Corsair H80 CPU Cooler Review

[nextpage title=”Introduction”]

The Corsair H80 is a sealed liquid cooling system, a.k.a. a watercooler. Let’s test it and see if it offers great performance.

Although it is sold with the Corsair brand, this product is actually manufactured in partnership with CoolIt Systems.

The H80 box is large and in dark colors, as you can see in Figure 1.

Figure 1: Package

Figure 2 reveals what comes in the box: the preassembled radiator-hoses-block-pump system, fans, manual, and installation hardware.

Figure 2: Accessories

This watercooler is discussed in detail in the following pages.

[nextpage title=”The Corsair H80″]

Figure 3 shows the main set of the H80. As with any sealed liquid cooling system, the block, radiator, hoses, and pump come preassembled, with the coolant liquid already inside. This means the system doesn’t need any maintenance.

Figure 3: The Corsair H80

Figures 4 and 5 reveal the radiator, which is responsible for dissipating the heat from the liquid to the air passing through it. This radiator supports two 120 mm fans and is intended to be installed at the rear panel of the computer case.

Figure 4: Radiator

Figure 5: Radiator

[nextpage title=”The Corsair H80 (Cont’d)”]

Figure 6 presents the CPU block, which transfers the heat from the processor to the liquid. As in other sealed systems, the pump that makes the liquid flow is integrated in the block.

The connector you see in the side of the block allows you to connect the H80 to the Corsair Link, a modular system that controls case cooling and lighting, and can be controlled via an USB port. This system must be purchased separately.

Figure 6 also shows the cables of the block: one four-pin standard peripheral power connector (“Molex”) that powers up the H80, and a single wire that must be connected to the motherboard, allowing it to sense the pump speed.

Figure 6: Block

In Figure 7, you see the connector for the two fans used by the H80, which controls them.

There is a button on the top of the block, used to switch between three operation modes, where the fans are set at minimum, medium or high speed. The lights on the block indicate which speed it is by displaying one (minimum), two (medium), or three (high) lights.

Figure 7: Block

The copper base of the block is shown in Figure 8. It comes with preapplied thermal compound.

Figure 8: Base

Figure 9 shows the twin 120 mm fans that come with the Corsair H80.

Figure 9: Fans

[nextpage title=”Installation”]

Figure 10 shows the backplate to be used with Intel CPUs at the left. In AMD systems, the block is installed using the existing motherboard frame, using the clips shown at the right.

Figure 10: Intel backplate and AMD clips

To install the H80 on our CPU, first we installed the backplate on the solder side of the motherboard, holding it in place with the thumbscrews shown in Figure 11.

Figure 11: Holders installed

Then, we put the block over the CPU, holding it with four thumbnuts. After that, the radiator was installed on the rear panel of the case, as shown in Figure 12.

Figure 12: CPU cooler installed

[nextpage title=”How We Tested”]

We tested the cooler with a Core i7-860 CPU (quad-core, 2.8 GHz), which is a socket LGA1156 processor with a 95 W TDP (Thermal Design Power). In order to get higher thermal dissipation, we overclocked it to 3.3 GHz (150 MHz base clock and 22x multiplier), keeping the standard core voltage (Vcore), which was the maximum stable overclock we could make with the stock cooler. Keep in mind that we could have raised the CPU clock more, but to include the stock cooler in our comparison, we needed to use this moderate overclock.

We measured noise and temperature with the CPU idle and under full load. In order to get 100% CPU usage in all threads, we ran Prime 95 25.11 with the "In-place Large FFTs" option. (In this version, the software uses all available threads.)

We compared the tested cooler to the Intel stock cooler with a copper base (included with the CPU), as well as with other coolers. Note that in the past, we tested coolers with a socket LGA775 CPU, and we retested some "old" coolers with this new methodology. This means you can find different values in older reviews than the values you will read in the next page. Every cooler was tested with the thermal compound that accompanies it.

Room temperature measurements were taken with a digital thermometer. The core temperature was read with the SpeedFan program (available from the CPU thermal sensors), using an arithmetic average of the core temperature readings. During the tests, the left panel of the case was open.

The sound pressure level (SPL) was measured with
a digital noise meter, with its sensor placed 4" (10 cm) from the fan. We turned off the case and video board cooler fans so they wouldn’t interfere with the results. This measurement is only for comparison purposes, because a precise SPL measurement needs to be made inside an acoustically insulated room with no other noise sources, which isn’t the case here.

