Cooling

Corsair H115i RGB Platinum Review

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November 1, 2018 10 Min Read
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Another day, another Corsair watercooling loop. Today we look at the Corsair H115i Platinum RGB featuring a plethora of RGB lighting and a 280mm radiator.


Product on Review: Corsair H115i Platinum RGB
Manufacturer: Corsair
Street Price: GBP £139.99 / USD $169.99

Corsair has enjoyed popularity in several markets, often delivering products which become the benchmark within their particular category; all-in-one watercooling is, without doubt, one of those categories. Their portfolio has developed over the years, starting out with modest 120mm radiators with a single fan and slowly moving their way up to fully fledged 360mm radiators. Today we look at their latest 280mm variant, the Corsair H115i Platinum RGB.

The Corsair H115i Platinum RGB boasts a revised CPU block with 16 individually addressable LED lights, as opposed to the single selectable colour on the H115i Pro RGB. Along with the revised lighting is a larger cold plate for better thermal conductivity and performance overall as well as an improved radiator core for larger surface area.

AM4 support is there, for the latest AMD Ryzen CPUs, but for the first time with a Corsair all-in-one loop we also get AMD ThreadRipper socket compatibility. Of course, the usual Intel sockets are also catered for.



The H115i Pro RGB that this replaces came with a pair of Corsair ML140 fans, renowned for their quiet operation and high static pressure. The H115i Platinum comes with the same ML140 fans, but with RGB LEDs infused within for that extra bling, all of which is controlled via the pump housing.

Obviously, the focus is on visual differences, with the extra LEDs plastered all over, but with a larger cold plate and revised radiator, what differences can we find in performance?

Corsair on the H115i Platinum RGB:
The CORSAIR Hydro Series H115i RGB PLATINUM is an all-in-one liquid CPU cooler built for extreme cooling with a 280mm radiator and vivid RGB lighting from 24 LEDs. Two CORSAIR ML PRO RGB 140mm PWM fans run up to 2,000 RPM, alongside an optimized cold plate and pump design that delivers the high performance Hydro Series cooling. Take control with CORSAIR iCUE software to customize lighting effects and enable Zero RPM mode at low temperatures. Easy to install and compatible with most modern CPU sockets, the H115i RGB PLATINUM pairs killer looks with chiller performance.

Technical Specifications

Coldplate Material: Copper
Tubing Material: Low permeation with black sleeving
Radiator Material: Aluminum
Radiator Size: 322mm x 137mm x 27mm
Fan(s) included: 2x ML PRO RGB 140mm PWM Fans
Fan Max Speed: 2000 RPM
Fan Airflow: 97 CFM
Fan Static Pressure: 3.0 mm-H2O
Fan Noise Level: 37 dB(A)

Packaging & Bundle

As is usually the case with any product from Corsair, the black and yellow theme is obvious with an RGB liquid theme in the background. The front isn’t too heavy with information and features a large image of the cooling loop.



On the reverse side, Corsair provide a mountain of information relating to several aspects of the cooler as well as proper blueprints of the radiator to ensure it’ll fit your case.



Bundled with the pump and radiator is a pair of ML140 fans, warranty and installation information, mounting brackets and a whole host of screws and fixings.

Closer Look

Corsair have invested plenty of time into improving the pump block, adding a stack of RGB lighting to the front with a whole sixteen individually addressable RGB LEDs (12 around the edge of the face and 4 in the centre Corsair logo.)

We also see the cables have moved to the top of the block, instead of protruding from the side, between the fluid tubes.



The base of the CPU block has been enlarged to help accommodate the surface area requirements of the TR4 CPUs. The pre-applied paste also eases installation for the first time.



Providing airflow are a pair of Corsair ML 140 RGB fans, with an operating range of 400 to 2000 RPM, with the ability to turn off entirely while the coolant temperature is below 45°C. The rubber mounts on the corners paired with the magnetic levitation gains these fans many awards for quietness and high static pressure. The fan’s RGB lighting is controlled by the pump, meaning less wires and mess.



While most radiators look exactly the same to one another, Corsair have improved the efficiency of this 280mm radiator by expanding the radiator core which increases surface area and performance.



With the fans installed, the radiator looks the part but let’s move onto the installation.

RGB Lighting

Check out the video below for a brief overview of the RGB lighting included with the H115i Platinum RGB.

Installation

With each CPU cooler that we test, a small pea-sized blob of Noctua NT-H1 thermal paste is applied to our CPU ahead of heatsink installation. We choose to use this high-quality paste in all of our CPU cooler reviews, essentially eliminating an unnecessary variable from the subsequent results and comparison graphs. We also installed the four standoff screws into the LGA2011 socket.



Going along with Corsair’s tool-less design, the four thumbscrews can be sufficiently tightened by hand, though if you’re a little finnicky, perhaps using a screwdriver to line up the crosses on top of each screw will be necessary.



Installing the radiator is always a simple task, regardless of the brand, with 8 screws installed from above to hold it into place.



As we mentioned on the Closer Look page, the cables now protruding from the top of the pump should help with cable management, giving an overall tidier appearance. If Corsair can do something about the Micro USB next, that would be the cherry on the cake.



As per usual, we rate the Corsair installation experience amongst some of the best.

