Corsair H100i RGB PLATINUM SE AIO enough for 5900x? or 5800x?

amd7674

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Hi Guys,

I'm putting together 2 new builds for my kids (with their life time money savings LOL)... They both wanted this particular AIO.
I'm still undecided between 5900x and 5800x, however for $100USD price difference I'm leaning toward 5900x. I'm not planning on o/c eiether CPU, but if anything try to under-volt it.
I did some reading based on 3900x and h100i should be "ok" for playing games, and might be a little pushed when hitting all cores/threads. Also it depends how lucky I get, some CPUs are better than others.
Another "problem" is with 1 (5800x) vs 2 CCX (5900x) units on the die.

Myself If I was building this for me I would go with 3900x on air i.e. D15 cooler as my current 8700k, whole bunch of noctua case fanse, closed very good air ventilated cases... However kids want a bling with RGB lights :)

Please advise...
Thanks in advance.
 
I stuck an H100i on my friends 3900X and it stays cool running Prime95 for 20-30 minutes. Can't remember the temps, but they weren't too high, much cooler than the stock Wraith Prism that came with the CPU.
 
What concerns me equally is how reliable they are.
Without passage of time, stats are hard to come by, but have there been many failures?
(Genuine question)
 
What concerns me equally is how reliable they are.
Without passage of time, stats are hard to come by, but have there been many failures?
(Genuine question)
Very reliable. Eventually the fluid will evaporate out and the pump will make a lot of noise and fail. But 8-10 years isn’t atypical. The guy who bought my I7-920 has a Corsair H60 on it. It’s gotta be about 8 years old and still works fine.
 
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What concerns me equally is how reliable they are.
Without passage of time, stats are hard to come by, but have there been many failures?
(Genuine question)
My H80i has been running 24/7 since I bought it in December of 2014. I am pretty sure the H60 I bought in 2010 or 11 is still working, sold my old 3770k setup to a friend a few years back who then sold it to my brother.
 
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What concerns me equally is how reliable they are.
Without passage of time, stats are hard to come by, but have there been many failures?
(Genuine question)

The rate of failure is pretty low. If you're really concerned you can buy high absorption sponges off amazon and cut a piece to fit below the block between it and your gpu for peace of mind.
 
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I've had my Corsair h100i v2 since 2017 and it still keeps the temps in check. I don't do much maintenance to my PC until recently (last week) and all seems to be looking good. I say go for it! They want RGB with their lifetime savings, you gotta give them RGB, lol.
 
Thanks for the evidence of longevity guys, appreciated.
My Dads new 5950x powered video processing box is likely to get an H110 version.
But I doubt we will find a cpu this year so I'll see what coolers Corsair have next year.
 
Thanks for the evidence of longevity guys, appreciated.
My Dads new 5950x powered video processing box is likely to get an H110 version.
But I doubt we will find a cpu this year so I'll see what coolers Corsair have next year.

240mm is probably undersized especially if used for rendering and such. Cooling is a serious issue under heavy and long sustained loads. What sort of video work is it intended for?
 
240mm is probably undersized especially if used for rendering and such. Cooling is a serious issue under heavy and long sustained loads. What sort of video work is it intended for?
He has "tons" of camcorder videos from many different cameras he wants to convert to H264 or H265 so family can be given Blu Ray or USB collections.
We are looking at 280mm minimum.
 
He has "tons" of camcorder videos from many different cameras he wants to convert to H264 or H265 so family can be given Blu Ray or USB collections.
We are looking at 280mm minimum.

I'd go for a 360mm rad aio. The problem witrh 140mm fan sizes is that they aren't better at pushing air and are actually worse because the motor sizes are the same though the blade area is larger. Since the motor is the same, it's not pushing out more static pressure thus not a really an improvement. Get an nvidia gpu with it for hevc. I recommend mediacoder for its simple interface. For the diehard coders something like staxrip is more powerful but it's rather complicated and hard to use so not for the casual user.
 
