Looks good but those fans and that controller add alot of wires and abit of a mess compared to earlier version of this product that come with non LED fans but progress I guess.
If you can crank the brightness of the frag harder disco lights up high enough I guess the cable management debacle the bring can be hidden in the shadows.
That was always the issue with the corsair stuff. We are long overdue for an overhaul of connectivity standards. 3-pin/4-pin fan connectors should be replaced with a 6-pin connector of the same time and the minimum power spec provided by the motherboard should be raised to 12V @ 1.5 amps.
Install a Bluetooth / WiFi fan control? Low power Bluetooth probably better here, and would eliminate a few control wires. WiFi would let you monitor your pc thermals remotely from your phone while doing a long job (without needing to learn how to do a remote login from phone). Even a proprietary radio (like Logitech’s mouse / keyboard dongle) would be mostly fine if a bit annoying.
There is nothing wrong with a quality AIO. My NZXT 280mm is whisper quiet and keeps my 3900X in the 60s (70s when video encoding or rendering) The only noise I hear coming from the PC is the GPU.
I highly doubt that yours is whisper quiet. Everyone ever who claimed that to me was proven wrong when I listed to it myself. The pump always adds a very annoying noise. My air cooled PC is really silent. The loudest part is my external 2.5" HDD, which I always turn off when I dont need it, because, even if its quiet for guys like you, its extremely annoying with a silent PC like mine. But I get that a lot of people think loud components are quiet, because they have bad hearing and additionally wear headsets on their PC, which probably is the cause of bad hearing anyway.
Not even Corsair's marketing speaks so highly about these fans. Magnetic bearings are not "magnetic levitation engines" (that would be the motor, which all fans have) and they are not new.
They're awesome and they're cool to see in case fans, but the 1st page words leave a bad taste.
From my point of view, the magnetic bearing is but a part of the engine that converts electrical energy to mechanical energy (airflow). You are probably referring to the engine as just the part that converts electrical energy to torque, neglecting the rest of the transmission system, which is not wrong but I would rather keep things simpler than that in my texts. I always classify fan engines based on their movement transmission system because everything else remains pretty much the same. You will find terms such as "ball-bearing engine" and "sleeve-bearing engine" frequently in my texts. The term "magnetic levitation engine" may not be entirely technically correct but definitely is better than "a 12V DC brushless motor with a magnetic levitation bearing axial transmission system" for the average person.
Magnetic bearings may not be new by technological terms but they are just finding applications in low-cost retail market products, hence they are cutting-edge by the applicable definition of the term. There are many technologies that find their way into the retail market many decades after their initial discovery - that does not make them archaic, it only means that the conditions made their commercial exploitation applicable.
No. You'll may actually lose cooling capacity, as Linus found out (Linus Tech Tips). He did a review showing that big heatsinks like the Noctua NH-D15 outperform pretty much all AIO water coolers when it comes to heat soak (when the heatsink/radiator hit their dissipation limits). Granted, the margin is only a few degrees, but still. What you will get with an AIO water cooler is a slower increase/decrease in temperatures as the water works as an absorbing/transfer medium. The more water in the loop, the longer it takes to bring up the temperatures.
I should also say that, if AIO coolers would actually use a copper radiator, they would outperform something like the NH-D15. None of the AIO's use copper in their radiator, and I believe this is due to a patent being held by the main AIO manufacturer.
I don't think that would matter though, it still follows tubing back to the CPU, that itself is terrible at temp retention. Especially when they make them long on purpose for all case types they installed in.
But yah i found its to much of a hassle to go all out with stuff like this, really AIO coolers for me now are just about looking better and working better in case for airflow than actual performance.
on side note pet peeve, for whatever reason EVERY AIO cooler i have bought has never fit correctly in a case i've had..despite it showing it should before i bought it. Its mostly cosmetic things to change, like bending a small piece of metal, or something you won't notice with case cover on. But last one was a pain because after everything was installed in complete new build..it wouldn't power on. So did the normal check everything is connected, yep. I ended up finding out that radiator actually cut the USB cable connection front of case next to power button. So it was shorting out, all i had to do was unplug usb and booted up fine.
