Operation
The H80 operates with a simple, intuitive interface located on top of the CPU block. It is an easy to read button/light layout in which pressing the button cycles the fan speeds between the three available settings. While both intuitive and pleasing to the eye, this introduces the extremely annoying issue wherein the H80 fan control is not accessible from within an operating system, and the side panel must be removed to change fan speeds. Corsair provides a fan/temperature control solution (Corsair Link), but at the time of this writing it was unavailable for testing.
The H80 CPU Block
Maintenance
Anyone who is familiar with water cooling solutions will be quick to tell you that flushing your system and replacing fluid every 6-12 months is standard procedure to ensure optimal system performance, but this can be a major issue for anyone who is not familiar with water cooling systems in general. Thankfully, the H80 caters to its target audience with a maintenance free design, intended to never cause the end user to need to open the H80 in any way, or adjust the fluid in any other way.
Excellent review. I didn’t know much about liquid cooling systems and while this was a review, the graphs and information in it helped me learn and make a choice. Thank you!