Cooling the Intel i7 14700K with CORSAIR iCUE H115i RGB AIO Liquid CPU Cooler & Fans

My latest PC build is powered by the fast-performance Intel i7 14700K, overclocked 32GB DDR5 RAM (7200MT/s) from Kingston, and an NVIDIA RTX 3080 Graphics Card. Those combinations are pretty deadly and require a good cooling solution inside my Lian Li LANCOOL 216 case.

While it’s tempting to not spend a dime on any more cooling systems apart from what you get from the manufacturers (like a processor’s air cooler and case fans), those who want to make sure the temperatures stay cool (or warm, at least) should spend more on a good cooling solution, especially if you want to push your PC performance to the limit by overclocking the processor and other components like the RAM and Graphics Card.

CORSAIR iCUE H115i RGB AIO Liquid CPU Cooler

My last CORSAIR PC build was powered by the CORSAIR iCUE H115i ELITE CAPELLIX AIO Liquid CPU Cooler, which made sure my AMD 7 Ryzen setup stayed cool even when I had the overclocking cap on. A few years later, a whole new PC build is in the mix (going for Intel this time) and my high-performance PC is now cooled by the CORSAIR CUE LINK H115i RGB AIO Liquid CPU Cooler.

In terms of looks, there is no denying the appeal of the H115i RGB. My review model comes with a 280mm Radiator with two QX140 RGB fans whose lighting can be easily customised through the iCUE app. It’s not just awesome to look at but also easy to install and performs really well on my setup.

The whole cooling system uses only a single connector to the hub and makes everything work effortlessly with up to 14 iCUE LINK devices. This makes it easy should you want to upgrade and include more CORSAIR compatible components into the mix like fans. It supports both AMD and Intel, and the packaging includes the retentions for both systems.

It uses a split-flow copper cold plate with pre-applied CORSAIR XTM70 thermal paste so you can install it right out of the box, and it’s a really good thermal paste. Setting it all up is pretty easy after screwing some parts here and there, plus connecting the right power connectors to your motherboard. I opted to place the 280mm radiator on the top of my case, pushing the hot air out.

The CORSAIR iCUE H115i RGB AIO comes with two QX140 RGB fans that can ramp up to 2,000 RPM, pushing hot air as quickly as it can. If you like, you can also set it to Zero RPM Mode so they can stop spinning completely during low loads. I never find these to be noisy, so I usually just set it to Standard on iCUE.

CORSAIR iCUE H115i RGB AIO Liquid CPU Cooler Performance

So what about performance? I ran a few applications like CPU-Z, HWMonitor, and CoreTemp64 to monitor the performance and temperature of the processor while I overclocked my Intel i7 14700K.

For idle temperature, the CPU temperature sits between 30-35 degrees (CPU clocks at 2600MHz, Windows power option is set to Balanced), and when I was gaming (Overwatch 2) for about an hour or two, the core temperatures varied but normally sat between 35-45 degrees on average.

Here are some temperature comparisons after playing Overwatch 2 and Helldivers 2 (which require more grunt and make the CPU run hotter):

And what about stress testing? The stress test was performed using Intel Extreme Tuning Utility, and the CPU overclocked to 5.5GHz through the GIGABYTE Z790 AERO G motherboard.

It definitely runs pretty hot, but you know, it’s a stress test so it’s no way reflecting real-life usage.

CORSAIR QX120 RGB Fans

To complete the build, I’ve also installed these five QX120 RGB CORSAIR fans for both intakes and outtakes. It supports from 480 RPM up to 2,400 RPM, pushing 63.1 CFM of air with 3.8mm-H2O of static pressure. With magnetic dome bearing design (“The impeller shaft and the magnet pad directly underneath the shaft have a dome-shape/convex tip. This allows for a smaller contact patch, reducing friction between the two surfaces, thus reducing the acoustic profile, and improving the bearing durability” – CORSAIR), these fans are exceptionally low in noise, and I have no complaints so far. Sure, they do get loud when you are running a stress test, but for idling and day-to-day usage, these fans are golden.

Each fan comes with 34 RGB LEDs spread across two distinct light zones on either side, so you can choose between the boring, static light or some cool ones for your liking.

There are tons of customisations for the lighting effects, and I’m really amazed by their “Time Warp” lighting effect, which is a QX RGB-exclusive effect that intelligently matches the strobe rate of each LED in the QX RGB fan with its fan speed to create a static or rotational effect – in other words, it will appear as if your fan is frozen in place (time) or even spinning backwards. It’s.. pure sorcery. It looks as if your fans are not rotating at all – which is really, really cool. You can also have the lighting effects reflect what happens in-game in real-time for supported games.

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Overall, the combination of both the CORSAIR iCUE H115i RGB AIO Liquid CPU Cooler and QX120 RGB fans gives great cooling performance, especially when they are cooling the processor down after the stress test. Hot air gets pushed really quickly, and I can even feel the cool air going in with my hands hovering the intake fans at the front.

Not only are they all easy to set up, work in tandem, have cool and customisable RGB lightings, they really keep everything cool. If you really want to push the performance and cooling even further, I’d probably suggest grabbing the 340mm radiator version. But for a hardcore gamer like myself (with occasional video rendering here and there), this is a perfect balance between looks, price, and performance.

CORSAIR iCUE H115i RGB AIO Liquid CPU Cooler retails for A$279, the QX120 RGB Triple Pack retails for A$219, and the QX120 RGB Expansion Kit retails for A$69.

Disclosure: Review samples were supplied for reviewing