Dual H80i AX1200i build-guide

I have installed two H80i's and a AX1200i to cool my dual Xeon E5-2687W rig.

Here is what I had to do to even *remotely* get this to work.

Using the mini USB to USB header cables supplied with the H80i I first disconnected the 5 pins from the plastic female 9-pin usb header by sticking a screw driver in the little hole and prying up the tab so I could slide them out.

Then I inserted the White, Red, Green and Black (light gauge) wires into the second header block. in the appropriate pinout positions. For Intel USB, they will match, Red under red, green under green black under black and white under white.

Unfortunately here is where I ran into problems. I noticed that the devices were not always recognized if the "5th pin" was not used. so i pried off the heavy gauge connector on one and crimped it to the other. If you had time and patience, you could just buy a new crimp-on connector and attach them both to it (the right way). I slipped that into slot 9 and viola! a dual 5-pin USB header to mini-usb cable!

Then I was able to plug my newly made USB header cable into my motherboard and attach the other ends to the H80i's. From there I plugged the AX1200i into the Corsair link port of the H80i and it showed up on Channel 2.

Note: for my board, Corsair link software version 2.2.0 didn't recognize a thing. I had to use 2.1.7.

Also, the configurations don't update unless you shutdown and restart Corsair link. I don't know if this is a "feature" or a bug but its quite annoying.

I also just got 2 h80is to cool my dual E5-2670s. Have you been able to get Corsair Link to see both h80is? I just installed mine and everytime I try to run corsair link software the service crashes and doesn't recognize both coolers.

How are you getting yours to recognize both H80is?

First, I had to downgrade to software 2.1.7 in order for anything to work.

Even then, the Corsair Link software has been very temperamental since I created that special cable pictured above. Some days it works, some days it doesn't. I have not been able to get any repeatable results.

The BEST results were obtained when I routed the USB cables out of the case and to the back USB ports. (the ones that you would typically use to connect external USB devices like keyboard/mouse etc.)

I also just bought the following to help rectify the problem as it seems that you HAVE to use the 5 pin mini USB cable supplied in the kit:

NZXT IU01 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811997024

I wish Corsair would rectify the bugs in the software.

Additionally, you can always do the configuring one at a time but you won't have any real-time data monitoring which was a nice selling feature for the H80i/H100i.

NZXT IU01 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811997024.

doesnt this connect to a usb header?

Yes it does plug in to a header. But my board only has 2 headers and one Type B female. USB2.0 One of my USB 2.0 Headers also is basically covered by a GPU a

This card can take the one free header and multiply it into 3 10-pin headers (2 for the dual H80i 5-pin USBs) and one for my Front panel connectors and give me 2 Type-A Female 2.0 ports for anything else I want (such as the AX1200i Corsair Link Dongle for example)

It's only 20 bucks and it makes my board much more friendly.

Just to keep this thread going...I tried routing the usb cables to another computer's front usb ports to see if I could duplicate the software issue and everything worked fine. Both h80is were showing up in the software and the sierra2 service was behaving.

It seems like the sierra2service start/stopping maybe an issue with the chipset of the mother board ( Asus Z9 PE-D8)? I haven't had success on a bone stock win 7 x64 install. I even tried routing the usb to the back panel of the motherboard and still the same issue.