The £3000 Custom Loop PC – with Corsair Hydro-X and AMD 3950X!

1. Introduction2. Unboxing and First Look3. Testing Methodology: Thermal Performance4. Performance and Comparisons5. Closing Thoughts6. View All Pages

It's no great surprise that our Custom CPU loop built with Corsair’s Hydro-X parts quite easily outperformed both the 360 AIO and the dual tower air cooler during our thermal performance tests, this is exactly what you would expect from custom water cooling. However, it does prove that the Hydro-X loop performs very well on a high-end mainstream CPU that is running at an overclocked frequency and it did a very good job of this too.

Without a doubt, it would have been a sterner test to put the Corsair Hydro-X parts up against other custom loop parts from rival manufacturers to find out just how good the performance is. This is something we will certainly investigate doing in the future, but at least for now, these performance results will hopefully help you guys decide whether it's worth splashing out the extra cash to upgrade your current cooling solution to Hydro-X custom parts.

During the installation process of the Hydro-X custom CPU cooling loop, we didn’t come up against any real issues or challenges that were due to design flaws of the Hydro-X products and the installation went very smoothly. The only small issue worth mentioning during the installation was interference between the pump mounting bracket and the Gigabyte RTX 2070 Super Graphics card we chose for the build.

This issue was more due to our choice of case and graphics card rather than a fault with the pump mounting bracket and was easily resolved by modifying the bracket to install the pump/reservoir in the position that we required. We simply cut away part of the bracket to gain the extra 10-15mm clearance we needed.

Corsair has certainly implemented its own design style into its Hydro-X custom cooling products which gives them an appearance that is a little different to other similar products on the market. We quite like the alternative look of the XD5 RGB White pump/res combo and it’s a nice change from the typical cylindrical reservoir. This is obviously very subjective and may not be to everyone’s taste.

The new white colour scheme has been implemented well and is not too overpowering when combined with the transparent sections. Anyone thinking of building a system with custom water cooling based around a white theme has more options now with these new products and since the parts all use standard G1/4-inch fittings, they can be mixed and matched with parts from other manufacturers to get the exact balance of white you require.

Unfortunately, the new XD3 RGB pump/reservoir combo for small from factor water cooling builds didn’t quite fit in with the test system we built this time around. However, it certainly looks like an interesting product and is something we would like to feature in a custom loop build in the future where space may be more limited. So, be sure to check back in on the site if this is something that interests you.

Corsair’s new QL series fans are very impressive to look at, the combination of the white frames and the four zones of RGB lighting makes them one of the best-looking fans on the market, that’s if you are into RGB of course. The fact that Corsair has gone to the trouble of making the rear of the fan a little more interesting to look at is good news and mean we finally have a fan that doesn’t look too bad when fitted to the system in this orientation.

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All of these new Corsair Hydro-X parts and the QL series fans are available to purchase from Overclockers UK HERE.

XC7 RGB White CPU Block – £69.99

XD5 RGB White Pump/Reservoir Combo – £149.99

XD3 RGB Pump/reservoir Combo – £149.99

QL Series fans

QL120 White single – £29.99

QL120 White 3 pack with Lighting Node Core – £99.95

QL140 White single fan – £34.99

QL140 White twin pack with Lighting Node Core – £89.99

Pros

• Usual high thermal performance of custom cooling.
• Seamless RGB integration with other Corsair products.
• The new colour scheme works great with white theme builds.
• QL fans look amazing.

Cons

• Cost is high compared with other cooling solutions.
• Selection of Hydro-X GPU blocks is limited right now.

KitGuru says: Corsair Hydro-X custom cooling parts provide cooling enthusiasts with another alternative by Corsair putting its own stamp on the aesthetic design. QL series fans are one of, if not the best looking system fans at the moment. 

XC7 RGB White CPU Block score:

XD5 RGB White Pump/Reservoir score:

QL120 RGB White Fans:

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