Equipped with Corsair Link, high-RPM SP120 based cooling fans and a new design, can H100i liquid CPU cooler offer much advantage over its predecessor?
Product on Review: Hydro H100i Extreme
Manufacturer and Sponsor: Corsair
Street Price: £90 (At time of review)
ALCs (All-contained Liquid Coolers) are now regarded as a mainstay in the cooling market, bridging the gap between air cooling and custom water-cooling. Corsair have taken on this lucrative segment and confidently asserted themselves are a reliable source for countless enthusiasts.
The Hydro Series has been well received over the last few years, the H100 in particular being regarded as the ultimate ALC offering. At the beginning of November Corsair announced a new lineup of Hydro CPU Coolers, some of which are revisions of existing products such as the H100. Today we will be taking a look at this next instalment of H100, namely H100i.
As with other products in Corsair’s portfolio the ‘i’ signifies a digital interface with Corsair Link. Corsair’s new H100i has been given a plethora of improvements which include a new manifold, mounting system, tubing and cooling fans. Can these changes work in Corsair’s favour? Can we shave off more noise and temperature? Let’s find out.
Corsair on H100i
Want even more? The Hydro Series H100i delivers extreme performance liquid CPU cooling a 240mm top-mounted radiator and Corsair Link monitoring and control.
Technical Specifications & Features
Warranty
Five years
Cold Plate Material
Copper
Fan Specification
120mm (x2)
Socket Support
AMD AM2, AMD AM3, AMD FM1, AMD FM2, Intel LGA 1155, Intel LGA 1156, Intel LGA 1366, Intel LGA 2011
Radiator Material
Aluminum
Tubing
Large-diameter, low permeability
Radiator dimensions
120mm x 275mm x 27mm
Fan dimensions
120mm x 120mm x 25mm
Fan speed
2700 RPM
Fan airflow
77 CFM
Fan dBA
37.68 dBA
Fan static pressure
4mm/H20
Compatibility
Hydro Series H100i requires a case with dual 120mm fan mounts with 15mm spacing for a 240mm radiator
Five years
Cold Plate Material
Copper
Fan Specification
120mm (x2)
Socket Support
AMD AM2, AMD AM3, AMD FM1, AMD FM2, Intel LGA 1155, Intel LGA 1156, Intel LGA 1366, Intel LGA 2011
Radiator Material
Aluminum
Tubing
Large-diameter, low permeability
Radiator dimensions
120mm x 275mm x 27mm
Fan dimensions
120mm x 120mm x 25mm
Fan speed
2700 RPM
Fan airflow
77 CFM
Fan dBA
37.68 dBA
Fan static pressure
4mm/H20
Compatibility
Hydro Series H100i requires a case with dual 120mm fan mounts with 15mm spacing for a 240mm radiator
Features (taken from Corsair website)
Corsair Link Monitoring and Control
Monitor temperature and control lighting and fan speed on your screen. No additional hardware is necessary.
Self-contained Cooling System
Hydro Series H100i comes pre-filled, and never needs refilling or priming.
Dual Radiator with Custom Fan Design
The 240mm top-mounted radiator provides maximum surface area for maximum cooling power. The 120mm fans use wide, low-pitch blades for better static pressure to noise ratio, offering improved efficiency at lower noise levels.
Built-In Corsair Link
No additional hardware is necessary – just connect the included Corsair Link cable to a USB header on your motherboard and download the free Corsair Link Dashboard software. You can monitor coolant temperature and adjust cooling performance directly from your desktop.
Tool-free multiplatform magnetic mounting bracket kit
The modular design makes installation simpler, and it’s compatible with Intel and AMD processors.
Large-diameter, low permeability tubing
Minimal coolant evaporation helps ensure long life, and the resilient material offers both high flexibility and excellent leak protection.
Self-contained Cooling System
Hydro Series H100i comes pre-filled, and never needs refilling or priming.
Dual Radiator with Custom Fan Design
The 240mm top-mounted radiator provides maximum surface area for maximum cooling power. The 120mm fans use wide, low-pitch blades for better static pressure to noise ratio, offering improved efficiency at lower noise levels.
Built-In Corsair Link
No additional hardware is necessary – just connect the included Corsair Link cable to a USB header on your motherboard and download the free Corsair Link Dashboard software. You can monitor coolant temperature and adjust cooling performance directly from your desktop.
Tool-free multiplatform magnetic mounting bracket kit
The modular design makes installation simpler, and it’s compatible with Intel and AMD processors.
Large-diameter, low permeability tubing
Minimal coolant evaporation helps ensure long life, and the resilient material offers both high flexibility and excellent leak protection.
