Spare-Flair
Supreme [H]ardness
- Joined
- Apr 4, 2003
- Messages
- 7,471
I've recently purchased an H80 and it has been nothing but disappointment. From not being able to tighten the screws due to them removing screwdriver slots when the screws are right beside motherboard heatsinks to the largest and most widespread issue which are defective pumps, I would stay away from the H80/H100 series right now based on what I have seen on the Corsair support forums.
This is another lesson to not buy a product before checking out the manufacturer support forum because you can go back pages and pages and there are dozens and dozens of threads with people all complaining about the same issues with the H80/H100 and perhaps the other models as well.
Mine (like all the others) exhibits a grinding noise from the pump. The Corsair reps claim this is due to trapped air bubbles and you should flicking tubing, lay the case flat, or tap on the block. Well, to get rid of the sound I had to knock on the block rather forcefully and it came back within seconds. There are multiple threads and dozens of users with this issue and yet no official resolution from Corsair. I would recommend staying away from their water cooling products until an official confirmation of a fix comes or their forum users indicate their RMAs are coming back fixed.
http://forum.corsair.com/forums/showthread.php?t=97733
http://forum.corsair.com/forums/showthread.php?t=101260
For myself the most helpful thread has been this one:
http://forum.corsair.com/forums/showthread.php?t=101677
Seems to indicate it's the latest batches so if you are looking for a Hydro cooler, try to find an older batch or wait until a confirmation of fix. If you have one that is silent, great! You are very lucky and I wish I was you as well as many other Hydro users judging by the many posts and threads there that pop up daily. I'm just recommending you be careful in selecting a cooler. For the H80, it appears to be batches with serial number 11399402 on the box. H100's have a fan controller issue with batch 11359403. Other numbers may be included but not yet documented by users so be careful when you are buying.
-edit
There is one more issue I forgot to mention. The molex connector is extremely cheap and definitely needs to be addressed - not the plastic housing, but the pins. The metal is extremely soft on the legs that keep the pins in the housing and they bend and snap easily. I haven't seen such a cheap molex pin in over 15 years and was another big factor in returning it because otherwise I would have needed to strip the connector and reclamp a replacement pin head. On my Corsair TX850M, the female molex end had extremely tight sockets and everytime I tried to insert the molex connector from the H80, no matter how carefully I did it, the legs would bend in and nearly snap off due to metal fatigue. The only solution was to remove the pins from the receptacle and force them into the female molex sockets by hand (which still took some strength because of the size tolerances of both parts from the Corsair TX 850M and the Corsair H80 were not good) and electrical tape it up.
This is another lesson to not buy a product before checking out the manufacturer support forum because you can go back pages and pages and there are dozens and dozens of threads with people all complaining about the same issues with the H80/H100 and perhaps the other models as well.
Mine (like all the others) exhibits a grinding noise from the pump. The Corsair reps claim this is due to trapped air bubbles and you should flicking tubing, lay the case flat, or tap on the block. Well, to get rid of the sound I had to knock on the block rather forcefully and it came back within seconds. There are multiple threads and dozens of users with this issue and yet no official resolution from Corsair. I would recommend staying away from their water cooling products until an official confirmation of a fix comes or their forum users indicate their RMAs are coming back fixed.
http://forum.corsair.com/forums/showthread.php?t=97733
http://forum.corsair.com/forums/showthread.php?t=101260
For myself the most helpful thread has been this one:
http://forum.corsair.com/forums/showthread.php?t=101677
Seems to indicate it's the latest batches so if you are looking for a Hydro cooler, try to find an older batch or wait until a confirmation of fix. If you have one that is silent, great! You are very lucky and I wish I was you as well as many other Hydro users judging by the many posts and threads there that pop up daily. I'm just recommending you be careful in selecting a cooler. For the H80, it appears to be batches with serial number 11399402 on the box. H100's have a fan controller issue with batch 11359403. Other numbers may be included but not yet documented by users so be careful when you are buying.
-edit
There is one more issue I forgot to mention. The molex connector is extremely cheap and definitely needs to be addressed - not the plastic housing, but the pins. The metal is extremely soft on the legs that keep the pins in the housing and they bend and snap easily. I haven't seen such a cheap molex pin in over 15 years and was another big factor in returning it because otherwise I would have needed to strip the connector and reclamp a replacement pin head. On my Corsair TX850M, the female molex end had extremely tight sockets and everytime I tried to insert the molex connector from the H80, no matter how carefully I did it, the legs would bend in and nearly snap off due to metal fatigue. The only solution was to remove the pins from the receptacle and force them into the female molex sockets by hand (which still took some strength because of the size tolerances of both parts from the Corsair TX 850M and the Corsair H80 were not good) and electrical tape it up.
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