Test Setup & Methodology

We have recently made changes to our cooling department and the associated testing methodology, so please note that the number of results shown will increase over time as we add additional products. We hope that these results will appear clearer to the majority of our readership and look forward to building upon the baselines that we currently have.

We perform two individual testing routines with each CPU cooler that we receive – temperatures and acoustics. The system used is as follows and all tests are performed at stock 3.8 GHz and overclocked 4.4 GHz frequencies.

Processor – Intel Core i7-3930K
Motherboard – Gigabyte X79-UP4
Memory – 8GB Corsair Vengeance LP 1600MHz CL9
Video Card – Sapphire Radeon HD 6850 1GB
Power Supply – NZXT Hale90 650W
Storage Drive – Kingston HyperX 240GB SATA III SSD
Case – Corsair Carbide 760T
Monitor ASUS ROG SWIFT PG278Q


To keep our tests consistent, we always review CPU coolers as they come out of the box – with their factory cooling fans, as the manufacturer intended and as the consumer expects. It should, however, be noted that we do not use supplied thermal paste but instead, Noctua NT-H1 paste to, again, ensure consistency. The paste is applied and the CPU allowed to run for a couple of hours, at idle, to give the thermal compound some time to “bed in.”

In the first test, we record idle and load temperatures as shown by the most current version of the Real Temp monitoring utility. The test system is booted to the Windows desktop and left to idle for 20 minutes to ensure temperatures have stabilised. The average core temperatures are then recorded over a 1 minute period and averaged across the six cores. We then perform a continuous 20 minute AIDA 64 stress test. The maximum absolute core temperatures are recorded immediately after the test has completed and averaged across the six cores. All results are displayed as delta temperatures – these are calculated by subtracting the ambient room temperature from the average core temperatures recorded. For temperature testing, the Corsair 760T chassis door is closed and has all three systems fans powered on to simulate real-world conditions.

Our second test follows a similar methodology to the first, with the key difference being that the Corsair 760T chassis door is now left open and all three systems fans are disabled. This allows for the CPU cooler fans acoustic profiles to be captured in isolation. From cold, the system is again booted to the Windows desktop and left to idle for 20 minutes to ensure temperatures have stabilised. The acoustic level is then recorded at a distance of 20cm from the CPU cooler and where the individual result is an average level over a 1 minute period. We then perform our continuous 20 minutes AIDA 64 stress test. Acoustic levels are again recorded at a distance of 20cm from the CPU cooler and where the individual result is an average level over a 1 minute period.

Benchmarks – Thermal Results

We have recently made changes to our cooling department and the associated testing methodology, so please note that the number of results shown below will increase over time as we add additional products. We hope that these results will appear clearer to the majority of our readership and look forward to building upon the baselines that you see below.

We start off by letting the CPU cooler “bed in” for a couple of hours, to ensure the paste has time to move around and form an even layer, after which an idle result is taken.



Then we crank up the temperature using AIDA64’s Stability Test and take a measurement after 20 minutes.

Benchmarks – Acoustic Results

As mentioned on the previous page, we’ve made some recent changes to our cooling department and the testing methodology. Therefore our results graphs are starting from fresh – we’re working tirelessly to populate these graphs, but we hope you can appreciate that these results must be done fairly, and more importantly, correctly.

Perhaps even more important than thermal performance is the acoustic qualities of a CPU cooler; it’s all well and good having a cool CPU, but if you can’t hear yourself think while it’s running, it’ll soon wear thin.

We test the Corsair H100i Platinum RGB using the balanced fan profile and extreme pump profile.

Firstly we allow the system to idle for around half an hour, giving it plenty of chance to equalise and the fans to find their optimal setting.



We then measure the fan noise at the end of our AIDA 64 Stability Test.

Conclusion

Thermal performance and acoustics are both extraordinary on this CPU cooler, at both stock clocks and with our Intel 3930K overclocked. In the default state of 3.8GHz, the H115i Platinum topped our acoustics graphs with only 28dB(A) of noise, while overclocking to 4.4GHz, which almost doubles the idle power consumption, we only saw the noise rise to 30dB(A). Performance was better than the previous H115i Pro RGB in every test, showing Corsair’s efforts to be more than worthwhile.

The RGB lighting is more than worth mentioning. The addition of individually addressable lighting on the pump head as well as RGB fans has completely transformed the overall aesthetic of the kit when compared to its predecessor. The Corsair iCUE software is largely improved also, with a whole bunch of built in effects which can be stacked and customised. Overall, this is the best looking RGB lighting we’ve seen on a CPU cooler.

Considering this is only around £10/$10 more expensive than the H115i Pro RGB, we imagine this will make the previous version completely obsolete, but it’s also only £15 more than the H100i Platinum RGB so unless you’re stuck for space, this is the cooler to go for, out of the pair. However, having said that, the £140 is still a lot of money for a CPU cooler.



The H115i Platinum was there, or there abouts, with the top of the charts in acoustics and temperature tests, with epic RGB lighting to boot.

Pros
+ Most beautiful RGB lighting on a CPU cooler
+ Chart topping performance
+ Super easy, tool-free installation
+ Corsair’s iCUE Software is great
+ ThreadRipper socket compatibility

Cons
– Pricey
– Supercedes the previous Pro RGB range a little too quickly


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