Summary and Conclusion

Price

• The CORSAIR Hydro Series XH303i PRO hardline watercooling kit releases today in black or white color options and will cost $499.99 in the USA or €519.99 (incl. VAT) in Europe.
• The CORSAIR Hydro Series XH305i PRO kit is very similar, but replaces the XD3 pump/reservoir combo with the XD5, and goes with three QL120 RGB fans instead of the SP120 RGB ELITE fans. It also comes in black or white color options and costs $599.99/€619.90.

I had to go and check whether these were CORSAIR's first kits ever as the original Hydro XH303i and XH305i kits never left a lasting impression in my memory. It could be because I was living out of a hotel for most of that year, but I do feel like many were only just accepting CORSAIR as an established brand for DIY watercooling at the time. Two years later and things have changed for the better as far as CORSAIR is concerned. If anything, its ability to get larger volumes out with a more established global retail channel means the company has a significant market share of the DIY watercooling space now. With Intel and AMD being more competitive and introducing larger dies and more power-hungry CPUs, the Hydro XC7 RGB CPU block was found wanting, too. So I suppose it was only a matter of time before both kits got updated after the new XC7 RGB PRO block came out.

The Hydro XH303i PRO kit has an absurdly long name even by CORSAIR standards, but the takeaway is that this kit has been updated more so than the XH305i PRO. Not only did we see the new CPU block here, but the fans were updated from the more airflow-optimized SP120 RGB to the more impressively balanced SP120 RGB Elite fans. The coolant across both kits was also updated to CORSAIR's new XL8 line, with a liter of clear coolant, which is plenty enough for any standard loop you can build with the provided components. It's my first time taking a look at one of CORSAIR's kits, and this being a 9-page article also shows why I rarely cover kits and prefer standalone product reviews instead. Regardless, I was quite curious about some of the Hydro X line products not covered here to date, including the tubing and fittings, and also the bending kit itself.

Going with a hardline tubing kit is a bold move any day of the week, and the Hydro XH303i PRO still has some missing parts you need to buy to make the most of it. The bending kit in particular could have used more mandrels, but I am glad CORSAIR did not go the route of a few other companies by simply rebranding an existing heat gun. Just buy a reasonably priced one from Amazon and get some heat-resistant gloves while at it. Also consider some extra tubing, especially if this is your first foray into hardline tube cooling, although the six meters provided with the kit allow for mistakes to be made. This is the biggest takeaway here aside from pricing, as the kit allows for many different options for your specific loop. Whether you want to go with more fittings and less bending, having the Hydro XD3 pump/reservoir combo in a different fan-hole position or permanently screwed into the case, take the components with you if you decide to go from an AM4 platform build to an Alder Lake one, or even expand the loop to include a GPU block and/or another radiator with more fans, the base components are going to be versatile enough to handle it all. You will need to familiarize yourself with iCUE to make the most of the hardware though, especially since RGB is in the name of the product itself! The included Commander PRO is a decent piece of kit, but iCUE will be an acquired taste regardless.

At $500/€520, the new Hydro XH303i PRO kit is slightly more expensive than the Hydro XH303i from two years ago, which released at €500. But adding up the cost of the various components, it's still nearly a 20% discount. Knowing that pretty much everything costs far more now, that extra €20 seems like a nominal price hike by comparison. If you fancy being in the CORSAIR ecosystem and figured you'd get into the Hydro X lineup as well, the new XH303i PRO kit is a better value for money than the older kits in my books. I am just not sure how many people are in the subset of watercooling kit customers looking for hardline tube cooling. The best way to look at this kit is that you are getting some items, such as the tubing, fittings, coolant, and bending kit, for free over the cost of the core components should you already be in the market for them. In that regard, I can see the newer kits faring quite well.