Without a doubt Corsair has managed to firmly secure the top spot with it's Hydro 100 all in one cooling solution. The 240mm radiator seems to pay off, besting the Hydro 80 with a few degrees Celcius. Corsair included two fans, identical to the H80. Case permitting, the purists can opt to add two more fans to get that little bit extra out of this cooling unit. Though the performance gain is minima,l if you keep the fans hooked up to the cooling/pump unit. For your info , the required fan screws are already included in the box. It's really a good thing that you can hook all of the fans to the pump unit. This avoids uncesarry cable clutter. Plus another advantage is that they can be adjusted via the 3 preset profiles.
Question of the day : Why would you consider to pay a small premium for the Hydro 100 in stead of the slightly cheaper H80. At first glance performance seems quite similar. There's one aspect that has held me back to ditch my high end watercooling gear for these little units. And that's the noise the fans make when running full blast. Their cooling performance is great bang for the buck, yet it has it's toll. This Hydro 100 can obtain similar or better cooling temps as the H80, but with the fans spinning at a lesser RPM. Thus at a lower noise level. Only drawback of the H100 is that the case compatibility is inferior to any of the other 120mm rad units. So before you buy this high performance cooling device, plz carefully check if your case can store it somehow.
With the all-in-one solutions, the manufacturers advised the end user to mount the fans in a blow into the case fashion. This resulted in best cooling performance for your processor, but all the heat was dumped into the case. Making the other components run at increased temperatures. With the H100, air is sucked out of the case , thus not disturbing the cases natural air flow. So no more heating up the cases interior. Another big advantage of the H100 versus the other Corsair offerings
It's not by much, but the Hydro 100 nibbled a few degrees of the performance of it's little brother the Hydro 80. In case you want the best closed loop cooling unit, there's no other alternative. Retailing at plus minus 100 euro, this is a big investment to cool down your precious processor. But you will be rewarded by top notch cooling, making even some high end air coolers blush. Take into consideration it's only 10 euros more then the H80, and you get either at least similar or better cooling performance. Major selling point : all this at a reduced noise level. Corsair backs it's Hydro 80/100 with a 5 year warranty, . Previous Hydro versions only carried a 3 year warranty. Last but not least all Hydro 60/80/100 boxed in 2011, have X79 socket 2011 stand-offs in the box !
Pros :
- Highest performing closed loop cooling device
- Runs quieter than other models
- Up to 4 fans can be hooked up to the pump unit
- More futureproof then previous Hydro version (50/60/70)
- Not required to dump heat in the case for as with other versions
- X79 Stand-offs in the box
Cons :
- Check case compatibility before buying.
I wish to thank Gareth from Corsair for the H100 sample and the Corsair Dominator 1600C8 rams.
and Rogier and Milan from Asus for the Crosshair V Formula board as the IV version went down :(