That litte stupid problem would of been avoided if had correct specs..that was like 2 hours of trouble shooting. lol
I think GN's test shows AiOs being somewhat superior. But as for the Air cooling vs AiO, I will always choose Air coolers. Noctua is top quality and the best part is you get a superb looking beast machine, vs the RGB vomit and cabling issues, and the most important aspect being the lifetime. AiOs always no matter what the coolant will be losing it's efficiency overtime also the particulates in the mixture. Any small leak in any time = death of the data + hard cash. No risks no half measures, only full measures = Air cooling.
My build for a long term plan of a PC (usually they can last more than 10 years), will be Noctua Chromax black and red, with no RGB G.Skill B-Die, maybe the mobo / GPU gets a little lighting to make it look even intense of the coloring to match the Chromax.
Yes, of course. As long as the reservoir is big enough. Ideally you want the coolant to return to its initial ambient temperature. The major problem with all liquid cooling solutions is an inherent inability to return the coolant back to its original ambient temperature. All you have to do is try to touch the radiator or use an IR digital thermometer.
The equation is as simple as Q=VA (Q is the flow rate in liters per second) and the coolant volume or total amount of coolant in the loop, VC = liters, so that VC/Q = seconds or mean residence time, the bigger that number the better chance you have of returning the coolant to its original ambient temperature. The goal is to maintain the maximum delta temperature between the coolant and the CPU. Hot (to the touch or via IR thermometry) radiators defeat the entire exercise (or some fraction thereof) to begin with in the 1st place.
You are correct in that coolant volume is a factor, however heat flow rate from the radiator is also a large factor. For the same size radiator, factors affecting heat flow would be: thermal conductivity of the radiator, exposed surface area of the radiator, airflow across the radiator. If any of these are very high then cooling* will be effective even with tiny coolant volume.
*Reduction of increase in temperature above internal working temperature of CPU. Over time, all radiator systems, even maximally efficient ones, will reach a temperature of at least the internal temperature of the CPU.
Yes there are many factors, but I think my basic claim still holds true. Keeping the coolant temperature low is a must, or preferred, all other things being equal. But I think I will do a little more on quantifying those calculations with my new build.
Why you can buy parts from other companies that don't do that. There's nothing wrong with having lots of options. I would like companies to have 3 options for these kind of things. No fans, has fans, and has RGB fans. Course I don't think any AIO manufacturers sell them without fans.
@ Ian Cutress - it would be great to know if the base plate would cover the heat spreader of an sTRX4 Threadripper. It's basically the #1 concern for AIO coolers with Zen2 Threadrippers.
Cmon no comparison to a Noctua D15 ? I know it is not an water cooler but I wish we could know exactly how much better than the best aircooler this new Corsair is.
I always grow suspicious when companies use the word ELITE. But CAPELLIX what a nice new word thrown into the AIO market basket! Looks like Corsair's AIO dominance continues with all of its LED splendor (or circus action) still trying to making the big $$$ and profits. For sure the "cool Capellix'' price of $190 is not for the average blue collar Joe like me working midnights riding the forklift. But now Intel with especially the "heat on by AMD" will be pushing out their 12th Generation (10nm-Fin) Alder Lake program probably just before the 2021 Holidays? The Big Deal: The socket dimensions for the newly Alder Lake mandated LGA-1700 is about 7.5mm taller than Intel's current LGA 1200 socket and this forcing that all future mobo architectures will be dramatically changing along with their graduation to DDR5 and much more. Meaning that the H150i Capellix (along with all their other competing AIO siblings) will essentially be obsolete by the end of next year since the current chipset AIO water blocks will not fit the new CPU molds. This of course will first only be applying to system upgraders, but nevertheless and with AIO's supposed to be lasting 5-years or so, it will most certainly make people think twice before investing in a new or upgraded (costly) AIO in the months to come? I am curious in how the industry or sellers will handle this matter? Or will it be just for the enthusiast or those havng money to burn to simply starting over and or further supporting the seemingly neverending AIO upgrade craze? Unless of course we are ready now to create a used AIO market like the existing and booming 'used GPU's now being proffered. Would you buy a used Capellix? Thoughts?
