Introduction

Liquid cooling was always reserved for the more extreme users. There was a ton of research and work that needed to be invested to get a good system up and running with liquid. Which pump is the best? What water block is compatible? What liquid mixture works the best? What if it leaks on my system? Honestly, I never had the balls to get into liquid because I was more afraid of screwing my system up with a leak. Running on a budget, I couldn't afford breaking a warranty with a spill. Even though my situation has changed, I'm still hesitant, except in the case of self contained units.

Back in the 90's, most people running on liquid had built their own system with a combination of car heater cores, aquarium pumps, silicon tubing, and homemade CPU water blocks. It wasn't until later that manufacturers started coming out with built parts and kits, however, it was still a complicated process of picking and choosing the best parts to use. It really wasn't until recently that self contained water units were released and, in the past few years, they've gained popularity. They are all in one units that require little to no maintenance, and install without any real complicated processes. The only problem is that these units, while reducing noise, showed little to no improvement over air coolers to cover the cost. Corsair jumped into the market with their Hydro lineup of Liquid Coolers a few years ago. There have been progressive changes and upgrades, making them easier to install and more efficient.

The Corsair H80 High Performance Liquid CPU Cooler looks to up the ante in the H70's spot in the Hydro lineup. The Corsair H80 comes with a newer square block design that features a copper cold plate and a split-flow manifold. The block also has a push button control with 3 different performance settings built in. There is a circular LED on the head of the block that indicates which setting has been chosen; quiet, balanced, or performance. Corsair has included two 120mm fans that are used to sandwich the new, double thick radiator. The new double thick radiator measures 120mm x 152mm x 38mm. The H80 also has an input ready for the Corsair Link Digital for extra monitoring and control.