Closed Loop AIO Liquid Coolers: 14-way Mega Roundup Review
by E. Fylladitakis on February 12, 2014 7:00 AM ESTCorsair
When we mentioned the word's "liquid coolers" and "roundup" to Corsair, they got a bit overexcited and shipped us five of their AIO coolers. For some reason, Corsair is extremely interested in AIO liquid coolers, which is also reflected by the fact that they are the only company that offers nine such products at this point in time, while most manufacturers are currently limited to just two or three coolers.
Corsair H75
Despite its "small" number, the H75 actually is one of Corsair's most recent designs. We received it supplied in a serious looking, black cardboard box with a blue visual theme. Inside the box, the cooler is protected by cardboard packaging.
Corsair kept the bundle of the H75 down to the very basics: a leaflet with installation instructions and the hardware required for the mounting of the cooler. The bundle is well presented though, with each type of screws/nuts inside a separate nylon bag. Two 120mm fans with grey wide blades are also included in the packaging. The fans have an operating range between 800 and 2000 RPM, which is not very high for wide-bladed 120mm fans.
The Corsair H75 is not a work of art but it does stand out visually. It features a rather small radiator that is only 120mm wide and 25mm deep, which offers no more heat dissipation surface than the radiator of the ultra-cheap Seidon 120V. Even though the radiator is of the same design, this time the aluminum fins are virtually free of imperfections, with very few slight deformations visible. The small size of the radiator gives the H75 an advantage in tight spaces but will certainly have an impact on its overall performance. Corsair also went with kink-resistant, smooth black rubber tubing of normal width, rather than the corrugated tubing many other manufacturers are using.
The block-pump assembly is round, with a silver ring on top and the company logo painted right in the middle of the cap. It also comes with the retention bracket for Intel CPUs preinstalled. The assembly is held together by no less than 20 screws, 12 for the plastic frames and 8 for the copper base. Thermal compound has been applied on the base from the factory. After our testing, we cleaned the base of the cooler, revealing a well-machined and polished surface.
Corsair H105
Announced at this year's CES, the Hydro H105 is Corsair's most recent product. It comes in a large cardboard box similar to that of the H75, yet with a red colored theme, which is the signature of Corsair's "extreme performance" products. The bundle of the H105 is almost identical to that of the H75 as well. Inside the box, we find a leaflet with the installation instructions and the necessary mounting hardware categorized inside nylon bags. However, we also found two colored rings for the CPU block. Finally, even though the wide grey bladed fans are visually similar to those included with the H75, they actually are not similar at all. The SP120L fans supplied with the H105 are much more powerful, with an operational range of 800 to 2700 RPM.
Even though the H105 looks like an oversized version of the H75, there is more to it than first meets the eye. To begin with, the radiator is not only twice as long as that of the H75 but nearly 40% thicker as well, increasing the effective heat dissipation area by well over 150%. Some minor deformations of the aluminum fins are visible this time as well; apparently, the making of such radiators is not an easy process. Although the 120mm width of the radiator makes the H105 compatible with more cases and systems, the length could become a problem, so be especially careful with that.
Similar to the H75, the block-pump assembly is round, with a silver ring on top. The silver ring however is removable and replaceable with either a red or blue ring, now included in the packaging. In addition, the company logo is not painted; on the contrary, it has been left unpainted on purpose and a white LED has been placed beneath it. The bracket for installation on Intel CPUs is once again preinstalled and the cooler has thermal compound applied on its base from the factory floor. Once again, the copper base is well machined and polished, free of imperfections.
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faster - Wednesday, February 12, 2014 - link
I want a closed loop system for my video card!My GTX780 is much louder than my CPU fan.
Liquid cooling was supposed to be how one obtained high performance quiet computing. Air cooling solutions should not be able to compete with a liquid cooling solution in the same environment, but it seems they do. How is that?
blanarahul - Wednesday, February 12, 2014 - link
"I want a closed loop system for my video card!"This. All the stupid OEMs want to disgruntle consumers. We already have more than enough great CPU coolers, but very few great GPU coolers. All I want is a card that is NOT pre-overclocked (but can be overclocked at my whims ;) ) and comes with a all-in-one liquid cooling solution. Is that too much to ask??
