Corsair H100 review - Introduction

Introduction

In the world of CPU coolers nothing ever stops developing. These days you can pick a hundred different heatpipe based coolers, many are shaped, formed and priced the same. The better heatpipe based coolers are good though.

Next in line are LCS systems (liquid cooling), the entry level products are affordable, easy to install pre-fab liquid cooling kits. We've seen and tested many of them as Corsair, Asetek, CoolIT and so on all have interesting kits.

The bigger problem is cooling performance. The gear behind these kits are good yet the performance is often battling a small included 120mm radiator with thin tubing and lacking coolant levels due to missing reservoirs. To compensate FAN RPM goes up making a good looking product noisy again. With that in mind Corsair started to develop a new series H (for Hydro) coolers; one of them which we'll look at today.

The product in specific is the Corsair H100, a new design cooling block with internally regulated control for pump and fans. Next to that what's interesting is that this product is based on a dual 120mm rad, and that gives the series a heck of lot more performance over previous products.

Now combining that with an easy on the eyes, relatively tool free installation, Corsair might have a winner in their hands. So without further ado, let's have a peek at the Corsair H100 and then head onwards into the review.