By Aidan Moore
Manufacturer: Corsair Components, Inc.
Product Name: Hydro Series H80i GT
Model Number: CW-9060017-WW
UPC: 843591053440
Price As Tested: $99.99 (Amazon | Newegg)
Full Disclosure: The product sample used in this article has been provided by Corsair.
The majority of all-in-one CPU cooling systems are designed with a radiator that is based on the dimensions of a single or dual fan. It’s common sense that, for a given fan size, a dual-width radiator has more surface area and better cooling capability than a single-width unit. The new Corsair Hydro series H80i GT challenges this assumption with an extra thick single-width radiator and two fans for out of the box push-pull operation.
In this article, Benchmark Reviews will look at the performance of the new Corsair H80i GT all-in-one cooling system and compare it to some of the competition.
The Corsair Hydro Series H80i GT Is based on a standard 120mm fan size, but has a radiator depth of 49mm to provide increased cooling surface area. This should translate to improved cooling performance compared to a typical single fan radiator.
Corsair link functionality is built into the unit to provide selectable speed operation of the unit as well as temperature and RPM monitoring capability.
Key features of the H80i GT from the Corsair website are:
- extra thick 49mm x 120mm radiator
- dual SP120L PWM fans
- Corsair link compatible
- modular tool free mounting bracket for faster installation
- improved cold plate and pump designed for highly tuned efficiency
Corsair published specifications for the Hydro H80i GT are shown below:
| Hydro H80i GT | |
| CPU Socket | Intel LGA 2011(-3) / 1366 / 1150 / 1156 / 1155 / 775AMD Socket FM2+ / FM2 / FM1 / AM3+ / AM3 / AM2+ |
| Pump Dimensions | 75 x 69.8 x 49.1 mm ( 3 x 2.7 x 1.9 inch ) |
| Cold Plate Material | Copper |
| Radiator Dimensions | 154mm X 123mm X 49mm |
| Fan Dimensions | 120mm x 120mm x 25mm |
| Fan Speed | 2435 +/- 10% RPM |
| Fan Airflow | 70.69 CFM |
| Fan Air Pressure | 4.65 mmH2O |
| Tubing | Large-diameter, low permeability |
| Fan Noise Level | 37.7 dB(A) |
| Warranty | 5 Years |
| Corsair Link | Yes |
Packaging for the H80i GT highlights the new Corsair Link capability of the cooler.
The major components of the H80i GT, including dual fans and radiator assembly are individually wrapped and sealed to prevent damage during shipping.
Smaller items such as CPU adapters and mounting hardware are sealed in a separate plastic bag.
The CPU adapters, stand-offs and mounting hardware are included in the package.
There is no thermal paste included in the package as the copper cooling surface has pre-applied thermal compound.
The mounting surface of the CPU cooler is protected against any scratches during shipping by a removable plastic shell. The surface is pretreated with thermal compound.
Installation for the Intel 2011 type of CPU socket it extremely easy, only requiring to first mount 4 small stand-offs for attachment to the cooler pump.
Corsair claims the SP120L fans differ from standard case fans with a custom design intended to provide high static pressure for mounting directly against radiators. The fan blades of the SP120L fans have been custom shaped to allow maximum air delivery with minimal noise.
Because of the extra thick radiator and dual fans supplied, the final radiator assembly may not fit in all cases. The picture below shows how tight the push-pull configuration assembly is in a typical PC case.
Fortunately it would be very easy to simply connect a single fan to the radiator for a smaller profile assembly in situations where there is not sufficient space to install the full assembly.
Power for the fans is supplied by connectors on the pump assembly to allow the Corsair Link software to adjust the fan speed.
After the hardware has been installed and the Corsair link cable connected to an available USB 2.0 connector, the Corsair Link software can be installed. No disk is included with the Corsair package as it is assumed that the latest version of the program will be downloaded from the website.
Once installed, the Corsair Link is available with a right-click on the hidden icons selector on the Windows toolbar.
The Corsair link user interface allows the cooling system to be operated in three different modes: Quiet, Balanced and Performance.
The H80i GT performance was evaluated against two other liquid cooling systems. Published specifications for the three systems are shown below.
| Corsair Hydro H80i GT | Cooler Master Nepton 240 | Corsair H100i GTX | |
| Length | 154mm | 240mm | 276mm |
| Width | 125mm | 120mm | 123mm |
| Rad. Thickness | 30mm | 27mm | 49 mm |
| Cooling Fans | 2 x 120mm | 2 x 120 mm | 2 x 120 mm |
| Total Thickness | 30mm | 52mm | 49mm |
| Control Type | Corsair Link | none | Corsair Link |
| Noise Level | 37.7dB(A) | 6.5-27 dB(A) | 37.7dB(A) |
| Fan Speed | 2435+/-10% | 1200-2400 | 2435+/-10% |
| Fan Airflow | 70.69 CFM | 16-76 CFM | 70.69 CFM |
| AMD Sockets | All AM2,AM3,FM1,FM2 | All AM2,AM3,FM1,FM2 | All AM2,AM3,FM1,FM2 |
| Intel Sockets | 1150, 1156/1155,1156, 1366, 2011(-3) | 1150, 1156/1155,1156, 1366, 2011(-3) | 1150, 1156/1155, 1366, 2011(-3) |
| Warranty | 5 Years | 5 Years | 5 Years |
| MSRP | $99.99 (Newegg) | $129.99 | $119.99 (MSRP) |
To be consistent, the same thermal paste was applied to each of the cooling blocks. The Arctic Silver Ceramique 2 paste was used for all three cooler installations.