240mm is probably undersized especially if used for rendering and such. Cooling is a serious issue under heavy and long sustained loads. What sort of video work is it intended for?
Would 240mm be good enough for 5900x or is it pushing it? I can see my older son doing some light video rendering and mostly gaming / streaming at the same time. Would 5800x be better?
 
Would 240mm be good enough for 5900x or is it pushing it? I can see my older son doing some light video rendering and mostly gaming / streaming at the same time. Would 5800x be better?

5900x will be ok unless you end up unleashing the TDP limits.
 
5900x will be ok unless you end up unleashing the TDP limits.
By unleashing do you mean o/c it? or just using/stressing all 12 cores? If possible I'm planning to undervolt it. I'm an INTEL guy, so I have some RTFM to do :)
 
By unleashing do you mean o/c it? or just using/stressing all 12 cores? If possible I'm planning to undervolt it. I'm an INTEL guy, so I have some RTFM to do :)

https://www.gamersnexus.net/guides/3491-explaining-precision-boost-overdrive-benchmarks-auto-oc

3 metrics govern the cpu, package power, thermal current, and electrical current. Using PBO you can raise those limits and let the cpu's silicon fitness monitoring do it's thing which is maximize power w/o degradation granted you have sufficient cooling. The cooling will then be most important. What I do is set TDC and EDC to zero so they will use whatever current it wants and then limit PPT to say 150w or higher.

For ex. this build below is running a 350w PPT. Stock is 280w. At 350w PPT it achieves the same scores as a 4/1-4.2ghz manual overclock but w/o manual overclocking's downsides. There's really no positive reason to use a manual overclock except to show off in bench threads lol. Btw, a 4.2ghz overclock on a threadripper 32core cpu turns it into something akin to molten lava, it creates that much heat its insane. Setup this way I get the same perf and its cooler.

https://hardforum.com/threads/build-3970x-dual-2080ti-8tb-m-2-raid-render-monster.1990145/
 
What concerns me equally is how reliable they are.
Without passage of time, stats are hard to come by, but have there been many failures?
(Genuine question)

Yeah, they usually work fine - until they don't...

I built my previous system with an overclocked Intel 5820K and a Corsair H100i GTX 240mm AIO. The AIO did a fine job cooling the 5820K for a few years, until it developed two pinhole leaks. No fluid dripped out or anything like that, but it was enough to allow the fluid to gradually evaporate until cooling performance was compromised.

You can see the two spots of corrosion on the top left of the radiator in that picture. It's almost like a white-grey rust, almost like the corrosion you see on old car batteries. That is where the leak location was.

H100iGTX_dead.jpg

The overclocked Intel 5820k puts out more heat than my 3900X does, so if the H100i could handle the Intel 5820k then I'm pretty sure it would handle an AMD 5900X also. But the whole experience left me with a bad taste in my mouth about AIOs. I replaced it with a 360mm AIO, and i'm resigned to using one in my main computer due to the increased cooling performance, but I have no illusions anymore about their reliability. Just go into it expecting that you'll get a few years out of it and then it will go into the garbage. Even if it's still working at that point, you will probably still have corrosion and general fluid loss that means it's still not cooling as well as it did when it was new. Count each year past the 2nd or 3rd year of operation as a bonus. That is why i'm glad that my 3900X came with an air cooler. It's still sitting in the box, unused, but I like knowing that I always have a backup ready to go, not if but when my AIO fails. I've also committed to cutting my losses by only using an AIO in my main computer, not in any of my servers or backup computers. The stock cooler will come in handy when I eventually pass my 3900X on to another computer.
 
Yeah, they usually work fine - until they don't...

I built my previous system with an overclocked Intel 5820K and a Corsair H100i GTX 240mm AIO. The AIO did a fine job cooling the 5820K for a few years, until it developed two pinhole leaks. No fluid dripped out or anything like that, but it was enough to allow the fluid to gradually evaporate until cooling performance was compromised.

You can see the two spots of corrosion on the top left of the radiator in that picture. It's almost like a white-grey rust, almost like the corrosion you see on old car batteries. That is where the leak location was.

