Welcome to the fourth kit in my value <$150 2x120mm radiator kit series, the Corsair Hydro Series H100i CPU cooler. Corsair has been in the sealed AIO cooler business for a while and although I personally have never had the opportunity to review any of the kits before, I’ve seen the forum following grow over the years so I expect good things. A good following and user base is no accident and usually means good things. I also very much enjoy my Corsair TX650 power supply and regularly run Corsair memory such as my current Vengence memory due to the quality of parts and consistent good result I’ve had with Corsair products. They also have a good reputation for customer service and honoring warranty issues and that means a lot to me as well. When I decided I wanted to do kit testing, the H100i was on my short must do list due to its popularity and amazing low price of just $119. While the H100i doesn’t come designed for expansion due to it’s sealed nature, it is the lowest priced kit with a 240 sized radiator and had the longest warranty so I was very interested in reviewing.
Here is a quick picture of the kit
Frozen CPU Product Information
Product Description
Have a PC case that supports a top-mounted 240mm radiator? Take your CPU cooling to a new level. H100i starts with the advanced design of the Hydro Series H80i, and adds a double-wide radiator for even better performance.
Monitor temperature and control lighting and fan speed on your screen. No additional hardware is necessary using the Corsair Link
Features
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 multi platform 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.
Technical Specifications
Technical Specifications 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: Intel™ LGA 1155, 1156, 1366, and 2011
AMD™ sockets FM1, FM2, AM2, and AM3
Hydro Series H100i requires a case with dual 120mm fan mounts with 15mm spacing for a 240mm radiatorPackage contents: Corsair Hydro Series H100i High Performance Liquid CPU Cooler
Magnetic Multi-platform mounting kit for all modern CPU sockets
Dual SP120L High Performance Fans
USB Cable for Corsair Link™ Compatibility
Fan and radiator mounting screws
Thermal compound (pre-applied)
Quick Start Guide
So as already noted, the 5 year warranty stands out for me as does the 2700RPM fans.
What it doesn’t specify and what I found out during the review is the lack of Window 8 support in using the Corsair Link software when I did my testing on this unit.
I did just double-check the corsair website and now that I have removed the H100i for other unit testing, it does appear that corsair link is now finally 5 months later, supporting windows 8. If you go to the downloads section, you will now see that the latest software is supposedly supporting Win 8. That has recently been updated.
Also worthy of note for those thinking of modding the kit, the radiator is “aluminum” so any sort of mods will require a corrosion inhibitor because of the mixed copper/aluminum metals.
martinsliquidlab.wordpress.com 
Thanks Martin,
I’ll use your tips. I will cut the tubes to the size I need them to be and then re-assemble and bleed the kit out of the case.
Do you know that voltage is the pump using? if it is using the 5v rail maybe I can mod a cable to connect it to the 12v to speed it up a litle.. humm I can alreasy smell the smoke..
Using a reservoir is out of the question as there is no space for one on the case. It’s a mini-itx build with a ncases M1 case.
Hi Martin,
Hope you had a great Christmas ! And hope you have a safe and joyous New Year also!
Quick question, have you heard of that Kraken g10, the CPU AIO adapter for a GPU? It looks pretty cool and read some impressive reviews. Just wondering your thoughts on it. Also, do you know someone who sells a heatsink kit for a graphics card to use on the VRam and VRMs? Perhaps an assorted package of small heatsinks you could glue to the chips? I talked to a guy that was going to use 2 of these with H90s to cool 2 780s. He said he would get back to me when he has it up and running.
Take care
Steven
No personal experience, but this review:
http://www.pugetsystems.com/labs/articles/NZXT-Kraken-G10-Review-527/
Seems to indicate the VRM need more than the fan and noise is really not better than the stock HSF. I had a GPU only block on an old 8800GTX with passive ramsinks and a 120mm fan which seemed to do ok, but I do think you generally need the little Heatsinks and a fan close by to keep the rest of the card cool. In the end it doesn’t look nearly as nice as a full cover GPU block.
By the time you buy two AIO units and all the other bits, you could nearly buy lower end DIY watercooling that looks a lot better. might be fun to play and try, but that’s my limited experience take on it so far.
Thanks Martin, that is a good write up, liked the thermal images, they really tell a story. I sort of figured the same as you, the NZXT info says the fan will take care of VRAM and the VRMs, but it seems they are not. That is why I asked about a heatsink kit, to let this guy know.
Your right, after adding up the cost for everything, a full cover would be a lot better, but this guy got most of the stuff free so that is the way he is going. I will drop you a line when he gets back to me about how things went.
Take care
Steven
Nothing wrong with putting together a bunch of free or cheap parts and tinkering, it’s all good!
Hey Martin, first off I love your reviews. Always very thorough and well-controlled testing.
But I was wondering if you collected any data on the h100i built in fan outputs. I have a watercooling project in the works and I’m wanting to see if I can just plug my NZXT grid fan splitter (30 watt max) into one of the h100i’s 4 available fan headers and use that to control a 2nd radiators fans.
I couldn’t seem to find any specs on the max fan wattage so I was hoping you tested it.
No i didt’t but…you could probably make or buy one of the power supply fed splitters like the swiftech pwm splitter or one of the other brands that use only the pwm signal from the device and draw power direct from the power supply. The h100i newer models do use 4 pin pwm fans so the output should include PWM signal. You could make your own out of a spare fan molex adapter and a normal 4 pin Y splitter too. You just need to bypass the power and ground and draw them direct from molex or sata power to the PSU.
I would just recommend testing the H100i output voltage. If power out remains a constant 12v while reducing speeds, then you can be sure it is sending a regular PWM signal. Pretty sure it does, but I never checked. I also had no luck with link on windows 8 so I have no way of testing and bypassed the pump fan controller completely.
Of coarse you could also bypass the h100i fan controller and run PWM off the motherboard cpu header using speedfan as well on to multiple PWM 4 pin fans.
I like your scientific approach and trust your judgement
I’m owner of the h100 coupled with Noctuas (NF-F12) and confident with that
I’d like to move my hardware to a new home (namely a Lian Li TYR-X2000(F(N)))
therefore I’m looking for reviews about Coolermasters Nepton 140XL – ideally in Tandem with 7mm shroud/anti-vibration adapter and Arctic F14 PWM fans …
any plans to do something along this line? 😉
Sorry, no testing in the near future. I’m in the middle of my buggy building project. I also tend to feel you really need at least a 240 rad to gain the benefits of watercooling. I’ve been able to bring even the 240s to their knees and throttle my 3930 at lower fan speeds. A lot of high end air coolers are fairly competitive I think with many of the 120/140 CLCs. A noctua NH-D14 with a pair of Gentle Typhoon AP 45s running with PWM mods would probably outperform most of the CLCs of similar size and with lower noise.
thanks for your input *goes back to the drawing board^^*
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New idea:
Swiftech H320 + Nexxos 180mm monsta rad + EK GPU full cover (GTX 680)
?
😀