# Corsair Hydro Series H90



## crazyeyesreaper (Jan 28, 2013)

Corsair is once again expanding their lineup of CPU cooling solutions. This time with the Hydro Series H90, pairing good cooling and low noise levels up in one attractive package. At less than $100 it is also priced competitively to go head-to-head with high-end air coolers.

*Show full review*


----------



## W1zzard (Jan 31, 2013)

This is our first cooling review in a long time. Feedback please.


----------



## Sir B. Fannybottom (Jan 31, 2013)

Oh snap give dis man a raise


----------



## Athlon2K15 (Jan 31, 2013)

Why test on a system that only 2% of the market use? Overall good review though


----------



## W1zzard (Jan 31, 2013)

AthlonX2 said:


> Why test on a system that only 2% of the market use? Overall good review though



We picked LGA2011 because it provides high heat load. Everyone: Would you rather see LGA1155 Ivy Bridge ?


----------



## Sir B. Fannybottom (Jan 31, 2013)

AthlonX2 said:


> Why test on a system that only 2% of the market use? Overall good review though



Better than using a TEC


----------



## Athlon2K15 (Jan 31, 2013)

TacoTown said:


> Better than using a TEC



Who uses a TEC for testing?


----------



## VulkanBros (Jan 31, 2013)

Good to have some cooler reviews again....mayby AthlonX2 is right about the market percentages - but ever since I swaped my air-cooler with a closed loop liquid cooler - I never looked back - and probably never will...
Is the H90 Asetek ??

Ohh - You mean system - not the cooler type - sorry


----------



## erocker (Jan 31, 2013)

W1zzard said:


> We picked LGA2011 because it provides high heat load. Everyone: Would you rather see LGA1155 Ivy Bridge ?



No. Temperatures for Ivy Bridge are too inconsistent when it comes to various coolers.


----------



## W1zzard (Jan 31, 2013)

erocker said:


> No. Temperatures for Ivy Bridge are too inconsistent when it comes to various coolers.



Yeah, that was part of our reasoning, too, with up to 20°C difference between individual CPUs.


----------



## Athlon2K15 (Jan 31, 2013)

W1zzard said:


> We picked LGA2011 because it provides high heat load. Everyone: Would you rather see LGA1155 Ivy Bridge ?



To each there own opinion, but if im reading a cooler review I want to be able to compare it to something I use personally.With ~2% of people using LGA2011, I think it would offer more to the reader if they can pull up coretemp or realtemp and compare there own temps.


----------



## cadaveca (Jan 31, 2013)

erocker said:


> No. Temperatures for Ivy Bridge are too inconsistent when it comes to various coolers.



+1. Change cooler orientation 90 degrees, get different temps, because of funky IHS shapes. 


Although, I got 1155 hardware if needed, of course. Heck, AMD stuff, even. Personally  I don't think it matters, but my opinion doesn't matter. 



AthlonX2 said:


> To each there own opinion, but if im reading a cooler review I want to be able to compare it to something I use personally.With ~2% of people using LGA2011, I think it would offer more to the reader if they can pull up coretemp or realtemp and compare there own temps.




Just a matter of reporting power consumption. I have a few IVB chips now, one 3570k is 90c load, the other 70c, so there is no point of reference.


----------



## VulkanBros (Jan 31, 2013)

erocker said:


> No. Temperatures for Ivy Bridge are too inconsistent when it comes to various coolers.



due to what??


----------



## Jstn7477 (Jan 31, 2013)

My 3770K consumes 60w normally and hits 83c on a Thermaltake Water 2.0 Performer that the previous owner said ran in the low 60s with an overclocked 2600K that consumed MORE power. 3xxx chips are just so crappy cooling wise because of the stupid thermal paste under the IHS. I de-lidded a Pentium 4 540J yesterday and it had a thick, metallic goo that is far superior to the generic gray crap being used on Ivy Bridge processors.


----------



## Kaynar (Jan 31, 2013)

I think the important part is to compare it to the H100 (which you did) because it is the old top-of-the-line of the company (and we have all seen how it performs in tons of reviews) and to other air or water coolers that have nearly the same price.

