Hands Across Four Water Cooling Systems

Corsair Hydrocool 200 Ex

Overall Impression

Our previously benchmarked water cooler, the Corsair Hydrocool 200, has been revamped. At Cebit, Corsair introduced the new Hydrocool 200 ex, which according to the manufacturer is quieter and has even better cooling performance. This new cooler changes hands for $199 (€249).

The new and the old : on the left the new Hydrocool 200 ex, on the right the old model.

At first sight the Hydrocool 200 ex looks like its predecessor. Then you notice one difference - the new product name on the front of the housing. But the water-cooling block was also modified slightly as well. The panel at the bottom of the cooler was also left out, so that now you can see the bare copper. This promises greater cooling performance through copper’s substantially higher thermal conductivity of 402 W/mK, compared to 90.7 W/mK for platinum.

The new water block with bare copper underside

A further modification was the dust filter for the radiator fans. This does lead to somewhat increased noise levels, however, making the new version a little louder at 48.8 dB(A) in quiet mode and 56.8 dB(A) in turbo mode than the already loud predecessor with 47.5 dB(A)/53.7 dB(A).

Very little of the overall concept of the Hydrocool 200 was changed for the new model. The Hydrocool 200 ex also features almost totally leak-free retention rings, thus making it easy to transport the water cooler without losing too much water. The control panel is the same as before. This water cooler has an updated firmware version though. Other features such as the lighted flow display are like those of the Hydrocool 200 : the CPU cooler has an integrated temperature probe that connects to the control panel. The LED and fill level displays are also unchanged. The external unit gives an optical and acoustic alarm signal when the water level is low. The cooler can also shut down the PC when temperatures reach critical levels.