View attachment 289311

The overclocked Intel 5820k puts out more heat than my 3900X does, so if the H100i could handle the Intel 5820k then I'm pretty sure it would handle an AMD 5900X also. But the whole experience left me with a bad taste in my mouth about AIOs. I replaced it with a 360mm AIO, and i'm resigned to using one in my main computer due to the increased cooling performance, but I have no illusions anymore about their reliability. Just go into it expecting that you'll get a few years out of it and then it will go into the garbage. Even if it's still working at that point, you will probably still have corrosion and general fluid loss that means it's still not cooling as well as it did when it was new. Count each year past the 2nd or 3rd year of operation as a bonus. That is why i'm glad that my 3900X came with an air cooler. It's still sitting in the box, unused, but I like knowing that I always have a backup ready to go, not if but when my AIO fails. I've also committed to cutting my losses by only using an AIO in my main computer, not in any of my servers or backup computers. The stock cooler will come in handy when I eventually pass my 3900X on to another computer.

That's a good reminder that these things are not forever no matter how much ppl praise them. That said, there are evaporation factors with these units whether you had actual pinhole leaks or not. Check the techjesus whining video about how yall are doing AIO wrong. He goes over the evaporation rates and how to reduce problems via block orientation.
 
I'd go for a 360mm rad aio. The problem witrh 140mm fan sizes is that they aren't better at pushing air and are actually worse because the motor sizes are the same though the blade area is larger. Since the motor is the same, it's not pushing out more static pressure thus not a really an improvement. Get an nvidia gpu with it for hevc. I recommend mediacoder for its simple interface. For the diehard coders something like staxrip is more powerful but it's rather complicated and hard to use so not for the casual user.
He said 240mm, not 140mm.. so two 120mm fans ;). Honestly, my single 120mm keeps up pretty well with my 3700x, but that's only 65w. I imagine a second 120mm would be ok for 105w if you're not OCing. Obviously 360mm would be better, but I don't think a 240mm woluld struggle to badly with a 144watts...

Also, a single 140mm does better than a single 120mm, so I'm not sure what you mean by not better at pushing air, if you find a 120mm and a 140mm by the same manufacturer (similar design that is), the 140mm is almost always better at cooling (unless maybe you find something on ToaBoa or something). The surface area is larger (about 36%) like you said, you don't need more static pressure... the same or even slightly less still moves more air due to the larger surface area. Unless you have some examples that I haven't seen, any comparisons I've found have always shown a 140mm (given as close to the same product as possible) to outperform the 120mm version and a 280mm to outperform a 240mm.
 
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He said 240mm, not 140mm.. so two 120mm fans ;). Honestly, my single 120mm keeps up pretty well with my 3700x, but that's only 65w. I imagine a second 120mm would be ok for 105w if you're not OCing. Obviously 360mm would be better, but I don't think a 240mm woluld struggle to badly with a 144watts...

Also, a single 140mm does better than a single 120mm, so I'm not sure what you mean by not better at pushing air, if you find a 120mm and a 140mm by the same manufacturer (similar design that is), the 140mm is almost always better at cooling (unless maybe you find something on ToaBoa or something). The surface area is larger (about 36%) like you said, you don't need more static pressure... the same or even slightly less still moves more air due to the larger surface area. Unless you have some examples that I haven't seen, any comparisons I've found have always shown a 140mm (given as close to the same product as possible) to outperform the 120mm version and a 280mm to outperform a 240mm.

He wrote about 280mm rads. :rolleyes:

And you would be wrong about 140mm fans, they are inferior to 120mm fans in regards to static pressure. It's basic same motor with larger swept area moves more air but has loweer static pressure. And with regards to radiators airflow is not important as static pressure. This has been shown thru test data by martins years ago. He tested a typhoon 120mm vs all the 140mm fans of the time using a 120 to 140 adapter. The Typhoon beat all the 140mm fans overall. There isn't an advantage to going 140.
 