EDIT: In general I'd like to see how these water coolers perform with push/pull fans. I am not only talking about this review, but the large majority of reviews only included stock fan in stock configuration. My H100 performs better with push/pull SP120 fans but also is not as quiet as before at low fan speed.


----------



## 95Viper (Jan 31, 2013)

Nice review.  Concise and easy to read and understand.


----------



## Sir B. Fannybottom (Jan 31, 2013)

cadaveca said:


> +1. Change cooler orientation 90 degrees, get different temps, because of funky IHS shapes.
> 
> 
> Although, I got 1155 hardware if needed, of course. Heck, AMD stuff, even. Personally  I don't think it matters, but my opinion doesn't matter.
> ...



Nice Pic(kle) brah


----------



## Fourstaff (Jan 31, 2013)

Actually AMD would be nice given that they have quite high heat loads. Also, test with different fans (at the discretion of reviewer, you dont need to test all fans out there).


----------



## DaC (Jan 31, 2013)

Nice review! I wouldn't care for the 2% talk..... the idea is to have a standard so the test cold be valid and the cpu used pretty much fits perfectly in that.


----------



## Jstn7477 (Jan 31, 2013)

Fourstaff said:


> Actually AMD would be nice given that they have quite high heat loads. Also, test with different fans (at the discretion of reviewer, you dont need to test all fans out there).



I think the SB-E is a good comparison TBH. With 15MB L3 and 6 HT cores, it is a beast and it's on the same process node (although different fabrication processes of course). I think cadaveca said somewhere on here a while ago that these chips can easily push 200-250w if I'm not mistaken.


----------



## ChristTheGreat (Jan 31, 2013)

Nice review. I'm always wondering if I should get one like this, to change my CNPS10x modded, which is nice, but I don't think I could reach 5ghz with this one xD


----------



## HammerON (Jan 31, 2013)

Nice review crazyeyesreaper!!!
It is too bad that Corsair did not include the Link support with this cooler It is a nice feature to have.
I am personally okay with you testing the coolers with LGA2011. Hopefully you have some more coolers lined-up to test so we can start seeing more comparisons than just the ones listed in your charts.


----------



## Vulpesveritas (Jan 31, 2013)

I for one also would vote for using AMD for testing given the high heat loads and that they are still a more common system than LGA 2011.


----------



## fullinfusion (Feb 1, 2013)

Great review Ray!  Those temp's are so comparable to my ol H100


----------



## bim27142 (Feb 1, 2013)

I totally agree with this... I always prefer to utilize the already existing hardware controls in place rather than adding another software (that is again prone to bugs) and it runs on the background...

I am actually eyeing at this one (or the H60 '13 edition) once it will be available locally...

By the way, it would also be good to try this H90 in a dual fan (SP140 maybe?) setup and see how the temps go...



Oh crap, where's the post before me? I thought I had that quoted...


----------



## LAN_deRf_HA (Feb 1, 2013)

W1zzard said:


> This is our first cooling review in a long time. Feedback please.



It would be nice seeing preapplied paste vs a preferred enthusiast paste. This would be a unique feature to the reviews and would be interesting to see because lately I've been seeing more people unable to match the temps of stock paste. I presume this is because stock paste has gotten better, but I'm also suspicious of the ideal thin layer application being hard to replicate.




bim27142 said:


> I totally agree with this... I always prefer to utilize the already existing hardware controls in place rather than adding another software (that is again prone to bugs) and it runs on the background...
> 
> I am actually eyeing at this one (or the H60 '13 edition) once it will be available locally...
> 
> ...



I deleted it because I thought it was a little harsh to post here as it was unrelated to the review and more of a complaint against Corsair and poor design in general.


Anyone know the release date?


----------



## silapakorn (Feb 1, 2013)

Should compare with Noctua NH-D14: an air cooler that is arguably better than h100.


----------



## fullinfusion (Feb 1, 2013)

LAN_deRf_HA said:


> It would be nice seeing preapplied paste vs a preferred enthusiast paste. This would be a unique feature to the reviews and would be interesting to see because lately I've been seeing more people unable to match the temps of stock paste. I presume this is because stock paste has gotten better, but I'm also suspicious of the ideal thin layer application being hard to replicate.
> 
> 
> 
> ...



