Corsair H100i - the accessory they don't supply

Nec_V20

Senior member
May 7, 2013
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Here is the scenario, you are building your new rig and you have installed the shiny new H100i and you press the power button and you install the OS and configure it and then install all the drivers etc. (I have my own method whereby I install the OS, then I install the latest LAN driver for the board and then do all the Windows updates and only when there are no more updates do I install the rest of the motherboard and graphics cards drivers and utilities).

You now run Prime95 and your temperatures are pretty disappointing to cr@p.

So you try different fans and the performance still doesn't really improve.

You now get onto forums like this one and voice your anger and call the reviewers liars because they - compared to your results - obviously fudged the H100i tests and are in the pocket of Corsair.

The cause of your problem is trivial to solve and it is a fix that takes only a few minutes.

The solution is washers.

The mounting kit for the H100i is made for all Intel motherboards and different motherboards have different thickness of backplate. If your motherboard has a thinner backplate then you can screw down the H100i as tightly as you like, it will not make proper contact with the CPU. Thus the cooling you achieve of the CPU will be disappointing.

To rectify this, take the plastic washer off each of the four mount posts and put some extra washers in underneath then replace the original plastic washer on the top. The top of the mount should be just above the surface motherboard - now obviously you are going to have to try different thicknesses of washers until you get it right.

When you now screw in the standoffs and then attach the pump you will be able to screw it on to make a solid connection to your CPU.
 
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ClockHound

Golden Member
Nov 27, 2007
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That's a great tip! Thanks.

I was worried you'd say: Corsair H100i - the accessory they don't supply:

Towels.
 

Topweasel

Diamond Member
Oct 19, 2000
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I could be wrong but isn't the only board that you are supposed to use the built in backplate LGA 2011 which has a hard set standard for the backplate. For lga 1155 and 1150 aren't you supposed to use the included backplate?
 

Nec_V20

Senior member
May 7, 2013
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I could be wrong but isn't the only board that you are supposed to use the built in backplate LGA 2011 which has a hard set standard for the backplate. For lga 1155 and 1150 aren't you supposed to use the included backplate?

I should have said that the original post applies to all boards except the 2011, but I thought that was pretty obvious when I mentioned taking the plastic washer off the four mount posts - which of course would only apply to Intel motherboards other than the 2011.

If you look at the back of the motherboard you will see that they all have a backplate, the exceptional nature of the 2011 is that it has mounting points for you to screw standoffs for your cooler directly.

I would prefer to call what Corsair supplies as an adapter to avoid confusion.
 

Topweasel

Diamond Member
Oct 19, 2000
5,437
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I should have said that the original post applies to all boards except the 2011, but I thought that was pretty obvious when I mentioned taking the plastic washer off the four mount posts - which of course would only apply to Intel motherboards other than the 2011.

If you look at the back of the motherboard you will see that they all have a backplate, the exceptional nature of the 2011 is that it has mounting points for you to screw standoffs for your cooler directly.

I would prefer to call what Corsair supplies as an adapter to avoid confusion.
Yeah looking the boards over I see what you meant. They put in a like a socket only brace on the back, which if its a different thickness, the cooler back-plate could have issues.
 

Nec_V20

Senior member
May 7, 2013
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Yeah looking the boards over I see what you meant. They put in a like a socket only brace on the back, which if its a different thickness, the cooler back-plate could have issues.
BTW I was not being sarcastic when I wrote " but I thought that was pretty obvious...". When writing something one always tends to take some things for granted and I thank you for pointing out something which could have caused confusion.

I have a CoolerMaster XB case and so the pump of my H100i has gravity pulling it towards the CPU (which is not the case for most other chassis).

I thought that my temperatures were in line with what I had seen elsewhere running Prime95 on my 4770k

I removed the cooler and added some washers and my temperatures were somewhat better - going from over 70 degrees Celsius on all cores to 64 degrees on the hottest core running Prime95 in the "In-Place large FFTs" mode which is the mode I always use for testing.

Now before you say that I used a different TIM, the H100i I removed was defective and I got a replacement which had the same TIM on it as the one before, and in both cases I had thoroughly cleaned the CPU with 99.9% Isopropyl alcohol.

The other thing is that I did the test both times with HyperThreading enabled (if you disable HyperThreading you will get cooler temperatures anyway).