Today's Hard|Forum Post
Today's Hard|Forum Post
Date:
Thursday , December 04, 2014
Author:
Marc Adams
Editor:
Kyle Bennett
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Corsair Hydro H75 Liquid AIO CPU Cooler Update Review

Corsair has been in the liquid CPU cooling game for over 10 years now. As sealed system liquid CPU coolers have become the norm among hardware enthusiasts, the competition has gotten stiff to say the least. Another thing that has changed over the years is that many DIYers are going to smaller cases for their systems.

Introduction

We are taking a look back at CPU coolers we have already covered to see how these hold up with our modern CPU platform. Our main reason in doing this is because many of our readers have asked for these coolers to be added to our system comparisons. The reason these coolers are not in current comparisons is because since the initial review, we have changed testing equipment.

In most cases there has been no change to the cooler or accessories so you'll see some cutting and pasting from the previous review. This is isn't a case a lazy reporting, there just isn't any change in the equipment or experience. There might however be changes in the conclusions though, depending how these coolers compare on our newer test system. In the event something has changed it will be noted and explained. Today we are re-reviewing the Corsair Hydro Series H75 Liquid CPU Cooler.

We originally reviewed the Corsair H75 AIO in April of this year. The H75 AIO is the most recently reviewed AIO of the bunch and as such we don’t expect there to be any material changes with its design. In our previous look at the H75 we found the cooler to perform well and be especially suited for smaller cases that cannot accommodate larger tower coolers.

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System Setup

Today's review takes place on our fourth generation [H]ard platform. The test bed consists of the ASUS Z87-Deluxe motherboard, eight gigabytes of Corsair 1600 MHz DDR3 RAM and the Intel Core i7 4770K.

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Test Methods

CPU

The biggest change you will notice is the removal of hardware testing. In recent years, Intel has shifted their methods of testing to software based and so we find it acceptable to do the same.

GPU

Once again we have an integrated GPU in our processor which alleviates the need for a discrete one. With the removal of a discrete GPU comes the advantage of not having an additional variable to account for.

The iGPU will not create any anomalies in our testing as long as we practice consistent testing methods.

Case

Corsair was kind enough to provide us with their Carbide series chassis. It provides excellent airflow and interior space and is a good reflection on current case design.

Thermal Paste

Noctua's NT-H1 thermal paste was selected as the paste of choice for a few key reasons. The thermal paste has been shown to provide excellent thermal conductivity allowing the heat sinks to better do their job. There is no observed curing time. That is, performance does not get any better over time. Any curing time could have introduced variables into the equation causing at best dubious results and at worst unreliable ones.

Temperatures

Ambient temperature will be kept at 25C for the duration of the tests and measured with a MicroTemp EXP non-contact infrared thermometer and cross referenced with the Sperry Digital 4 Point thermometer. Any variance greater then 0.2C will halt the testing until temperatures return within spec for fifteen minutes.

Idle

Idle temperatures will be recorded after a twenty minute period of inactivity. Any fluctuation during the last sixty seconds will reset the timer for an additional five minutes.

Load

Load temperatures will be recorded after a twenty minute period for air cooled systems, and thirty minutes for liquid cooled systems, at 100% load. To obtain this load we will be using AIDA64 Extreme Edition v3.00.2500. This places an even greater load on the CPU than before and includes some benefits. Because the load is so extreme we see the temperature vary wildly from 72C to 86C in some instances. To get an accurate reading we will utilize AIDA64’s ability to average the temperature over time. Given twenty/thirty minutes at 100% load we arrive at a temperature that accurately represents our heatsink’s performance.

Sound

Sound levels will be measured with a Reliability Direct AR824 sound meter from a distance of four feet away. With everything turned off and the room completely silent the meter registered a sound level of 38dB(A). This is a very quiet room where a simple pin drop could be heard. All sound measurements are recorded in the very late evening to further reduce any ambient noise.