Hardware Configuration

• Processor: Core i7-860
• Motherboard: Gigabyte P55A-UD6
• Memory: 2 GB Markvision (DDR3-1333/PC3-10700 with 9-9-9-22 timings), configured at 1,200 MHz
• Hard disk: Seagate Barracuda XT 2 TB
• Video card: Zotac GeForce GTS 250
• Video resolution: 1680×1050
• Video monitor: Samsung Syncmaster 2232BW Plus
• Power supply: Seventeam ST-550P-AM
• Case: 3RSystem L-1100 T.REX Cool

Operating System Configuration

• Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit SP1

Software Used

• Prime95
• SpeedFan

Error Margin

We adopted a 2 °C error margin, meaning temperature differences below 2 °C are considered irrelevant.

[nextpage title=”Our Tests”]

The table below presents the results of our measurements. We repeated the same test on all coolers listed below. Each measurement was taken with the CPU at idle and at full load. In the models with a fan supporting PWM, the motherboard controlled the fan speed according to core load and temperature. On coolers with an integrated fan controller, the fan was set at the minimum speed on the idle test and at full speed on the full load test.

		Idle Processor			Processor at Full Load
Cooler	Room Temp.	Noise	Speed	Core Temp.	Noise	Speed	Core Temp.
Intel stock (socket LGA1156)	14 °C	44 dBA	1700 rpm	46 °C	54 dBA	2500 rpm	90 °C
Cooler Master Hyper TX3 G1	14 °C	47 dBA	2050 rpm	33 °C	56 dBA	2900 rpm	62 °C
Zalman CNPS10X Extreme	14 °C	45 dBA	1400 rpm	27 °C	53 dBA	1950 rpm	51 °C
Thermaltake Silent 1156	14 °C	44 dBA	1200 rpm	38 °C	49 dBA	1750 rpm	69 °C
Noctua NH-D14	14 °C	49 dBA	1250 rpm	27 °C	49 dBA	1250 rpm	53 °C
Zalman CNPS10X Performa	14 °C	46 dBA	1500 rpm	28 °C	52 dBA	1950 rpm	54 °C
Prolimatech Megahalems	14 °C	40 dBA	750 rpm	27 °C	60 dBA	2550 rpm	50 °C
Thermaltake Frio	14 °C	46 dBA	1450 rpm	27 °C	60 dBA	2500 rpm	50 °C
Prolimatech Samuel 17	14 °C	40 dBA	750 rpm	40 °C	60 dBA	2550 rpm	63 °C
Zalman CNPS8000A	18 °C	43 dBA	1400 rpm	39 °C	54 dBA	2500 rpm	70 °C
Spire TherMax Eclipse II	14 °C	55 dBA	2200 rpm	28 °C	55 dBA	2200 rpm	53 °C
Scythe Ninja3	17 °C	39 dBA	700 rpm	32 °C	55 dBA	1800 rpm	57 °C
Corsair A50	18 °C	52 dBA	1900 rpm	33 °C	52 dBA	1900 rpm	60 °C
Thermaltake Jing	18 °C	44 dBA	850 rpm	34 °C	49 dBA	1300 rpm	60 °C
GlacialTech Alaska	18 °C	43 dBA	1150 rpm	36 °C	51 dBA	1600 rpm	60 °C
Deepcool Gamer Storm	18 °C	43 dBA	1100 rpm	35 °C	48 dBA	1600 rpm	62 °C
Corsair A70	26 °C	56 dBA	1900 rpm	40 °C	56 dBA	1900 rpm	65 °C
Deepcool Ice Blade Pro	23 °C	45 dBA	1200 rpm	38 °C	52 dBA	1500 rpm	64 °C
AC Freezer 7 Pro Rev. 2	23 °C	47 dBA	1750 rpm	44 °C	51 dBA	2100 rpm	77 °C
Corsair H70	27 °C	60 dBA	1900 rpm	37 °C	60 dBA	1900 rpm	61 °C
Zalman CNPS9900 Max	27 °C	55 dBA	1600 rpm	38 °C	58 dBA	1750 rpm	63 °C
Arctic Cooling Freezer 11 LP	25 °C	45 dBA	1700 rpm	51 °C	49 dBA	1950 rpm	91 °C
CoolIT Vantage	26 °C	60 dBA	2500 rpm	37 °C	60 dBA	2500 rpm	62 °C
Deepcool Ice Matrix 600	25 °C	46 dBA	1100 rpm	41 °C	53 dBA	1300 rpm	69 °C
Titan Hati	26 °C	46 dBA	1500 rpm	40 °C	57 dBA	2450 rpm	68 °C
Arctic Cooling Freezer 13	27 °C	49 dBA	1950 rpm	41 °C	53 dBA	2300 rpm	70 °C
Noctua NH-C14	26 °C	52 dBA	1300 rpm	37 °C	52 dBA	1300 rpm	61 °C
Intel XTS100H	26 °C	49 dBA	1200 rpm	42 °C	64 dBA	2600 rpm	68 °C
Zalman CNPS5X SZ	23 °C	52 dBA	2250 rpm	38 °C	57 dBA	2950 rpm	69 °C
Thermaltake SlimX3	21 °C	50 dBA	2700 rpm	46 °C	50 dBA	2750 rpm	99 °C
Cooler Master Hyper 101	21 °C	50 dBA	2600 rpm	38 °C	57 dBA	3300 rpm	71 °C
Antec Kühler H2O 620	19 °C	52 dBA	1400 rpm	34 °C	55 dBA	1400 rpm	58 °C
Arctic Cooling Freezer 13 Pro	20 °C	46 dBA	1100 rpm	36 °C	49 dBA	1300 rpm	62 °C
GlacialTech Siberia	22 °C	49 dBA	1400 rpm	34 °C	49 dBA	1400 rpm	61 °C
Evercool Transformer 3	18 °C	46 dBA	1800 rpm	33 °C	51 dBA	2250 rpm	65 °C
Zalman CNPS11X Extreme	20 °C	51 dBA	1850 rpm	34 °C	56 dBA	2050 rpm	61 °C
Thermaltake Frio OCK	15 °C	44 dBA	1000 rpm	27 °C	64 dBA	2200 rpm	51 °C
Prolimatech Genesis	18 °C	49 dBA	1050 rpm	30 °C	49 dBA	1050 rpm	54 °C
Arctic Cooling Freezer XTREME Rev. 2	15 °C	41 dBA	1050 rpm	32 °C	44 dBA	1400 rpm	60 °C
NZXT HAVIK 140	16 °C	48 dBA	1250 rpm	29 °C	49 dBA	1250 rpm	55 °C
Antec Kühler H2O 920	18 °C	41 dBA	650 rpm	29 °C	64 dBA	2500 rpm	49 °C
Zalman CNP7X LED	18 °C	45 dBA	1950 rpm	33 °C	48 dBA	2150 rpm	58 °C
EVGA Superclock	14 °C	43 dBA	1300 rpm	27 °C	58 dBA	2350 rpm	47 °C
Evercool Transformer 4	15 °C	46 dBA	1500 rpm	26 °C	53 dBA	1950 rpm	52 °C
Xigmatek Dark Knight	18 °C	47 dBA	1700 rpm	30 °C	53 dBA	2150 rpm	57 °C
Xigmatek Aegir	15 °C	44 dBA	1500 rpm	27 °C	50 dBA	1950 rpm	52 °C
Cooler Master GeminII S524	16 °C	45 dBA	1300 rpm	29 °C	53 dBA	1800 rpm	58 °C
Enermax ETS-T40-TA	16 °C	40 dBA	1050 rpm	28 °C	48 dBA	1800 rpm	55 °C
Corsair H80	14 °C	42 dBA	2150 rpm	25 °C	52 dBA	2150 rpm	47 °C

