The Corsair Hydro X Custom Water Cooling Review, on a Ryzen 9 3950X
by Gavin Bonshor on February 5, 2020 9:00 AM ESTConclusion
Building our high-performance system with the Corsair Hydro X Series water cooling gear was no different to other loops in terms of difficulty. Anyone looking to build a loop with the Corsair Hydro X Series will need to make some considerations in terms of planning and setup, just like with any other loop. One thing users can benefit from is Corsair's Custom Cooling Configurator which allows users to input their hardware including motherboard, chassis, and graphics card. This allows users to pre-plan a loop based on what a particular chassis can accommodate in terms of radiators by recommended an optimal setting, or a higher-end loop for maximum performance.
Comparing the performance from default settings on our ASRock RX 5700 XT Taichi 8 GB and AMD Ryzen 3950X water-cooled system which we overclocked to 4.3 GHz on all cores, we saw the benefit in some areas and weakness in others. Benchmarks that used all 16-cores and 32-threads including our POV-Ray and Blender rendering tests saw the performance increases, but tests limited to single-core frequency lost out to the higher single-core boost frequencies.
Our ASRock X570 Aqua and Ryzen 3950X system water-cooled by Corsair Hydro X
Focusing on the cooling performance, and our Corsair Hydro X series loop does run 3°C cooler at default settings, and 5°C when our CPU is overclocked to 4.3 GHz compared to our ID-Cooling 240 mm Auraflow AIO cooler, which is already a high-performance off-the-shelf liquid cooling loop. This is one of the main caveats to custom water cooling loops; minimal thermal gains compared to cost. It should be noted that the difference between the ID-Cooling 240 mm AIO at stock settings and the Corsair Hydro X Series 240 mm custom loop was just 6°C which makes the custom solution look much better. Another thing to note is that our loop isn't just cooling the processor, but the hot running X570 chipset and the board's power delivery too, which of course would increase overall temperatures further. This makes the performance of the Corsair Hydro X Series even more impressive when taking this into consideration.
Below is the cost per part of the Corsair Hydro X series including a CPU block and GPU block if we would have used one:
| Corsair Hydro X System Cost | ||||
| Component | Product | Price in USD | ||
| CPU Block | Corsair XC7 LGA115x/AM4 | $74.99 | ||
| GPU Block | Corsair XG7 RX 5700 XT | $149.99 | ||
| Pump/Reservoir | Corsair XD5 Pump/Reservoir | $154.99 | ||
| Radiator | Corsair XR7 240 mm | $79.99 | ||
| Fans | Corsair LL120 RGB 120 mm (triple pack) | $129.99 | ||
| Fan Controller | Corsair Commander Pro RGB | $74.99 | ||
| Fittings | Corsair Softline 10/13 mm Compression Fittings (four-pack) Corsair Rotary 90° Adapter (twin-pack) Corsair Rotary 45° Adapter (twin-pack) Corsair Ball Valve Corsair Fill Port |
$26.99 $26.99 $26.99 $19.99 $14.99 |
||
| Tubing | Corsair Softline 10/13 mm 3 meter | $16.99 | ||
| Coolant | Corsair XL5 Clear 1 litre bottle | $17.99 | ||
Adding up the cost of the full custom loop used on our AMD Ryzen 9 3950/ASRock RX 5700 XT Taichi system, including multiples of the above and a CPU block, the total comes to $822.86. This includes two packs of Corsair LL120 RGB 120 mm fans and all the fittings we needed. This isn't a solution for those on a budget, but the Corsair Hydro X series does offer high-quality components with great and ARGB influenced aesthetics which was never going to be cheap.
If we strip the non-essential components including extra system fans, and fittings such as the ball valve, angled fittings and used the bare minimum, it becomes more comparable to other brands offerings. A core Corsair Hydro X series 240 mm CPU loop would cost $528.92. In comparison, an EKWB RGB 240 mm water cooling kit costs $459.99 on Newegg which is a similar setup. The Corsair Hydro X series loop overall pricing could be cut down by opting for other brands fittings, tubing, and cooling fans, but the Corsair store can sometimes be a little overpriced when compared to direct retail channels such as Amazon and Newegg.
Corsair Hydro X Series Conclusion
In terms of aesthetics, compatibility with other Corsair RGB components with its iCUE software, and cooling performance, most things lean on the positive side of things for the Hydro X Series. The primary caveat is the price, and while custom liquid components have never been cheap, the Corsair Hydro X Series doesn't capitalise on that part of the market. Instead, it offers impressive looking parts for one of the best RGB ecosystems from any brand, and each part built to a high-quality standard. The Corsair iCUE software is very intuitive, and the Hydro X Series in conjunction with its Custom Cooling Configurator adds an extra element that some brands cannot compete with. It's not a cheap method to cool a processor and graphics card, but for users looking to build a full Corsair rig as much as possible now have a platform to do so.
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airdrifting - Wednesday, February 5, 2020 - link
"The cooling performance was also astronomical (can't break 52 C under max load on GPU w/overclock)"?Shill detected. I have never been able to break 52 C under load with ANY custom liquid cooling on a flagship GPU, that includes all titans and flagships from 780 Ti to 2080 Ti, the highest I get is like 47C. Even with the EVGA Hybrid cards with AIO liquid cooling and 120mm radiator, you will never see 55C in most cases.
