How likely will the Corsair H100i Leak?

[Thegame741]

Hello im planning on making my first gaming build soon and im thinking about getting an h100i liquid cooler which seems to have good performance and it seems that ill be able to overclock fine with it. The question is, whats the possibility of it leaking? Im buying a really expensive GPU so i really dont want the liquid leak to fry it. Should i instead to to air cooling to reduce the risk? Or is the risk extremely low? Your help is appreciated. Thank you.

 

[prit87]

there is always a risk with the liquid cooler though it helps in wonderful cooling but in leakage the whole system can be at danger though its rare but if the radiator or pump gets bad and you are out of warranty then there is no other option to dump the cooler and get a new one so air cooler is much safer the worst case that will happen in air cooler is the fan will stop spinning and you can replace that very easily so i would recommend you to go with a noctua D15.

 

[Gam3r01]

Its well under 1%, and even if it DID leak, corsair has been known to replace or refund any damaged components. This goes for anything damaged by their coolers or their PSUs. They wouldnt sell products that ruined systems.

 

[prit87]

Its well under 1%, and even if it DID leak, corsair has been known to replace or refund any damaged components. This goes for anything damaged by their coolers or their PSUs. They wouldnt sell products that ruined systems.

yea i have read that but what happens if it leaks after warranty is over or the pump gets bad ?

 

[Gam3r01]

I doubt you will be using the same cooler for the duration of the 5 year warranty.

 

[prit87]

I doubt you will be using the same cooler for the duration of the 5 year warranty.

Okk so the main risk comes if we use the cooler more than the warranty period right ? just curious.

 

[Gam3r01]

If it was going to leak, it would do so within the warranty period.

 

[DubbleClick]

Corsair does a good job and secures all parts of your system that die because of their products failure. So even in the unlikely event of the h100I leaking, you would get damaged parts replaced.

That being said, I wouldn't recommend any all in one water cooling right now. If big air coolers fit, they are the way to go. The noctua nh-d15 cools better than a h100i, is cheaper AND is a LOT quieter. 40dba in dual fan mode instead of 47+ on the h100i. 40 dba is about 1/10th of 47dba.
So if you got space, you get nothing but advantages with air cooling.

Just if you don't have the space or build for optic, clc's are in a sweet spot. They look absolutely nice.

 

[JackNaylorPE]

The do leak and they do explode ....

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/281843-29-corsair-exploded

The risks exist any time you out water into your PC, so the questions is .... is it worth it. The risk is small so you have to weigh what you get in return for the risks .....

1. In order to perform at or better than the top air coolers, the AIO / CLC coolers need two things:

a) extreme rpm fans
b) 240/280mm of radiator

No 120/140mm CLC can approach the air coollers in performance even at extreme fan speeds.

The problem with extreme fan speeds is noise .... and I'm talking modern day vacuum cleaner level noise. Give a listen to the h100i here:

http://martinsliquidlab.org/2013/03/12/swiftech-h220-vs-corsair-h100i-noise-testing/

So looking at the extreme fan rpm CLC's, you can gain a degree or two over the long established better air coolers .... however:

- You have to listen to all that noise
- You pay 50% more
- You have the leak risk

So, to my mind, while you do gain a little thermally, the noise is just too overbearing and outweighs the thermal advantage before I even consider the additional cost and risk.

Another 'game changer' if you will, are the new and improved coolers such as the "on the horizon" DH-15 and Cryorig R1 Ultimate. These are looking like they will erase most if not all of the H100i's thermal advantage

Yes, you cans swap the fans on the 100i for slower ones which make more noise but now you have a $140 cooling systems with performance akin to a $30 Hyper 212.

2. ALC / CLC's can in fact match the better air coolers at reasonable fan speeds. The H110 for example matches the Noctua DH-14 but comes up a little short of the Phanteks PH-TC14-PE. Noise on all three are within 1 dbA of one another.

So, with the risk of water damaging your PC, using the h110 gets you what ? .... the same thermal and noise performance as an air cooler at 2/3 the price. So, i don't see it worth the risk, small as it may be, as you don't get anything in return.

3. Now custom water cooling will provide thermals that:

- are way way better than CLCs or air coolers
- are way way quieter than air coolers
- provide less risk product wise than the more cheaply made aluminum CLCs

Now we have several clear advantages that we gain to "offset that risk".... The risk is offset a bit by the better quality components but offset perhaps "user error" during install. I'm using a water cooled system (2 pumps) with 4 water blocks and 15 fans and you can not tell whether the system is on or off....it's dead silent which rather than overclocking performance was my primary goal. For dead silence I have gained something I consider wuite substantial which makes me willing to take that risk.

4. The Corsair warranty BTW will normally cover the cost of replacing any ruined components but not the cost of not having your computer for weeks, nor lost data etc.

