70C-75C range the h100 can do it passive mounted externally in a horisontal position in a 25C room.Just did an hour of LoL. It wont do prime95 for more than 10 min. however. So heavy loads is a nogo passive. And a silent fan doesn't make any noice so i'll switch mine back on. Was a fun experiment though.
double0seven - Tuesday, November 8, 2011 - link
"We could hook up our video cards and CPU to the loop."This part doesn't make logical sense. If you "hooked up" multiple heat generators to a coolant loop, only the first one would get cooled.
ggathagan - Monday, November 7, 2011 - link
Page 3, last sentence of the 1st paragraph: I didn't have any filament problems....I'm guessing fitment is the word you intended.
Hey, someone has to pick at this stuff...
fixxxer0 - Tuesday, November 8, 2011 - link
what was the ambient temp of the room on average? just curious to see what your actual temps were...compudaze - Tuesday, November 8, 2011 - link
Ambient temps were 22.2C - 24.8C with an average of 23.8C.medi01 - Tuesday, November 8, 2011 - link
It's been a while, that most power hungry part of the system is a graphic card.What a pity they don't make water cooling solution for them.
I don't quite get why on earth I would install this thing, if I still have to care what to do with graphic card heat.
kg4icg - Tuesday, November 8, 2011 - link
Cool IT does make a sealed solution for video cards.http://www.coolitsystems.com/index.php/products/gp...
Sabresiberian - Tuesday, November 8, 2011 - link
It's good to see these coolers get to the point where they are really good, even if the cost is a bit high still. I think pretty soon, liquid coolers will be the thing to use in all but inexpensive systems.I'm not sure the H100's price is too high; it depends on what a serious overclocker wants, and whether it allows more room than something like the Silver Arrow. Adding another 2 fans will make even more difference (and add to the cost), which will give more of a performance edge to it. Theoretically, anyway, air flow through the radiator may not be the limiting factor in the system.
I use the CoolIT Eco on one of my rigs (similar to the H60). It's a decent cooler, but the main reason I used it was because I needed a lower profile solution with my Antec Skeleton "case", and these type coolers really work great for that. Of course, you are just moving the space issue to a different location, since there's the radiator to deal with, but that's not an issue with the Skeleton since I just made a bracket to hang it off a side.
;)
Googer - Wednesday, November 9, 2011 - link
Shame corsair didn't show off the "Corsair Link" kit and demonstrate its abilities. I guess they don't want to sell too many of those $100-129 (USD) kits. Sounds like the Bob's Rug Syndrome (GTE)http://www.ricklatona.com/2008/06/01/the-bobs-rug-...
Drekkyk - Wednesday, November 9, 2011 - link
I tried the H60, but at 4.5 Ghz the temp was 8 degrees C hotter than my Cooler Master Hyper 212+. under load and at idle. What I really noticed was how much slower the temp reduced when going from full load to none. I really wanted to like it, I even tried remounting, ensuring thermal compound was applied correctly, etc. I used the same compound for both coolers. My case is a Haf-X with plenty of airflow.