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37 Comments
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hehatemeXX - Thursday, October 15, 2020 - link
So new fans.. I wonder if we replaced these fans across the board if they are all the same?Makaveli - Thursday, October 15, 2020 - link
Looks good but those fans and that controller add alot of wires and abit of a mess compared to earlier version of this product that come with non LED fans but progress I guess.DanNeely - Thursday, October 15, 2020 - link
If you can crank the brightness of the frag harder disco lights up high enough I guess the cable management debacle the bring can be hidden in the shadows.Makaveli - Thursday, October 15, 2020 - link
lol so blind yourself so you can't see the wires got it :)eek2121 - Thursday, October 15, 2020 - link
That was always the issue with the corsair stuff. We are long overdue for an overhaul of connectivity standards. 3-pin/4-pin fan connectors should be replaced with a 6-pin connector of the same time and the minimum power spec provided by the motherboard should be raised to 12V @ 1.5 amps.Tomatotech - Friday, October 16, 2020 - link
Install a Bluetooth / WiFi fan control? Low power Bluetooth probably better here, and would eliminate a few control wires. WiFi would let you monitor your pc thermals remotely from your phone while doing a long job (without needing to learn how to do a remote login from phone). Even a proprietary radio (like Logitech’s mouse / keyboard dongle) would be mostly fine if a bit annoying.YB1064 - Thursday, October 15, 2020 - link
A few LEDs distinguish this from the competition. Can't do much more with AIO I suppose.eek2121 - Thursday, October 15, 2020 - link
There is nothing wrong with a quality AIO. My NZXT 280mm is whisper quiet and keeps my 3900X in the 60s (70s when video encoding or rendering) The only noise I hear coming from the PC is the GPU.Beaver M. - Friday, October 16, 2020 - link
I highly doubt that yours is whisper quiet. Everyone ever who claimed that to me was proven wrong when I listed to it myself. The pump always adds a very annoying noise.My air cooled PC is really silent. The loudest part is my external 2.5" HDD, which I always turn off when I dont need it, because, even if its quiet for guys like you, its extremely annoying with a silent PC like mine.
But I get that a lot of people think loud components are quiet, because they have bad hearing and additionally wear headsets on their PC, which probably is the cause of bad hearing anyway.
29a - Friday, October 16, 2020 - link
"My air cooled PC is really silent."I highly doubt that yours is really silent. Everyone ever who claimed that to me was proven wrong when I listed to it myself.
SirMaster - Sunday, October 25, 2020 - link
I mean my air cooled PC fans are never faster than 800rpm. I can't even tell if it's on or off from a few feet away.khanikun - Sunday, October 18, 2020 - link
A whisper is around 30 db. NZXT Kraken X63 280mm in reviews is around 30 db at low. So I'd say that's whisper quiet.willis936 - Thursday, October 15, 2020 - link
Not even Corsair's marketing speaks so highly about these fans. Magnetic bearings are not "magnetic levitation engines" (that would be the motor, which all fans have) and they are not new.They're awesome and they're cool to see in case fans, but the 1st page words leave a bad taste.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetic_bearing
https://www.corsair.com/corsairmedia/sys_master/pr...
E.Fyll - Thursday, October 15, 2020 - link
From my point of view, the magnetic bearing is but a part of the engine that converts electrical energy to mechanical energy (airflow). You are probably referring to the engine as just the part that converts electrical energy to torque, neglecting the rest of the transmission system, which is not wrong but I would rather keep things simpler than that in my texts. I always classify fan engines based on their movement transmission system because everything else remains pretty much the same. You will find terms such as "ball-bearing engine" and "sleeve-bearing engine" frequently in my texts. The term "magnetic levitation engine" may not be entirely technically correct but definitely is better than "a 12V DC brushless motor with a magnetic levitation bearing axial transmission system" for the average person.Magnetic bearings may not be new by technological terms but they are just finding applications in low-cost retail market products, hence they are cutting-edge by the applicable definition of the term. There are many technologies that find their way into the retail market many decades after their initial discovery - that does not make them archaic, it only means that the conditions made their commercial exploitation applicable.
