Worth buying Corsair H100 to replace Mugen II?

[tdesmet]

]Hello,

I have a Scythe Mugen II CPU cooler in my system, all happy with the noise and temperatures, but it looks damn ugly. I have a Corsair 800D case installed with all Xigmatek orange LED fans and the airflow is just great. Got a fan controller too of course.

Fans: http://www.xigmatek.com/product.php?productid=77&type=specification

The corsair H100 will certainly make things prettier. I want to use 2 of my 3 top fans to put on the reservoir in push mode. So case roof -->below: reservoir-->below: 2 xigmatek 120mm fans. The 2 fans by corsair I won't use. Will this have a positive effect on the noise you think guys?

Second, is this worth the buy? I know the H100 is not really cheap but I have the budget for it. What can I expect from it in terms of durability? I guess my Mugen can live easily 5 years. A custom watercooled loop costs around 400euros (including GPU), that I just don't want to spend on it as I'm not a hardcore overclocker. I have an Asus DCII 6950 card so that is silent and cool as well.
Also you need to change the GPU block when you buy a new card right? Also another 90euros wasted on that..

So basically: I've seen benchmarks claiming the Mugen II cooler has more efficiency combining noise and coolance performance, but will my Xigmatek fans make things better when I install the H100? I'm not going to push my system to the limits, but I just like a clean system.

 

[cadaveca]

I think that all of the all-in-one watercoolers are a fairly decent alternative to air, and generalyl all perform well enough to beat most air coolers for niose, while at the very least, maintaining the same temps as air.

On your comment about GPU blocks..that's only the case with full-cover blocks. I still use a Maze4 GPU block bought about 5 years ago now.

I cannot comment about how the fans will affect the H100, as I do not have one. I use an H70 with the stock fans running @ 7v, and it's near quiet, and cools my 2600K @ 4.6GHz with no problem. I imagine the H100 is a better cooler, so airflow isn't going to be that big of a need, but it does need to be of decent pressure.

 

[PaulieG]

I like the concept of the AIO coolers, and this seems to be the best of them. However, the H100 only seems to be on par with the better of the high end air coolers, yet costs $15-$40 more. It just doesn't seem worth it IMHO, just to be able to say that you are on liquid cooling. Besides, for just another $50, you could put together a cheap loop that would perform significantly better. Now, if the H100 ran about $65 or so, I may feeI different. It's your money though.

 

[tdesmet]

Yeah but by doing a custom loop, I would want to take the GPU in as well. Are there universal CPU and GPU blocks that will fit on any kind so I would not need to rebuy them? But I mean with some decent cooling properties.

A 360 rad would fit in easily, should be fine for 1cpu and 1gpu. But yeah that all costs so much more, also taking into account the maintenance and set-up.

It also bother me a little when placing the H100 rad just below the case roof, my third fan will not fit next to that anymore..

All that effort just to remove that air cooling block..

 

[erocker]

What CPU are you using? Is it getting too hot?

Don't bother watercooling your GPU's, not needed.

 

[tdesmet]

It's not getting too hot at all,
CPU: I5 2500K on Mugen II
GPU: Asus HD6950 DCII
Case: Corsair 800D

Just want to get rid of that huge Mugen II block and regarding the alternatives. Though watercooling is quite expensive with my humble needs.

 

[erocker]

If you're into overclocking your CPU, I could see the H100 coming in handy. I ran my 2500K with a H60 for a while at 4.5ghz and it never got too hot. I think a H60 would be a good choice, a bit easier to mount since it's a single radiator and it would make thinks in your case much cleaner.