Corsair Outs Hydro Series H100i GTX, H80i GT Coolers

News
By Michael Justin Allen Sexton, Seth Colaner
published

Hydro H80i GT

Corsair announced the release of two new coolers in the Hydro series, the H100i GTX and H80i GT.

The H100i GTX slides in between the H110i GT released last month, and the older H100i. As for the new H80i GT, it falls just under the older H100i in Corsair's product lineup.

Just like the rest of the Hydro series, these new coolers feature a copper micro fin plate for direct contact to the CPU and a sizable aluminum radiator (120 mm x 38 mm for the H80i GT and 240 mm x 25 mm for the H100i GTX). Although not all coolers, especially cheaper coolers, have a copper plate for contact to the CPU, it's an important feature for these high-end cooling units.

Hydro H100i GTX radiator

Some TIM such as liquid metal can cause rapid corrosion of plates made of lesser metals such as aluminum. As such, having the copper base is an important feature for users who want to avoid potential issues down the line with corrosion on the plate.

Corsair advertises an updated radiator block on these new units. These radiators have a new look, with a silver strip and Corsair's name and logo, which is a little less bland than earlier models.

The radiator blocks feature a new fan design, which should help to improve cooling efficiency. The new fans are SP120L PWM, designed for high pressure. A downside to this change in fans is that, according to Corsair, they'll produce a noise level of 37.7 dBA, as opposed to the 37 dBA of the coolers they replace in the lineup. Although some users seeking the quietest system possible might be disappointed with the slight uptick in dBA, it's likely that most users won't notice the noise change, while airflow will likely increase as a result of the high pressure fans.

For users who want to lower the noise from the fans, Corsair has included its Link technology, which will allow users to lower the fan speed if desired. It also allows for changing the LED colors.

Both coolers are already available at several online retailers. The H110i GTX has an MSRP of $119.99, while the H80i comes in at $99.99. Both include a 5-year limited warranty.

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Michael Justin Allen Sexton
Michael Justin Allen Sexton is a Contributing Writer for Tom's Hardware US. He covers hardware component news, specializing in CPUs and motherboards.
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12 Comments Comment from the forums
  • buzznut
    I like!!
    Its about time for an update. They look good, ya know I was just thinking they could further differentiate by offering custom shrouds and matching fan colors. Something I would do!
    Reply
  • thundervore
    As a Corsair H80i owner for years I can honestly say Corsair needs to rethink this.

    1. The new coolers only have 2 fan connections as opposed to 4 on previous models.

    2. Users still have detection issues with Windows 8.X with the Hydro coolers inside Corsair Link with the latest version software 2.7. (see their forums)

    3.There are no updates to the radiator. They are still aluminum. They could have made the to tier "H110i" a copper radiator.

    4. After watching a few videos and release photos, it appears that the H110i GT is made by Cool IT and the H80i GT and H100i GTX are made by Asetek. I expect this to not go so well when customers find out they are not all the same manufacturer. You can always guess who made the AIO based on the CPU back plate as Cool IT is always a better quality metal back plate as opposed to Asetek plastic version which sometimes strips when screwing in the standoffs.

    5. The new coolers can no longer connect to each other via the Corsair Link cable. This means the cooler will need its own internal USB header. Newer motherboards only come with 2 internal USB headers so if you have a Corsair HXi or AXi power supply in the same system as one of these new coolers you will have to choose between connecting the front IO USB ports, your power supply or the cooler.

    Honestly im still waiting for them to release a CPU GPU AIO combo cooler that cools both the CPU and GPU with a 280 radiator in a single loop similar to the Asetek 760GC. Ill happily pay $199 for that
    Reply
  • MasterDell
    Just bought a H100i. Nice..
    Reply
  • falchard
    I got an H80i recently, the length of the tubing is a little too short for my case. I had to put it in upside down.
    Reply
  • mapesdhs
    I've used a lot of H80s/H80is, H100i and H110. The main thing that bugs about
    them is the fans are too loud. By default I replace them with NDS PWM 120s
    which work just as well but produce massively less noise (as I type I have an
    H80i running a 3930K at 4.8 and it's incredibly quiet compared to the stock
    Corsair fan setup).