willis936 - Thursday, October 15, 2020 - link
These are fair points. Thanks for taking the time to respond.Pneumothorax - Thursday, October 15, 2020 - link
I’m currently running a NH-D15 on a 9900K. Am I getting any improvement with this besides just the aesthetics?Drkrieger01 - Thursday, October 15, 2020 - link
No. You'll may actually lose cooling capacity, as Linus found out (Linus Tech Tips). He did a review showing that big heatsinks like the Noctua NH-D15 outperform pretty much all AIO water coolers when it comes to heat soak (when the heatsink/radiator hit their dissipation limits). Granted, the margin is only a few degrees, but still. What you will get with an AIO water cooler is a slower increase/decrease in temperatures as the water works as an absorbing/transfer medium. The more water in the loop, the longer it takes to bring up the temperatures.Drkrieger01 - Thursday, October 15, 2020 - link
I should also say that, if AIO coolers would actually use a copper radiator, they would outperform something like the NH-D15. None of the AIO's use copper in their radiator, and I believe this is due to a patent being held by the main AIO manufacturer.imaheadcase - Thursday, October 15, 2020 - link
I don't think that would matter though, it still follows tubing back to the CPU, that itself is terrible at temp retention. Especially when they make them long on purpose for all case types they installed in.But yah i found its to much of a hassle to go all out with stuff like this, really AIO coolers for me now are just about looking better and working better in case for airflow than actual performance.
imaheadcase - Thursday, October 15, 2020 - link
on side note pet peeve, for whatever reason EVERY AIO cooler i have bought has never fit correctly in a case i've had..despite it showing it should before i bought it. Its mostly cosmetic things to change, like bending a small piece of metal, or something you won't notice with case cover on. But last one was a pain because after everything was installed in complete new build..it wouldn't power on. So did the normal check everything is connected, yep. I ended up finding out that radiator actually cut the USB cable connection front of case next to power button. So it was shorting out, all i had to do was unplug usb and booted up fine.That litte stupid problem would of been avoided if had correct specs..that was like 2 hours of trouble shooting. lol
29a - Friday, October 16, 2020 - link
It has to do with the price of copper vs aluminum.Slash3 - Friday, October 16, 2020 - link
Alphacool and Be Quiet offer full copper block/rad AIOs.Quantumz0d - Thursday, October 15, 2020 - link
I think GN's test shows AiOs being somewhat superior. But as for the Air cooling vs AiO, I will always choose Air coolers. Noctua is top quality and the best part is you get a superb looking beast machine, vs the RGB vomit and cabling issues, and the most important aspect being the lifetime. AiOs always no matter what the coolant will be losing it's efficiency overtime also the particulates in the mixture. Any small leak in any time = death of the data + hard cash. No risks no half measures, only full measures = Air cooling.My build for a long term plan of a PC (usually they can last more than 10 years), will be Noctua Chromax black and red, with no RGB G.Skill B-Die, maybe the mobo / GPU gets a little lighting to make it look even intense of the coloring to match the Chromax.
StevoLincolnite - Thursday, October 15, 2020 - link
My current PC is 11 years old and uses a Corsair Hydro AIO water cooler.No issues.
TelstarTOS - Thursday, October 15, 2020 - link
The usual strategy, performance at price of high noise.Manch - Thursday, October 15, 2020 - link
Short of making the radiator bigger, would adding a reservoir help cooling at this point?Everett F Sargent - Thursday, October 15, 2020 - link
Yes, of course. As long as the reservoir is big enough. Ideally you want the coolant to return to its initial ambient temperature. The major problem with all liquid cooling solutions is an inherent inability to return the coolant back to its original ambient temperature. All you have to do is try to touch the radiator or use an IR digital thermometer.The equation is as simple as Q=VA (Q is the flow rate in liters per second) and the coolant volume or total amount of coolant in the loop, VC = liters, so that VC/Q = seconds or mean residence time, the bigger that number the better chance you have of returning the coolant to its original ambient temperature. The goal is to maintain the maximum delta temperature between the coolant and the CPU. Hot (to the touch or via IR thermometry) radiators defeat the entire exercise (or some fraction thereof) to begin with in the 1st place.
