INTRODUCTION

   RGB lighting may not offer anything more than improved looks wherever it's used but there's no denying that it has helped boost sales especially into the PC gaming peripherals and even hardware components market. AIO liquid CPU coolers in particular have risen in popularity lately because of RGB lighting so it's no surprise that manufacturers keep improving that specific aspect of their products. For example CORSAIR has released quite a few such AIO models but with limited RGB lighting (pump only) and although that didn't seem to hinder their sales we always asked for more (more specifically we always recommended also adding RGB fans to the mix). Well the time has finally come for consumers to get exactly that since today CORSAIR released the Hydro Series H100i and H115i Platinum RGB Extreme Performance AIO Liquid CPU Coolers the former of which landed in our lab roughly 2 weeks ago.

   Founded in 1994, CORSAIR supplies high-performance products purchased primarily by PC gaming enthusiasts who build their own PCs or buy pre-assembled customized systems. The company's award-winning products include DDR3 and DDR4 memory upgrades, computer cases, PC cooling products, gaming headsets, gaming keyboards, gaming mice, power supply units, USB flash drives, solid-state drives and system monitoring and control devices.

   The Hydro H100i Platinum RGB is the 2nd RGB illuminated AIO by CORSAIR in their H100i line after the award winning H100i Pro RGB released earlier this year (review here). The most important difference between the H100i Platinum RGB and the H100i Pro RGB is the use of their newest high-speed ML120 RGB magnetic levitation fans along with new dynamic multi-zone RGB LEDs (16 in total) placed at the top of the pump. Since high-performance is always the end goal CORSAIR chose to use two custom ML120 RGB fans (these feature the same performance numbers as the normal ML120 fans - 2400RPM/75CFM/4.2mmH2O/37dBA) instead of their best looking RGB fans to date (for us that's the LL120 RGB fans - visible comparison here). The end result however is still impressive and basically places the H100i Platinum RGB (and the H115i Platinum RGB) at the top of the entire CORSAIR AIO product line in terms of looks. As for the both the radiator and high-performance pump these seem pretty much identical to those used with the Pro RGB model (more on those in the following pages). Just like with previous AIO models by CORSAIR the H100i Platinum RGB is covered by a 5 year limited warranty and via the iCUE software you can control most aspects of the unit (performance/looks).