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Jan 11, 2024

CORSAIR iCUE H100i Elite Capellix XT Cooler Review

In this review of the CORSAIR iCUE H100i Elite Capellix XT White, we will walk

In this review of the CORSAIR iCUE H100i Elite Capellix XT White, we will walk you through the AIO's unboxing, installation, and testing.

Review Summary

CORSAIR iCUE H100i Elite Capellix XT White cooler is another top-performing AIO offer from the manufacturer in the 240mm size category. This cooler offers a nice blend of performance and features with a 5-year warranty, albeit at a steep price.

Pros

Cons

We have recently tested the CORSAIR iCUE H150i Elite Capellix XT White color cooler. This time we are taking a look at the iCUE H100i Elite Capellix XT White cooler. Essentially both coolers are the same, with only a difference in size. One is 360mm, and the other is 240mm in size. H100 or H100i series coolers have been quite popular ever since their introduction from CORSAIR. Like iCUE H150i Elite Capellix XT, the H100i version is also using AF RGB ELITE fans (two). This cooler is compatible with Intel Sockets LGA: 1150, 1151, 1155, 1156, 1200, 1700, 2011, 2011-3, 2066 and AMD Socket: AM4, AM5, sTRX4, and sTR4. The H100i version also features the CAPELLIX LEDs on the pump housing, providing brilliant digital lighting effects, and it has the same 3 pump caps as well.

This cooler is shipped inside a cardboard packing box. This box is also finished in yellow and black color like the CORSAIR iCUE H150i Elite Capellix XT White cooler. Super Chilled seems to be not enough for the new platforms from Intel and AMD.

CAPELLIX is CORSAIR's technology for digital lighting. This cooler has 33 CAPELLIX LEDs on the pump top for a brilliant lighting aura. The Rainbow mode is shown in the picture over here.

There is a brown color egged carton in which the contents are placed for safe and secure shipping. We can see a warranty guide placed over the top. There is no instruction manual in the box. You can check that on the CORSAIR website.

CORSAIR has provided the following:

CORSAIR has provided the following:

CORSAIR has provided the following:

There are 4x thumb nuts for the block's installation.

CORSAIR has provided the following:

Like the CORSAIR iCUE H150i Elite Capellix XT cooler, the H100i version also has a total of three pump caps. One is pre-installed on the pump housing, while the other two are provided in the accessories. There is also a cap removal tool.

The last item in the accessories is the CORSAIR iCUE Commander Core which is placed in a separate container.

In addition to these accessories, there are two CORSAIR AF RGB ELITE fans and a cooler.

Design

CORSAIR's statement about these coolers goes like this, "All-in-one liquid coolers don't dissipate processor heat inside the case like traditional air coolers, but instead guide it to the edge of the case and blow it out with dedicated fans. This results in cooler components and less noise. The ELITE CAPELLIX XT is an upgrade to our most powerful CPU cooler:

CORSAIR uses an aluminum-made radiator. The complete assembly is white color coated. The white color tone is balanced. This unit has a dimension of 277x120x27mm which is a standard size in AIO coolers. 27mm is the height of this radiator. Adding 25mm fans would make the overall height 54mm, including the heads of the screws. This radiator has 20 FPI, and there are 12 channels for coolant flow. There is a gap of 105mm between two mounting holes on opposite sides. This gap is 15mm for any two adjacent holes is 15mm.

The above picture shows a close-up of the radiator. CORSAIR has done a good job in fin stacking. There is no bend or broken fin.

Looking at the radiator from its far end, it has a rectangular design. The edges are not sharp. There is no sticker or branding over here.

We can see two stickers or labels on the tube side of this radiator. One has a part number and a serial number on it. The other is a scanning label. The fittings are concealed inside metal clamps. These clamps are also white in color. The unit is made in China and there are power ratings showing 12V at 0.8A max.

Both sides of the radiator housing have a metallic CROSAIR logo in the middle.