Tomatotech - Friday, October 16, 2020 - link
You are correct in that coolant volume is a factor, however heat flow rate from the radiator is also a large factor. For the same size radiator, factors affecting heat flow would be: thermal conductivity of the radiator, exposed surface area of the radiator, airflow across the radiator. If any of these are very high then cooling* will be effective even with tiny coolant volume.*Reduction of increase in temperature above internal working temperature of CPU. Over time, all radiator systems, even maximally efficient ones, will reach a temperature of at least the internal temperature of the CPU.
Everett F Sargent - Friday, October 16, 2020 - link
Yes there are many factors, but I think my basic claim still holds true. Keeping the coolant temperature low is a must, or preferred, all other things being equal. But I think I will do a little more on quantifying those calculations with my new build.Everett F Sargent - Thursday, October 15, 2020 - link
Go bigger or go home ...https://www.performance-pcs.com/water-cooling/aio-...
Currently out of stock as I got the last one.
bigi - Thursday, October 15, 2020 - link
Shiat is getting ridiculous. I miss the days where computer parts did not emit light, blinks, and weren't designed for 12 year olds.khanikun - Thursday, October 15, 2020 - link
Why you can buy parts from other companies that don't do that. There's nothing wrong with having lots of options. I would like companies to have 3 options for these kind of things. No fans, has fans, and has RGB fans. Course I don't think any AIO manufacturers sell them without fans.ANoNameX - Monday, October 19, 2020 - link
@ Ian Cutress - it would be great to know if the base plate would cover the heat spreader of an sTRX4 Threadripper. It's basically the #1 concern for AIO coolers with Zen2 Threadrippers.BattleRam - Thursday, October 22, 2020 - link
Cmon no comparison to a Noctua D15 ? I know it is not an water cooler but I wish we could know exactly how much better than the best aircooler this new Corsair is.Tom Sunday - Sunday, November 1, 2020 - link
I always grow suspicious when companies use the word ELITE. But CAPELLIX what a nice new word thrown into the AIO market basket! Looks like Corsair's AIO dominance continues with all of its LED splendor (or circus action) still trying to making the big $$$ and profits. For sure the "cool Capellix'' price of $190 is not for the average blue collar Joe like me working midnights riding the forklift. But now Intel with especially the "heat on by AMD" will be pushing out their 12th Generation (10nm-Fin) Alder Lake program probably just before the 2021 Holidays? The Big Deal: The socket dimensions for the newly Alder Lake mandated LGA-1700 is about 7.5mm taller than Intel's current LGA 1200 socket and this forcing that all future mobo architectures will be dramatically changing along with their graduation to DDR5 and much more. Meaning that the H150i Capellix (along with all their other competing AIO siblings) will essentially be obsolete by the end of next year since the current chipset AIO water blocks will not fit the new CPU molds. This of course will first only be applying to system upgraders, but nevertheless and with AIO's supposed to be lasting 5-years or so, it will most certainly make people think twice before investing in a new or upgraded (costly) AIO in the months to come? I am curious in how the industry or sellers will handle this matter? Or will it be just for the enthusiast or those havng money to burn to simply starting over and or further supporting the seemingly neverending AIO upgrade craze? Unless of course we are ready now to create a used AIO market like the existing and booming 'used GPU's now being proffered. Would you buy a used Capellix? Thoughts?Damorejordane - Wednesday, November 4, 2020 - link
Admittedly a super product, I can listen and download music comfortably on https://tonurideapelgratuite.com/alex31g - Friday, August 13, 2021 - link
I have a noob question. Is this one has better cooling performance than NZXT X63 RGB?