Till now, for those reasons I have not been a promoter of CLCs. I have installed them for users after explaining the above and of those I have used, the Antec's had a better build quality ... and the h110 gave me nothing to gripe about.

So, if ya asking is there anything "wet" worth considering, yes..... now there is. Air coolers make all 120/140mm CLCs irrelevant but now the Swiftech H220-X has made all other 240 CLCs irrelevant. The H220-x

- Is all copper construction, not aluminum
- Thermally it beats all air coolers and CLCs on the market
- It's less than 1/4 as loud as the h100i
- It's "open loop, meaning you can add GPU water blocks< MoBo blocks whatever
- It's pump is a high quality pump better than the ones (Revision 4) that come with the custom loop kits costing $200 and up.
- You can monitor fluid level in the reservoir, potentially catching a leak before it does damage.
-It comes with an 8 port PWM fan splitter
-Purchased separately, the parts would go for $230


http://www.swiftech.com/H220-X.aspx

read the reviews:

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Swiftech/H220-X/9.html

Swiftech has really outdone themselves with the H220-X. They have taken a kit whose separate parts would have cost in excess of $200 and reduced its price down to a mere $140. While high, what you get is simply amazing as it tops the charts and takes the performance crown to boot. Winning our benchmarks is no small feat, and Swiftech's AIO managed to do so while being surprisingly quiet, which is just fantastic. Competing AIO liquid coolers just can't compare in this regard. Let's not forget the impeccable build quality, and with the option to expand the kit, it just doesn't get any better than the H220-X outside of a fully custom built liquid-cooling assembly

http://www.hitechlegion.com/reviews/cooling/liquid/40870-swiftech-h220-x-open-loop-240mm-cpu-cooler-review?showall=&start=3

the H220X makes infinitely more sense as a starting point into liquid cooling. It is ready to go out of the box and requires no maintenance, but it is also fully expandable when you are ready to take the next step. Even if you aren’t looking to take the next step, the H220X outperforms every CLC on the market, and does it at more than 20 dB quieter. Plus, it actually looks like an open loop cooler, simply because it is one.

While the H220X is an obvious choice for the novice, it also has some incredible benefits for the enthusiast looking to do a smaller loop. When you break it down, the H220X is a collection of excellent components that simply happen to come in one box. The included Apogee XL is top notch, and recently took home a Hi Tech Legion Gold Award. The MCP30 pump has a head pressure of over 2 meters, with over 1GPM flow and PWM control, making it a perfect choice for a 3-4 component loop. The radiator is an excellent quality copper/brass piece that delivers excellent low rpm performance, and the attached reservoir is easily accessible.

.... the H220X is simply the best performing out-of-the-box cooler you can buy today. Period. It slightly betters its predecessor, the H220, as well as the Glacer 240L that is equipped with far more powerful and louder fans. The NZXT X60/61 comes close in terms of performance, but at the expense of far more noise and far less compatibility. 240mm CLCs can’t touch the H220X in all out performance, and at tolerable noise levels the H220X flat out embarrasses them. The Cryorig R1 and Noctua NH-D15 come closest in matching the H220X in terms of performance and noise, but fall short.

http://www.overclockers.com/swiftech-h220x-cpu-liquid-cooling-kit-review

The Swiftech H220-X is an impressive piece of hardware, make no mistake about it. It’s unquestionably the best performing AIO cooler I’ve ever had my hands on. From the moment you take the H220-X out of the box, you’ll be impressed with the build quality and the enthusiast level components that make it up. From their flagship Apogee XL water block, high performance MCP30 pump, to the expandability the unit offers, it’s easy to see Swiftech didn’t cut any corners here. They even enhanced the aesthetic value by lighting up the reservoir’s sight glass and providing the option to change the LED color on the pump.

If you’ve been looking into water cooling your system for the first time, this is the perfect place to start for the beginner. As your knowledge grows, the H220-X can grow with you and be expanded to water cool additional components in your system. If you’re an old hat at water cooling, the quality components Swiftech uses would be a good place to start a simple water cooling loop or as a basis for a more elaborate setup.

If you’re searching for the best all-in-one water cooler with a 240 mm radiator, the search stops here. Overclockers approved!

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?289340-Swiftech-H220-X-Review-Part-1-of-2

There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that this aio water-cooling unit is the best I have ever tested , starting with all the Swiftech innovations and very high end hardware that makes the Swiftech H220-X ( Apogee XL high end water-block , 240mm thick and heavy Cooper Radiator , high flow powerful MCP30 water-pump controllable via PWM , built in Reservoir with clear lighted side window and a filling port , high static pressure silent 2x 120x25 Helix Fans PWM controllable , high end 3/8x vinyl very flexible black tubing , 8 Way PWM Splitter-Sata as a bonus , inter-changeable color plates for the water-block lighted clear window to the completely new design , it does rivals and perform better than some of the much more expensive custom made water-cooling loops.

