Photos and Features

Yellow, yellow, yellow, yellow. That’s what it looks like when you catch all of Corsairs products together in a store on the shelf. They lock all of their line up together by using the one color and when you are buying things it makes it easier to find products that match what you are buying. So it isn’t a surprise that the iCUE H100i RGB PRO XT has a yellow background. I love that Corsair does at least use a full picture of the cooler on the front so you know going in even before you pick things up what is inside. The front keeps the Corsair branding smaller and the model name is in a larger font down at the bottom as well as a description of the cooler. The back of the box is also yellow and does have that same picture on it, only smaller. They put a small list of features and then repeat it over and over in other languages. There is a line drawing with all of the dimensions of the radiator and fans but not the pump for some reason, which is weird because I know in a few SFF cases the pump height is make or break. Below that there is a small specification listing which is again repeated across the other 7 languages.

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Once you pull the plastic wrap off the box and open it up. Right on top, they have the documentation. You have a warranty guide which gives more details on the five-year warranty that Corsair offers. Then you have an instruction manual with instructions on how to set the H110i RGB PRO XT up for each socket that it supports which again is repeated in the other languages. There is also a foam pad that sits up on top to help protect everything inside. Then under that everything sits in a formed cardboard tray that has a spot for each component to keep them from moving around. The fans come wrapped in individual plastic bags and the pump/radiator has two bags, one on each end, to keep it safe from scratches.

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The overall design of an all in one cooler like the H100i RGB PRO XT isn’t all that complicated. If you haven’t used water cooling before, they are using a similar system to what most cars have with a pump that pushes water through the system, a radiator that gives the water a lot of surface area, and fans blowing across that to transfer the heat into the air. Only with cars the cooling channels through the motor are what pull the heat out and for PC water cooling a heatplate on top of the CPU does that. All in one coolers have combined that pump into that heatplate or in some cases into the radiator to keep the system down to a few parts and all in one coolers are design as the name implies to bring everything into one part where custom water cooling uses individual parts that you can pick and choose your design, components, and layout. The combined design keeps costs down by using cheaper components and by making a one for all setup design rather than having all of the options that you can get with custom cooling. They do still come in different radiator sizes however and with that different fan sizes and quantities. The most standard size is the 240mm which is what we have here. It uses two 120mm fans but there are 280’s that use two 240mm fans and 360mm which uses three 120mm fans. Corsair has both options in their RGB PRO XT lineup with the H115i and H150i.

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So like I said in most AIOs the pump and the heatplate are combined and that is the case here. The H100i RGB PRO XT looks almost the same as the more expensive H100i RGB Platinum when you are looking at the pump with the exception of this time around the outside ring is black. Even with the pro branding, Corsair did still integrate RGB lighting into the pump with a ring on top and a ring around the outside edge as well. The Corsair logo is in the center and is lit up as well. For installation, they ship the cooler with the standard Intel bracket but they do also include one for AM3/4 and another for Threadripper as well. They just snap into place so you can pull them off and swap them out. The hoses are attached to the side fo the pump and both have a pivotable joint that allows you to pick which way the lines will face. The pump is also where all of the wiring runs too and out of. There is a small micro-USB port on the side for the included data cable and then coming out of the pump it has a SATA port, one signal fan wire to hook to your motherboard so it doesn’t freak out, and two PWM fan plugs to plug the included fans into.

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Corsair also ships the cooler with thermal paste pre-applied. Because of this, they don’t include any extra as well so if you plan on moving things around in the future you will need to make sure you have some.

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The other big difference between the H100i RGB PRO XT and the H100i RGB Platinum that I use on our Intel test bench is in the fans. No, Corsair didn’t just stick a set of cheap fans on and ship it. These are their magnetic levitation fans, just like on the Platinum. The difference is that they went with their standard ML fan which has a grey blade and the black housing and no RGB lighting. I like the choice, not everyone cases about the lighting. Especially once you start to see how much more it can cost and Corsair’s high-end RGB fans get to be EXPENSIVE. It does however make me wonder why the PRO XT has addressable RGB on the pump. Basically the H100i Pro drops the addressable but still gets the ML fans, the H100i Platinum gets the fancy fans then the H100x has white lighting and the cheaper SP fans.

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Then we have the radiator which if you were to look through the different H100 variations you would notice that the Pro XT has the same radiator design as the Platinum and the Pro but the cheaper H100x does have a different radiator as well. The higher-end models get a radiator with boxed ends on it which look a little nicer. It has the Corsair logo on both sides in chrome which does stand out against the black that they used on the rest of the radiator, including inside all of the fins. Corsair also covers their water lines with sleeving which gives a more premium look over the standard lines.

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Here is a look at the two ML fans installed. Corsair was careful to include a variety of screws. You get two sets of these longs screws for example. That means you could set up a push-pull configuration. There are also shorter screws for mounting to your case as well. They all have a flat head design which is a little lower profile and the fans have divots to perfectly fit.

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Here is a look at the RGB lighting that the pump has to offer. I expected the lighting on top but I was surprised when I saw the ring around the outside. It is all of course controlled by Corsairs iCue software which can integrate all of your Corsair products altogether. You can also see the AM4 mounting which uses the stock AM4 mounting bracket to clip too. I’m not the biggest fan of that design, I would rather they include bolts to screw into the stock backplate and mount using for thumbscrews like the Intel and the TR4 both do. But it is at least quick to pop off.

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