Corsair Hydro Series H100 Liquid CPU Cooler Review Comment Thread

[Dwayne]

Originally Posted by AkG

With water cooling units ALWAYS config them to exhaust (I dont care what the mfg'ers say...its just not an optimal choice to push hot air INTO a case). Doing otherwise negates one of the largest benefits of running water instead of air: COOL case temps. All that hot air inside a case is not a good thing. ;)

And that makes sense to me. Cool air in the case means the whole unit runs cooler and that should mean components are stressed less.

[freeagent]

I got this cooler for Christmas.. My main cooler was an old True that Ive had since 07 or so. I always ran it with dual 38x120 panaflos. I also have an NH-D14, wich to me is more suited for small dual cores, or light weight quads. Didnt like it too much.. This H100 is great for noobs who have used air since it was ok to run 2v+ through your cpu heheh.

I didnt like the stock fans.. yes they move air, but you have to spool em up, wich is ok if you like noise. I tried useing dual 38x120s, then with the stock corsairs pulling, and finally settled on 4 38x120s. My cpu puts out a ton of heat, alot more then any other cpu I have used before. And its not the greatest clocking chip, so it likes voltage too. I can run it whisper quiet at 4ghz with IBT running with no problems. After 4ghz I have to pile on the voltage.. Im ok with 1.5v but the fans are screaming at that point, and IBT isnt a good idea for more then a few minutes :P

All in all, fit and finish was pretty good, tho I thought the rad would be heavier.. It hasnt leaked, and shown way stronger performance then I was getting with my monster aircoolers. All in all its been a good first experience to liquid cooling. This summer I will most likely have a full custom loop. I had my doubts about this thing, but its turned out to be a great upgrade over air. Tho at this point I am blurring the lines between liquid and air cooling in my setup lol.

[t0m]

so im thinking about getting one of these for a 3930k build. the review pretty much sold me, but a bit of googling returns a lot of people with broken/failing units. has anyone had one of these for a while and can comment on reliability or any potential problems? is there an alternative that has equal performance to this? i dont have the budget or time for a real water cooling setup at this point, and i am not planning to try to break records with my overclock, so this looks like my best choice (on paper). thanks for any input, i am hoping to order the parts tomorrow night so anything to help me make the best choice would be much appreciated.

[krazyups]

I've had mine for almost a year now, and it's been pushed hard the entire time without issue. Performance is still the same as the day I installed it (high 60's - 70°C on the hottest core running at 4.75GHz), with no audible increase in noise. Running stock, although I should install a push-pull configuration to drop my temps a little bit more.

[trayton]

I've had 1 (bought it used) and the fan controller on it didnt work (well not even that it was more the fact I had 4 fans plugged into it and only 2 worked (then plugged them in (daisy chain hell ugh) with the 4pin to fan connector and they worked fine. Had to RMA that unit got a new one now and it works great.

Love it! Corsair RMA is pretty good I did cross ship but was kinda ticked it cost me $38 to send my unit back!

[t0m]

thanks guys :)

[ipaine]

Had mine for getting near a year as well and have had no issues with it. Been working good on my 2600@4.8GHz.