Member Reviews: Corsair Hydro Series H100 Extreme Performance Liquid CPU Cooler (CWCH100)

Hey Everyone So only my second time posting a review here, so please be gentle on me I created a mini blog/review site here, and this full review can also be found here. It would help me to continue these reviews both from the aspect of encouragement and also obtaining gear to review if you read and post on the site itself. Having said that I'm not going to force you to go read it there so it follows below. Any positive criticism is warmly received. I test with what I equipment I have, I'm also constrained by time (I have a day job) so obviously that limits things but hopefully this is of use to all of you. Now without further ado - my Corsair H100 review: Review of Corsair...

I have an EVGA X58 Classified motherboard. It has a huge huge huge northbridge heatsink right underneath the socket. I had this fact in mind while on the market for a CPU cooler, as it obviously limited my choices. Originally I wanted to go for a high end air cooler near the $90 price point, such as the Noctua NH-D14 or the Thermalright Silver Arrow, but after some research, found out they weren't compatible, with some users having to rotate the cooler 90 degrees. I "resorted" to having to look at the Corsair Hydro line of CPU coolers. I always saw these coolers are marketing gimmicks solely based on their performance. If you could find better performing air coolers for cheaper, why...

Leaps and bounds over the other smaller systems. I upgrades fans with push/pull fans and even cools my IB 3770k:thumb:

I got this cooler when I upgraded to the AMD FX-8150. I knew for the overclocking I was planning, air cooling wouldn't cut it. So, I went (almost) all out, and got the H100 while I was in the store. When I got it all out of the box, I had mixed feelings. It looked and felt like a well built cooler. However, the rad is quite thin, and looks like it wouldn't cool very much. But looks can be deceiving. Very deceiving. I hooked it up, and was able to get 4ghz on the FX-8150. That's not a big deal... But it was maintaining 45c with my room being like 25c. Oh yeah... And the fans were in silent mode.That's not gonna happen on air. Now comes the sadness. I woke up at roughly 5AM to what...

The H100 is a great liquid cooler for anyone wanting liquid cooling temps, without the liquid cooling installation. Taking the plunge into liquid cooling can be a little tricky for a beginner, from the leak testing, to deciding the loop order, not to mention the price. For anyone a bit hesitant of taking that on, the H100 is a great choice. The main advantage the H100 has over full blown liquid cooling loops, is that you can just pop it in your rig and not have to worry about it. No worrying about leaks, no cleaning, and no lengthy install. The H100 will easily fit in most full tower cases, and some mid towers. Temps wise, personally I have a 2500k with a 5ghz OC and I'm holding a 25c...

I didn't have that much of a problem installing this cooler. Note that I do have an Corsair 800D that lets me take the back panel off and access behind the board for the processor mounting. If you have any case like that, this will be a breeze but if you don't then this may be a bit more frustrating for you. The cooling on this is great even with stock paste. It uses a mid-high quality TIM (Thermal Paste) that keeps the processor nice and cool. Under loads at a mild OC of 4.5ghz @ 1.27 I was getting max of 63c as a push only config 10hr prime. From what I've seen a push/pull will affect the temps by 1-5c. Overall if you're scared of doing custom loops as I was, then this is a great way...