facebook rss twitter

Review: Corsair Hydro Series H105

by Parm Mann on 21 March 2014, 15:30

Tags: Corsair

Quick Link: HEXUS.net/qaccef

Add to My Vault: x

Specification and Test Methodology

To put CPU cooler performance into perspective we're benchmarking using a high-end Intel Haswell test platform. A detailed description of the CPU cooler being reviewed, our test platform and all comparison coolers can be found in the tables below.

Corsair Hydro Series H105 Specification

Cold Plate Material Copper
Radiator Material Aluminium
Radiator Dimensions 270mm x 120mm x 35mm
Bundled Fans 2 x PWM
Fan Dimensions 120mm x 120mm x 25mm
Fan Speed 2,700 RPM
Fan Airflow 73 CFM
Fan dBA 37.7 dBA
Socket Support Intel Intel LGA 1150, 1155, 1156, 1366, 2011
AMD AMD AM2, AM3, FM1, FM2
Warranty 5 Years

Test Bench

Processor Intel Core i7-4770K
Motherboard Gigabyte GA-Z87X-UD3H
Memory 16GB Corsair Vengeance Pro (2x8GB) DDR3 @ 1,866MHz
Graphics Card Palit GeForce GTX 770 OC 2GB
Storage Device Crucial M500 240GB SSD
Power Supply Corsair AX760i
Chassis Corsair Graphite Series 600T
Monitor Philips Brilliance 272P (2,560x1,440)
Operating System Windows 8.1 (64-bit)

Comparison Coolers

  Fan(s) Fan speed Radiator dimensions Heatsink dimensions (inc. fans) Warranty
Corsair Hydro Series H75 2x Corsair SP120L 120mm 800 RPM - 2,000 RPM Width: 120mm
Height: 152mm
Depth: 25mm
- 5 Years
Corsair Hydro Series H105 2x Corsair SP120L 120mm 800 RPM - 2,700 RPM Width: 120mm
Height: 270mm
Depth: 35mm
- 5 Years
Deepcool GamerStorm Lucifer 1x GamerStorm 140mm 700 RPM - 1,400 RPM - Height: 168mm
Width: 140mm
Depth: 136mm
2 Years
Intel Reference E97378-001 Intel PWM 92mm 1,200 RPM - 2,800 RPM - Height: 50mm
Width: 92mm
Depth: 92mm
1 Year

Benchmark Process

To get a feel for how well all of the above coolers compare, we start by running our Core i7-4770K at its default frequency and use HandBrake to encode a large 4K video clip, putting full load on all four cores/eight threads. Temperature is logged throughout the duration of this workload and in order to provide a stabilised reading we then calculate an average temperature across all cores from the last few minutes of encoding.

We then repeat the same test, only this time with the Core i7-4770K processor overclocked to a modest 4.4GHz, with voltage increased from 1.175V to 1.225V.

Actual CPU temperature is recorded, but to take into account any temperature fluctuations in our lab, we also graph the delta temperature - that's CPU temperature minus ambient temperature. And, last but not least, to give you an idea of cooler acoustics, we use a PCE-318 noise meter to measure overall system noise in both idle and load states.

Notes

Our Corsair Graphite Series 600T chassis is set to run with all three pre-installed fans; a 200mm front intake; a 200mm top exhaust; and a 120mm rear exhaust. All chassis fans are set to run as 'silent' from within the Gigabyte BIOS, while the CPU cooler is set to a 'normal' profile.

Each cooler is configured for optimum performance as per the manufacturer's recommendations, and any fans connected to a radiator are configured to draw air in from outside the chassis (hereby ensuring that the delta between the air temperature and the temperature of the radiator is maximised).