The cooling performance in a custom liquid cooling loop is not just about the radiator, the fans, pump, block, the shape of the loop all matters. Using a mediocre load temperature to claim the radiator is good is absurd, and I have seen anyone talking about "screw/tube protectors" on a radiator, wtf is that? If you are talking about the little metal shield underneath the screw hole but above the fins, that is completely useless because you can simply have the screw holes spaced between the fins instead of the tiny tubes like every single radiator is doing nowadays. Even if the screws are too long they will just bend the fins which doesn't really matter as long as they don't pierce the tube.
brontes - Wednesday, February 5, 2020 - link
Wait, how is he a shill if you're the one getting better performance?Anyway, Corsair rebadges hardwarelabs rads. They swap out to thicker screw channels to reduce the chance of puncture in case you for some reason have a three year old with power tools doing the installation sideways, and they include longer screws for push+pull in the box. And they put their logo on it. Other than that, it is a HWL product.
AshlayW - Thursday, February 6, 2020 - link
How is he a shill if he's not putting the product in the best possible light? Shut up.PeachNCream - Wednesday, February 5, 2020 - link
$500+ in order to run an overclock that may work on a cheaper cooler or even on air cooling that ultimately gains 5% in a couple of benchmarks. Yes, it looks cool. Yes, you can say you put together a custom cooling loop. That's a lot of effort, resources, and time for little reward over not overclocked parts running an inexpensive air cooler.airdrifting - Wednesday, February 5, 2020 - link
Try 2%. With turbo boost and Intel falling behind in nm technology, there is very little OC headroom for processors like 9900K which is already pushed to the limit at 4.7GHz all core. AMD's PB does a better job than manual OC most of the time. Video cards are wattage capped so it's not like raising the voltage or core frequency does much, MSI AB doesn't work on most of the cards when it comes to raising TDP.LedHed - Wednesday, February 5, 2020 - link
Many cards can have their power limit raised to 108% of the stock rating using Afterburner. However, like you said, there are cards that won't allow you to raise that limit at all. There are also cards that allow you to raise the limit up to 112%, so it goes both ways.I do agree that using dedicated H2O setups on current generation cards will be disappointed by their OC gains. This is due to how tight the power constraints were on the last 2 or 3 generations of NV cards. Well, unless you are willing to take a soldering iron to their GPU, then all bets are off! Voltage mods are a lot of fun, as long as you don't kill the card!
liquid_c - Wednesday, February 5, 2020 - link
I can guarantee you that almost all of the 9900k on the market can reach an all-core 5ghz OC, even those from lots sold after the launch of the 9900ks. You do need a *solid* cpu cooler and if you live in a place with high ambient temps then you’re facing an uphill battle.My own personal recommendation would be to use at least a 280mm AIO for the CPU alone, in this use case (Kraken X62, H115i, etc.), with these beefy CPUs.
airdrifting - Thursday, February 6, 2020 - link
Only when you use a 360mm or better liquid cooling. I have handled many 9900K, single 120mm rad is not enough to keep most under load without overclocking, you will see instant 90C+. 240mm rad is probably the minimal for 9900K unless you want to undervoltage. It's just not worth it to get a 0.3GHz OC for so much hassle. On the contrary, H60 can easily keep 3700X under 65C.brontes - Wednesday, February 5, 2020 - link
Its not about OC these days, it about RGB/bling or silence. And I've discovered for a vast majority of the bling people, its not a "set it and forget it" deal, but much closer to a hobby. They're constantly tinkering and rearranging and replacing with the latest unicorn vomit fans and such. "Old" cooling parts build up and then its a challenge to watercool some old system with an "unfriendly" case they had sitting around that doesn't even actually get use. And so on. Hey, its their money and they're having fun, so whatever. And because they spend lots of money on tons of various parts, you can get good advice from from people with lots of first hand experience with different products very easily.I'm one of the uncommon ones that just wants it to work, without lights.
Its honestly a little creepy at first. After 30 years of the computer responding to heavy loads (esp. on the gpu) with *some* sort of noise its just.. not there anymore.
It is certainly a hell of a lot cheaper if noise doesn't bother you and you stick to air. But alas, the initial outlay is done. That aside, maintenance is easier/less frequent than I expected with some silly tricks as well as not using colored fluid. I'm looking at +$200 on each socket+gpu swap for blocks, which isn't terrible considering a good CPU HSF or AIO is $80-150, and there isn't even a comparable option for the GPU or chipset unless you get "creative."
But yeah, "home overclocking" is pretty much dead and any extra additional headroom from watercooling is considered a tertiary fringe benefit.
FatBoyDiesel - Wednesday, February 5, 2020 - link
Not gonna lie, I went full RGB so I could set the color scheme to the colors of the Ryzen Halo logo. It worked best in a case like the Thermaltake Core V1, I replaced the stock 200mm fan for a faster 200mm Riing Plus RGB fan and got the effect to work nicely.Then I upgraded to the Nouvolo Steck. I got a 240mm H100i v2 for it and appreciated the extra RGB (RAM, motherboard, AIO). However, I didn't like the extra cost and didn't need the extra RGB per se. I went for a custom loop, with the fans being the first to be replaced with regular fans. My blocks are RGB, sure, with the XC7 requiring the Lighting Node Pro. That thing was what I wanted with 4 RGB strips with a tiny RGB controller to fit in a small space for such a compact build. I honestly thought about simply abandoning most RGB components in the future save RAM and my Lightning Node Pro. The cost of RGB on everything is so dumb to me. I also don't like unicorn vomit.