As the Corsair Hydrocool 200 was our prior benchmark cooler, our expectations for the successor model were correspondingly high, but the Hydrocool 200 ex does in fact beat the benchmark model. With thermal resistance of only 0.14 K/W in turbo mode and 0.15 K/W in normal mode, the Hydrocool 200 ex is clearly superior to the prior model, which had thermal resistance of 0.22/0.23K/W.

This is made possible in part by the new Hydrocool CPU heat sink's open copper surface. But Corsair also tinkered around in other areas too; if you combine the old Hydrocool with a new heat sink, it doesn't obtain quite as good results as the new Hydrocool 200 ex. Thus we determined a thermal resistance for the old Hydrocool used in combination with the new water block of 0.20 K/W.

With the Hydrocool, this cooling performance has its price - a relatively high noise level. Especially in turbo mode, the noise, at 56.8 dB(A), can be a hindrance when you to need to concentrate. Some of the competing models are substantially quieter. In normal mode the Hydrocool 200 ex is somewhat quieter at 48.8 dB(A), but a number of competitors can outdo it in this range as well.