Corsair H105 review

Cooling 189 Page 13 of 13 Published by

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Final words and conclusion

Final words and conclusion

Much like the rest of the Hydro series you can't really complain about these LCS kits. They offer reasonably good cooling at low noise levels at a price half of 'real' liquid cooling. Added benefits are cool and clean looks. The H105 is a nice addition to the series, a slightly thicker radiator offers higher cooling performance, albeit it remains a little relative. The 240 form factor is a great size to work with and if you own a Sandy Bridge, Ivy Bridge or Haswell processor then the H105 will do an excellent job cooling it. Over overclocking remains a good option with the H105, that does depend highly on your CPU voltage needs though. But reaching 4600 MHz will not be an issue with either of the Core i7 processors. If you are not voltage tweaking heaps on your  processor then the h105 will be an excellent alternative towards bulky big heat-pipe coolers. At 1.30 Volts however you can see why they have invented 240 and 280mm radiators. Overall though this cooling solution is offering good performance at a great price.


Stress

Whatever you fire off at the processor, Ivy bridge remains hard to cool once overclocked with added voltage. I do say overclocked with added voltage specifically here though as at normal voltages and default settings, it is such a sweet processor. A handful of coolers can take 4600 MHz @ 1.30+ Volts, but really there are only very few in our tests that kept the temperature acceptable, and that was the 70 EUR Noctua NH-D14, a cooler design that has proven itself to be leading, many times over the years. The 100 EUR Corsair H100 series is capable and the Kraken X60 as well, but that one is 150 EUR already (has more bling, LEDs, software control). We can now add the Corsair H105, priced around 110~120 EUR and the H90 at give or take 90 EUR. At 1.30+ Volts CPU voltage tweaks however we do recommend you the 280mm product as things otherwise get too borderline with the H105. It is doable but 76 Degrees C on the CPU / 1.3 Volts is exactly borderline acceptable. With 'normal' stress at default settings or up-to 1.25 Volts, this cooler works really well though. 


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Aesthetics & design

The overall looks remain just terrific as far as I am concerned. All black design, fairly easy to install with the mounting system and prefilled it's one of the most easy and comfortable kits on the market to use and install. Reality remains though, this will continue to be a high-end cooling product and not enthusiast one. It simply is a good alternative toward heatpipe coolers with the added benefits of being fairly quiet whilst offering very nice looks. We like the simplicity, only one wire goes from the water-block to the motherboard, and then the fan just needs a FAN header on your mobo as well. Installation is simply a breeze, easy and fast. No skills are required other than the need for ten minutes to install the kit.

Pricing

The price of the H105 is competitive, right above the more expensive heatpipe coolers. Corsair can manage to keep the price at this level by leaving out any LINK related options, but for the 110 bucks you do receive more radiator and fan efficiency due to the increased surface area and airflow on the thicker radiator. 


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Final words

The 240MM mounting LCS kits are very popular, and we do like the added radiator surface cooling area alright. As such Corsair has a nice offering with the new Hydro H105 liquid cooling kit. The overall performance is really fine, and combined with the low noise levels the H105 easily gets our approval. You will not have any software control, you will not see any multi-color LEDs but even better, you won't have to worry about a bundle of wires either. Overall the kit is fairly easy to install, good looking and offers above normal cooling performance. Leaving the bling out of this kit keeps it quite affordable, and as such comes recommended by Guru3D.com. Overall the Corsair H105 manages really well with the tested Core i7 3770K Ivy Bridge processor we fired off at it, once you need 1.30 Volts we do recommend you to look into a bigger Hydro version as it shaves of that little edge you need in temperatures but at 76 Degrees C and 1.30 Volts on the processor running 4600 Mhz under full stress, we certainly aren't bitching as that remains a tough task for any cooler. Well done Corsair.

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