Final words and conclusion
Final words and conclusion
I think the H80i GT is nice mid-range AIO cooler within its category, the performance difference towards its big brother, the H110i GT, is however substantial. That unit however is pretty big yet is a fit for most chassis these days. Obviously the difference in radiator surface area comes into play there, but also noticed that the H110i GT make use of a completely different cooling block and it just seems to be the better product. But what if you do not have the space for a big radiator ? Well, that's where the H80i GT comes into play, and yeah in retrospect for the small 120mm footprint the product is capable enough to deal with even the Core i7 4970K overclocked. That fact alone is impressive as that is just such a nasty processor to cool.
Please understand that the 1.3 Volts we used in the overclocking session is mostly not needed for many of you, 1.2 Volts would have been good enough as well. However we inject a little more voltage to see how the cooler behaves, and we know with certainty that many of you are overclocking with that 1.3 Volts. That does however make it a tough job for any cooler to cope with. Performance remains on par and as expected with this product. Really, 73 Degrees C under stress is pretty nice. A big plus is that this is a silent product, even overclocked to 4600 MHz / 1.3 Volts you'll have a hard time hearing it. Once you change variables with Corsair LINK to even, say, balanced mode, it will become a more audible product though.
Aestethics & Design
Much like the H110i GT the H80i GT has nearly identical looks and feel and is nice as far as I am concerned, all black design with the subtle 50 shades of grey make it a sexy product, the cooling block has different aesthetics though. It is easy to install with the mounting system, and it comes filled and sealed. The black design will make this kit look great in any PC and you can color the RGB LED activated logo to a color of your preference or have it reflect the temperature as in blue for cold and red for hot etc (all configurable of course). It simply is a good alternative to heatpipe coolers with the added benefits of being fairly quiet whilst offering very nice looks. No skills are required other than the need for ten minutes to install the kit.
Pricing
The Corsair H80i GT will be introduced at roughly 110 EURO. That we feel is on the steep side. It is silent if kept at default, and at the default settings it just offers very decent cooling performance. But make no mistake, the performance and features are good for a 120mm rad based product at this price level. Let me also remind you that you can easily spend 200/300 EUR on tubing, radiators, cooling blocks, reservoirs and so on. An extra bonus is found in the LINK functionality as well as the RGB lighting system, albeit we understand it's a little gimmicky.
So how cool is it?
The H80i GT is a product for those that have issues fitting big radiators or those that can only fit 120mm fans. For that particular audience this product might be a very nice fit. It looks great and cools plentiful. I do find it a bit pricy at 110 EURO though, especially when you look at big daddy H110i GT at 135 EURO. The latter product is performing much better, but sure it also does require the space to be able to fit inside the chassis.
We will quite easily recommend the Hydro series Corsair H80i GT, for an AIO kit it definitely is one of the decent performing ones out there and in its default config remains a very silent product. Combined with an easy to install design, good looks and really nice performance you can purchase a product that is spot on money wise. You'll have capacity to overclock as well. If you are wondering about the temperatures you have seen at 1.3 Volts, roughly 70~75 Degrees C on a Haswell processor under full load for this class remains quite good. A small additional bonus is the LED lit Corsair logo which you can color to any RGB preference with the help of LINK software. LINK itself is something that belongs in either one of two categories, you either hate or love it, there is nothing in-between. But hey it's an option that allows you to monitor and customize your cooling, that's a plus in our books. The one downside, it requires an extra cable lead towards the cooler. And yeah there is a fair amount of wires leading out and into the cooling block. So design wise there is more cable spaghetti clutter to deal with. The looks and design are great though, we love the new sleeved tubing.
Overall we can recommend the Corsair H80i GT as a very good mid-ranger, and for a 120mm form factor it might even be pretty good TBH - overall it is a silent product whilst offering plenty cooling performance with an added hint of feature like the RGB coloring logo and LINK functionality. As such it comes recommended by Guru3D.com
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