Packaging, Bundle & Fans
In similar manner to the H100, the H100i comes in a large box showing a depiction of the cooler on the front with its fundamental features printed. Corsair have opted for red styling on the box as opposed to the H100 which was blue. This helps to distinguish between the two for buyers and also aligns itself with being extreme. Further details can be found on the reverse.
Inside, the included items that make up the bundle are carefully arranged inside an eggshell type box and each have their own protective bag.
Packaging for H100i
Corsair’s H100i has compatibility for a variety of different CPU sockets and as a result there are different fitting kits to cater for this. Also bundled with the cooler are dual 120mm cooling fans a large 240mm radiator with pump and documentation such as instructions manual, warranty information, and quick guide. There are some cables included with H100i allowing you to daisy chain the cooling fans via Y-cable and a mini-USB to USB header cable to allow for full use of Corsair Link technology which gives the user complete control over cooling and lighting. It’s with this software that the fan speeds can be adjusted via profiles.
Bundled items included with H100i
Included with H100i are dual 120mm cooling fans which are to be attached to the 240mm radiator. The fans use a 7-blade design and is based on Air Series SP120 capable of up to 2700RPM. These fans deliver very high pressure and low noise at a given RPM compared to the fans used on H100. They are also specifically designed for radiators, unlike the fans often seen bundled with ALCs.
The corners on these fans are rubberised to allow for anti-vibration and the shape enable both to interconnect when side-by-side. Cabled to these fans is a 3-pin connector, this can be plugged directly into a motherboard header or used with the provided Y-cable.
Fans based on Air Series SP120
Two-tone black/grey
Closer Look
Having the ability to accommodate dual 120mm cooling fans, the H100i’s radiator is 240mm and of the thinner type – 27mm thick. There are 13 banks of corrugated aluminium fins soldered to 14 thin heat pipes running the length of the radiator carrying the coolant. Each fin is 8mm wide and is separated by a mere 1.5mm making the array very dense. As such, there is a vast surface area to dissipate heat with the help of the two 120mm fans to transfer the heat away.
Being a liquid cooler means there is already fluid inside the tubes/radiator. Corsair have used a mixture of distilled water with Propylene Glycol .The tubes which link between the pump and radiator allow this liquid to flow to and from by connecting to compartments within the radiator. Liquid flows into one and out of the other once it has cycled through the entire radiator.
The tubes are thicker than the original H100 (comparison on the next page) at 15mm and approximately 300mm long. They allow for some movement at the pump-end so that the pump can be installed in various orientations.
An overview of radiator, tubes and pump
The pump is significantly smaller on H100i compared to its predecessor, Corsair have chosen to keep the design compact and rather than pre-attach the mounting bracket this is now separate. The corsair logo is shown on the top-side of the pump. On the H100 the fan speed could be altered by pressing a button here, with the H100i fan speeds are now controlled via Corsair Link software instead. This Corsair logo glows when powered up and the colour can be configured to almost any conceivable shade thanks to an RGB LED.
There are ports on the pump to work in co-ordination with the Y-cable, with both fans connected to the pump via this method the only remaining port which allows Corsair Link the access to properly work is the USB port. A cable provides interface between the pump and the system via USB to USB header.
A much more compact pump
Connections on the pump for cooling fans
USB port for Corsair Link functionality
In order to power the pump and entire system it’s necessary to connect the SATA connection plug into a SATA PSU cable and the 3-pin fan header.
Power via SATA
Due to the pump being smaller the water block has less surface area compared to the predecessor. The water block is copper but without a mirror finish. Corsair have used pre-applied Dow-Corning thermal paste – the same as H100.
The copper water block with pre-applied thermal paste
H100 vs H100i – The comparison
For the purpose of comparison we have put the H100 side-by-side with the new H100i in a bid to show where things have changed.
An overview comparing H100 and H100i
Although the aluminium radiator design has remained the same there are some significant differences between the H100 and H100i when we turn to the pump. H100i uses a new cold-plate and manifold design, a new mounting bracket method has also been implemented – no longer is there a bracket fastened to the pump itself.
The overall shape and size is much more compact, the quality of engineering feels superior too. H100i has a USB port to enable Corsair Link monitoring and adjustment of fan speeds whilst H100 has on-the-fly modification.
Comparing the two pumps – H100i is more compact
The compartments at the end of the radiator (which hold the fluid) on H100i has also seen a change, it’s now larger to entertain the thicker tubing. H100 has a hard plastic, brittle set of tubes but H100i makes use of thicker insulated tubing to allow fluid to transfer quicker. The thicker tubing is unlikely to crack/leak compared to this new implementation.
