LABS TEST / 240MM LIQUID COOLERS
T
he £150 price bracket used to be
considered the extreme premium
end of AIO liquid coolers, and rightly
so seeing as you can build a cheap custom
water-cooling loop for just a bit more.
However, while other Corsair coolers have
offered software control and RGB lighting,
the iCUE H100i Elite Capellix goes a few
steps further.
For starters, the lighting comes from
Corsair’s Capellix RGB LEDs, which are
super-bright, vivid and accurate in terms
of colour reproduction. You also get
replacement pump tops and an iCUE
Commander Core hub in the box. The latter
has six fan channels, as well as Corsair-
specific RGB lighting ports, and gives you
the ability to use Corsair’s excellent iCUE
software to control not just your cooler’s
lighting and fans, but those of the whole of
the rest of your PC too.
The iCUE Commander Core retails for
close to £50 on its own, so combined with
premium fans and lashings of high-quality
RGB lighting, the iCUE H100i Elite Capellix
does go a long way already to justifying its
price tag. The ML120 fans can hit a mighty
2,400rpm and were certainly loud at that
speed, but the software makes it easy to
rein them in. They retail for over £20 each,
further adding to the price justification. They
look fantastic in motion too, with the semi-
CORSAIR iCUE H100I
ELITE CAPELLIX /£150 inc VAT
SUPPLIER scan.co.uktransparent blades
doing a great job of
diffusing the RGB
lighting into big
blocks of colour.
The fans can also
switch off if the coolant temperature is low
enough, giving you a near-silent cooler. The
pump does make a small amount of noise,
but it’s inaudible from more than a few inches
away in the software’s quiet mode.
However, this mode does impact on
cooling, resulting in the CPU delta T of our
AMD system rising from 51°C to 57°C with the
fans on quiet mode too, so you’ll need to test
it with your own system to find the best fan
speed profile for you.
However, the delta T of 51°C in our AMD
system was the best result on test, matching
the Lian Li Galahad 240mm, and being a
degree lower than the Phanteks Glacier One
240MPH HALOS, 2°C cooler than the be
quiet! Silent Loop 2 and Antec Neptune 240,
and 3°C below the result from the Alpenföhn
Glacier Water 240 ARGB.
In our Intel system, the iCUE H100i Elite
Capellix also managed the second best
result, with a delta T of 61°C, but the Lian Li
Galahad 240mm managed to knock an extra
degree off that temperature with a result of
60°C. The Corsair was one degree cooler
than the Phanteks Glacier One 240MPH
HALOS, 3°C cooler than the Antec Neptune
240 and 5°C cooler than the be quiet! Silent
Loop 2. It even shaved 9°C off the result from
the Alpenföhn Glacier Water 240 ARGB.Conclusion
While the Lian Li Galahad 240mm performed
similarly and the much cheaper Antec
Neptune 240 isn’t too far away in terms of
cooling ability, the Corsair iCUE H100i Elite
Capellix beats both of them in terms of
features. Its RGB lighting is better than thatof the Antec cooler, and it performs better.
Plus, unlike both the aforementioned coolers,
it has excellent, expandable software control
for its lights and fans, and even includes extra
fan screws. It’s pricey, but worth it if you want
the best all-round 240mm AIO liquid cooler
you can find.iCUE
+^ Excellent cooling
+^ Fantastic RGB lighting
+^ Expandable software
fan and light controlI QUEUE-^ Expensive
-^ Cheaper coolers
perform similarly
-^ Noisy at full speed
SPEC
Intel compatibility LGA1200,
LGA115x, LGA2066, LGA2011
AMD compatibility Socket AM4, AM3/+,
AM2/+, FM2/+, FM1, TR4/TR4X
Radiator size with fans (mm)
120 x 277 x 52 (W x D x H)
Fa ns 2 x 120mm
Stated noise 10dBA-37dBAVERDICT
Still one of the best premium AIO liquid
coolers we’ve tested.COOLING
38 / 40
DESIGN
14 / 20FEATURES
19 / 20
VALUE
13 / 20OVERALL SCORE
84 %
COOLING
38 / 40
DESIGN
15 / 20FEATURES
19 / 20
VALUE
12 / 20OVERALL SCORE
84 %
FITTING
EasyFITTING
EasyLGA 1 2 0 0AM 4c
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