Cooler Master Nepton 240M VS Corsair H100i
There was time when water cooling a PC was considered as extreme and expensive specially in India, where availability of custom water cooling parts were very rear and importing them to India was a great pain. But now there are tens of AIO(All-in-One) closed loop liquid cooling solutions available in India, with easy installation and requires no maintenance at all.
Today we are having a comparison between two of them Corsair H100i and Cooler Master Nepton 240M. Both are having identical physical characteristics, so comparison will be interesting.
Below are the lists of Specifications and Features for both coolers
Features - 240M
- Factory filled with coolant, then sealed and pressure tested - requires zero maintenance for years
- Waterblock made with UltraFine Micro Channels to enlarge the contact surface between cold plate and coolant
- Durable and powerful water pump – dissipates heat effectively and maintains temperatures through stable water circulation
- Performance 240mm radiator is designed for handling high wattage overclocked CPU
- Double 120mm PWM fans with a wide RPM range to fine tune and balance fan noise and performance
Features - H100i
- Corsair Link monitoring and control - Monitor temperature and control lighting and fan speed on your screen. No additional hardware is necessary
- Entirely self-contained - Hydro Series H100i comes pre-filled, and never needs refilling or priming.
- Tool-free multiplatform magnetic mounting bracket kit - The modular design makes installation simpler, and it's compatible with Intel and AMD processors.
- Large-diameter, low permeability tubing - Minimal coolant evaporation helps ensure long life, and the resilient material offers both high flexibility and excellent leak protection.
Specifications - 240M
- CPU Socket - Intel LGA 2011 / 1366 / 1156 / 1155 / 1150 / 775, AMD FM2 / FM1 / AM3+ / AM3 / AM2+ / AM2
- Pump Dimensions - ø 70 x 27mm (ø 2.75 x 1.1 inch)
- Radiator Dimensions - 274 x 119 x 38 mm
- Radiator Material - Aluminum
- Fan Dimension - 120 x 120 x 25 mm (4.7 x 4.7 x 1 in)
- Fan Speed - 600~2400 RPM (PWM) ± 10%
- Fan Airflow - 16.5 ~ 76 CFM ± 10%
- Fan Air Pressure - 0.48 ~ 4.8mm H2O ± 10%
- Fan Life Expectancy - 160,000 hours
- Fan Noise Level (dB-A) - 6.5 ~ 27 dBA
- Fan Bearing Type - Loop Dynamic Bearing
- Fan Connector - 4-Pin
- Fan Rated Voltage - 12 VDC
- Fan Rated Current - 0.16 A
- Fan Power Consumption - 1.92 W
- Pump Life Expectancy - 70,000 hrs
- Pump Noise Level - <15 dBA
- Pump Rated Voltage - 12 VDC
- Pump Load Current - 0.15 A
- Pump Power Consumption - 4.8 W
- Warranty - 5 years
Specifications - H100i
- CPU Socket - Intel LGA 2011 / 1366 / 1156 / 1155 / 1150 / 775, AMD FM2 / FM1 / AM3+ / AM3 / AM2+ / AM2
- Radiator Dimensions - 120mm x 275mm x 27mm
- Radiator Material - Aluminum
- Fan Dimension - 120mm x 120mm x 25mm
- Fan Speed - 2700 RPM
- Fan Airflow - 77 CFM
- Fan Air Pressure - 4mm/H20
- Fan Noise Level (dB-A) - 37.68 dBA
- Fan Connector - 4-Pin
- Fan Rated Voltage - 12 VDC
- Fan Rated Current - 0.36 A
- Fan Power Consumption - 4.32 W
- Warranty - 5 years
Packaging
Everything is packaged, cushioned and bundled safely in the box
240M
H100i
Inside the box
240M
Nepton 240M AIO kit consisting of a pump/cooling head assembly, radiator, fans(both 120mm and PWM based) and brackets + back plate with a very wide range of AMD and Intel processors support. Retention clips need to be screwed to the block.