Corsair water cooling is good and customer service is top notch if you get the rite number ! It all depends on your cooler orientation and fan's your using.


----------



## badtaylorx (Feb 1, 2013)

if the temps on hw monitor made any sense i think an AMD FX 8350 may be a really good choice for a thermal solution testbed...  its pretty hot, o/cs well, and temps scale pretty well too...

anywho, what i really wanted to say is that i think comparing this to the H/70/80/80i could have been a better choice...


----------



## fullinfusion (Feb 1, 2013)

badtaylorx said:


> if the temps on hw monitor made any sense i think an AMD FX 8350 may be a really good choice for a thermal solution testbed...  its pretty hot, o/cs well, and temps scale pretty well too...
> 
> anywho, what i really wanted to say is that i think comparing this to the H/70/80/80i could have been a better choice...


Na the H90 is the better choice! been there, done that!


----------



## LAN_deRf_HA (Feb 1, 2013)

fullinfusion said:


> Corsair water cooling is good and customer service is top notch if you get the rite number ! It all depends on your cooler orientation and fan's your using.



You do realize your comment can't possibly be on the mark when we're referring to a deleted post...


----------



## erixx (Feb 1, 2013)

Nice to see this.

I only miss a temp bench with the same fan for all tested coolers, many swap fans, don't we...?


----------



## tacosRcool (Feb 1, 2013)

Awesome review! Maybe you guys could have used an AMD system since they overclock well at higher clock speeds


----------



## stupido (Feb 1, 2013)

+1 to the request to change stock fans with other fans (can show how good the radiator is + noise difference);
also at least one high end air cooler + 1 mid end cooler...


----------



## Scrizz (Feb 3, 2013)

I think it is best to use stock config when comparing different cooling solutions at stock.
Using different fans would be good for a separate review that compares stock fans to certain aftermarket ones.

LGA2011 is fine. I can't complain just because the reviewer uses a different system than my own.
I'm running 1366.

what matters is that the same system be used for all the tests


----------



## fullinfusion (Feb 8, 2013)

LAN_deRf_HA said:


> You do realize your comment can't possibly be on the mark when we're referring to a deleted post...


And?


----------



## BarbaricSoul (Feb 10, 2013)

Personally, I would have liked to see this compared to more closed-loop coolers. I'd like to know just how much advantage a H90 would give compared to my H60 with push/pull fans.


----------



## xbit (Feb 20, 2013)

HammerON said:


> Nice review crazyeyesreaper!!!
> It is too bad that Corsair did not include the Link support with this cooler It is a nice feature to have.
> I am personally okay with you testing the coolers with LGA2011. Hopefully you have some more coolers lined-up to test so we can start seeing more comparisons than just the ones listed in your charts.



Only guessing, but I would think the reason for this new product lacking Corsair Link support is due to all the issues w/ the h100i software. 

My h100i is currently being shipped and I'm not sure what to do once I get it :|


----------



## ChristTheGreat (Mar 10, 2013)

Anyone knows what bearing the fan use?


----------



## DRDNA (Mar 10, 2013)

Review looked great! I wouldn't change a thing.


----------



## MxPhenom 216 (Mar 10, 2013)

ChristTheGreat said:


> Anyone knows what bearing the fan use?



Probably double ball.


----------



## ChristTheGreat (Mar 10, 2013)

AS long as it's not a sleeved bearing, those fan always die when you put them horizontally :/

I'll see with corsair, this might replace my CNPS10x


----------



## evenath (Dec 20, 2013)

Nice review, i currently have the H55 and i'm pretty pleased with it.

it manages to keep my A10-6800K OC @ 5Gh 1.5V, the iGPU @ 1020Mhz and NB @ 2000Mhz 1.4V at 62 C full load with ambient temp 26 C. i changed the default fan with an artic cooling F12 PWM (7 USD at Amazon) which is quieter  and i barely can notice the fan running.


----------

