Final words and conclusion
Final words and conclusion
So yes Corsair has a nice LCS kit on their hands with the H100. It remains a kit that is comparable to the really exceptional heatpipe based coolers. The big plus however are the extremely cool looks inside your PC.
In combination with very decent cooling performance, that nifty fan controller and the wide socket compatibility .. well you really can't go wrong with it. The dual 120mm radiator makes a difference, cooling capacity is definitely good enough for even a stringent overclock.
We already tried it, but we even have been able to overclock a Sandy-Bridge-E (six-core processor) towards 5 GHz in the H100. And that was impressive to observe alright. More on that in later articles though.
With the release of the H100 the guys over at Corsair have once again a proper targeted product on the market offering great value. The hydro series products always seem to offer decent to good performance levels, that and a strong focus and priority on product looks and aesthetics.
The overall looks are just terrific as far as I am concerned, all black design, fairly easy to install with the new mounting system, prefilled .. it's one of the most easy and comfortable kits on the market to use and install. Reality remains this though; it will continue to be a mainstream product closing in on high-end performance. So remember, the H100 is not reaching the "enthusiast" segment. But make no mistake, the performance is really good, but remains to be just that if you compare it to proper LCS gear. Then again, you can easily spend 300 EUR on tubing, radiators, cooling blocks, reservoirs and so on whereas this all in one kit stays under 100 EUR.
So its somewhere in-between exceptional heatpipe cooling and the better LCS setups, and that's a good position to be in we think. Anyway, for upper mainstream to high-end usage this kit is really suitable. We enjoyed the nice increase in cooling performance thanks to more radiator surface and the extra fan. For any decent overclock, this product will be more than sufficient.
Absolutely lovely is the integrated fan controller. Select your preferred mode as in silent, normal or performance and you are good to go. Personally I'd set it at silent mode as you really can't hear the thing yet still will be able to overclock reasonably well. Still, normal RPM really increases cooling performance yet remains acceptable in noise levels as well. Well, it's good to have choices right?
Overall we can really recommend the H100 if you are on the lookout for some very decent cooling with a classy design versus easy installation well, look no further.
The price is the real good thing here, the entire kit as tested today costs just 119 USD/ 90 EUR. In the enthusiast segment the cooling performance here might not be flabbergasting you, but please be realistic as enthusiast LCS products can easily cost you twice as much or even more.
So if you are on the lookout for an easy to install, good looking and really nice performing product but don't want to spend heaps of dough on it, then most definitely be consider the Corsair H100 LCS kit. Whether you are a bit of a noise freak like I am or are on the lookout for a little more, the kit seems to offer it all and thus comes very much recommended.
Oh, and do make sure you can actually mount a radiator this size in the chassis first, okay?
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