Corsair has been at the forefront of liquid-cooled all-in-one CPU coolers with products like the H100i and the H110, and now the vendor is rolling out a new flagship cooler that was demoed during this year’s Consumer Electronics Show, the H110i GT.

The H110i GT features a 280mm radiator, which along with two PWM 140mm fans assist in dissipating heat from the CPU. The CPU cooler is compatible with Corsair Link, which allows you to monitor the temperatures, change the LED lighting on the Corsair logo and more. The cooler features a new pump design and a tool-free mounting mechanism.

One drawback with the H110i GT would be space, as the 280mm radiator with dimensions of 140mm x 322mm x 27mm won’t fit into most mid-tower enclosures. Ensure that the chassis you’re buying can accommodate a 280mm radiator without any difficulties.

In addition to the H110i GT, Corsair launched the H100i GTX, which features two 120mm fans and a 240mm radiator, and the H80i GT, which also comes with dual 120mm fans with a 120mm radiator.

All three coolers can be attached to a variety of motherboards, with compatibility for Intel’s LGA 115x, 1366, 2011 and AMD AM2, AM3, FM1, FM2 sockets. The H110i GT is retailing for $119, while the H100i GTX is available for $109. The H80i GT is selling for $89. All three models come with a five-year limited warranty.

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Enthusiasts are on a never ending quest to find better cooling for their CPUs.  Air cooling is the norm these days, but affordable water cooling systems are becoming more affordable.  Water cooling is the next step and can provide great cooling effectiveness.  There are two ways to install a water cooling system into a computer. They are piecing together a system from individual parts, or a “closed-loop” system.  Closed loop water cooler contains the block, pump, and radiator in a sealed loop (that usually require no maintenance).  Many companies are now coming out with their own closed loop systems for enthusiasts.

Today we will look at Thermaltake’s Water 3.0 Extreme closed loop cooler and see how it preforms.  The cooler is Thermaltake’s top end closed loop system, and has a 240mm radiator.  The pump for the system is built into the water block, which can mount to multiple AMD and Intel sockets.

After seeing the pictures you will probably be thinking “I have seen this kit before”, indeed you have if you have looked into AIO water cooling kits.  Asetek is the ODM for this and many other kits and some would argue that the company has a monopoly on the AIO water cooling hardware industry.  Recently, Asetek has caused a stir in being granted another liquid cooling patent by the USPTO which may ultimately hurt consumers. Unfortunately for consumers, Asetek’s aggressive patenting and litigation hurts consumers’ ability to have choice as most kits are now Asetek based.

The kit has many variations through the various companies who sell variants of it, usually with their own fans, features, and packaging.  Many will be buying the kit for those options weighted heavily on price.  With this kit just under the $100 mark it is a definite contender for your case

Everything was well packaged and secured within the box

Mount kits for multiple sockets of Intel and AMD are included; once again it was well packaged and organized

2 PWM Fans are included with the kit. I am told that these were specifically chosen for the kit and that replacing the fans with higher speed models won’t make a big difference.

The instructions that came with the system are very easy to read and understand I do suggest that you get the latest fan control app from the Thermaltake global website, so you can be up to date.

Everything was intact with no blemishes on the system.  There is a USB cable that attaches to a USB2.0 internal header, if you want to use the fan control app with it.

The base is clean with a very flat surface, though not a mirror surface as it still had some machining visible.  Pre-applied TIM is provided on the base, though many (like me) will clean it off and use some fresh product of choice.

Installation is very straightforward and easy to do; the instructions are clear and nicely drawn out.  The Intel mount which I used was easily installed within a couple of minutes.  The 120mm fans plug into the CPU block/pump combo, which itself plugs into an internal USB 2.0 header as well as CPU fan pin-out on the motherboard.  It can then be automatically controlled via the desktop application via the USB. I suggest that if you want to use the included app to regulate your fans, set CPU fan to 100% in bios (or a curve forcing that) with fan failure alarm set.

