Hydro XR5 360 Radiator

The advantage of covering individual products in their own dedicated review is that I already have a detailed published article for the CORSAIR Hydro XR5 360 mm radiator included in this kit. When CORSAIR got into the DIY cooling segment, it partnered with several established companies for many of its products. This included the excellent Black Ice Nemesis LS and LX lineup from Hardware Labs for radiators, and the Hydro XR5 360 is a triple 120 mm version of the Black Ice Nemesis LS with direct CORSAIR involvement on the production line, quality control, and of course the packaging and branding. We see the product box is again a mismatched color; clearly, CORSAIR did not bother to get new packaging across the board for consistency. Inside is typical Hardware Labs packaging with the radiator protected by thick bubble wrap and the accessories separately placed on the side. CORSAIR provides sets of twelve 6 mm, 30 mm, and 35 mm long M4 threaded screws, each, with a Phillips head on all screws for use with fans. As such, we have enough for a single set of 25-mm thick fans in push or pull and intake or exhaust.


The CORSAIR Hydro XR5 360 is a triple 120 mm radiator that offers good case compatibility as it is 30 mm thick and 120 mm wide to match the fans you will be using on this radiator. At 396 mm long, it is also of average length for triple 120 mm radiators. The radiator as a whole is all black aside from the white CORSAIR logo on the sides, which makes for excellent compatibility with most PC DIY build color schemes. The fan holes are slightly inset from the frame and the standard 15 mm apart, which works with just about any case today. There are screw shields underneath each hole just in case you use screws longer than apt. The fan holes are offset from the coolant tubes for further redundancy, although not by much.


There are two BSP G1/4" ports on the end tanks, both threaded perfectly and coming with delrin stop plugs meant to keep dust out during transit. You would replace them with standard BSP G1/4" threaded fittings to use the radiator as part of your loop regardless. The frame is made out of brass, as is the end tank, with a thick powder coat for longevity. Multiple ports are rarer on 30 mm thick radiators, and the other components of this kit offer plenty of spare ports for filling and draining the loop in addition to adding temperature and flow sensors. There is a single row of fins/tube stacks with twelve 1.2 mm thick tubes. This total of a 12-way parallel split of the coolant will decrease coolant flow restriction relative to single-row radiators with fewer tubes, but it will generally suffer compared to multi-row radiators, and the comparatively thinner tubing will again increase it. The fins are just 25 µm thick, making them far thinner than any other radiator fins in this market. They are split and have a fin density of 16 fins per inch (FPI). The lower fin thickness, lack of louvers, ~8 mm height, and thinner tubes mean these should actually have less airflow restriction than other radiators with a lower FPI but thicker fins and tubes, which just goes to show how FPI as a metric does not tell the whole story when it comes to deciding on radiators for performance/noise.


Refer to this page and the subsequent one for more details on how the Hydro XR5 360 was tested, as well as the full set of thermal performance charts at other fan speeds. As expected, core and fin geometry make the Hydro XR5 360 one of the most restrictive radiators available. The higher pressure head on the Xylem DDC pump in the Hydro XD3 is more than enough to handle the radiator and multiple blocks and fittings, so that in itself is not a concern. In return, you get one of the best-performing radiators irrespective of thickness. It's certainly one of the better thinner radiators across a wide range of fan speeds too, making the Hydro XR5 360 a versatile radiators that scales with airflow as needed and performs well at low fan speeds for a quiet base.