My two cents: from the H50, to the H100, and now, H105

Hello.

It's been an interesting experience being with Corsair over the years and for the most part, I am satisfied with the products I've purchased and the customer support. What I really admire is Corsair actually listens to their customers and applies their feedback towards future products. The first gen H50 is a perfect example.

Years ago, I posted a H50 high temps fix forum. Although there was a lot of criticism towards my guide, Corsair actually took my suggestion about the bracket and applied it to their future products. The first gen H50 installation required the mounting bracket to be installed first, then the CPU block screwed in after. This resulted in a funky installation. There was also way too much paste..I could have scraped it all off and saved it for close to 8 re-mounting or CPU installations.

My H50 works flawlessly up to this date, and is currently cooling my 7970 reference oc'ed to hell using the kraken bracket. Way to go Corsair! I love you guys mainly because of this H50 cooler!

Then came along the H100 and what a flop that one was. For one, the EOL (end of life) came fast for the H100 as it was taken off the market pretty quickly after it's release. That is never a good sign from any manufacturer, and raised my suspicions. The H100 worked great until it died. The pump blew out after a few years and I'm not too happy about that considering my H50 is still going strong up to this date. Other than the poor quality of the product, the tubing was also poor quality, being the same as the H50...no upgrades there. And the mounting for AMD CPUs was...questionable. Sure, it was convenient to just slap on a bracket that screws into the default motherboard holster, but that's only two screws applying uneven pressure in my opinion. a 90mm cpu is huge. an "X" platform is much more practical; 4 screws, 4 mounting points. The molex connector was also an issue. Very poor quality, and cheaply designed. The H100 was a flop, and made me question getting another Corsair water cooler.

After researching reviews, the H105 shines as the more or less flagship water cooler from Corsair. It's basic, it does the job and it keeps up with the top AIO water coolers on the market as of this day. Backed with a 5 year warranty, why not? i got one.

The change in quality from the H100 to the H105 is substantially noticeable. A bigger radiator, more flexible tubing, no molex connector, the list can go on yet the big plus about the H105 is the ease of functionality and installation. Using a separate mounting bracket for AMD this time, I was impressed with the mounting process. First, you screw in the mounting screws into the back plate. Then you attach the H105 mounting bracket to the block FIRST! Yes!! you guys listened to me 5 years ago! Thank you!! Wow what an easy installation. seat the block and screw in all 4 and bam. You're done. Oh, and a lot less paste too, excellent! The unit isn't noisy at all and works amazingly. My FX-8350@5ghz 1.455v is very happy. I also like the 3-4 pin Y connector, useful if you're running out of space on a fan controller!

The only part of the installation I will nitpick are the screws and the diagram. All the screws for both AMD and Intel are in the same bag. It's very hard to distinguish the difference between them by just looking at the manual. You have to pay close attention to the threads to determine which screws are for which bracket. Corsair, please place the mounting screws in separate bags with labels to differentiate instead of just tossing all the screws in one bag.

All in all, the improvements made over the years has been phenomenal. I will continue to use and suggest Corsair water coolers. Great job guys!