Corsair h80i gt review (best 120mm liquid cooling)

Corsair, world leader in the manufacture of thermal components, heatsinks and boxes. He has sent us to our laboratory one of his renewed compact liquid cooling kits , it is the new Corsair H80i GT with a 120mm radiator and its innovative block. Do you want to know more about this album? Keep reading our review!

We thank Corsair Spain for trusting the product for its analysis.

Technical characteristics Corsair H80i GT

Corsair H80i GT

As usual we find a box with a good design and that in the back we have all the technical characteristics. In its inner bundle we find:

Corsair H80i GT liquid cooling kit .Instruction manual and quick guide. Two 120mm fans. Support for both Intel and AMD. Various hardware for installation.

It is a compact liquid cooling without maintenance and is equipped with a single grill aluminum radiator with dimensions of 154m x 123mm x 49mm. Will it enter my tower? If you have a hole for a 120mm fan in the top or front area, the answer is yes.

It has two fixed nylon hoses with sealed fittings. In this new model they are more flexible and allow greater comfort for mounting. In each of them, the prepared liquid will run (it does not need maintenance) to avoid the existence of algae or any type of microorganism. Therefore, we can breathe easy.

Along with the new tube design, the Corsair H80i GT also has a revamped pump that's significantly larger than the original H80i. This logo has an RGB LED that can be modified with Corsair Link software.

To note about the Corsair H80i GT pump is that the micro USB slot works in conjunction with the Corsair Link USB cable. This allows the liquid cooling kit to interact with the operating system and establishes a digital connection. Power to the pump is established with a 3-pin connector to power the pump. As we can see in the images, it incorporates two cables to connect the two 120mm fans included.

The block has a circular design and is made of copper, incorporating a thin layer of very good quality thermal paste, which will allow us to carry out a clean and efficient installation.

Going back to the fans, we have two high-performance Corsair SP120Ls. Among its technical characteristics we find a speed of 2345 RPM, static pressure of 4.65 mm H2O, noise level of 37.7 dB (A) and an air flow of 70.69 CFM. Both have a 4-pin connection (PWM), which allows us to regulate their speed through the motherboard.

The C orsair H80i GT is compatible with all current platforms:

Intel (LGA 775 / 115x / 1366/2011 / 2011-3 CPU). AMD (FM2 + / FM2 / FM1 / AM3 + / AM3 / AM2 + / AM2).

Mounting and installation on platform 1151

We are going to install on the LGA 1151 socket, which is the most common and is available with the Z170 / H170 and B150 chipsets. The installation is the same as the previous generations of this platform, so for many you will recognize the steps and for those who do not, you will see that it is very simple.

The first thing is to go to the back of the motherboard and fix the plastic support, we will adjust the 4 screws at the front.

Next we place the block on the processor and tighten with the four fixing screws / nuts.

To finish the installation on the motherboard (You have seen that easy!) We have to connect the USB connection to the motherboard.

It is the moment to install the radiator to a 120 mm hole, previously we have fixed the second fan and we left the first fan that draws the hot air to fix next to the radiator in the tower. The process is fairly simple. As we can see, the Corsair H80i GT is not going to limit the installation of high profile memory on this platform. In case of using the socket x99 I confirm that you can install any kit, including the top of the range Corsair Dominator DDR4. In our case, when mounting it on the benchtable, we cannot offer a photo of its mounting on a tower, but we have uploaded one from the Corsair website itself;).

Test bench and tests

TESTING BENCH
Processor:	Intel i5-6600K
Base plate:	Asus Maximus VIII Formula
Memory:	Corsair DDR4 Platinum
Heatsink	Corsair H80i GT.
SSD	Corsair Neutron XT 240GB
Graphic card	Asus GTX 780 Direct CU II.
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 i5-6600k. Our tests consist of 72 uninterrupted hours of work. In stock values and with overclocked 4600 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.

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.

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Let's see the results obtained:

Taking a quick read we see that the performance of the Corsair H80i GT is almost traced to an amazing Corsair H100i GTX. In stock speed we have at rest 28ºC and at full performance a fantastic 49ºC. Even raising the i5-6600k to 4, 600 MHz, the temperature difference is minimal, reaching a maximum of 57ºC and an average of 55ºC. Undoubtedly, it has been a surprise in our test bench.

Corsair Link Software

It is nothing new that Corsair incorporates the cable for the Corsair Link as standard in its liquid cooling kits. What can we do? This application allows us to control the speed of the fans, monitor temperatures and customize the LEDs on the block.

The software can be downloaded from the download section of the Corsair official website. Once installed, we find 4 tabs:

System: they indicate all the characteristics and status of the team Group: group of groups and their monitoring Graphs: it allows us to see the evolution of the team while we play / work or at rest Options: It allows us to adjust independent parameters and profiles.

If we combine it with a digital serial power supply, we can carry all the monitoring of the system, including voltages and regulation of its fan.

Final words and conclusion

It can be seen that Corsair has put a lot of effort to correct the few problems they had in their compact liquid refrigeration systems. As we have seen the Corsair H80i GT is quiet, it has two improved pipes, a more aesthetic block and incredible potential.

The Corsair H80i GT has been up to scratch on our test bench with an i7-6700k at 4600 Mhz. With really good temperatures and an excellent sound level. Ideal for Quiet Silent user. Another of its points in favor is the incorporation of Corsair Link technology and its easy installation in any socket.

In short, if you are looking for a single radiator liquid cooling kit with excellent performance, with a silent pump and two good standard fans. The Corsair H80i GT must be the chosen one. It is currently found in online stores for 100 euros (amazon).

ADVANTAGE	DISADVANTAGES
+ EXCELLENT CONSTRUCTION COMPONENTS.	- NONE
+ IMPROVED PUMP.
+ COPPER BLOCK.
+ INCLUDES TWO QUALITY FANS.
+ COMPATIBLE WITH ALL CURRENT SOCKETS.
+ WITH CORSAIR LINK.