Corsair H100i Pro AIO Cooler Review

Conclusion and Video

The Corsair H100 is one of the most popular AIO CPU coolers around. Whenever something gets super popular it always comes along with a large user base who would like some adjustments to better fit their own requirements. In the case of the H100 the loudest, if you’ll pardon the expression, noise came from those people who wanted the quietest noise. Although an All-In-One cooler is significantly quieter than an air cooler when the going gets hot and heavy, if you sit closely to your case and game for long stretches at a time, that noise can become wearisome if you have sensitive hearing.

The H100i Pro therefore has been designed specifically to have a quieter pump and utilises the outstanding ML fans from Corsair to keep the airflow over the radiator at a high level. This has been very successful as even at the fastest ‘all out’ type settings the H100i Pro was still noticeable quieter than its predecessor.

Of course Corsair could have stopped there and we’d have been pleased and yet another model would have been added to the burgeoning range of H-series coolers. However, the H100i Pro also makes great use of the new iCUE software that we recently looked at in our review of their K70 Mk.2 keyboard. You can not only have full control of the RGB lighting as you would expect in modern times, but also apply a range of effects to the cooler so that it fits in with the rest of your system. If you’re fortunate enough to have the full gamut of Corsair products on hand then your entire system can put Blackpool Illuminations to shame with its capabilities, from strobing, cycling or simple reactive colour shifting, all is available. Additionally Corsair have included a whole host of CPU specific profiles into the software allowing you to ensure the best possible cooling profile based upon your settings and installed CPU. Normally we can expect to see just quiet, balanced and high options, but here there are 5 different options and plenty of sub options, ensuring that regardless of which processor you have if you want it to be quiet you aren’t sat worried that the heat curve isn’t taking into effect that Processor X happily runs warm whilst Processor Y dies if it so much as gets warm. You also have the option to link the fan curve to the coolant temp or the CPU temp. For a performance system we would suggest you link it to the CPU temps but if youre a quiet freak then coolant temp is definitely where you will want yours fixed.

All in all the H100i Pro is a welcome addition to the Corsair H-family of AIO coolers. It performs very well, is very quiet, and has enough bells and whistles to keep even the most ardent tinkerer and control freak happy and wins our OC3D Performance Award.

  

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