He wrote about 280mm rads. :rolleyes:

And you would be wrong about 140mm fans, they are inferior to 120mm fans in regards to static pressure. It's basic same motor with larger swept area moves more air but has loweer static pressure. And with regards to radiators airflow is not important as static pressure. This has been shown thru test data by martins years ago. He tested a typhoon 120mm vs all the 140mm fans of the time using a 120 to 140 adapter. The Typhoon beat all the 140mm fans overall. There isn't an advantage to going 140.

Sorry, I was going based onthe conversation the OP had leading up to your statements "Would 240mm be good enough for 5900x or is it pushing it? I can see my older son doing some light video rendering and mostly gaming / streaming at the same time. Would 5800x be better?", but you are correct, his original post did reference a 280mm and he did also mention those, so he was talking about both.

Finally found what some references to what you're talking about, an article from ~10 years ago that I can't seem to actually find the original, just some people talking about it.. but back then 240mm fans were barely even a thing and no thought was put into them, let alone any though for using them in radiators. So, take a fan not designed for radiators and compare it to a fan meant for radiators, BAM, you win. Now, fast forward 10 years where 240mm fans are slightly more common (still nowhere near the as common as 120's) and they are being developed specifically for radiators and they stack up much better than they used to. And a qoute from your man martin in 2014 "140 development still has a ways to catch up to 120 refinement levels." Yes, they DID need more development to be used, and they have been developed further. Are they perfect? No, but recent reviews and comparisons show 140mm do better than 120mm in similar rads. Anyways, we're getting a bit far off track, so I'll leave you this bit of info, and even this is rather old as well (2014), but shows some 140mm vs 120mm, never realized how difficult it is to find any charts with direct comparisons!

1602809208918.png


150w load, H110/H110i are 280mm rads 29mm/27mm respectively. Corsair H105 is a 38mm thick 240mm rad. H90 is a 27mm 140mm rad with 1 fan, while H75 is 25mm with 2 fans (biggest difference here is going to be noise as cooling is similar enough). There are other current charts and it does actually shift around a good amount depending on what power level you're talking about, but I chose 150w because a 5800x is a 105w chip but we all know a 105w chip from AMD is around 144w so it was the most relevant. If you find other charts, please share as I'm down to learn, but like I said, most things I've found with anything close to a 1:1 comparison showed the 140mm doing better (same fin density and same thickness, but as you and I know, a direct comparison is really hard to find). Never realized how horrible the X40 was before, lol.. that's a sad showing for a 140mm Radiator and that's the type of example that fuels the 140mm radiators and fans suck, because well... it does! So, there are plenty of examples where a 140mm is worse than 120's so do your due diligence because it does happen.
 
Any cooler thats good for zen zen+ zen2 will be good for zen3.

Nothing has changed as far as tdp or thermals.
 
I do apologize if I caused any sort of heated exchange between [H] members family :(

Basically my question was if I go 5900x or 5800x (both 105w TDP rated) if 240 RGB AIO will be able to handle it. I'm not planning on O/C it, but I will try to offset voltage by ~0.1V to lower wattage/heat (assuming zen3 will have similar thermal characteristics).
If offset won't work I might try applying lower voltage. I don't mind losing few CB points or FPS in order to get cooler/quieter system.

Thanks again guys for all your help!
 
I do apologize if I caused any sort of heated exchange between [H] members family :(

Basically my question was if I go 5900x or 5800x (both 105w TDP rated) if 240 RGB AIO will be able to handle it. I'm not planning on O/C it, but I will try to offset voltage by ~0.1V to lower wattage/heat (assuming zen3 will have similar thermal characteristics).
If offset won't work I might try applying lower voltage. I don't mind losing few CB points or FPS in order to get cooler/quieter system.

Thanks again guys for all your help!
No need to apologize, we are all just sharing views, they don't always agree but I don't take anything personal and sometimes you even learn a thing or two :).

