What is the difference between these Corsair H115i cooler variants?

Ilmarinen

Member
Hey guys, so I'm making a rather excessive Ryzen 3900X desktop build (RTX 2080Ti GPU), and I've heard it's a toasty chip that needs a lot of cooling, so I'll need a solid cooler. The computer being *quiet* is a huge priority for me, so for the case I'm going with a FRACTAL DEFINE R6 BLACK QUIET MID-TOWER CASE (no glass, so the computer isn't an annoying lighthouse if it turns out a lot of awful RGB/LED strips are installed internally no matter how much I hate those - it's a computer dammit, not a lightshow, it should be quiet and unobtrusive and eat heavy multi-thread workloads and AAA games for breakfast).

For coolers I'm looking at these three, but I have no idea what the real differences between them are. Is nr. 2 quieter but cools worse? Is it just superior all around? (It is a little more expensive, but not enough that I care, I don't mean to penny-pinch here.) What are the tradeoffs, here, if I just want the cooler that has the best combination of being quiet and cooling really well?

1. Corsair H115i PRO Hydro Series High Performance CPU Cooler
2. Corsair H115i PRO Cooler w/ PCS Ultra Quiet Fans
3. Corsair H115i RGB PLATINUM Hydro Series High Performance CPU Cooler
 

SpyderTracks

We love you Ukraine
The Platinum is the newest option and comes with ML fans which are Magnetic Levitation, so they revolve on air and are incredibly quiet (I have 3 in my build, they're amazing).
 

Ilmarinen

Member
The Platinum is the newest option and comes with ML fans which are Magnetic Levitation, so they revolve on air and are incredibly quiet (I have 3 in my build, they're amazing).

Thanks for the answer! So it shines like a christmas tree, but is otherwise the best and quietest cooler?
 

Ilmarinen

Member
Yes, it’s the go to for that processor or above, they do need exceptional cooling.

Alright, thanks a lot for the advice, I'll go with that one. Here's my intended spec, for the record, now updated with the cooler you suggested :)

Cost: 3.372 euro inc. VAT (2.698 euro without VAT)

Case
FRACTAL DEFINE R6 BLACK QUIET MID-TOWER CASE
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 9 3900X 12 Core CPU (3.8GHz-4.6GHz/70MB CACHE/AM4)
Motherboard
ASUS® TUF X570-PLUS GAMING (USB 3.2 Gen 2, PCIe 4.0, CrossFireX) - RGB Ready!
Memory (RAM)
32GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 3200MHz (2 x 16GB)
Graphics Card
11GB NVIDIA GEFORCE RTX 2080 Ti - HDMI, 3x DP GeForce - RTX VR Ready!
1st Storage Drive
NOT REQUIRED
2nd Storage Drive
3TB SATA-III 3.5" HDD, 6GB/s, 7200RPM, 64MB CACHE
1st M.2 SSD Drive
2TB SAMSUNG 970 EVO PLUS M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 3500MB/R, 3300MB/W) <-- (Got this one because the seagate firecuda 2TB one is out of stock, so I'll make do with this one, for now at least - can always upgrade later if I absolutely want to)
DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
NOT REQUIRED
Power Supply
CORSAIR 750W RMx SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET
Power Cable
1 x 1 Metre European Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Processor Cooling
Corsair H115i RGB PLATINUM Hydro Series High Performance CPU Cooler
Thermal Paste
STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Wireless/Wired Networking
WIRELESS INTEL® Wi-Fi 6 AX200 2,400Mbps/5GHz, 300Mbps/2.4GHz PCI-E CARD + BT 5.0
 

SpyderTracks

We love you Ukraine
What's it for and what's your max budget?

What monitor are you pairing it with, what resolution and refresh rate or make and model if you're unsure?
 

Ilmarinen

Member
I'm getting this for gaming and for my hobbyist activities workloads (I'm a programmer who messes around a lot with neural net training and other large multithreading-heavy workloads, I make some videos sometimes and play around in After Effects, and so on). I did think carefully before picking the 3900X - I've read that it's not needed for gaming, and I concur, but I do think I'll get decent use out of it.

The max budget is whatever I feel like - I'd rather be a bit too excessive than too conservative. I'm in the lucky position of being able to be a bit extravagant here, though of course I don't want to throw money out of the window for no gain or make an outright bad build. But if you want the upper limit where I feel it begins to get a bit ridiculous and would need some equally ridiculous justification to justify the expense, call it 4000 euro inc. VAT (~3200 euro before VAT).

As for monitors, I currently have two old, fairly simple and plain 1080p 60HZ 21" Samsung monitors that have served me well ever since my college days, but that are in dire need of replacement (one has recently gotten a few dead pixels, too). I haven't yet decided what exactly I'll replace them with yet, but ideally something that pairs well with the new desktop. If you've any suggestions, I'd be more than happy to take them :)
 

SpyderTracks

We love you Ukraine
I'm getting this for gaming and for my hobbyist activities workloads (I'm a programmer who messes around a lot with neural net training and other large multithreading-heavy workloads, I make some videos sometimes and play around in After Effects, and so on). I did think carefully before picking the 3900X - I've read that it's not needed for gaming, and I concur, but I do think I'll get decent use out of it.

The max budget is whatever I feel like - I'd rather be a bit too excessive than too conservative. I'm in the lucky position of being able to be a bit extravagant here, though of course I don't want to throw money out of the window for no gain or make an outright bad build. But if you want the upper limit where I feel it begins to get a bit ridiculous and would need some equally ridiculous justification to justify the expense, call it 4000 euro inc. VAT (~3200 euro before VAT).

