Corsair H100i Liquid CPU Cooler Review

The Corsair H100i is actually not as strong a contender as I had expected when it came to acoustics but these figures will change as you adjust the fan profiles, for example you could get better acoustics by using the Quiet fan profile compared to the standard profile we tested with. The H100i has a slight problem with rattling and whining between the fans and the radiator. Corsair have recognised the issues and are looking for solutions. A firmware update for the H100i fixes the rattling by changing the fan operation profiles, however the whine-problem still hasn’t been properly fixed although Corsair are close to a fix.

All that said we still see the Corsair H100i with reasonable acoustic performance that could easily be reduced once it is put inside a case. There is very little change between load and idle noise.

We had marginally higher acoustics at overclocked load, but again the noise isn’t terribly noticeable and inside most cases it wouldn’t be noticeable. The previously mentioned whine is quite low pitched so it isn’t that audible but it definitely does come from the radiator and fans so lets hope Corsair can implement the fix soon. However, you can still clearly see from the graph that air coolers are generally quieter solutions. It comes down to a question of what is an acceptable noise and performance balance for you? For most I would say this is a very good balance.