Pros: ease of install vs custom water cooling, cooling efficiency
Cons: size, bundled fans efficiency. tubes flexibility, instructions graphics not reliable for AMD
I bought this thing when I started running my Phenom X6 at 3.5GHz on daily basis and started actually doing temperature monitoring.
The box is quite odd to open, and the CPU block is pre-assembled with Intel brackets. I personally would have packaged it not pre-assembled for the following reasons:
This is the first time I actually upgrade my cooling solution from stock, and I used 4 computers before. So this was the first time I had to figure out the mounting brackets affair and all the vendor and socket-specific jazz.
I don't consider myself as technology-challenged in much ways except networking and security, but I really poked the CPU block, instructions and my own motherboard before figuring it out; I even went as far as unscrewing the socket from my motherboard...
I had to read the instructions twice, and found out that it is meant to be mounted just like an ordinary fan (up and bottom locks) on the AMD socket (as opposed as the way Intel does things). So I had to remove the pre-installed (yuk...) brackets set and put the AMD one
The rest pretty much followed by itself until I see how rigid the tubes connecting the block to the radiator are. Seriously, they are very, very stiff. You can't bend them much without fearing to break them.
Since I have a mid case, I didn't have a lot of room to play with, and the AMD socket doesn't give me much orientation choices. I managed to find a solution: I had to remove my top and rear fans and mount the fan at the rear, then re-mount the top fan outside the case... Sacrifice.
Plus, the way my motherboard is made, I couldn't screw everything in place due to bending factors: the second fan of the radiator sits right beside the CPU block, so it's physically impossible to screw the two "back" screws for the second fan, but it's not really necessary for me since everything sits tight.
Mounting aside, the manual gave poor visual reference for non-essential parts (They are showing intel brackets on the CPU block for the AMD side of the instructions paper, about plugging wires).
However, the cooling is great for a "screw and go" cooling solution: I went from 40-ish °C idle to around 21°C to 28°C, depending on my overclock and other yet-to-be-determined factors.
I currently am running a prime95 stress-test as I am writing this review, and my temp is at 37-38°C full-load on 6 cores clocked @ 3.5 GHz, running for over 30 minutes.
However, the fans seems to give poor air flow at the lowest setting.
So in Resumé/Conclusion, it is a great product, will easily fit full-size cases and some mid-cases depending on what case and what motherboard you have, but it could have used a bit more love from Corsair, like more flexible tubes, better fans and lack of obvious Intel fanaticism (pre-installed vendor-specific things are a big turn-down for me).
While it may not beat custom Cooling solutions and may not look as epic as them, it definitely is the best sub 200$ cooling solution you can fit in a mid case (like I did, with some sacrifice depending on the case). Since the H100 will defenitely NOT fit a mid case without actually drilling and sawing holes.
The box is quite odd to open, and the CPU block is pre-assembled with Intel brackets. I personally would have packaged it not pre-assembled for the following reasons:
This is the first time I actually upgrade my cooling solution from stock, and I used 4 computers before. So this was the first time I had to figure out the mounting brackets affair and all the vendor and socket-specific jazz.
I don't consider myself as technology-challenged in much ways except networking and security, but I really poked the CPU block, instructions and my own motherboard before figuring it out; I even went as far as unscrewing the socket from my motherboard...
I had to read the instructions twice, and found out that it is meant to be mounted just like an ordinary fan (up and bottom locks) on the AMD socket (as opposed as the way Intel does things). So I had to remove the pre-installed (yuk...) brackets set and put the AMD one
The rest pretty much followed by itself until I see how rigid the tubes connecting the block to the radiator are. Seriously, they are very, very stiff. You can't bend them much without fearing to break them.
Since I have a mid case, I didn't have a lot of room to play with, and the AMD socket doesn't give me much orientation choices. I managed to find a solution: I had to remove my top and rear fans and mount the fan at the rear, then re-mount the top fan outside the case... Sacrifice.
Plus, the way my motherboard is made, I couldn't screw everything in place due to bending factors: the second fan of the radiator sits right beside the CPU block, so it's physically impossible to screw the two "back" screws for the second fan, but it's not really necessary for me since everything sits tight.
Mounting aside, the manual gave poor visual reference for non-essential parts (They are showing intel brackets on the CPU block for the AMD side of the instructions paper, about plugging wires).
However, the cooling is great for a "screw and go" cooling solution: I went from 40-ish °C idle to around 21°C to 28°C, depending on my overclock and other yet-to-be-determined factors.
I currently am running a prime95 stress-test as I am writing this review, and my temp is at 37-38°C full-load on 6 cores clocked @ 3.5 GHz, running for over 30 minutes.
However, the fans seems to give poor air flow at the lowest setting.
So in Resumé/Conclusion, it is a great product, will easily fit full-size cases and some mid-cases depending on what case and what motherboard you have, but it could have used a bit more love from Corsair, like more flexible tubes, better fans and lack of obvious Intel fanaticism (pre-installed vendor-specific things are a big turn-down for me).
While it may not beat custom Cooling solutions and may not look as epic as them, it definitely is the best sub 200$ cooling solution you can fit in a mid case (like I did, with some sacrifice depending on the case). Since the H100 will defenitely NOT fit a mid case without actually drilling and sawing holes.
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