Review: Corsair H115i RGB Pro XT liquid cooler

do you have super strict stability tests to run 1.35V ? I ran mine @ 1.26V and it was fine for gaming, handbrake or streaming (using nvenc) which is the intended use of the cpu anyway
I say this because obviously then you'll get lower Watts and temperatures, maybe I just got lucky with my 9900k...or simply got a stabler memory (memory no1 cause of failure when overclocking, just downclock yours to 2133Mhz or whatever and you'll see your system is suddenly very stable)

I own the H115 rgb platinum (older model) and it works great my only minus would be the pump that vibrated more than other aio and thus was hearable (maybe a defect ?) also that pump in the older H115i made Aida64 and other monitoring apps completely crash icue commander pros (when it worked fine with a H150 360mm) I hope they fixed that in this version
other than that I also ran my amd 3960x on older H115i rgb platinum thing for 1 month (until I received the parts for a custom loop) and it worked "okay" but using the cpu 100% in cinebench and the like would give me 90°C (stock settings) if you have one already you can use it on threadripper (pretty much the hottest cpu you can get 250-280W only for the cpu !) but it won't be "great"

 

Hi Hilbert

Would you say Wprime 2.10 is a good real world temperature test? So if I can get below 80c on Wprime on 5ghz with my 9900k, would you say that is safe for 24/7 use?

My 9900k needs 1.32v to be completely stable at 5ghz. But it can reach 90c after an hour of AVX stress testing like Realbench etc.

I've got a Corsair H150i, and my ambient temp is normally 28-29c (air conditioned room)

Honestly I've been running 4.8ghz at 1.24v, the temps are like 15c better overall. I just feel a bit uncomfortable with high temps just for a 4% performance bump.

 

9900k power consumption when performing stress tests with AVX depends on RAM performance.
Therefore, it is very interesting for me to find out what power consumption the 9900k has in the author’s test. For example, my 9900kf 5GHz 1.35V at 16 threads consumes more than 220W, RAM 4270MHz cl16

 

Aweseome thanks Hilbert!

I just ran mine at the same 1.35v and 5ghz and got 80c package, that's at around 24c ambient and also with Kryonaut. I would've thought a H150i might do 77c roughly like the Eisbaer, but alas the Eisbaer is victorious lol!

Do you do these tests with an open chassis? Or do you close the chassis as you're testing? I still rock an old school Cooler Master Haf-X lol, it was closed in my testing.

 

do you mean the H150i pro 360mm ? if so keep it,
I can't compare to the new H115i but I had the same 9900k installed with both H115i rgb platinum (280mm) and h150i pro (360mm) the h150i pro pump made way less noise and temps were slightly cooler than h115 I highly doubt this refresh does better.
H150i pro pump/usb was also way more compatible, the h115i broke most of the hardware monitoring for me (hydro x also does sadly, annoying can't have water temp in aida64)

All your voltages and temps seem weird to me (guru3d, you and others) either I had a good 9900k or........you do know you're supposed to have the northbridge clock lower than your cpu clock right ?
if you run cpu at 5.0ghz set it at 4.7ghz, if you check the stock "turbo" mode they all have different cpu/nb clocks and I remember reading it in an overclock guide on X99 back then, if you set them at the same speed it's near impossible to be stable for no benefit almost

 

Do you use the AVX offset? I don't. With -2/-3 I could lower the voltage below the 1.3 V, but I'm an old-schooler and want to do the fixed settings

In AVX tests it's more or less 200-210 W (RAM at 4133 CL17 daily)

The case is closed during the tests. As for the HAF-X is still one of the best out there in airflow department

 

Thanks Cap!

I actually revisited my OC last night thanks to this article, and I fiddled around with Dynamic Voltage. I basically did the following :

50x core
0 AVX Offset
XMP (in my case 3600mhz 16-19-19-39)
VCCIO : 1.15v
Agent : 1.15v
Vcore : Normal (1.2v)
DVID : +0.035
Internal AC/DC : Power Savings
LLC : Normal
All safety features like Eist, speed stepping enabled

Under AVX load like Realbench it hits 1.28v, and OCCT Medium with AVX2 it hits just below 1.3v. It does spike to 1.32v on occasion but only when load is low.

The strange thing is I wasn't stable at a fixed voltage of 1.3v at all before, I had to go at least 1.33v especially in the case of Monster Hunter World Iceborne, which refused to actually play more than 5 minutes on 1.32v before it crashed to desktop (not bluescreen). OCCT passed at 1.32v but gave errors on 1.31v for example (lots of them).