As for monitors, I currently have two old, fairly simple and plain 1080p 60HZ 21" Samsung monitors that have served me well ever since my college days, but that are in dire need of replacement (one has recently gotten a few dead pixels, too). I haven't yet decided what exactly I'll replace them with yet, but ideally something that pairs well with the new desktop. If you've any suggestions, I'd be more than happy to take them :)
The GPU is suited towards 1440p ultrawide or 4k 144hz, completely wasted on 1080p, so it's worth upgrading the primary monitor asap.

With that in mind though, it's a lovely build.

There's a good thread on monitors here, personally, I'd go for a good 1440p Ultrawide over 4k, it's much more emersive:

 

Ilmarinen

Member
Thanks for the advice, I'll go take a look at that. 1440p ultrawide does sound nice - I think my desk might just be able to fit two of those.
 

SpyderTracks

We love you Ukraine
Thanks for the advice, I'll go take a look at that. 1440p ultrawide does sound nice - I think my desk might just be able to fit two of those.
You'd only have one as a gaming monitor, if you needed a second, you'd just get a normal one at 60hz and without adaptive sync as it wouldn't be used for gaming.
 

Ilmarinen

Member
That's a good point! Perhaps I'll just get a single ultrawide, for now, and keep one of my old screens to have on the side, the one without dead pixels. I can always get another screen later if I feel like it. Reading up on all these monitors, I realize how out of touch I've been with the most recent standards for the past while. I didn't even know Displayport was a thing, but it seems like it's the latest and greatest.

So currently I'm eyeing a decent looking curved 34-inch 144hz display with 3440x1440 resolution. My only worry is that the one I'm looking at only has AMD Freesync and only supports DisplayPort 1.2 - from some Googling, I'd guess neither of these are an issue, but I'm not too sure. Nvidia GPUs apparently do support AMD Freesync over DisplayPort, just not over HDMI? And DisplayPort 1.2 ought to have the bandwidth needed for 1440p 144hz - newer versions like DisplayPort 1.4 are only needed if you want multiple screens at high res and update rate? I would think I can just put the primary monitor in the GPU's DisplayPort port, and plug my old screen into an HDMI port, and I should be fine.
 

SpyderTracks

We love you Ukraine
That's a good point! Perhaps I'll just get a single ultrawide, for now, and keep one of my old screens to have on the side, the one without dead pixels. I can always get another screen later if I feel like it. Reading up on all these monitors, I realize how out of touch I've been with the most recent standards for the past while. I didn't even know Displayport was a thing, but it seems like it's the latest and greatest.

So currently I'm eyeing a decent looking curved 34-inch 144hz display with 3440x1440 resolution. My only worry is that the one I'm looking at only has AMD Freesync and only supports DisplayPort 1.2 - from some Googling, I'd guess neither of these are an issue, but I'm not too sure. Nvidia GPUs apparently do support AMD Freesync over DisplayPort, just not over HDMI? And DisplayPort 1.2 ought to have the bandwidth needed for 1440p 144hz - newer versions like DisplayPort 1.4 are only needed if you want multiple screens at high res and update rate? I would think I can just put the primary monitor in the GPU's DisplayPort port, and plug my old screen into an HDMI port, and I should be fine.
Freesync is supported on both nvidia and AMD gpu's.

BUT, if you're budget is healthy, it's worth getting a GSync Certified screen which is Freesync but has been verified by NVidia to work flawlessly.

GSync will only work with nvidia cards, although I have a feeling they'll be opening that up given the amount of sales their losing to AMD.

But yeah, whatever you get, you'll want Display Port, HDMI is pretty crappy compared.
 

Ilmarinen

Member
I'll make sure to read a ton of reviews before I make a decision re: the screen. I should have plenty of time to make a decision there; if I order the desktop today, which I might, it'll still be a while before it gets here, but most screens I'm looking at are well in stock and have <2 day shipping times.

Thank you so much for all of the help and advice!

I have a final question, if I may - given the current global situation re: the pandemic, do you know of any delays or issues at PC Specialist that I should be taking into account, here? Shipping to Denmark, as far as I know, should still be fine, if maybe a few days delayed at most.
 

SpyderTracks

We love you Ukraine
I'll make sure to read a ton of reviews before I make a decision re: the screen. I should have plenty of time to make a decision there; if I order the desktop today, which I might, it'll still be a while before it gets here, but most screens I'm looking at are well in stock and have <2 day shipping times.

Thank you so much for all of the help and advice!

I have a final question, if I may - given the current global situation re: the pandemic, do you know of any delays or issues at PC Specialist that I should be taking into account, here? Shipping to Denmark, as far as I know, should still be fine, if maybe a few days delayed at most.
The PC will suit a good ultrawide perfectly, you'll absolutely love it!

Yeah, PCS are facing lower staff numbers, and shipping is affected worldwide, but that being said, they're doing extremely well on the whole.

There's this update on their website which is worth looking at:

 

Ilmarinen

Member
The PC will suit a good ultrawide perfectly, you'll absolutely love it!

Yeah, PCS are facing lower staff numbers, and shipping is affected worldwide, but that being said, they're doing extremely well on the whole.

There's this update on their website which is worth looking at:


Alright, thanks for the link, for some reason I failed to find that page. That sounds a lot better than I was fearing. I'm really looking forward to my new PC! Thanks, once again!
 
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