17 replies to this topic

[Jaxom08]

I have been looking at these for quite awhile, but life things have taken priority over pc upgrades ( 5 month old daughter....need I say more?? lol ). I looked at the Corsair series.....specifically the H100 but don't wanna spend more then 100.00 USD, the H80 is looking good, but the other day I was at Best Buy because my PSU blew up ( replaced with Thermaltake Black Widow 850w ) and saw the Antec all in one for 64.00 usd.........I guess my question is .......if given the choice which would you guys go with and is there any REAL difference between Antec's and Corsairs??

[Mota Prefect]

I bought the Corsair H100 for my new rig built in march, hands down the best cooler I've used in15 years of building my own PC's. If you can't afford the H100, the H80 or even the H60 are also great coolers for the money. I have a buddy that just upgraded to an i7-2500K and went with an H60 and is very happy with it.

Although I now used both and antec v3 1200 case and antec 1000w PSU, I would go with the Corsair coolers over theirs, as they have had more time to develop and refine their designs. Hope this helps.

EDIT: Installation was also extremely easy, very much so over huge air coolers. The H80/H60 would be even easier.

Edited by Mota Prefect, 05 August 2012 - 10:45 PM.

[NelsonGeist]

I also have the H100. load temps for my i5 2500-k never go above 44 C. I am quite happy with the money spent for it. Especially since you dont have to bother with evaporation and refilling every so often.

It is expensive but worth it.

[Errant Parasite]

I myself own the H100, I also find it to be a very good self contained water cooler. The reason I chose to go with the Corsair though is because they are actually made by a company called coolIT which basically developed the concept of the self contained water cooler. I suggest you take a look at the coolIT site as it is pretty interesting company. The only thing about the H100 though is you need to make sure you own a case that can fit the rad with room to spare. I actually picked up the Corsair 650D case and mounted the rad on top and it is a very clean setup. But from what I hear the smaller solutions are really good as well.

I am not a big overclocker, but I do like my components to run really cool and this was a great solution for that. I do have my i7-2600k mildly overclocked but nothing that is going to blow your socks off. The highest my CPU ever got was 39 C and that was when my AC was on the fritz this summer.

I hope this help you out.

[Jaxom08]

thanks for all the input......I tend to think I'm gonna say screw it and go for the H100, I have looked at the dimensions and measured the space in my case and I think it's gonna end up mounted on the top....( I've got a cheap case really....Rosewill Challenger gamer case....but this is gonna get changed too soon to a corsair case i like.)

If/when i get it all done and my cable management done better I'll take some shots of it and post them here.

Once again thanks for the advice and info.

[Vulpesveritas]

Jaxom08, on 10 August 2012 - 01:59 PM, said:

thanks for all the input......I tend to think I'm gonna say screw it and go for the H100, I have looked at the dimensions and measured the space in my case and I think it's gonna end up mounted on the top....( I've got a cheap case really....Rosewill Challenger gamer case....but this is gonna get changed too soon to a corsair case i like.)

If/when i get it all done and my cable management done better I'll take some shots of it and post them here.

Once again thanks for the advice and info.

the H100 won't fit on the challenger's top vent without modification. The H80 on the other hand, will.

[Hardcover]

A little late to the party here, but I just wanted to chime in and say that, having been doing some on-again, off-again research on liquid cooling from what I can tell the general consensus of the liquid cooling community is that the Corsair coolers are decent and a good way to dip your toes in the water, no pun intended, especially if you're not overclocking (or at least not too hard). That having been said, my understanding is that no commercial all-in-one solution is as effective, usually, as a full custom water loop.

[Aznpersuasion89]

what about the thermaltake water 2.0 pro? http://www.newegg.co...N82E16835106188

[nimrodusmaximus]

I have H80. H100 didn't fit in my case. If I can install it, anyone can. Very easy setup. I did switch out the fans for quieter ones.

[Gremlich Johns]

The Antec 620 is a great system, is closed loop and fits just about anywhere in a case. But, if you say screw it, go with the H80.

[BloodLegacy]

H100 is awesome, I have it im my OC'ed AMD Buldozer system and it runs ice cold. Love it.

[Lightdragon]

from what ive seen.. liquid cooling negates any advantages it offers by keeping the radiator inside the case keeping ambient temps the same as air cooling would seems like a huge waste of cash over cheap fans to vent heat

[Hardcover]

Lightdragon, on 12 August 2012 - 02:18 AM, said:

from what ive seen.. liquid cooling negates any advantages it offers by keeping the radiator inside the case keeping ambient temps the same as air cooling would seems like a huge waste of cash over cheap fans to vent heat

You don't have to keep the radiator inside the case. Plus I don't think you understand how liquid cooling works. In a properly set up loop, the coolant is passed through the radiator, which has fans blowing air through it, to lower the temperature of the coolant itself before the coolant goes to any of the waterblocks in the loop. Some people like to put the radiator inside the case for convenience's sake, but I've seen many builds with external radiators, just to get an extra bit of cooling by keeping the radiator away from any radiant heat sources in the case itself.