In order to test the full range of options in the Corsair Link GUI, separate stress tests were run for each of the different modes available. The Nepton 240M used for comparison does not have different modes, so it was run at it full operating speed.
Each product was measured for CPU temperature after running a 20 minute Aida 64 stress test. Because the test computer system has six CPU cores, the average value of all individual cores was used for the final comparison. A digital thermometer and a FLIR camera were used to capture the ambient temperature during each test.
Noise measurements were also taken using a Galaxy Audio CM–240 SPL audio meter. Where possible, measurements were taken 1 meter from the center of the computer case. The CM–240 audio meter has a minimum SPL sensitivity of 32 dB(A) SPL. For measured values below 32 dB(A), the galaxy meter was moved to 500 cm from the source and the reading was divided by two.
Each of the three cooling systems was installed in the same test system as shown below.
The test computer system is a Intel i7-3930K based content creation machine with a modest 24/7 overclock of 4.2 GHz.
The Antek P100 enclosure provides room for top mounted installation of the cooling system, and has good ventilation with 240 mm front fans and one 120 mm rear exhaust fan.
| Processor: | Intel Core i7-3930X @ 4.2 GHz OC |
| (Haswell) | |
| Motherboard: | Asus P9X79 |
| Intel X79 | |
| Memory: | 64 GB 1600 |
| 10-10-10-30 | |
| Video Card: | Zotac GeForce Titan Black 980MHz |
| Harddisk: | Samsung 840 EVO 500GB |
| Power Supply: | Corsair 850 |
| Case: | Antek P100 |
| Software: | Windows 8.1 Pro |
| TIM: | Arctic Ceramique 2 |
The Asus P9X79 motherboard provides numerous fan headers for attachment to the liquid cooling system water block and fans. The BIOS allows setting the fans to 100%, or to be controlled through a Windows utility to an arbitrary percentage of the maximum speed.
Because the Corsair Link provides the control over cooler performance, the power supply of the cooler under test was connected to 3 or 4 pin motherboard fan terminals that were configured in the BIOS to operate at 100% speed.
The table below shows the relative temperatures of each of the test systems at an ambient temperature of 25.4 C.
Despite the oversized radiator and dual fans in push-pull mode, the H80i GT cannot quite keep up with modern double-wide radiator based coolers. However, this is not a particularly fair comparison as the H80i GT was not compared against a standard single fan radiator system.
The cooling performance of the H80i is still quite respectable, considering the competition. In Balanced mode, the H80i GT was within 2° of the Nepton 240M cooling performance, and the Nepton 240M is an excellent all-in-one cooling unit.
The image below is an FLIR infrared camera image showing the Corsair H80i GT cooler operating in Balanced mode. Despite the overclock and 100% load, maximum temperature shown by the temperature bar on the far right of the image shows a maximum temperature of only 47.7°C.
Noise measurements for the three systems are shown below. For similar cooling performance, the Nepton 240M takes the lead in silent operation.
The Corsair H80i GT is not your typical single fan sized all-in-one cooling system. The extra installation space needed for the thicker radiator is compounded by the H80i’s push-pull fan configuration. This can make installing the full assembly into a smaller case a real challenge, and in some cases one fan may need to be omitted to fit in the assembly.
However, for cases that can accommodate the extra depth, the Corsair H80i GT is an excellent single fan sized cooling system.
With the addition of the Corsair Link capability, the new H80i GT cooler is a very good choice for an all-in-one cooling system where only a single fan space is available. In addition to the Corsair link update, the radiator styling has been upgraded as well and sports a new silver strip with the Corsair brand name.
This would also be an excellent choice for a small system with a limited number of fan connectors. By using the Corsair link system, only one fan header is needed to connect the pump and two fans.
In Balanced mode, the H80i GT cools to within 2 degrees of the Nepton 240M. Although the noise level is noticeably higher that the Nepton 240M in Balanced mode, it can be easily switched to Quiet mode and still deliver very good cooling performance.
The H80i is a unique cooling system that makes the best possible use of a single fan space. This extra performance comes at the cost of a much tighter installation, and there may be compatibility issues in smaller cases, so customers should be sure of the available space before purchasing this unit.
At full speed operation in Performance mode, the H80i GT is capable of cooling a 4.2GHz overclocked six core processor to less than 19C over ambient. The fan noise at this high setting is noticeable, however the Corsair Link utility gives the ability to trade off fan noise for cooling performance
The H80i GT has excellent construction features, with very solid mounting bolts and an easy attachment procedure to the CPU. The extra wide radiator adds flair with a new metallic Corsair logo badge. The addition of Corsair Link functionality has the added benefit of reducing the number of required fan headers for a full installation.
As of April (2015), the Corsair Hydro H80i GT was available online for $99.99 (Amazon | Newegg).
The Corsair H80i GT is an excellent all-in-one CPU cooling solution for systems where space for a dual-width radiator is unavailable. Provided the computer case can accommodate the extra depth of the radiator assembly, the H80i GT’s performance will give the best cooling performance available for a single fan space.
+ Corsair Link provides selection of cooling performance and fan noise
+ Very good cooling performance
+ Easy assembly and mounting
+ Pre-applied thermal paste
+ Only one fan space needed for two fan operation
– Extra radiator thickness may cause installation issues
– CPU block attachment requires attaching stand-offs to motherboard
– A bit loud in Performance mode
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Performance: 8.50
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Appearance: 9.50
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Construction: 9.00
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Functionality: 8.50
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Value: 8.00
