Corsair Hydro Series H110 280 mm High Performance Liquid CPU Cooler

This baby cools. I installed this in my new Fractal Mid Tower case. You can see the review under my other posts. This cooler was the finishing touches to complete my build. I was running 50-60 celsius on my cpu under medium load. I have an ASUS motherboard with an AMD 8 core 4.0 ghz processor. The stock fan sounded like a blow dryer trying to keep it cool. The temp was in the 40 celsius range under idle. After installing the H110, I am at idle with as low as 7 celsius and usually no more than low 20's under medium load. The fans are large so they are very quiet. I have a very large case and barely fit this thing in. You will want to measure before purchasing.The reason for choosing the H110 over the H100. I have two sons who built awesome machines. One has the H100 the other has the H110. The H100, which is further from the door, can be heard as you enter the room. You have to get close to the computer with the H110 in order to hear it. I wanted quiet. They both work excellent for cooling. The larger fans on the H110 just make it better. Worth the extra few bucks. Just make sure you measure.

First of all, this thing is huge. I wanted a liquid CPU cooler for my rig for a few reasons: 1) It's quieter than air cooled, 2) It keeps the CPU much cooler than air cooled systems, 3) It looks a lot cooler (pun intended) than air cooled CPU coolers. I use it on an Intel i5-4690K 3.5Ghz OC @ 4.5GHz and during heavy loads it runs at around 50-60°C, if that high. At regular everyday use, it's at 25-40°C. It varies depending on what I'm doing (usually running multiple things at one time). I don't mind those temps at all.This rad/fan combo works amazingly. I have the 140mm fans in between the case and the radiator pulling the air through the radiator (I tried both ways and it seems better and quieter in this configuration than having the fans pushing air through the radiator). Also, I picked this one over the H100i mainly because this radiator was bigger and could dissipate more heat than the H100i. There were also less plugs with the H110 (just one for the pump and two for the fans) whereas the H100i, I believe, has one more plug for monitoring fan speed.If you have the room like I do in the Corsair 750D, this is definitely the best one you could get without going into actual water-cooling systems.

PROS:Performance, performance, performance. Dropped my idle temps by 3-5C and dropped my gaming load temps by 10-12C compared to my Noctua NH-D14 that I was using previously. That's absolutely amazing. I get the same temperature results now with my chip at 1.5V 5 GHz as my NH-D14 gave me at 1.4V 4.8 GHz.Aesthetics compared to a big air tower are nice too... looks much better than a giant heatsink in your case.5 year warranty is fantastic!Fit in my Cooler Master Storm Trooper case with zero problems.----------CONS:Installation, while not particularly difficult, is not particularly easy either. Took me a little over an hour to replace my D14 with the H110, from the time the H110 arrived to when I had it booted up.The instruction manual is pretty minimalist. Again not bad, but not particularly helpful either.Corsair recommends you use the fans as intake, but I think that's really dumb. You don't want hot air exhausting into your case, since it fights the natural pattern of hot air rising up out of your case.MAKE SURE IT WILL FIT YOUR CASE-----------OTHERI am using this cooler with 2 modifications. I am using a pair of Noctua NF-A14 FLX fans (as exhaust), instead of the corsair fans here. I also used Noctua's NT-H1 thermal compound instead of whatever stock compound this cooler comes with.I also have the fans on a fan controller for silence when the computer is at idle.Relevant system specs:ASRock z68 extreme7 gen3i7-2600k @ 5 GHz (1.5V)16GB DDR3 2133 c11Storm Trooper case

Pros:[1] It allows for lower HIGH temperatures during EXTREME loads - loads where my previous liquid cooler often failed and a system shutdown would ensue.[2] The radiator unit never gets hot to the touch.[3] The included Corsair fans move air at decent CFMs, while maintaining reasonably low noise volume.Cons:[1] Installation took much longer than I anticipated. I expect a second set of hands will help.[2] A 2-year warranty for a flagship Corsair product. They used to provide 5-year warranties for products north of $100.[3] Eventual galvanic corrosion - because different metals are used in the build: i.e. aluminum radiator and copper cold plate.**Corsair does cite an estimated MTBF of 50,000 hours, however. I'm hoping this MTBF is the standard that the H110 will measure up to.**There is a liquid cooling unit on the market constructed of uniform metals : copper : and that, for the most part, is self-contained and resistant to galvanic corrosion. The H20-220 Edge is an excellent alternative - but nearly twice the price of this Corsair model. It's probably worth every penny.UPDATE: after a mere 4 months, the fans began to rattle. I first noticed it after playing with their rotation rates, using my ASUS motherboard's software (AI Suite). Unsettled, I then opted to use the fan control buttons built into my Cooler Master chassis - and the noise went away. Relieved but still curious, I began experimenting with the motherboard software days later. I verified that indeed the AI Suite was inducing the rattling. By then, however, the rattling stuck and I couldn't quiet my fans no matter what controls I used. Fortunately, Corsair's warranty covered the fans - but not separately. Corsair replaced the whole unit with new fans and a new radiator. Odd, but I had no complaints. Granted, I didn't have use of the H110 for a couple of weeks, but I'm a happy customer.