Corsair H115i Platinum review - Introduction

Corsair Hydro Series H115i RGB Platinum 

We review the new Corsair Hydro Series H115i, this round the RGB Platinum edition dual-fan 280mm model of the AIO Liquid cooler series that Corsair releases. Corsair has paired the kit with their very best ML PRO Series RGB magnetic levitation PWM fans and a new Multi-zone RGB Backlit pump. The i in that naming means it's software controllable with iCUE software. And that allows you to fire off several performance profiles as well as some sweet RGB bling Corsair at this cooler. The cooler is very silent and certainly brings in proper cooling capacity. 

The H115i Platinum LCS cooler has a 280mm radiator with corresponding dual 140mm fans, these are RGB magnetic levitation PWM fans and are controlled by hooking them up towards the pump, which on its end communicates with the iCUE software suite allowing you to program, customize and monitor this all-in-one liquid cooling solution for your processor. The Corsair iCUE app will also allow you to customize LED lighting directly from the software, and new on the pump is a multi-zone LED system with 16 individually (addressable) LEDs bringing RGB towards that next level.  These days you can pick a hundred different heatpipe based coolers, where 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, NZXT, Cooler Master 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 H series (for Hydro) coolers.

The Corsair H115i Platinum is an updated design based on the previous models, yet with a revised performance cooling block and regulated control for pump and fans. Next to that what's interesting is that this product (for this review) is based on a 280mm radiator which gives it quite a bit of cooling surface area. It is a cooler series that is easy on the eyes and comes with a relatively tool-free installation. The unit will offer good performance, not exceptional as key for this release are low noise levels. While we cannot recommend it for reasons we'll explain later you could even select an optional 0-DBA mode. As long as the coolant stays under 40 Degrees C the fans do not spin, which is something we have seen for the past two years on most graphics cards as well. This LCS unit you will need to hook up towards a USB port on your mobo and then the software allows you to program, customize and monitor this easy to install liquid cooling solution. So without further ado, let's have a peek at it and head onwards into the review.