Now it sings like a canary, my temps have dropped by 10c on Realbench (81c at 30 min compared to 91c) and everything is rock solid and happy. I never did Wprime now that I think about it, will check out the difference tonight.

I finally feel comfortable actually leaving this boy on 5ghz now, I actually down clocked it before to 4.8ghz and a fixed vcore of 1.25v because I felt that these temps are just silly.


My specs :

9900k
Gigabyte Z390 Aorus Ultra (F10b bios)
32gb G.Skill 3600mhz
Strix 1080 Ti (looking forward to the 3080 Ti)
Corsair Rm1000x
Corsair H150i

So my advice to everybody is, fiddle with Dynamic Voltage.

 

Hi,

I just can't find any comparative review between the H115i Pro XT and the non-XT version. Is there actually any real improvements in the cooling?

Thanks!

 

The conclusion is very underwhelming here ....
"The Corsair H115i RGB PRO XT is available at an MSRP of 139.99 USD. Simply put that is a good price for the provided cooling and relatively low noise performance."

Arctic Freezer Liguid 280 is costing 40usd less (@95usd) and is better in every test here? Including perf. and noise. Also it only has 1 cable to connect to motherboard. This Corsair has +3 cables.
How You can justify saying that Corsair H115i is a good price?

 

@kakiharaFRS
why are you using corsair software at all?
i had enough H1xx and never used the software at all.
pump runs off psu, fans on motherboard, and if it had leds i used the software to control it, then uninstalled it.

@slicer
because it is. price is not the same as value.
and the cables can easily be hidden, never had any problems.

 

When you have several Corsair components its good software, I have Corsair Dominator platinum @3600 ddr4, Corsair H115i platinum, Corsair H1000i psu, Corsair K70 lux keyboard, Corsair M65 RGB Elite and finally my Corsair headset with rgb, its just a shame i can not get icue to get on with Asus Aura, if Corsair made motherboards i`d probably get one, its nice to have all my parts in one app so i can control and monitor them all.

 

Okay, so what adds value in this case? "Go faster" RGB? Harder to install and hide the cables?

In EU the 3 year warranty stands. Thats good enough. I really dont get the RGB... if the product has best performance and price and while being the guietest out there. That tics 3 very good boxes.

And you mentioned the 200usd LCS's... were are to blame here, when sites like this recommend products that offer nothing more than their earlier versions, but the price is higher... Next year we get a "successor" to this Corsair H115i RGB XT Pro, while the performance is same or worse than competitor, but price is higher (lets say 155usd), then reviewer gives positive and recommended buy feedback... and yet again people see that this is such a "good" buy, company sees that people are buying with that price and raises prices yet again next year. frack that!

The LCS prices have gone up unnecessarily, because we as consumers are buying same crap with premium prices. I remember when the AIO's cost max 130 usd and most of them where around 100usd mark.
Today, the performance is same, but so many of us are uselessly spending our money on same performance, but giving away more money.

In my view Arctic is doing something special here. But lets go ahead and buy some premium brand's AIO's that offer nothing more than fancy RGB fan.
We are the reason behind that all the comapnys are raising prices for no apparent reason...

 

Did you mean to say something other than "if Corsair made keyboards

 

You are saying that consumer is deciding if the products are worth buying or not? Then why put "Top pick" or "Recommended" after every review, if that not to suggest people/consumers to look that products way?

You as reviewers have so much influence over the market. And those so called 'product awards' sway lot of readers. I am glad that this was not "Just buy!" type of review, but like almost every products gets a "Recommended" stamp on it... Should be some middle ground as well.
Like: "Top pick", "Recommended", "Watch list or short list".

Lets say I was first time review reader of Guru3d.com, Have not looked your other AIO review's past 2-3 months. Now this first review i read (looking to buy AIO) , I get immediately "Guru3D Recommended" award and a conclusion saying this:
The Corsair H115i RGB PRO XT is available at an MSRP of 139.99 USD. Simply put that is a good price for the provided cooling and relatively low noise performance.

Suggestion, that there should be price to performance chart or something at the end, like you can do with GPU reviews (HW Unboxed does that).

 

@slicer
What other brand offers to cover your WHOLE pc (as in all parts) with a 5y warranty, in case the AIO fails?
Right.

For most its more important to be covered for possible damage to the rig than to save 30-50$,
especially when your pc cost more than 200$.

Cheaper does NOT automatically mean better value,
as that is depending on the user (and his/her budget).

e.g. the value of a 300.000$ two door sports car will be totally different to someone with a 100K/year income, and someone making +1M.
but that doesnt have anything to do with the car itself and its quality/performance (unless its a lemon ;-)