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Corsair Hydro 90 & H110 Review - 140mm Cooling Power

Cooling/Water Cooling by leeghoofd @ 2013-01-28

Corsair just recently launched a brand new Hydro series with the H80i and H100i units, both coolers being updated versions of their predecessors, not alone being overhauled in the cooling/pump block design, but also the addition of the new CORSAIR AIR Static Pressure fans was a big plus for the new Hydro i series. Secondly the LINK software was now directly supported, without the need of buying the optional Command Control set. The new features boosted the cooling performance and versatility for end-user adjustment. To our big surprise, two brand new Hydro units arrived on our doorstep. The Hydro 90 and 110, both being optimized for extreme cooling performances. Weirdly enough these brand new coolers are not based on the latest Hydro I series, but seem at first glance a revamp of the older Hydro 70 design, manufactured by ASETEK for CORSAIR. Biggest innovation is the usage of a 140mm radiator and ditto fan, instead of the 120mm version we are so accustomed too. More radiator surface should enhance the cooling capacity. Let's find out how these two Hydro units perform...

Test Setup and Methodology

S Sabretooth X79 motherboard

Intel i7-3960X OC'ed at 4500MHz 1.35Vcore

G.Skill 16GB 2133MHz C9 rams

Western Digital 1TB Green Caviar HDD

2 x ASUS Geforce GTX480 videocards

Corsair HX1000W Power supply

Corsair C70 Vengeance case

Prime95 is still our favourite CPU torture test. By selecting the Custom test and setting 12-12K we force the CPU to go straight flatout. After 30 minutes we verify in RealTemp the maximum load temperature results accross the 6 cores. For the idle temperatures we just let the sytem during 15 minutes warm up, practically doing nothing then just monitoring the temperatures.

For the motherboard readouts we trust the ASUS Sabretooth Thermal Radar application, included in the AI suite. Reading out chipset, PWM, mobo temperatures, all these being monitored during the CPU torture test.

Noise measurement done via Corsairs Reviewers' Guide, measuring the generated noise at 1 meter from the fan front. Fans were hooked up straight to a PSU via a molex adapter. Noise tests were only conducted at 12V.

The Madshrimps testbed comprises of the following parts:

ASUS Sabretooth X79 motherboard
Intel i7-3960X OC'ed at 4500MHz 1.35Vcore
G.Skill 16GB 2133MHz C9 rams
Western Digital 1TB Green Caviar HDD
ASUS Geforce GTX480 videocard
Corsair HX1000W Power supply
Corsair C70 Vengeance case with Air Series FANs installed.
Ambient air temperature is 20°C

Prime95 is our CPU torture test. By selecting the Custom test and setting 12-12K, we force the CPU to go straight flatout. After 60 minutes we verify in RealTemp the maximum load temperature results across the 6 cores. For the idle temperatures we just allow the system to warm up during a period of 15 minutes. Just basic idling at 4500MHz, doing nothing more then just monitoring the temperatures.

The monitoring software we use is RealTemp version 3. And the output results are the average out of three runs.

We compare the new Hydro90/110 with it's predecessors the H80/100 and the H80/H100i units, but also versus two air coolers: the single fan Alpenföhn Matterhorn Pure and the Zalman XPS14. Retesting the older Hydro versions on the socket 2011 platform might yield inaccurate results, partly due to the aging nature and abuse these AIOs have undergone throughout the years.

Noise measurement for the fans is done via Corsairs Air Fan Reviewers' Guide. Thus measuring the generated FAN noise at 1 meter from the FAN's front. Fans were hooked up straight to a PSU via a molex adapter. Noise tests are only conducted at 12V.

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