In the graph below, at full load you can see how many degrees Celsius hotter the CPU core is than the air outside the case. The lower this difference, the better is the performance of the cooler.

 

[nextpage title=”Main Specifications”]

The main specifications for the Corsair H80 CPU cooler include:

• Application: Sockets 775, 1155, 1156, 1366, 2011, AM2, AM2+, AM3, AM3+, and FM1 processors
• Radiator Dimensions: 4.7 x 1.5 x 6.0 inches (120 x 38 x 152 mm) (W x L x H)
• Block height: 1.6 inches (40 mm)
• Fins: Aluminum
• Base: Copper
• Heat-pipes: None
• Fan: Two, 120 mm
• Nominal fan speed: 2,500 rpm
• Fan air flow: 92 cfm
• Maximum power consumption: 2 x 4.2 W
• Nominal noise level: 39 dBA
• Weight: 2.2 lbs (1 kg)
• Extra features: Corsair Link connector
• More information: https://www.corsair.com
• Average Price in the US*: USD 92.00

* Researched at Newegg.com on the day we published this review.

[nextpage title=”Conclusions”]

The Corsair H80 is a great liquid cooling solution. It reached one of the best performances we saw on all air coolers and sealed watercoolers that we tested so far. It is also not too loud, maintaining the noise at an acceptable level even at full speed.

It’s a pity we couldn’t test it with the Corsair Link companion system, which can monitor and control the H80 by software.

Because its high cooling performance, the Corsair H80 liquid cooling system deserves the Hardware Secrets Golden Award.