Review on Corsair Hydro H150i PRO RGB Liquid CPU Cooler, 360mm Radiator, Triple 120mm ML Series PWM Fans, Advanced RGB Lighting and Fan Software Control, Intel 115x/2066 and AMD AM4 Compatible by Sean Reddy

There are dozens, if not hundreds, of all-in-one (AIO) add-ons on the market today. And Corsair has been making models for at least 10 years. Earlier H100i V2 units had more powerful pumps, which unfortunately were prone to failure. So Corsair worked with Asetek to improve the pump for longer life. They've also redesigned the RGB LED lighting and added new "magnetic levitation" fans. And they've updated the interface so the H100i doesn't require any special BIOS setting (like the H100i V2 does for the CPU_FAN header) and is fully integrated with their new iCUE software. Now that all sounds nice, but how does it actually work? Well, when I finished installing my H100i Pro (240mm version with 2 120mm fans), my idle startup temperatures were only 2 degrees Celsius better than my previous CryOrig H7 air cooler and around 7 degrees Celsius under Prime95 load for my 8700k processor (I used Grizzly Kryonaut as thermal paste). A bit confused, I started looking into the iCUE settings and saw that I could set it to Quiet, Balanced, Extreme or Zero RPM, but just for the fans. In iCUE, I saw that the pump was running at around 1080 RPM, but I couldn't click on it to set or adjust a different speed. And when I brought my head very close to the pump inside the case, all I heard was a slight rotation. Finally, after posting a question about pump speed on the Corsair user forums, I found that you need to go to the "Performance" tab on the left and then set a different option for it (it defaults to "Quiet") and then you can see the pump appear as an entry to your right that you can edit. You can then click on the fans or pumps and set them to Quiet, Balanced, Extreme, or Zero Turn (which means the fans won't spin, but the pump will still spin - very quiet and almost passive water cooling). At this point I think it's important to note that nowhere in the included instructions does it mention that the pump is originally set to 'quiet', or how to change the speed of the pump, or how to set up the H100i Pro with iCue! (I am using iCUE 3.6.109). Not to mention Corsair, that's very bad. And no doubt many people will buy this device, see little improvement, and then return it without realizing that the pump was set too low to begin with. to 2150 rpm and the temperature immediately began to drop. Temperature is now about 5 degrees cooler when idle on desktop and about 15 degrees cooler when Prime95 is loaded. In "Extreme" mode the pump spins up to 2950 RPM and the desktop idle temperature is about 7 degrees cooler and Prime95 is about 20 degrees cooler for my Intel 8700k processor. Big difference. (For everyday use, I set my pump and fans to "balanced" mode.) The fans are also high quality and I don't notice them until they spin past 1800 rpm. (they reach 2450 rpm). Also great is that there is a preset temperature light effect that you can set for the water block/pump head. Corsair LED logo that changes from green to amber to red depending on the temperature you set for the internal coolant. So, with the kinks ironed out and everything installed properly, the H100i Pro performed admirably. I've only been using my H100i Pro for a month so I can't say if Corsair's pump redesign will improve reliability. I can say they should have used larger 3/8" or 1/2" ID coolant tubes (more water, can hold more heat) and they should have run those tubes straight into the water block/head pump for less achieve flow restriction. . On the H100i Pro, the small 1/4" hose goes into cheap plastic 90 degree couplers, which restrict flow and raise temps (and increase pump pressure and shorten life). Because of these minor design flaws and the $#@! no iCUE instructions on setting the pump to higher RPM in the owner's manual, I'll deduct a star. Time will tell and I'll come back and update this review, but for now I'd say it's a good AIO cooler that needs a more detailed user guide and a few small design tweaks. 4 out of 5 stars for me.