Corsair h5 sf review (analysis in Spanish)

The manufacturer Corsair is a world leader in liquid cooling systems, has pushed its design team back to the limit by creating the first compact size closed circuit processor liquid cooling system, specifically designed to meet the thermal demands of format PCs. small, this is the Corsair H5 SF from the Cooler Hydro series.

Technical characteristics Corsair H5 SF

Corsair H5 SF unboxing and design

As we are accustomed to, Corsair gives us a gala presentation with a beautiful design and predominantly corporate colors.

On the back side we have all the most important characteristics of the product.

Inside we find a complete bundle:

Corsair H5 SF cooler. ITX motherboard adapter. Brackets for Intel and AMD. Installation hardware. Instruction manual, quick guide and warranty book.

It is a compact liquid cooling without maintenance and divided into two zones: radiator + fan and block. Will it enter my tower? Of course! It is the most compact on the market, although we recommend directing the Corsair H5 SF to an area where you have a fan blowing air out of the box, for excellent cooling.

We see a rear view of the refrigerator and its perfect packaging.

It makes use of a high-performance copper plate in direct contact with the processor with premium pre- applied thermal paste (it will save you time and use external thermal paste), this transfers the heat to the radiator.

The internal radiator measures 167 x 40 x 57mm, which is cooled by a specially tuned 120mm fan to generate very low noise (turbine mode). The fan rotates at a speed between 1000 - 1800 RPMs, pushes an air flow of 12 to 24 CFMs, and produces a noise level of between 36 and 42 dB (A).

The Corsair H5 SF's fan also draws in air from other, hotter components on your motherboard, such as the VRMs area and chipset heatsinks, helping to keep your system completely cool.

It has low permeability tubes that help ensure a long service life, and its flexible design makes it easy to install in tight spaces.

View of the block that lights up. It should be noted that liquid cooling is compatible with Intel (LGA 775 / 115x / 1366/2011 / 2011-3 CPU) and AMD FM2 + / FM2 / FM1 / AM3 + / AM3 / AM2 + / AM2 sockets.

Finally we have the two cables that we must install on the motherboard for its perfect operation.

Mounting and installation on Z170 platform

Its installation is very easy as it fits directly on top of any Mini-ITX motherboard and without the need for mounting external fans, at just 84mm high, the H5 SF is compact enough to fit inside the smallest team chassis. Still, it offers heat dissipation of up to 150W, as it's more than enough to cool today's high-end processors even under the most demanding overclocking conditions.

Note: Although the photographs are with an H87 motherboard, the actual installation and testing have been done with an IT1 format Z170 motherboard. For being the most current platform and purchased this past year.

The Corsair H5 SF incorporates quite a few accessories, among them we find: an adapter for the motherboard, screws for installation in Intel or AMD processor and two brackets for Intel and AMD.

We install the rear bracket and tighten the screws as seen in the following image:

The next step is to install the support for Intel in the block.

Next we place the support for the ITX motherboard and insert the installation screws of the block. This step we recommend you do inside the tower, since it will fit perfectly with the installation screws of the motherboard to the chassis.

We tighten the four screws of the block and it is totally fixed.

The last step is to fix the block to the screws with the highest height (which are 3) and we have installed the block. It really is compact and fully compatible with high profile memories.

How very cool! Truth? ?

Test bench and tests

TESTING BENCH
Processor:	Intel i7-6700K
Base plate:	MSI Z170i Gaming PRO AC.
Memory:	Corsair DDR4 Platinum
Heatsink	Corsair H5 SF.
SSD	Corsair Neutron XT 240GB
Graphic card	Nvidia GTX 1080
Power supply	Antec HCP 1000 W.

To test the real performance of the heatsink we are going to stress the best processor on the market: the Intel Skylake i5-6700k. Our tests consist of 72 uninterrupted hours of work. In stock values and with overclock 4200 mhz. In this way, we can observe the highest temperature peaks and the average that the heatsink reaches. We must bear in mind that when playing or using other types of software, the temperature will drop dramatically between 7 to 12ºC.

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How are we going to measure the processor temperature?

We will use the internal sensors of the processor. For that test on Intel processors we will use the CPUID HwMonitor application in its latest version. Although it is not the most reliable test of the moment, it will be our reference in all our analyzes. The ambient temperature is 20º.

Let's see the results obtained:

Final words and conclusion about Corsair H5 SF

The Corsair H5 SF is liquid cooling with compact dimensions, with the ability to cool any i5 or i7 processor with overclock and high quality components.

It is fully compatible with its new Corsair Bulldog box, being a fundamental part for its assembly, since it allows the new box to deliver a low noise level when running the most demanding games in 4K resolution in your living room or office.

In our tests we have been able to verify that with an i7 6700k at 4200 MHz it has maintained its temperature at just 29ºC at rest and 52ºC at maximum power. Great Corsair job!

Note that it brings the full benefit of quiet, efficient high-end liquid cooling, being ideal for low-profile configurations and 100% compatible with Mini-ITX sized motherboards. In addition, it is backed by a comprehensive five-year warranty and the excellent after-sales service on the market.

We are sure that it will be a benchmark in ITX chassis cooling solutions due to its compact format and great performance. Currently we can find it in stores like Amazon for a price of 99 euros with shipping included.

ADVANTAGE	DISADVANTAGES
+ QUALITY COMPONENTS.	- INSTALLATION COSTS A LITTLE.
+ IDEAL FOR ITX BASE PLATES.
+ GOOD PERFORMANCE WITH HIGH PERFORMANCE PROCESSORS (I5 AND I7).
+ IDEAL FOR CORSAIR BULLDOG CHASSIS.
+ 5 YEAR WARRANTY.