BigDaddyKong
Active member
I decided I wanted to get out of my Corsair 900D and into something smaller. Before the 900D, I ran my system in a CoolerMaster HAFX. That case was heavy, but a dream to work in at the time. When I seen the H500 video from Gamers Nexus, I just new I had to have it.
My system:
Asus CH VI
Ryzen 7 1800X
MSI 1070
Corsair HX850
Kingston M.2 250GB
Mushkin 1TB Reactor SSD
Corsair H110i
I wanted to get out of my custom loop and go back to air cooling. I had bought an AMD Prism cooler from eBay, but unfortunately got stiffed on that deal. I had an H100i that I had gotten on RMA about 5 years ago under my bed. After I got the system tore down and rebuilt, I found out that H100i did not work. It was about 6PM on a Saturday and I was annoyed I could find no local replacement online. I talked to a friend about any extra coolers he may have had, and he did not have what I wanted. He looked online, and Best Buy showed up having something in stock. I showed nothing for me locally, so I got in the truck and went for the 20 minute drive just to be sure. To my surprise, they had 2 Corsair H110i units in stock, so back home I went.
Now to my build experience.
The first thing I ran into was the mobo standoffs would not hand tighten all the way down. I had to go to my shop and find a socket that fit the standoff to get those in place. The up side is the sizing on this case is was so good, this is the first build I have never had to push and fight with getting the board to line up with the standoffs. Once I got the back plate snapped in correctly, the board laid perfectly lined up on the standoffs.
My only other complaints are as follows.
The top dust filter had some bent corners and did not want to lay flat. I was able to bend them down by hand, and they do lay better. Just not perfect.
Next is a combination to top rad design. Corsair uses a round headed bolt to put the top rad in place. They don't fit in the counter sink hole in the case. If it used a flat head screw, this would not be a problem. As it is, it lifts the magnetic filter a little.
The next inconvenience was top rad placement. When using the H110i on the top mount, it hits the CPU 8 pin power connector. This pushes the rad out just enough you can't put the end set of bolts in. With 6 bolts in place, 2 on the other end, and 4 in the middle, the rad is very secure without that last set of bolts. It's not a deal breaker, but does set off my OCD about putting all the parts in.
I also tried using an NZXT usb hub since the Asus CH VI only has 1 USB 2.0 hub. For some reason the H110i did not pick up on it and register to the mobo. I had to run a new USB cable.
I had torn down and rebuilt the system 3 times that day. It was getting close to midnight, and I was tired, and wanted to see it run. As you can see from the pics, I had some cable management I needed to go back and clean up after the failed UBS hub.
Now for the performance. This case can only accept a 120mm fan in the rear. There are no holes for a 140, so think about getting one when you order it. I have the rear and tops fans running at about 790RPM and the front fans running at 390RPM. The MSI card runs at 0RPM until it hits 60C.
This system is dead silent. With the fans running at the above speeds, two hours of Crysis 3 and the GPU maxed out at 65C and the CPU at 42C on stock settings. Normally before the case change, the GPU would max out at 60C. Keep in mind I am only running the 200MM fans at 393RPM. There is room for improvement with fan tuning.
This is the quietest system I have every built. I could not be happier. I got exactly what I wanted. Something much smaller than the 900D that runs cooler and quieter than the custom loop I had before. The case is not perfect, but I do really like it.
My system:
Asus CH VI
Ryzen 7 1800X
MSI 1070
Corsair HX850
Kingston M.2 250GB
Mushkin 1TB Reactor SSD
Corsair H110i
I wanted to get out of my custom loop and go back to air cooling. I had bought an AMD Prism cooler from eBay, but unfortunately got stiffed on that deal. I had an H100i that I had gotten on RMA about 5 years ago under my bed. After I got the system tore down and rebuilt, I found out that H100i did not work. It was about 6PM on a Saturday and I was annoyed I could find no local replacement online. I talked to a friend about any extra coolers he may have had, and he did not have what I wanted. He looked online, and Best Buy showed up having something in stock. I showed nothing for me locally, so I got in the truck and went for the 20 minute drive just to be sure. To my surprise, they had 2 Corsair H110i units in stock, so back home I went.
Now to my build experience.
The first thing I ran into was the mobo standoffs would not hand tighten all the way down. I had to go to my shop and find a socket that fit the standoff to get those in place. The up side is the sizing on this case is was so good, this is the first build I have never had to push and fight with getting the board to line up with the standoffs. Once I got the back plate snapped in correctly, the board laid perfectly lined up on the standoffs.
My only other complaints are as follows.
The top dust filter had some bent corners and did not want to lay flat. I was able to bend them down by hand, and they do lay better. Just not perfect.
Next is a combination to top rad design. Corsair uses a round headed bolt to put the top rad in place. They don't fit in the counter sink hole in the case. If it used a flat head screw, this would not be a problem. As it is, it lifts the magnetic filter a little.
The next inconvenience was top rad placement. When using the H110i on the top mount, it hits the CPU 8 pin power connector. This pushes the rad out just enough you can't put the end set of bolts in. With 6 bolts in place, 2 on the other end, and 4 in the middle, the rad is very secure without that last set of bolts. It's not a deal breaker, but does set off my OCD about putting all the parts in.
I also tried using an NZXT usb hub since the Asus CH VI only has 1 USB 2.0 hub. For some reason the H110i did not pick up on it and register to the mobo. I had to run a new USB cable.
I had torn down and rebuilt the system 3 times that day. It was getting close to midnight, and I was tired, and wanted to see it run. As you can see from the pics, I had some cable management I needed to go back and clean up after the failed UBS hub.
Now for the performance. This case can only accept a 120mm fan in the rear. There are no holes for a 140, so think about getting one when you order it. I have the rear and tops fans running at about 790RPM and the front fans running at 390RPM. The MSI card runs at 0RPM until it hits 60C.
This system is dead silent. With the fans running at the above speeds, two hours of Crysis 3 and the GPU maxed out at 65C and the CPU at 42C on stock settings. Normally before the case change, the GPU would max out at 60C. Keep in mind I am only running the 200MM fans at 393RPM. There is room for improvement with fan tuning.
This is the quietest system I have every built. I could not be happier. I got exactly what I wanted. Something much smaller than the 900D that runs cooler and quieter than the custom loop I had before. The case is not perfect, but I do really like it.