Superior tubing, thicker and stronger
Installation Process
In order to demonstrate the installation process for H100i we are installing the cooler on the Intel LGA2011 socket.
To start, four stand-offs must be screwed down onto the outer mounting holes of the socket plate. Once these are tight its then time to install the radiator and cooling fans within the computer chassis. This part of the installation will differ depending on what case you have, we have used the Corsair 500R and due to the large heatsinks on the GIGABYTE X79-UP4 it isn’t possible to mount the radiator with fans on the inside of the roof because of collision. So instead, the radiator sits inside the top cavity found at the top of 500R and the cooling fans attach on the inside of the chassis. A set of extended screws are provided in the bundle which pass through fan and radiator. After the installation of radiator and fans (in push configuration) is complete, it’s time to fit the mounting bracket over the top of the pump and attach the pump to the motherboard/CPU. When in place, the screws must be tightened to provide a secure fitment. It’s advisable to tighten corner to corner gradually in order to apply even pressure. The finally steps after this are to connect to the fans with a Y-cable to the pump and connect the USB cable between the pump and a USB header on the motherboard and then the H100i is ready to go!
H100i requires a case with dual 120mm fan mounts with 15mm spacing for the 240mm radiator to fit. The overall size of the radiator is 275mm.
Usually we would show memory clearance in the next section of this CPU cooler review but since the H100i avoids this region completely there is no need to measure this.
Test Setup & Methodology
Test System
CPU – Intel Core i7-3930K (3.6GHz)
Motherboard – GIGABYTE X79-UP4
Memory – 8GB Corsair Vengeance LP 1600MHz CL9
Graphics – Sapphire Radeon HD 6850 1GB
PSU – NZXT Hale90 650W
Hard Drive – Kingston HyperX 240GB SATA III SSD
Case – Corsair Carbide 500R White
Motherboard – GIGABYTE X79-UP4
Memory – 8GB Corsair Vengeance LP 1600MHz CL9
Graphics – Sapphire Radeon HD 6850 1GB
PSU – NZXT Hale90 650W
Hard Drive – Kingston HyperX 240GB SATA III SSD
Case – Corsair Carbide 500R White
CPU Coolers
Alpenföhn Matterhorn Pure(120mm Wingboost: 300-1200RPM)
Alpenföhn K2 (120mm Wingboost: 500-1500RPM, 140mm Wingboost: 300-1100RPM)
Alpenföhn Gotthard (140mm Wingboost: 300-1100RPM)
Noctua NH-D14 (120mm NF-P12 PWM + 140mm NF-P14 PWM: up to 1200RPM)
Thermalright SilverArrow SB-E Extreme (Dual TY-143 fans – 600-2500RPM)
Corsair Hydro H100 (Dual 120mm fans – low: 1300RPM, mid: 2000RPM, high: 2600RPM Push Config)
SilverStone HE01 (140mm PWM fan – 500RPM-1200RPM – 500RPM-2000RPM)
be quiet! Dark Rock Pro 2 (135mm + 120mm PWM Fans – up to 1500RPM and 1700RPM)
Thermaltake Water 2.0 Pro (Dual 120mm PWM fans – up to 2000RPM)
Corsair Hydro Series H100i (Dual 120mm fans – up to 2700RPM Push Config)
Program Suite
Real Temp – Maximum temperature analysis
LinX 0.6.4 – Applies thorough stress test to CPU
CPU-Z – Confirmation of CPU frequency/voltage
AIDA64 Extreme Edition – Confirmation of temperatures/fan speeds
Testing methodology
Testing will be based on temperatures recorded by Real Temp after 20 passes of LinX stress test. The maximum absolute temperatures will be recorded after the test and averaged over the 6 cores. The delta is then calculated by subtracting the ambient temperature recorded near the intake fans from the average temperature calculated. Tests are conducted with the Intel i7 3930K at its default 3.6GHz stock speed and overclocked to 4.6GHz @ 1.42V. The tests are done inside the Corsair Carbide 500R chassis to simulate real world conditions. To keep the tests standardised we are using Noctua’s NT-H1 thermal paste on all coolers.
CPU coolers are reviewed as they come out of the box – with their factory cooling fans, as the manufacturer intended and as the consumer expects.
Additional tests include a passive test where the cooling fans are taken away from the heatsink and a comparison between the cooler used with stock thermal paste against our Noctua NT-H1 paste.
A kind thank you to Noctua for supplying us with NT-H1 thermal compound.
Results – Stock Performance
In our first test with the CPU at stock settings H100i sets a new benchmark pushing past its predecessor. During quiet mode the H100i achieves low-noise and still maintains a high ranking. The minor changes Corsair have made have clearly improved upon an already successful product. It’s important to note that the H100 has the following fan speed settings as previously tested: 1300 RPM (Low)2000RPM (Mid) 2500RPM (High) – by knowing these values we can see H100’s fans are operating at the same speeds as H100i and results are comparable.