E.Fyll - Wednesday, February 12, 2014 - link
Oh, that is coming, soon. Stay tuned, should be online within a couple of weeks. :)Dribble - Wednesday, February 12, 2014 - link
True, for cpu's you don't need that big a cooler - all these lower power Intel cpu's don't pull 200W even overclocked. A big air cooler is sufficient. It'll work as well as a single 120mm fan radiator water cooler but is cheaper and more reliable.However graphics cards are another matter altogether - they pump out huge amounts of heat.
Hence either I WC my graphics card in which case I might as well get a system that can WC my cpu too, or I just stick to air cooling.
BuddhaBum44 - Wednesday, February 12, 2014 - link
You can always get the Kraken X40 and the bracket they make for 780s: https://www.nzxt.com/product/detail/138-kraken-g10...bj_murphy - Wednesday, February 12, 2014 - link
Solid review with some good information. I've been waiting for a "compendium" of sorts to link to people, explaining which closed loop coolers are the best. Thanks E. Fylladitakis, looking forward to more great articles!doggghouse - Wednesday, February 12, 2014 - link
What is a realistic load for a CPU? My 4770K has a max TDP of 84W... and I see a 3960X has a max of 130W. Are there actual CPUs that have anything above that, like 200W - 340W? If not, does it make sense to include those loads in the average thermal resistance, since these AIO coolers are going to be applied to a CPU, not to a synthetic load...?E.Fyll - Wednesday, February 12, 2014 - link
It depends on the CPU, of course. An overclocked CPU can easily surpass their max TDP rating. High thermal loads are useful for the extraction of proper thermal resistance ratings, plus they are easily reachable by modern GPUs (and GPUs are relevant, especially with AIO coolers; you'll see why soon enough). Of course, if you know the power requirements of your current CPU (if not overclocked, about 75% of its TDP), you can easily check the graph closest to it.dragosmp - Wednesday, February 12, 2014 - link
Hi,Great review, I like the methodology. It is nice to see all coolers tested with a constant load that is subject to much less randomness than a CPU power output.
I have two questions:
*is it possible to test all coolers at a certain noise level like 40dB +/-0.5dB; 7V testing is not that relevant for a cooler that is silent @10V, why would anyone silence it even further, save electricity?
*could you provide an order of magnitude of what clock speed and voltage a CPU would need to be at to achieve 340W/150W...etc. It would be useful to get our bearings vs the real world. A chart would be nice a bit like this:
.....................150W.................250W
Haswell DC....4.6GHz/1.25V......
Haswell QC....4.2GHz/1.27V......
FX83xx OC....4.1GHz/1.35V......
The reason for the last remark is that buying decisions are made also with cost in mind. One may think: I have max 30°C Tcase, 4.5GHz Haswell, what is the thermal conductivity I would need so the CPU never passes 70°C? Answer ==> review (maybe not the best cooler, maybe not the most expensive...). I have bought windows for my house like that.
E.Fyll - Wednesday, February 12, 2014 - link
40 dB(A) is not really "silent". I would rate <35 dB(A) as silent and still I can notice that in a very quiet room. 40 dB(A) is a slight humming noise, fairly quiet and most people just ignore it, yet it is easily noticeable. It is an interesting idea but that is not really possible when not all products can do at least 40 dB(A) and not practical, as the motherboard does not read the sound level, it just adjusts the voltage. 7 Volts are just high enough to ensure that (almost) every fan will start and about the same voltage as most motherboard will apply in their "quiet" mode. About the CPUs, I cannot do that as that would require me buying and testing every single CPU, which is not possible. Besides, every CPU is unique and the energy consumption also depends on several settings when overclocked, so it could easily bring misleading results. A single different setting can cause a massive change on consumption at the same exact frequency. For instance, a i7-3820 at 4.4 GHz consumes nearly 20% more energy with its voltage upped by 0.1V. It truly is a very interesting idea but a great deal of data and testing is required to create a proper database.