Hell, if you wanted to be really high-speed with your cooling, you could put an external radiator and mount it on top of an air conditioning vent in your house. And for the truly hardcore, there's always the method of immersing your computer in mineral oil (no, I'm not kidding).

[Youngblood]

Hardcover, on 13 August 2012 - 01:06 AM, said:

And for the truly hardcore, there's always the method of immersing your computer in mineral oil (no, I'm not kidding).

Well, that certainly gives a new meaning to the term "all-in-one cooling system"!

[Vulpesveritas]

Youngblood, on 13 August 2012 - 03:25 AM, said:

Well, that certainly gives a new meaning to the term "all-in-one cooling system"!

Puget systems has a DIY mineral oil kit with everything but the PC components, fans, and mineral oil included for $600.

Edited by Vulpesveritas, 13 August 2012 - 05:50 AM.

[silentD11]

Long time liquid cooler here, back in the days where we had to mill our own blocks and overclock with jumpers. Those all in one kits are NOT worth it. This is going to be rather long, but the long and short of it is go big (200 bucks for a CPU loop) or go home. All in one liquid cooling kits, even the Corsair and asetek ones do not cool as well as high end air cooling, you need a custom loop for that and the cost will be around 200 bucks at minimum.

Three things go into how efficient liquid cooling is. The block design for heat transfer on the item, the pump for flow rate, and the radiator to actually remove the heat.

A 120mm radiator can only remove so much heat, and that amount of heat is actually not much better, and often worse than what a high end air heatsink can remove. And I'm talking about GOOD 120mm radiators, a top end 120mm radiator will run you 60 bucks on it's own and is not the radiators that come in all in one kits. Generally to beat air cooling on a quadcore you're looking at a 2x 120mm radiator, which is around 90 bucks for a good one, or 60 for an average one.

http://www.performan...oducts_id=32495
http://www.performan...oducts_id=25388


The design of the block determines how effective the block is at removing heat, the blocks that come in all in one kits are pretty much trash and low end. Good blocks with quality micro fin designs are expensive, over 70 bucks for a good one again, some clearing over 100. The lower end blocks simply do not remove heat as well.

http://www.performan...oducts_id=34463
http://www.performan...oducts_id=30269

Of course the down side of good blocks is that they massively impact flow rate and are restrictive as all hell, you need a quality pump to actually get their potential out of them, with out one performance goes to crap. A good pump that has enough head and pressure to be used with a top end block will range from the high 60's to a hundred bucks as well...

http://www.performan...oducts_id=31420

So to beat the top end of air cooling the three main components in your look are all 60-100 depending on if you want "meh" water cooling or "good" water cooling, about 180-300 bucks. I'm leaving out the cost of tubing, fittings, and whatever fluids/additives you decide you want to be nice here.

Water cooling is great and will return better temps than the best air cooling, but a 120mm radiator simply does not have the ability to disipate air much better than top end air (it does a worse job with the crap in in the all in one kits), an average waterblock simply won't remove heat well enough for the water to matter, and an average pump lacks the flow rate to power a good block. This is very much a go big or do not bother indevor.

The upside is that those "all in one" kits cost less than top end air cooling, granted they perform worse as well, but if you want to say you have a water cooled PC for the hell of it that's the point of them, just don't make the mistake of thinking they perform anything like water cooling or that you cant beat them with a good heatsink/fan.

If the price doesn't make you drop from sticker shock keep in mind that the pump and radiator can be kept through multiple builds as the technology doesn't really change. CPU blocks change slowly, so you can keep one for a while and only worry about mounting plates from build to build but eventually you're going to need a new one. Blocks designed for single and dualcores sucked *** on core2 quads, and later those designs couldn't keep up on i7s, times change.

[RedPandaPrince]

Well if by now you still haven't gotten a cooler i must say that the thermaltake bigwater series is a must have, this has a pump/res/rad all in one that slides in your drive bay. It's a little pricey (130) but it is defiantly worth it as it allows expansion for a gpu or other cooled comonent later on. It is also really easy to clean and care for. I know that I and several others have had one it is a good piece of hardware for any pc in the need for water cooling.

[SIN Deacon]

I build and repair computers all day long. You can achieve close to the same performance as the H100 with the H80 or the antec 920. Zalman also offers a closed loop solution which is nice as well. I've installed every single closed loop application from corsair (h40, H60, H70, H80, H100), along with antec (620 and 920) and zalman. The antec and zalman products in my opinion are of slightly higher quality, and have some nicer features for the same price or less. I just finished building a amd 8150 build. CPU is clocked at 4.4ghz (200x22@1.395v) with a full load temp of 42c on a H80. A friend at work has built a i7-3770k with the zalman closed loop, clocked at 4.5ghz (100x45@1.205v) with a full load temp of 82c. Both prime 95 tested for over 12 hours.

Anyways, You'll be happy with your purchase regardless. I'd suggest the Antec 920 or the Zalman Closed loop (If you want the corsair the h80 will do). You can achieve the same type of performance as the h100, with the dual rad Antec 920 or H80. My experience comes from nearly 8 years of building custom computers, loops, and servers. I personally own and maintain my own custom triple 120mm rad with external pump and tank.

Edited by SIN Deacon, 31 August 2012 - 01:23 PM.