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Corsair Hydro Series H80 Liquid CPU Cooler Review

Final ThoughtsWow! Just wow! We knew that Corsair’s H80 was going to perform well, but we have to be fair and say that it performed even better than we anticipated!

The H80’s performance is astounding! It easily tamed our hotter than usual 2600K when overclocked and didn’t reach anywhere near the dangerous 75C zone. We would have no worries or problems pushing our chip even further and increasing the voltage, as we are sure this cooler would easily dissipate the heat.

Installation was fairly straightforward thanks to the fairly clear installation guide. Some comments around the diagrams would have been a nice addition for novices, but the diagrams themselves were clear enough. The security was very good and the mount is so sturdy that you could probably send a system with this cooler already installed.

As far as aesthetics are concerned, the H80 is definitely near the top of the leader board. Its all black design, sleek cooling unit and even fully black cables make for a masterpiece inside your computer. There isn’t any humongous heatsink hanging from your motherboard which some people may dislike and the clutter-free installation makes for a great looking system.

Acoustics aren’t a strong point for this cooler when the fans are at 100% speed. It was by far the loudest solution we have heard to date, but this is understandable when dual 2600 RPM fans are being used. Applying one of the 3 cooling profiles is definitely recommended for daily usage so that the fans can slow down and work quieter when they aren’t needed. The “balanced” profile allowing a fan speed range of 1300-2000 RPM would be my personal preference, but this is obviously a decision that the user can make.

Price may not be the strongest attribute to the H80. Being available from around £75 makes this cooler higher priced than Noctua and Thermalright’s competing offerings. On the other hand though, the price may be justified when the cooler may be considered far better looking, doesn’t place as much strain on the motherboard, and doesn’t insist on a decent sized case just for it to fit. We also have to remember that it isn’t fair to compare an air cooler with a liquid cooler in terms of price. There is far more manufacturing involved and materials used in the liquid cooler.

Overall, Corsair have an absolutely excellent CPU cooler in the H80. It looks amazing, it performs amazing, the warranty is amazing and the quality of the product is amazing. Corsair really have delivered with the H80 in our humble opinion!

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