Quiet Mode: 1100RPM – Low noise and relatively unnoticeable.
Maximum Mode: 2500RPM – Much more noticeable compared to quiet mode but not as disruptive as other 2500RPM fans.
Results – Overclocked Performance
Putting the CPU under a significant overclock reveals H100i’s true strength; again the record has been broken by over 5C, furthermore, in Quiet Mode the H100i beats the H100 in High Mode, establishing itself as the best CPU cooler we have tested. The new pump, tubing and cooling fans have obviously helped enormously with the heat dissipation. A new standard is set. It’s important to note that the H100 has the following fan speed settings as previously tested: 1300 RPM (Low)2000RPM (Mid) 2500RPM (High) – by knowing these values we can see H100’s fans are operating at the same speeds as H100i and results are comparable.
Quiet Mode: 1100RPM – Low noise and relatively unnoticeable.
Maximum Mode: 2500RPM – Much more noticeable compared to quiet mode but not as disruptive as other 2500RPM fans.
Results – Passive Performance
Sadly, H100i was not up to cooling the burly Sandy Bridge-E CPU. Without any active cooling fans the temperature rose to a dangerous level and so in this test it failed. This tells us that having those cooling fans attached is essential.
Results – Thermal Paste Performance
Most CPU coolers come accompanied with thermal paste provided by the manufacturer. For our CPU cooling tests we use Noctua’s NT-H1, so to offer up some interesting analysis we test the thermal paste which is already applied to the water block (Dow-Corning) to see which gives the best results during stock and overclocked performance.
This test was run at Maximum Mode.
As you can see from the results, the quality of the paste which is pre-applied on H100i is very good. It almost matches that of the notorious Noctua NT-H1.
Conclusion
In the arena of CPU coolers, whether you are looking at high-end air cooling or self-contained liquid cooling the results to be obtained have settled. Significant advances in thermal performance appears to have flattened, until H100i came along.
The original H100 pushed the boundaries for performance and whilst it was a solid contender for the top-spot it did have some weaknesses which have all been addressed in the next installment. The pump and block are now much more compact, the fan control is now managed via Corsair Link rather than having to remove your computer chassis side panel every time fan speed requires adjusting. Tubing has also changed; being thicker and much more flexible.
Thanks to an easy installation the H100i can be attached to any system in next to no time due to simplicity of design. Peace of mind doesn’t end there either, because of the nature of this cooler the memory region is completely clear of any obstructions unlike air cooling, so it doesn’t matter how tall memory heatsinks are.
Prior to this review the H100 held the top spot for thermal performance and although we had anticipated results would be near to H100 for H100i we didn’t expect such a triumph. H100i outperforms anything we have tested; even with the cooling fans set to ‘Quiet Mode’ (lower RPM) the performance is still outstanding. Corsair have changed the fan of choice for H100i and opted for a much more refined set of fans based on SP120. These fans deliver high-pressure and low-noise, being specifically designed for radiator usage – unlike many other liquid coolers currently available to buy from other brands.
Thankfully most (if not all) computer cases now come with dual 120mm mounting holes at the top, which is what the H100i requires. It’s worth investigating whether your case and motherboard have enough clearance though in order to avoid disappointment. Opting for a Corsair case is encouraged since they obviously engineer their lineup to work in collaboration with their cooling products too.
Priced at £90 the H100i is a far more appealing proposition compared to the likes of other touted 240mm ALCs. Corsair have made a name for themselves in this division and are now well-established with the boundary for outstanding thermal performance now set. H100i may appear high in price but balance this with the high-quality components, included assets and flexibility and it’s easy to see how many will soon become accustomed to this great piece of kit.
The Hydro Series H100i outperforms anything we have yet tested and attains the moniker it has been given ‘Extreme’. It’s ease of installation, flexibility and great features courtesy of Corsair Link help to encapsulate what a liquid cooler should really be. We’ve been mightily impressed by H100i and as such it attains our prestigious Gold award.
Pros
+ Excellent thermal performance
+ Compact
+ Easy to install
+ No memory clearance issues
+ Fan control & monitoring via Corsair Link
+ Dual 120mm (High RPM) fans
+ 5 years warranty
Cons
– Cost
+ Excellent thermal performance
+ Compact
+ Easy to install
+ No memory clearance issues
+ Fan control & monitoring via Corsair Link
+ Dual 120mm (High RPM) fans
+ 5 years warranty
Cons
– Cost
Click here for an explanation of our awards at Vortez.net.