A 240 will handle either of those fine if you're not going for crazy overclocks or have a case with horrible ventilation. I assume 105w means 145w in AMD terms, just like it has in the past. A 240mm (2x120mm) can handle this just fine.
 
I do apologize if I caused any sort of heated exchange between [H] members family :(

Basically my question was if I go 5900x or 5800x (both 105w TDP rated) if 240 RGB AIO will be able to handle it. I'm not planning on O/C it, but I will try to offset voltage by ~0.1V to lower wattage/heat (assuming zen3 will have similar thermal characteristics).
If offset won't work I might try applying lower voltage. I don't mind losing few CB points or FPS in order to get cooler/quieter system.

Thanks again guys for all your help!

We have absolutely no idea how Zen3 will behave regarding voltages.
 
We have absolutely no idea how Zen3 will behave regarding voltages.

Very true, thus I said I assume. I'm sure there will be a way to undervolt it, manual voltage or offset. We'll see.

No need to apologize, we are all just sharing views, they don't always agree but I don't take anything personal and sometimes you even learn a thing or two :).

A 240 will handle either of those fine if you're not going for crazy overclocks or have a case with horrible ventilation. I assume 105w means 145w in AMD terms, just like it has in the past. A 240mm (2x120mm) can handle this just fine.

Thank you for understanding. :) I picked up lian li lancool 2 mesh rgb case, which according to reviews should have a good air ventilation. Got my d RAM delivered today... I got all the parts except 5900x :)

 
Sorry, I was going based onthe conversation the OP had leading up to your statements "Would 240mm be good enough for 5900x or is it pushing it? I can see my older son doing some light video rendering and mostly gaming / streaming at the same time. Would 5800x be better?", but you are correct, his original post did reference a 280mm and he did also mention those, so he was talking about both.

Finally found what some references to what you're talking about, an article from ~10 years ago that I can't seem to actually find the original, just some people talking about it.. but back then 240mm fans were barely even a thing and no thought was put into them, let alone any though for using them in radiators. So, take a fan not designed for radiators and compare it to a fan meant for radiators, BAM, you win. Now, fast forward 10 years where 240mm fans are slightly more common (still nowhere near the as common as 120's) and they are being developed specifically for radiators and they stack up much better than they used to. And a qoute from your man martin in 2014 "140 development still has a ways to catch up to 120 refinement levels." Yes, they DID need more development to be used, and they have been developed further. Are they perfect? No, but recent reviews and comparisons show 140mm do better than 120mm in similar rads. Anyways, we're getting a bit far off track, so I'll leave you this bit of info, and even this is rather old as well (2014), but shows some 140mm vs 120mm, never realized how difficult it is to find any charts with direct comparisons!

View attachment 289451

150w load, H110/H110i are 280mm rads 29mm/27mm respectively. Corsair H105 is a 38mm thick 240mm rad. H90 is a 27mm 140mm rad with 1 fan, while H75 is 25mm with 2 fans (biggest difference here is going to be noise as cooling is similar enough). There are other current charts and it does actually shift around a good amount depending on what power level you're talking about, but I chose 150w because a 5800x is a 105w chip but we all know a 105w chip from AMD is around 144w so it was the most relevant. If you find other charts, please share as I'm down to learn, but like I said, most things I've found with anything close to a 1:1 comparison showed the 140mm doing better (same fin density and same thickness, but as you and I know, a direct comparison is really hard to find). Never realized how horrible the X40 was before, lol.. that's a sad showing for a 140mm Radiator and that's the type of example that fuels the 140mm radiators and fans suck, because well... it does! So, there are plenty of examples where a 140mm is worse than 120's so do your due diligence because it does happen.

That's a lot of rambling for a simple point. Most fans use the same motors, whether in 120 or 140 guise. The 140 sized radiator has some benefits due to its larger frontal area but it ends up a wash because the 140 fan doesn't present a gain and more often reduced static pressure when we consider the motor size. And we see this in the two Corsair. The h100 vs h110, 120 vs 140 and the end result is nil.

And for the testing, it can be found on xtremesystems and on martins blog.