H100i
H100i AIO kit consisting of a pump/cooling head assembly, radiator, fans (both 120mm and PWM based) and brackets + back plate with a very wide range of AMD and Intel processors support. Tool free mounting of retention clips. A little thermal paste is pre-applied on the cooler base.
Looks
240M
Full aluminum radiator having pre-threaded holes and space for upto four 120mm fans. CPU cooling block / pump assembly is entirely made out of plastic, specially the top cover gives a feeling of cheap plastic. The company logo is etched on the top of the block and a bright white LED turns on when the pump is powered on. The pump is powered with 3-pin fan header connector. Only the base of the block is made out of copper and has a smooth, well-machined surface, although it has not been machined down to a mirror finish. The tubing is corrugated and are little hard to bend, CPU block have right angle connectors which are even very hard to rotate.
H100i
Full aluminum radiator having pre-threaded holes and space for upto four 120mm fans. CPU cooling block / pump assembly looks solid, with a shiny, highly reflective black top cover. The company logo lights up once the pump is powered on. On the side, there are connectors for the fans and a USB interface with Corsair's Link software, allowing complete control and thermal management of your system.
The pump is powered by a SATA connector. Copper base of the assembly is very smooth and polished down close to a mirror finish with the thermal compound pre-applied.
Close view
Corsair's Link software
Testing
For testing of these coolers we created a constant thermal load machine, having four thermostat heating filaments of 30, 40, 40 & 60 watts respectively to simulate thermal load from 30 to 170 watts. Also including a thermal programmable controller which can turn all thermostats off if temperature crosses 80C. All testing is done on a cold winter night and room temperature was constant at 20C.
All tests were started at 21C and between every reading machine internal fan and both fans on cooler ran on full RPM for 5 minutes for cooling the hot plate and coolant inside AIO to 21C.
Before starting the test, the thermal load machine is tested for thermal turn-off (i.e. temperature reaching 81C) at different loads without any cooler.
40 Watts - 32 seconds
80 Watts - 21 seconds
140 Watts - 13 seconds
170 Watts - 6 seconds
During testing both pumps were powered to a constant 12v, giving following RPM
H100i - 2340rpm
240M - 2680rpm
And all RPM readings are monitored via LAMPTRON FC5 fan controller.
Temperature reading was noted down first with fans at lowest rpm i.e. 600 and second at maximum fans rpm (i.e. for Corsair it was 2850rpm and cooler master it was 2300rpm)
H100i
240M
Temperature reading at Low rpm
Temperature reading at High rpm
Testing on PC
System configuration - Intel i7-4770K CPU and Corsair 240Air case with no cabinet fans and Cooler installed in front with fans pulling air into the case. For PC base testing we are using OCCT. Our testing cycle was first 10minutes of system ideal, than 30 minutes of testing load and 10 minutes for cool down.
Conclusion
We checked out both the Nepton 240M, which is a new sibling to the Cooler Master Nepton AIO range and Corsair H100i cooler that has been on the market for two years already.
Although Cooler Master introduced all new fan blade design Silencio 120, designed for quieter operation with a high static pressure (and we also found these fans extremely quite even at max rpm ) and new micro channel copper base, but a quick look at the performance chart 240M didn't perform good against H100i as we were hoping for. At low load 240m cooler was good but at higher load H100i perform little better.
Comparing feature and pricing, 240M cost about Rs9000/- where Corasir H100i cost about Rs8100/-, about Rs900 less and giving more features like in-build fan controller for 4 fans, Software tuning with USB interface.
So in the end, if you are looking for a silent cooler with performance than Cooler Master 240M is best for you. But if you want AIO cooler with custom tuning software and with some overclocking room at a reasonable price than I would like to recommend Corsair H100i Cooler.
Corsair H100i cooler is an excellent choice for CPU Cooling Solution and worthy of our PC TeK REVIEWS Choice Award.
Manufacturers Info
Corsair Site link
Cooler Master Site link