There is no protective plating under mounting holes on the main frame. This plating protects the screws from damaging the fins. Looking closely, we can see that the mounting arm of the housing is sitting closer to the fin stack, meaning we have more surface area on this unit, unlike the other AIOs.

Looking at the backside of this radiator, we can see fair paintwork and fin stacking.

The CORSAIR uses sleeved rubber tubing. These are low-permeation tubes and are soft and flexible. They don't kink anyway. They run to approximately 400mm. The H150i and H170i have a length of 450mm on the tubes. This is another difference between the H100i and H150i under our testing. They are wrapped inside nice nylon braided sleeves in white color for cool aesthetics.

The CORSAIR iCUE H100i Elite Capellix XT has the same pump housing design as is on the H150i. This housing is made of ABS material and it is a black color finish. The salient highlight here is the provision of 33 CAPELLIX LEDs on the top lid. This lid is removable as well as it has a swappable cap. There are three caps with this cooler. The user can change the cap as per the requirement.

The above picture shows a close-up of the default cap with digital RGB backlighting. It is quite a spectacular view.

Taking a look at the rear of this housing, we can spot that the fittings are installed at a 90° angle. They are rotatable as per the user's requirement. The fittings are in black color whereas the metal clamps are finished in white.

There is no branding or design on any side of the pump housing. It has a solid surface finished in black color. There are two portions of this housing. The top is for the LEDs, and the bottom houses the pump. There is a screw on the front of this pump housing. Seems like it is covering a port that is reserved for factory use only.

There is a protective cover on the base since this unit has pre-applied thermal paste (XTM70). We removed the cover to take this picture. We can see that Intel mounting brackets are pre-installed. CORSAIR is continuing this trend. Please take note that there is no extra thermal paste provided in the box. The copper base has a dimension of 56x56mm.

There is a 22-pin bulky connector on the pump housing to power and control the digital RGB LEDs. This can only be put to use using Commander Core or other CORSAIR Commander hubs.

There is a 3-pin connector to power the pump.

This cooler is also using the same AF RGB ELITE fans that we saw on the H150i version. According to CORSAIR, these are their top-performing fans (probably a marketing tagline!). These fans feature a close frame. Each fan has 9x frosted blades. The center has a large diameter since it houses 8x LEDs. There is a CORSAIR branded sticker on the hub. The gray color over white gives quite a good look to these fans. There are cut-to-size gray color stylish anti-vibration pads on the mounting corners.

These fans have a solid frame. There is a serial number sticker pasted on the side from where the cables are coming out. There are two arrow symbols. They are there to help identify the direction of airflow and the direction in which blades spin.

The backside of these fans has 9x anti-vortex vanes. These vanes provide a focused or directed channel for the airflow out of the fans. This would make these fans suitable for any use, be it on the cooler or for case ventilation. There is a white color CORSAIR branded sticker in the center. There is no other text or power rating here. These fans are using Fluid Dynamic Bearings. The specification of the fan is:

Each fan has a 4-pin PWM connector to power the fan's motor and a 4-pin proprietary connector for LEDs. Under CORSAIR Ecosystem, these connectors are required to be connected with the Commander Core.

We have also tested the CORSAIR iCUE H100i Elite Capellix XT cooler on the Intel platform. Installation is simple. Some key steps are:

The above picture shows the backplate installed on the motherboard.

The above picture shows the Intel LGA 1700 standoffs installed on the backplate.

This cooler has a dimension of 277 x 120 x 27mm without fans. With fans, this size is 277 x 120 x 54mm. We did not observe any clearance issue with this cooler. You would need to check that your PC Case has clearance for this size radiator. The tube side does not hinder DIMM slots.

We have already covered the Commander Core and iCUE software in detail in our CORSAIR iCUE H150i Elite Capellix XT White cooler. Here, we will cover the main design element.