Tt Water Software

The application for the water cooling system is very easy to use and allows you to run different profiles.  Silent, Extreme, and Custom which is best for running your own fan profile.  I learned that modifying the Silent or Extreme profiles didn’t seem to work as well as setting up custom profile.  Swapping from one profile to another doesn’t have a fast response and sometimes requires fiddling with multiple times to get it to switch. There are Notification options for the coolant temperature and Fan speed, which are good safety measures.  The main thing you get from the app over just plugging fans into headers on the motherboard are viewing coolant temperature, notifications, and fan profiles based on  CPU temps (if you have the pump plugged into the CPU header).

I stress tested my Intel Core i7 4790K Devil’s Canyon ES at 4.7GHz using OCCT against the Cooler Master TPC-812 (their highest end air cooler) and then again with this Water 3.0 Extreme.  I let it run for about 8 hours and over the times when I checked it I was getting readings that were about an average  8C cooler overall.  The sound level at full speed is very reasonable, and thankfully not too distracting.

Overall I would recommend this kit based on its ease of installation, performance, and cost.  I think that the price point is good for a dual 120mm Asetek ODM all-in-one cooler as other of the same type can go for up to $30 more.  The performance is definitely there, holding the 4790K ES solidly @ 4.7GHz while being stressed 100 %.  The only real issue that I saw with this kit was the control app can be a bit buggy, although works well aside from that.

Thermaltake Water 3.0 Extreme retails for $99.99 on Amazon.com right now.

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Yes, Asetek was recently granted a patent (2 weeks ago) that basically gave them a blank check to sue anyone that uses an form of liquid (or non-liquid) cooling on any add-in card. That includes any GPUs, RAID controllers, network cards or ANY device that may need additional cooling that isn’t air cooled (passively or not). Obviously, Asetek believed that they could get away with this patent because they wouldn’t directly butt heads with AMD and Nvidia because both of these companies mostly manufacture air cooled graphics cards, so friction is minimal. However, many of their AIBs and aftermarket companies like Swiftech and EK are directly going to be in infringement of this patent. And so will CoolIt, Asetek’s biggest competitor, if they make a GPU cooling solution to follow their CoolIT Omni GPU cooling solution.

Sure, Asetek’s patent has actually been in the works for the past 6 years, but that doesn’t change the fact that their solution is in no way unique or novel to what has already been implemented before. They’ve intentionally made their patent vague so that it wouldn’t appear to target graphics cards exactly, but the reality is that GPUs are the hottest possible add-in card you could install in your system and Asetek knows it. They’ve also made their patent intentionally vague in order to catch any other possible implementations where something like a Xeon Phi add-in card (as opposed to the socketed ones) would require cooling but isn’t technically a graphics card.

Their first patent application mentions a “graphics card thermal interposer” but fails to mention any innovations such as microchannels, which didn’t exist at that time but is mentioned in this granted patent filing. In fact, the actual patent that was granted changes the language to “Thermal interposer liquid cooling system” and includes both liquid cooling systems and cold plate assemblies. There are some included drawings as well, but if you get the jist of it, using the drawings and the claimed language, they’re basically trying to claim a patent on a self-contained GPU water cooling system where the radiator has a fan and is not directly attached to the GPU. So, if you read our review of the R9 295X2, you’ll know exactly what system we’re talking about. There’s no denying that they’ve designed an amazing system, the question is whether or not they really have the right to exclusively claim such a design when others have effectively already done the same thing.

But as you can see, Asetek has had quite a few patents for various things which include server liquid cooling and generic liquid cooling solutions. However, Asetek has done this before time and time again, by patenting something that their competitors already have on the market and then using that patent to either kill their products or to get some sort of a cut. I remember the days of Asetek’s Vapochill (and the patents that went along with that) and their watercooling solutions. However, ever since Asetek has gone into LCLC (low cost liquid cooling) which are mostly self-contained systems, they’ve been on a patent rampage and have made the world of liquid cooling much less exciting. In our patent digging, we also found that Asetek’s founder actually has some patents of his own including some recent ones.

Either way, what Asetek is referring to in their patents may be something that they’re incredibly good at, but I don’t see anything that makes their own application unique or worthy of a patent.

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