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums...-Fan-Testing-on-a-HWlabs-SR1-Radiator-Round-7

I had really hoped the 140mm fans would be a huge benefit over 120s, but I'm just not finding that. There is a good sized advantage to the larger 140mm radiator and reduced restriction, but the gain is in the radiator frontal area, not the 140mm fan itself.

Very true, thus I said I assume. I'm sure there will be a way to undervolt it, manual voltage or offset. We'll see.

Undervolting these cpus is no doubt doing it wrong and ignoring AMD's directions and intentions with their design.
 
Very true, thus I said I assume. I'm sure there will be a way to undervolt it, manual voltage or offset. We'll see.



Thank you for understanding. :) I picked up lian li lancool 2 mesh rgb case, which according to reviews should have a good air ventilation. Got my d RAM delivered today... I got all the parts except 5900x :)


This assumes that undervolting it would be beneficial in some way. For all we know the architecture will be very sensitive to voltage and won't do well going up or down. It's a new architecture and any assumptions at this point are premature.
 
This assumes that undervolting it would be beneficial in some way. For all we know the architecture will be very sensitive to voltage and won't do well going up or down. It's a new architecture and any assumptions at this point are premature.
Well, it would be beneficial for lower power/heat... Whether or not it's worth doing is get to be seen ;). With a 240mm rad I probably wouldn't bother unless you are seeing some thermal throttling in your work loads or you just want to target a slightly lower temperature with the cooling solution you have. It won't hurt to try and see how it acts though, just let us know if/when you do so we know what to expect ;). Heck, maybe it'll still hit just as good or boost #'s and save a few watts/degrees. Or maybe it'll do nothing but slow it down for no reason, don't/won't know till it's tested.
 
I used the cooler the original poster is talking about on a 3900x and a 3950x. It's fine if you're not pushing the limits. I overclocked the 3900x a little with it. I actually need to put mine up for sale now that I'm water cooled.
 
By unleashing do you mean o/c it? or just using/stressing all 12 cores? If possible I'm planning to undervolt it. I'm an INTEL guy, so I have some RTFM to do :)

FWIW, I have a 3900x using an H110i (280mm) and have no problems keeping the temperature in check even when editing/encoding 4k, H265 content pegging all 12 cores/24 threads for several hours. I also have one of the very first batch of 3900x that tends to request unusually high voltage from the board.
 
FWIW, I have a 3900x using an H110i (280mm) and have no problems keeping the temperature in check even when editing/encoding 4k, H265 content pegging all 12 cores/24 threads for several hours. I also have one of the very first batch of 3900x that tends to request unusually high voltage from the board.
+1 for the H110i, I have one of the burninator 9900k running at 5ghz and it keeps everything reasonably cool.
 
i just flashed with my kids two MSI Tomahawk x570 without CPU with zen3 BIOS, everything went smooth. BTW... The x570 chipset fan is a noisy at full speed LOL. At the moment I'm leaning toward buying two 5900x CPUs.... overkill but with some headroom/future proof. They should be set for the next 5 years with potential GPU upgrade in 3 years...
 
what Is your idle temp with the 3950x?

I am at 38C idle using a H115i with 70C at full load x 20 minutes at 4.2ghz.


If you already have the H100, it will do fine. If you are buying new, got for the biggest you can fit
 
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i just flashed with my kids two MSI Tomahawk x570 without CPU with zen3 BIOS, everything went smooth. BTW... The x570 chipset fan is a noisy at full speed LOL. At the moment I'm leaning toward buying two 5900x CPUs.... overkill but with some headroom/future proof. They should be set for the next 5 years with potential GPU upgrade in 3 years...
Why is your chipset fan turning on besides during boot up?
 
I was just updating bios for zen3 without cpu. I assume during bios update, chipset fan runs at its max.

That makes sense. My fan never kicks in and people always overblow the sound like it's always on or something.
 
If it was good enough for all the other Zen chips from 65 watts and up it is good enough for now since the chips haven't changed in TDP at all.
 
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