The CORSAIR iCUE Commander Core is a fan controller and RGB hub that allows up to 6x CORSAIR-compatible fans and lighting elements to be connected with it. Each port is labeled. One side of this hub is labeled RGB Hub and it has 6x 4-pin proprietary headers. The opposite side has a label Fans, and it has 6x 4-pin PWM headers. There is a CORSAIR logo embossed in the center.

There is a 22-pin proprietary header on one end of Commander Core. You will need to connect the bulky connector from the pump housing here.

The gray color symbols help in identifying the correct side of the connector to be inserted into the header. You don't need to press hard just make the connector fit in the header.

The CORSAIR Commander Core controller and the hub have two cables coming out of it. One is the SATA cable to power the hub whereas the other cable has a 9-pin USB connector that would go inside a 9-pin USB 2.0 header of the motherboard. There is a 2-pin header on this hub. The user can connect a 2-pin probe cable (not included) on this header. This will allow the users to monitor the temperature of the external sensor.

Unfortunately, the CORSAIR Commander Core is non-magnetic hence you would need to use double-sided self-adhesive tape to paste the hub on the PC Case.

The above picture is for illustration purposes, as we are showing the bulky connector coming from the pump housing connected to the CORSAIR Commander Core.

The only way to control the digital lighting is through the Commander Core and iCUE. There is no mechanism to connect the RGB elements to the motherboard's header. The digital lighting effects on this cooler are the same as on the H150i version, and we simply love these. Here are a few pictures.

We have used the below-mentioned configuration for this testing:

Here is the settings table for testing:

Before we move on to the results, let me write a few lines on the new platforms from both camps. We have seen AMD AM5 and Intel Alder Lake S CPUs taking more power, and this time, both sides have aimed at reaching the maximum clocks regardless of the thermal limit. In fact, they run into thermal limits right away depending on the cooling solution and the clocks being used.

This has made testing of CPU coolers challenging because viewers/readers are not used to a new nomenclature which is what clocks are sustained under a given load using a particular cooler. That is if the cooler is capable of providing enough cooling head to sustain the high frequencies. Traditionally we are used to going the other way around, that is, which cooler is better in terms of thermal capacity. Despite this, we are using temperatures as a base for measuring this unit.

The ambient temperature was in the range of 30°C to 31°C. Since the variation in the ambient temperature is within 1°C, we are reporting absolute temperatures in the graph. The testing is done on an open-air bench system. Once inside the chassis, the temperatures are expected to rise and would largely depend upon the optimal airflow inside the chassis.

Disclaimer: Every silicon is different hence no two same SKUs are likely to take the same voltage to yield the same performance at the same thermals per se, but the margin would be close. Not every stress test run may yield the same result, which could be due to various reasons like thermal paste application, ambient temperature variation, the mounting pressure of the cooler, etc. This is very why we have listed our variables and their settings. Variables not mentioned are on the Auto setting. We are actually testing the cooler on all Auto and stock settings.

Let's take a look at the results.

This test was done using Intel's default settings with power limits imposed. The CPU was drawing roughly 225W power, so this is a 220W domain result.

The maximum temperature under heavy workload was 94°C. Yes, this is high temperature, but the CPU did not throttle, and this is how the new platforms behave thermally. Also, testing was done at high ambient temperatures.

As per our sound meter, these fans were making 51~52 dB(A) sound output at an ambient sound level of 34 dB(A). This is a nice performance since these fans are not that loud.

We have recently tested the CORSAIR iCUE H150i Elite Capellix XT White cooler. This time we have taken a look at the CORSAIR iCUE H100i Elite Capellix XT White cooler. The H150i is a 360mm size cooler, whereas H100i is a 240mm size cooler. This cooler is compatible with Intel Sockets LGA: 1150, 1151, 1155, 1156, 1200, 1700, 2011, 2011-3, 2066 and AMD Socket: AM4, AM5, sTRX4, sTR4. All necessary mounting hardware is included in the box.

