Water cooling has enjoyed a boom in recent years with more people installing custom loops, but some are still on the fence about sticking water into a box of electronics.
So closed loop CPU coolers like the H80i from Corsair make having unbeatable cooling easy for those not so confident with creating their own.
The Corsair H80i is part of a new series of closed loop coolers from Corsair that includes the new Corsair Link hardware giving full control over the cooler itself and also GPU and system fans. You can even change the colour of the LED on the top of the cooler – I know, cool right?
When you first open the box you are greeted with everything you would need to install the cooler onto any Intel LGA775 – LGA2011 or AMD AM2-FM1 socket The only thing missing is a Phillips head screwdriver.
The two fans Corsair provides are great at cooling the radiator, but under load they will get a little noisy. If that’s not a problem for you, then that’s great. I on the other hand swapped them out for a couple of SP120s, and straight away found it very hard to hear anything coming from the unit.
The tubes of the cooler are quite stiff coming from the radiator, but as they enter and exit the block they must be on a type of o-ring joint as they swivel from side to side with ease making it easy to install the radiator pretty much any way you choose.
There is a variety of connections on the pump head, two for fans (each slot caters for two fans), next is a MicroUSB connector that connects to a USB header on the motherboard for the Corsair Link software. The pump is powered by a single Sata connection which also has a connection for the CPU Fan header.
Performance wise the unit is a true star keeping my temps well below 15°C on Idle and around 30-35°C on load while making little or no noise at all. These results are using the SP120 fans I mentioned earlier. Running stock fans will result in a 1-3 degrees difference.
So whether you’re looking to move into the water cooling bracket but can’t bring yourself to design and build it, or looking for a cooler, quieter CPU, or just want to push your over-clocking to the extreme, the Corsair H80i will definitely stand up to the task.
