Corsair Hydro Series H90

[crazyeyesreaper]

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]

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

 

[Sir B. Fannybottom]

Oh snap give dis man a raise

 

[Athlon2K15]

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

 

[W1zzard]

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]

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

Better than using a TEC

 

[Athlon2K15]

Better than using a TEC

Who uses a TEC for testing?

 

[Deleted member 6693]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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.

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.

 

[Deleted member 6693]

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

due to what??

 

[Jstn7477]

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]

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]

Nice review. Concise and easy to read and understand.

 

[Sir B. Fannybottom]

+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.




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.

Nice Pic(kle) brah

 

[Fourstaff]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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

 

[bim27142]

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...