As we have mentioned above that this cooler is 240mm in size, and its radiator has a size of 277x120x27mm. 27mm refers to the height or thickness of this radiator. After installing the 120x25mm size fans, the overall height would be 54mm or so. This radiator has a 20 FPI count, and it has 12 channels for coolant flow. The tube connections on the radiator are concealed using metal clamps which are coated in white colour as well. Overall, fin stacking is satisfactory, and the paint job is also good. CORSAIR has a well-balanced white color tone. This cooler has rubber tubes which are low-permeation by design, and they have white color sleeves. These tubes have a run of 400mm. The H150i has a 450mm length of tubes.

This cooler has the same pump housing design as we saw on the iCUE H150i Elite Capellix XT White cooler. The top chamber houses 33 CAPELLIX LEDs for digital lighting effects. In addition, there are three pump caps to have some style on the pump with digital RGB backlighting. This unit has a copper base measuring 56x56mm. The pump motor is powered by a 3-pin connector cable. There is a proprietary 22-pin connector to power and control the digital RGB LEDs. This connector is attached to the Commander Core hub. There is a pre-applied thermal paste (XTM70). However, CORSAIR does not provide extra or additional thermal paste. Like iCUE H150i Elite Capellix XT white, the iCUE H100i Elite Capellix XT is also using the same CORSAIR AF RGB ELITE fans.

These fans have a dimension of 120x120x25mm. Their main feature is anti-vortex vanes. There are 9x vanes on the backside of these fans. These vanes guide the air coming out of the fans in a direction hence we have a focused or directed airflow. The white edition of these fans looks spectacular, particularly using a gray color on white to make these fans stand out. These fans are rated for a maximum speed of 2100 RPM. The maximum airflow rating is 65.57CFM, and the maximum static pressure is 2.68mmH2O. The noise level output is 34.1 dB(A). These fans are using Fluid Dynamic Bearings.

CORSAIR has provided a fan controller and RGB hub with this cooler named Commander Core. This hub works with CORSAIR iCUE software for digital lighting effects and controlling the performance of the fans and pump. This hub connects to a 9-pin USB 2.0 header on the motherboard. That would mean you need to have one spare USB 2.0 header. Else, you can buy a USB convertible cable to connect the Commander Core on the motherboard's rear IO panel (not a convenient solution).

The Commander Core has 6x 4-pin PWM fan headers and 6x 4-pin proprietary connectors for RGB elements. There is also a 22-pin header to which the bulky connector from the pump housing is connected. Optionally, users can connect a 2-pin probe sensor cable for external temperature monitoring (cable not included). This hub is SATA powered. Speaking of iCUE, there is extensive coverage of what you can do with the lighting effects.

You can also set up alerts based on temperature and can even make the PC shut down if the alert value is reached. CORSAIR seems to have integrated a sensor to monitor the coolant's temperature because there is a sensor in iCUE for that. The Commander Core is non-magnetic and needs to be installed using double-sided self-adhesive tapes.

Intel mounting bracket comes pre-installed on the pump housing. Overall, installation is simple for the pump housing installation. However, a real challenge is in cable management. It takes 9x mounting hardware to install the pump housing on Intel LGA 1700 CPU. We did not make any peculiar observations to report when it came to the installation procedure.

CORSAIR iCUE H100i Elite Capellix XT cooler is listed at USD 177.99 at the time of this writing. This is a CORSAIR listed price. It is quite a steep price for a 240mm size cooler. CORSAIR is offering a 5-year warranty on this cooler. The cooler has a nice performance though temperatures were sitting in the 90s, which has more to do with how modern platforms behave thermally than how good a cooler really is.

The ambient temperature was 30°C ~ 31°C. High ambient temperature also contributes to warm temperatures. The CORSAIR AF RGB ELITE fans are not that loud. The CAPELLIX LEDs are making a difference in digital lighting effects. The digital lighting effect on this cooler is love at first sight.

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