The performance is way ahead of the competition , in fact there is not one aio water-cooler that can offer the performance and upgradeability of the Swiftech H220-X , it's a clear choice when looking to buy a new aio water-cooler , look no further the Swiftech H220-X is right for you. The Swiftech H220-X is the future , the next generation in aio water-cooling gear. Do not get stuck in older generation clones aio water-cooling completely closed and non-upgradable , the future is here right now !

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pt5_dU-15v8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TivNOgQqW-M

 

[brando004]

Basically( to make a long story short on the "Best Solution") go with a hypertech evo 212 or that series or performance and if you feel fancy throw a Noctua fan and fancy paste on it and dont get a super factory overclocked core (and/or worry about noise that much)that requires a water cooler unless your planning on getting a very high quality open loop system. Otherwise an after market Aircooler will do just fine, my dad has been running an 8350 with stock cooler since the day it came out with slight over clocking and it does just fine. Got to remember risk vs reward, in computers that means ull be spending a lot more money for gains that arnt worth it unless you absolutely need over clocking for something, which more then likely I doubt.

If your that worried about having this huge performance gain over top cpus then just be patient an wait for the next gen cpus to come out. put your money in stuff like ram/video/case/hdd/sdd etc, which if you do you might be surprised on how well if performs.

It always makes me laugh when people get all that really high high end stuff and then go play battlefield 4 or something like that, when I have a system that was mid ranged 5 years ago with an updated mid ranged vcard that runs most of that stuff at max settings holding decent frames. Unless stroking your ego is that much worth it to you.

 

[JackNaylorPE]

The Hyper 212 while a great "budget" cooler is simply that .... a great budget cooler. It's a full 7 - 10C behind even mid range air coolers such as the Phanteks PH-TC14-PE and means the difference between a CPU running at 75C versus one running at 85C.

You can get to work with a $500 used car as you can in a new Porsche / Lexus / Mustang, that doesn't make them the same thing nor make the experience the same. People with disposable income get to decide how for themselves how they want to spend it. A good part of the audience here sits down to overclock simply for the challenge of getting the best that they can out of their machine .....no different from the gear head who spends his money on chrome rims and headers.

An assumption that there is no difference between the two might be excused based upon the number of builds one might have been exposed to and the budget category they are in. But when you get to a certain price point, better cooling is one of the best investments you can make. Let's look at the Return on Investment for the typical $1500 4690k / GTX 970 build

Its simply a numbers game. A stock CPU will overclock about 11% in "turbo"..... That jumps to 31% with a decent cooler. In a typical $1500 box, that's a 20% improvement for the mere 6% increase in cost over the stock cooler that the OP planned to spend.

Just because a low to mid range system is bottle necked and won't benefit as much from a good cooler as other improvements doesn't mean that every system is so constrained. One doesn't look at a $100 cooler when they have a $110 GFX card non K processor, 2 x 4 GB DDR-3 ..... but when they already have a 4690k, decent RAM, good OC'ing MoBo, SSD + HD or SSHD, the equation changes....

For example, spending $100 moving from a $130 R7 265 to a $230 280x is certainly worth the 55% performance increase..... well more than a great CPU cooler. But can the same be said for spending $200 moving from the 970 to 980 which brings just a 10% improvement ?

Once you are in the $1500 price range, you are not gonna see a 20% improvement from a $100 investment in RAM, SSD, Case or GFX card. You can see a 20% improvement in game / app / file loading with just $10 - $20 by buying an SSHD, but once loaded the benefit tails off. Better cooling is among the best investments you can make at this point.

With regard to getting a "very high quality open loop system" ....when ya planning on spending upwards of $100 you most certainly should expect exactly that, which is why CLC's are not recommended. The Swiftech H240-X is an assemblage of long established Swiftech open loop components pre-assembled at the factory and available for $125 ... and yes it is open loop and additional radiators, blocks etc can be added to the system.

 

[Scotchjock]

I've had my h100i for over a year now and it's worked flawlessly, I have heard of leaks though but believe they are very rare, having said that I would feel a little better if aio coolers came with some kind of leak trays, surely it wouldn't be difficult for say Corsair to design aio coolers with attachable leak trays in the obvious areas, although it's very rare for them to leak this would at least go a long way in making people feel more confident with water cooling but this could also have an opposite effect.. Love my h100i and no issues whatsoever, I suppose there is risk in everything we do, Psu's for example have gone pop taking out expensive components, unfortunately this is life.

I have a Corsair AX1200i PSU so the H100i was just perfect as I didn't have to use the link dongle thing that came with the psu for the corsair link as I am able to tie it in directly to the h100i. I couldn't give this up for an air cooler right now as aesthetics are important to me and the H100i looks the dogs danglies as well as performs.