My Corsair H100i is finally dead

[SpyderTracks]

So I noticed my resting temperatures starting to creep up on my main rig that I built in 2014

It's been running 24 / 7 since it was built with an early generation H100i AIO cooler.

It appears the coolant has evaporated pretty much completely.

But that's a pretty good innings really.

I was hoping I could hold off upgrading anything until I upgrade the whole system, but looks like I'll need to fit a new AIO to get it through to that point.

 

[Martinr36]

That's pretty good going isn't it, any thoughts yet what you're going to replace it with

 

[SpyderTracks]

That's pretty good going isn't it, any thoughts yet what you're going to replace it with

I've got an old block air cooler which I'm going to fit just to see it through until I upgrade.

Have been looking about and it seems there's a bit of a shortage of AIOs at the moment.

Was looking at the Deepcool LT720 or the Arctic Liquid Freezer II 360 but they're both out of stock until about March 11th

The Deepcool is nice because you can top up the radiator, but at the expense of noise under load.

The Arctic Liquid Freezer I think is the all around one to beat, and very cheap against some of the others while being a top performer. It has the benefit of a little VRM fan on the heatsink header which actually provides some benefit

 

[B4zookaw]

I have the Arctic, very happy with it. But yes, it’s been out of stock from many places for a while. I was able to get one from Caseking in Germany, which was good for VAT reasons.

The Deepcool LT720 is well reviewed and the EKWB CR360 Lux has been highly rated since its launch at start of year. Not sure if availability over here yet though.

The two above probably have better thermal performance but Arctic wins on acoustics. So I guess it might come down to if your CPU runs max load for long periods, or light loads for gaming.

 

[SpyderTracks]

I have the Arctic, very happy with it. But yes, it’s been out of stock from many places for a while. I was able to get one from Caseking in Germany, which was good for VAT reasons.

The Deepcool LT720 is well reviewed and the EKWB CR360 Lux has been highly rated since its launch at start of year. Not sure if availability over here yet though.

The two above probably have better thermal performance but Arctic wins on acoustics. So I guess it might come down to if your CPU runs max load for long periods, or light loads for gaming.

Yeah, that's what I'm seeing too, I think the Arctic is the one I'll go for for all rounder performance vs noise. I do love the VRM cooler on it as well.

I'm factoring in AM5 support probably the 7900x3D so hoping the 360 rad will be enough for that. But gaming is really the largest workload, the Plex encoding really doesn't need too much CPU power as I'm only doing 1080p transcodes, not 4k. But quietness is a big factor for me.

 

[B4zookaw]

Same. Two things to check with Arctic:
1) the radiator is THICK. So check that you have enough clearance over VRMs, RAM etc as it while hang lower than Corsair if top mounted.
2) For AM4 mounting the Arctic has an offset position that puts the cold plate over the hottest part of the CPU. But again you want to check there is enough clearance from SSD M.2 that might be below CPU. Mine was tight. But it fitted.

 

[SpyderTracks]

Same. Two things to check with Arctic:
1) the radiator is THICK. So check that you have enough clearance over VRMs, RAM etc as it while hang lower than Corsair if top mounted.
2) For AM4 mounting the Arctic has an offset position that puts the cold plate over the hottest part of the CPU. But again you want to check there is enough clearance from SSD M.2 that might be below CPU. Mine was tight. But it fitted.

View attachment 36060

This is definitely going to be a factor, I'm hoping they may release some new boards with the X3D range, although there's zero rumours of it.

I'm always intrigued by the Taichi lineup, at the top end they seem to be really strong contenders. All depends on price though.

But we're veering too far into a self build, apologies, this isn't the forum for that.

 

[Steveyg]

I have a really really old Corsair H50 from 2010 that was used to overclock a 2500K to 4.7Ghz for yeeeeears that's still in the same build in a mates house trucking away

Corsair make good stuff even though I currently have a Liquid Lite 240 from Cooler Master at the minute. It's a bit loud to be honest I'd definitely go Corsair again

 

[Scott]

That's a decent innings but I think you actually got unlucky

My Dad still has my H50 going from 2010 also Granted, it's currently on an i3 so probably not pushed hard. I think it's spent an entire 2 weeks switched off since 2010 though.

 

[Steveyg]

That's a decent innings but I think you actually got unlucky

My Dad still has my H50 going from 2010 also Granted, it's currently on an i3 so probably not pushed hard. I think it's spent an entire 2 weeks switched off since 2010 though.

Oh yeah I'm sure I've been extremely lucky but it's still very impressive even if it's a freak occurrence

 

[Scott]

Oh yeah I'm sure I've been extremely lucky but it's still very impressive even if it's a freak occurrence

I didn't mean yours, yours is the same as mine so I think it's par for the course. I meant Spider was unlucky that it gave up the ghost so soon

 

[SpyderTracks]

I didn't mean yours, yours is the same as mine so I think it's par for the course. I meant Spider was unlucky that it gave up the ghost so soon

I love the Corsairs, I really do, very reliable, I just fancy giving another model a try this time round, I like to try out new manufacturers each time really, to get used to as many as I can.

 

[B4zookaw]

I love the Corsairs, I really do, very reliable, I just fancy giving another model a try this time round, I like to try out new manufacturers each time really, to get used to as many as I can.

Arctic offer a 6 year warranty on their AIOs, so you can't go too far wrong with that. I'm keen to learn what you go for in the end.

 

[SpyderTracks]

Arctic offer a 6 year warranty on their AIOs, so you can't go too far wrong with that. I'm keen to learn what you go for in the end.

God, that's pretty impressive given the price point.

I'll definitely PM you some photos once it's all built, may still not be for a while as I'll buy it piece by piece over a few months.

 

[Scott]

I fell down an AIO rabbit hole after the Motherboard rabbit hole. I absolutely hate going through reviews for coolers, there's just no consistency across any of the testing that I can see. I had initially landed on the LS720 and tried to get some results. Initially I saw that it performed better than the LT720, which seemed very strange to me, so I started scouting around.

With some testers it rates highly, some it's the middle of the road. There's just no rhyme or reason to the results. 240mm Corsair coolers above it from one outlet, below it in others. Nothing that makes any sense at all. I genuinely don't think that these "tests" can be taken with much more than a pinch of salt as there just so infinitely variable in the resulting data. I know that both the LS720 and LT720 will be good performers, purely based on their design and knowing how they work. How testers can publish their data without it actually making sense is beyond me though. Anyone finding a decent 360mm cooler performing worse than a 240mm cooler needs to re-visit the mounting faces or something.

Apologies rant over. In other news I've ordered a LT720, but I'm going to cancel (I think) and get the LS720 instead. It's going to be in the loft but i'll take a nice picture of the shiny lights before it goes.