Review: Corsair H150i PRO

Nice and quiet.

 

Fairly unimpressive cooling for such a big radiator in my opinion. The older units like the H110 performed better, and some other closed loop coolers from other manufacturers.

EDIT:
Same results supported by another review:
http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/corsa...oop-aio-cpu-cooler-review,review-34149-2.html

Although it is quiet, it's cooling performance is MEH. And just before I edited this post I've seen later posts supporting air cooling & Noctua - I fully agree!

EDIT#2: although it did seem to perform a lot better in this review, and performed in the upper echelons when normalising for noise at 40dB:
won't let me post link for Gamers Nexus - automatically changes to Disney link?!

 

Good old Noctua all the way.

 

Yeah Beyond the slight noise reduction, this is pretty unimpressive all things considering. Then again i will keep to air cooling, i'd rather not risk water damage

 

I'm one of those (few) that aren't that bothered by a louder system if the cooling performance is good. And from that POV this brings hardly anything over my older H115i. Sure the RGB is nice if you are into it, but if you go that route, why not include 3 ML120 RGB fans instead of the standard gray ones? I mean if somebody buys this for the RGB you can be sure he will also swap the fans for actual RGB LED fans (and preferaby that person will also go for Corsair RGB fans, good old strategy right there...).

 

I have ti agree with this. The performance is lacking for such a big and expensive cooler although the low noise it makes is a very positive point. I´m curious to see how the smaller one performs.

 

Still rocking my H110i after 4 years still pering .

 

For half the price you have a Noctua NH-D15S which is as quiet, has the same temps and no risk of leaking.

Not to mention if your pump dies you're crap out of luck, while the D15S can still manage passive cooling untill you get a new Fan if it would die.

Watercooling is overrated.

 

Same reason why I evidently changed my mind on wanting an AIO, water damage, I wouldn't want to look forward to water killing my I7 7800x that I got an month ago. With the amount these aio units cost, you would think they would do better. My Thermalright SB-E Extreme is still holding up and I had it forever, as it going on 6 years give or take.

 

Funny story....I tried a 360 rad on my H110gt with 3 Cosair sp120 fans controlled through the motherboard but i could not better the performance I was getting from the 280mm rad and 140mm fans that it came with, Im quessing the selling point is the rgb but that doesnt justify the £184 that Scan are charging despite it having the plain non led mag fans, if they did an white led fan version i`d probably go for that.

 

I learned that one a hard way. My corsair H60 pump died after 4 years and there nothing I could do to fix it. Temperatures are skyrocking if water is not circulating.

For air cooler, if cooler dies, just replace it. Heck, passive cooling might just be enough. Simple solutions are more reliable.

Not going back to water. Too complicated and too many things can go wrong.

 

But an aio doesnt put a load of weight on the motherboard....to each his own i quess, as for leaks...never had one from my H110i gt

 

I don't see any issue with weight, unless your motherboard made of cardboard.

Leaks are very rare and probably caused by user error. The issue with aio is needless difficulty, for a little reward. If something goes wrong with it, you out of luck.

Air solution is simple and you have clear vision of what is happening.

People who serious about water cooling make their own custom loops for actually better cooling performance. And they understand what is happening and can troubleshoot it, if something might go wrong.
With aio, you stuck with blackbox that you can't look inside and just hope it will work.

 

ML fans definitely help with less noise, bit still for half price as above guys said you can have NH-D15S or NH-D15, Cryorig R1 Ultimate or Universal, Thermalright Le Grand Macho RT and few others which in many cases outperform AIO or CLC

Recently fitted on friend build Thermalright Le Grand Macho RT after his H115i failed,he is running 5960x with 4.5Ghz at 1.285v and his temperatures after testing are better than with H115i, previously he could dream of running 4.5Ghz, he run 4.3GHz for while because temperatures has been way to high for his liking

Same we are went on GPU cooling, borrowed him my old Raijintek Morpheus II cooler just to do few quick tests on his GTX1080Ti Founders Edition, as many know, stock Founders Edition cooler is just too loud, under load in gaming his temperatures are in 42-46°C with 2144MHz at 1.093v and +450MHz on VRAM with Raijintek Morpheus II, after testing he bought same cooler and now he is using this cooler on his Ti,if he is happy with it, I would say yes very

If I would go with AIO then EK Phoenix or Swiftech but still for same amount I can build simple loop which will perform better than these AIO

Hope this helps

Thanks, Jura

 

Hi there

As above with AIO or CLC you are stuck with what you are got, no upgrades etc, yes if you want to can hack it or get AIO like is Swiftech, Alphacool or EK etc which can be expanded but with this you are stuck, if something happens you can pray RMA will honour warranty

If I would run 2*GPUs then I would stay with air and wouldn't consider go route of water loop, but running 3*GPUs and water cooling has been only option for me, if I can I still recommend go with air cooler setup than AIO/CLC

Hope this helps

Thanks, Jura

 

overpriced for what it is (and vs other aio like predator and such), especially since its an asetek based pump.
for the same amount i can get the eisbaer with a much better pump, no risk of failure or leaking, can be expanded as well.


fans can die, and if i oc my cpu and add V, passive might not be enough to cool it, so no gain for aircooler the way i see it.
besides that, i dont know any decent up to date hardware that wont shut down if overheating, so not really no advatage for air cooling.

3 things that are the reasons for me using water:
exhaust hot (cpu) air outside the case (without funnel/shroud and/or having an exhaust fan close to it etc), thus lowering ambient temp inside the case
lower gpu temps (cause of lower case temps).
and, i can run fans inaudible (meaning: i cant hear it at all, when its running) even under full load.
no, it wont happen with air, unless maybe with some 5lbs heatsink...

and it doesnt take much longer to install a aio/lc than it takes to install a good air cooler thats heavy, nor is it more "difficult" if you can read and follow the manual.
so nothing where i see an air cooler is "better".

comparing the price and saying water cooling doesnt make sense (vs air cooled or unless custom loop) isnt really relevant, as the cooler should cover what "i" want.
if that is going to cost me more, so be it.
and its not like we're talking about a 1000$ titan here..
same reason not everyone wants a prius, or some ppl dont mind spending 2M$ on a lambo.
doesnt mean the lambo is over priced (vs the prius maybe), but not when comparing what i want/get out of the car)


and if its "too complicated" (overall) to use water: what are you doing here?

 

This is roughly same performance as Noctua NH-D15 which is air cooler at half the price, not to mention air coolers have fewer moving parts and nearly zero chance of failure. Liquid coolers are ridiculously overhyped by gullible "enthusiasts" while good air coolers don't get enough spotlight.

 

It's getting to the point of how unique you want your rig to be. Corsair basically selling a "fashion" here.
Same with what kids doing to their cars, by customizing wheels, adding RGB strips under the doors or buffing muffler.
I mean why care if your car gets worse mileage and/or you have to visit car repair more often, as far as you look cool and feel confident.

These products are not aimed for mature people, it's a "cool" hardware to play with.
I have nothing against. People buy whatever to feel better about themselves, and be proud about their rig.

Edit: I remember myself wishing I could fully assemble Corsair rig (case + PSU + cooler), cause I already had PSU and AIO. It could look pretty good.
Don't really care now. I just enjoy simplicity and best parts for the price I can find.