Introduction

CORSAIR has quickly become an established presence in the PC DIY watercooling market with an entire product portfolio including CPU blocks, GPU blocks, pump/reservoirs, and even new fans having launched in the recent few months. Our full article on a complete Hydro X Series build is in the works, but I wanted to wrap up the individual product reviews with the often underlooked components—the heat dissipating radiators themselves. As with the coolant and fittings, CORSAIR decided to work with established leaders in the market rather than spending a tremendous amount of money on their own radiator line from scratch, which is how we arrive at the Hydro X Series XR7 and XR5 radiators that are a result of a partnership with Hardware Labs. Thanks again to CORSAIR for sending along review samples.


This review is of the thin profile Hydro X Series XR5 radiators, and the 360 mm (triple 120) version in particular I will refer to as the CORSAIR Hydro XR5 360 for my ease and yours. This series comes in 120/140/240/280/360/420 mm versions and uses the Hardware Labs Black Ice Nemesis LS (OEM version of the Nemesis GTS) as a base, with changes made to suit what CORSAIR thinks is attractive to their customer base. This article is meant to be read alongside our accompanying Hydro X Series XR7 360 review, which is a thicker radiator built upon the Black Ice Nemesis LX. The two share a lot of DNA, but are intended for different use cases. The Hydro XR5 is 30 mm thick, which falls into the 25–30 mm radiator thickness class and needs cases designed with custom watercooling in mind. This would also serve as a review of the Black Ice Nemesis LS 360 on TechPowerUp, so you get twice the serving for your money here. As always, we begin the review with a look at the specifications below.

Specifications