Today's Hard|Forum Post
Today's Hard|Forum Post
Date:
Tuesday , January 20, 2015
Author:
Marc Adams
Editor:
Kyle Bennett
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Corsair Hydro Series H100i All-In-One CPU Liquid Cooler

We continue today reviewing the older Corsair Hydro Series AIO coolers on our modern testing platform. Two years ago the Corsair H100i proved itself to be a solid value when it comes to sealed liquid All-In-One CPU coolers, but how does it perform a couple of years later? We take a look at what the H100i gets you with today's hardware.

Introduction

Moving along with our new coverage of some older model AIO coolers, we come to the Corsair Hydro Series™ H100i Extreme Performance CPU Cooler we originally reviewed back in February of 2013.

Recently, we look at the updated versions of the H60 and H55 closed loop liquid coolers from Corsair. While we came away impressed by the updates, we also realized this wouldn’t be enough for everyone. The coolers worked well and were relatively quiet but if you wanted top tier performance these were not the coolers you were looking for. Now, if there is one thing Corsair gets it’s how to cater to different people’s needs. An inexpensive, well performing cooler may be fine and well for others if that’s all they need but for the rest of us we want the highest level of performance manageable. We want every watt of heat to be whisked away from our CPUs as fast as physics will allow and maybe a bit faster. For those of us who just need to overlock our CPUs to the max and keep them cool Corsair is here with the H100i.

Similar to the H60 2013 edition, what we have is an update to the older H80 and the H100. The H100i come with a host of new features such as Corsair’s new cold plate design, smooth no-kink tubing designed to reduced evaporation, and include new fans with increased static pressure and low noise.

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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.