Corsair H110i GT Review

Performance Analysis

We should start out by highlighting that our previous LGA2011 test rig died last year and while we wait to do a lab-wide upgrade of all our test gear soon, Overclockers UK has been kind enough to bail us out in the short term with a replacement LGA2011 motherboard. However, this has meant that we've had to throw out our old test data as it's no longer comparable, even though we've used similar overclock settings so we've got limited results for this graph at the moment. We'll continue to add to it while we work on updating our newer test systems.

Moving on to the results, we were interested to see the difference between the two pump modes so the first test had the fans in default mode while we switched the pump to performance and quiet modes. There was no difference in terms of temperatures on either of our test systems but a discernible change in the pitch of the noise coming from the pump. It's a little quieter in quiet mode - shock horror, although the biggest difference was in the tone of the noise. A Laing pump reduced to minimum voltage is still much quieter but the H110i GT is definitely less audible and more pleasant to sit next to than its predecessors in this mode.


There are so many variations in the settings that we chose to throw in the maximum and minimum fan and pump speeds then call it quits. With both fans and pump reduced to quiet mode, our LGA1155 system was still a match for Corsair's own H105, but the fans here were pretty tame, even with the CPU under load. In fact it bettered all the 120/140mm single fan radiator-based all-in-one liquid coolers such as the NZXT Kraken X40, even on their maximum settings albeit by only a degree or two.

Ramping things up, the H110i GT was 3°C cooler, posting the second best result we've ever seen and while you'll likely need headphones to drown out the noise, it's far from the loudest cooler we've heard. Clearly, though, unless you're obsessed with low temperatures, knocking the pump and fans down to quiet mode is the way to go for LGA115X systems.


We've only got a few comparison numbers so far for our new LGA2011 system but in a similar fashion to our other rig, the H110i GT outperformed the H105 at maximum fan and pump speed and perhaps more crucially was just 2°C warmer in all-round quiet mode - good news if you want to tame that new Haswell-E CPU without being deafened. By comparison, the aging H75 was 6°C warmer still here while the H110i GT on its maximum settings battered the H75 quite convincingly. There's definitely a reason to pick the H110i GT over its smaller siblings if you're dealing with an Intel X79 or X99 system.

Conclusion

With a top-notch software suite, lighting control and more tweakable settings than you can shake a stick at, the H110i GT is a fabulous all-in-one liquid cooler. The price is to be expected given we're talking about a large radiator, two 140mm fans and automatic software control suite in the package but those that appreciate decent cooling, low noise and lots of customisation will find plenty to like and won't feel short changed, especially if you own an LGA115X system.

The only issues are that you'll need a pretty big case to fit the H110i GT - even if you have two 140mm fan mounts you'll need to factor in the radiator too, especially if you're looking at mounting it in the roof where the proximity of the motherboard can be an issue. Corsair also doesn't offer expansion with other water-cooling hardware out-of-the-box as some of its competitors now do - the H110i GT is a sealed unit. Apart from these points, though, we can thoroughly recommend it.