Pros: Cheap (in general terms) water cooler, keeps cpu cool, easy to use.
Cons: Fans are dodgy.
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 sounded like a jet wanting to land in my backyard. Nope... Just my computer going nuts. After doing a few fan tests, I was able to find out that one of the fans was bad, and was not only running at full speed, but likely also has a bearing problem. I replaced them with a set of Cooler Master fans for now, with a set of SP120's on their way.
The bottom line is: If you want to overclock further than you can on air, buy this. A custom loop is always best, but some might not wanna bother with that. If your stock fans come in good condition, then they're pretty quiet. However, you should be prepared to swap the fans for some better, quieter ones, just in case. However, considering how cheap this unit is over all, can you really expect the fans to be top notch?
Final answer: Buy it, and a spare set of fans.
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 sounded like a jet wanting to land in my backyard. Nope... Just my computer going nuts. After doing a few fan tests, I was able to find out that one of the fans was bad, and was not only running at full speed, but likely also has a bearing problem. I replaced them with a set of Cooler Master fans for now, with a set of SP120's on their way.
The bottom line is: If you want to overclock further than you can on air, buy this. A custom loop is always best, but some might not wanna bother with that. If your stock fans come in good condition, then they're pretty quiet. However, you should be prepared to swap the fans for some better, quieter ones, just in case. However, considering how cheap this unit is over all, can you really expect the fans to be top notch?
Final answer: Buy it, and a spare set of fans.
And, those are separate categories. The H100 comes ready to be popped in. That Swiftech loop has to be assembled, and filled and all that. Not really good for benching and such.
If you overclock the hell out of it and run memtests all day, it still doesnt get hot enough to require a fan! It doesnt even need the heatsinks most of them come with these days. They're only on to fool people like you into buying them...
good reveiw with some good advice man
Good review, thanks!