Testing Configuration and Benchmarks Used

To verify that the motherboard works as advertised, the H100i, H80i, and H60 coolers were tested with the CPU running in both stock and at a known stable overclocking speed for the system configuration used. The results are presented for the coolers under review as well as the base test bench cooling system for performance comparison purposes. The benchmark tests used should give you a good understanding of the Corsair coolers' capabilities so that you, the reader, can make a more informed purchasing decision.

Test System Setup

CPU

Intel Core i5-3570K
Stock – 3.4GHz, 34 x 100MHz Base Clock
Overclocked – 4.4GHz, 42 x 105MHz Base Clock

Motherboards

MSI Z77 MPOWER

Memory

G.SKILL 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-2133 modules
Stock – 1600MHz, 11-11-11-30-1T
Overclocked – 1960MHz, 11-11-11-30-1T

Hard Drive

Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB SATA III HD

Sound Card

Onboard sound

Video Card

AMD Radeon HD 5870 1GB

CPU Cooling

Swiftech Apogee HD cooler – Swiftech Apogee HD water block, Laing DDC pump with EK-DDC X-TOP Rev 2 Plexi, Swiftech MCR320-QP Radiator
Corsair Hydro Series™ H100i Extreme Performance CPU Cooler
Corsair Hydro Series™ H80i High Performance Liquid CPU Cooler
Corsair Hydro Series™ H60 High Performance Liquid CPU Cooler

Video Drivers

AMD ATI Catalyst 12.8

Power Supply

Corsair 650w

Operating System

Windows 7 Ultimate x64

Thermal Paste

MG Chemicals 860-60G Silicone Heat Transfer Compound

The 64-bit Windows 7 based test bench used for LGA1155 board testing includes an Intel Core i5-3570K CPU, 8GB of DDR3-2133 memory, an AMD Radeon 5870 1GB video card, and a Western Digital Black 1TB SATA hard drive. Using the selected components gives us the ability to demonstrate the cooling system's capabilities rather than that of the system components.

Benchmark Tests used for evaluation:

  • LinX Intel Linpack Benchmark v0.6.4
  • FurMark Graphics Card Overclocking Validation Utility and OpenGL Benchmark v1.10.2
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