    I liked the look and usage of the Link sw, but in practice I could not get it
    work properly. Trouble is, any sw app that makes use of mbd sensors
    will conflict with any mbd vendor related app such as AI Suite II; one cannot
    reliably use both at the same time, eg. in my case trying to use AI Suite to
    control case fans, Link sw to control the CPU cooler. In the end I found it
    far more effective to just use AI Suite to control everything, so I removed
    the Link sw.

    As for the new models, do they offer any usefully better cooling performance
    than the old models? Is it worth the cost? How to they compare to modern
    good air coolers?

    I really like the Corsair water coolers, bought another two refurb H80s
    yesterday from Scan for 42 each, but the loud fans & Link sensor issue
    is a bit of a pain, though I much prefer using an H80 with 2 better fans
    than any of the huge air coolers (and I have several of the latter variety).

    Ian.

    Reply
  • f-14
    i'm with mapesdhs on this. i replaced the stock corsair fans with various fans with better airflow or better airflow and less noise such as aerocools shark 120's and cooler master sickleflow 120s in addition tho while running push pull set ups i put on a Lamptron 120mm Steel Mesh Fan Filter to keep the dust off that i can just vacuum off.

    if any AIO liquid cooler wanted to make a big improvement a hinged or slide out removable screen fan filter on the incoming air side would be the ticket.
    Reply
  • JackNaylorPE
    "Honestly im still waiting for them to release a CPU GPU AIO combo cooler that cools both the CPU and GPU with a 280 radiator in a single loop similar to the Asetek 760GC. Ill happily pay $199 for that "

    It already exists and its sold by Swiftech. And it does have a copper radiator so not only better performance, but also no galvanic corrosion driven by the use of dissimilar metals in the cooling system. Not only does it outperform every CLC made (even 360mm units), ... topping the H100i by 7C .... but it does it being > 20 dbA quieter (that's less than 1/8th as loud. Being able to open the loop and add MoBo Blocks, RAM Blocks, GFX card blocks makes it the proverbial "no brainer"

    http://www.swiftech.com/H240-X.aspx

    There is simply no 120/140mm CLC that can compete thermally or acoustically with a decent air cooler. The 240/280mm can top the good air coolers by a bit but the best air coolers like the Cryorig / DH-15 still rule the roost


    http://www.hitechlegion.com/reviews/cooling/liquid/42047-swiftech-h240-x-open-loop-280mm-cpu-cooler-review?showall=&start=3

    As for fan swapping..... I have tested this effort extensively using various fans. I was surprised to observe that I lost 2.4 C swapping the Phanteks SP140s (1200 rpm) for the Noctuas AF-15's (1500 rpm). Other fans that I tried showed less temp difference, but for the most part (granted I used fans generally considered among the bast on the market) there were very small differences when rpm was close.

    When rpm changed, the effect on cooling was pretty much close to proportional to the rpm change .... a result shown repeatedly in rad testing on the martinsliquidlab.org site. I got pretty darn close to 2/3 the cooling taking a fan from 1800 rpm to 1200 rpm.

    If you replace the 100i's 2700 rpm fans w/ 1800 rpm fans then while abetter quality fan may eat up a small portion of the difference, you can expect pretty close to 2/3 the cooling. I suspect that the aluminum radiator is also a limiting factor here as I expect you'd get better performance out of those 2700 rpm fans at the higher rpms with a cooper rad. The impact of the rads ability to transfer heat I would think would be noticeably higher at high rpms than lower rpms.

    I used 4 thermal sensors in the loop, one on the inlet and one on the outlet of each of the two rads (420 + 280) in the system (4770k @ 46 multilie / 46 cache multiplier) and twin 780's w/ 26% GPU and 22 % memory OCs) and two air temperature sensors one for ambient and one for internal case temperature to conduct the tests

    Reply
  • TechyInAZ
    15269117 said:
    Just bought a H100i. Nice..


    I know!! I just bought a h100i that unfortunately was a bad one, then i got the h105 2 weeks ago.

    Too bad it didn't come out earlier.
    Reply
  • NWilb832
    Of course I just bought and installed my H100i 2 weeks ago. doh
    Reply
  • alus415
    The H220x are impossible to find so what's the point of always recommending it?
    Reply