Final Thoughts and Rating

...Corsair has created a refined Hydro Series cooler that offers excellent cooling potential and compatibility with many of today's high-end enclosures.

As far as all-in-one, closed-loop liquid coolers go, the Hydro Series H105 is one of the highest-performance solutions available on the market today. By attaching a thick, 240mm radiator to its latest-generation, low-profile pump, Corsair has created a refined Hydro Series cooler that offers excellent cooling potential and compatibility with many of today's high-end enclosures.

This is the cooler that many enthusiasts will choose, but minimum under-load temperature needn't be the deciding factor for everyone. Sure, the H105 is a solid choice for users running a heavily-overclocked CPU, however it does come with a few provisos: it is louder than the Hydro Series H75, requires a bigger chassis, and is considerably more expensive.

With high-end air coolers readily available for under £30 and the second-rung Hydro Series H75 on the market for £60, the appeal of the high-performance H105 is ultimately limited to extreme users who are willing to pay the premium.

The Good

Tidier than a big air cooler
Excellent cooling performance
Scope for push/pull configuration
Good build quality
Simple installation
Five-year warranty

The Bad

Pricey for a CPU cooler
Louder than the Hydro Series H75

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Corsair Hydro Series H105

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The Corsair Hydro Series H105 CPU cooler is available to purchase from Scan Computers.

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I just got a h105 for my new 4670k and it runs at 25 idle with my two sp120 quiet editions running at full rpm and 50C at load after a hours or so of bf4.

I've been rocking a Prolimatech Megahalems on my now-ageing Lynnfield i7 860 (@3.8GHz). I'll be upgrading CPU/Mobo/RAM over the next few months, maybe Intel's recent announcement will keep me waiting for the new chips, but I'm always interested in how the air coolers compare to these all-in-one water cooling systems (I'm not about to set up real water cooling).

It strikes me that a good air cooler is still the way to go: not only can you get about the same performance for a lot less money and noise, but if you wanted to better the performance, you probably could by slapping on some stupid fans (making your air cooling set up maybe as noisy but still cheaper than the AIO water loop).

I want to like this, I really do. However, short of a real water setup, which is undeniably going to be better, I just don't see the point in moving away from air cooling!

Roobubba
I've been rocking a Prolimatech Megahalems on my now-ageing Lynnfield i7 860 (@3.8GHz). I'll be upgrading CPU/Mobo/RAM over the next few months, maybe Intel's recent announcement will keep me waiting for the new chips, but I'm always interested in how the air coolers compare to these all-in-one water cooling systems (I'm not about to set up real water cooling).

It strikes me that a good air cooler is still the way to go: not only can you get about the same performance for a lot less money and noise, but if you wanted to better the performance, you probably could by slapping on some stupid fans (making your air cooling set up maybe as noisy but still cheaper than the AIO water loop).

I want to like this, I really do. However, short of a real water setup, which is undeniably going to be better, I just don't see the point in moving away from air cooling!

You don't need to go full-on.water cool everything, i'm using a Corsair H60 just for my CPU i don't watercool anything else, i leave that to the fans in my CM Storm Trooper case to cool everything else and it works a treat. If i was to upgrade anything “NOW” i would buy the H105 as it would futureproof my case for around 1-2 yrs to come.

Rocking a Noctua NH-D14 with only 1 fan (I er..broke the second by accident when drunk :( ) and my CPU barely touches 48c under load, 34-36c idle, so I just never understand the point in these ones. It seems air coolers do a bang up job as it is, for the tiddly bit better performance it doesn't seem worth it to add more moving parts that could break.

I like how this cooler wasn't compared to anything that would beat it at the same price point or less. Shame on you guys.