Experience with Corsair H100i + Corsair Link + VI Hero

[DoGood]

I wanted to share my experience with these products for those searching for the answer to the question that I did.

I purchased the Corsair H100i for a i7-4770K Haswell on the Maximus VI Hero motherboard. I set up the H100i as instructed, but I didn't like the Corsair link software or how much noise the fans made. The noise wasn't obnoxious. It was just more than I expected it to make.

So the question I sought an answer to was, can I use the VI Hero CPU fan ports to control the fans of the H100i radiator and uninstall Corsair Link? The short answer is yes.

The long answer...

Corsair has been a bit slow on keeping the Corsair Link software up-to-date with the latest technology. Since the last time I checked (11/5/2013), it has been a month since they’re last update which one of the features listed was “experimental support for Haswell”. In my opinion, they’ve had ample time to work out the experimental part.

I did not like the fan profile management that comes with the Corsair Link. I always felt like it was noisier than is should be. When I would boot, the fans would start full speed until after post and then drop to a lower quieter speed. I still felt that quieter speed was louder than it needed to be. There was a time when I rebooted and the fans went full blast and stayed that way even after rebooting. It was LOUD! Louder than pre-post. It took me a while to figure out that the profile in the Corsair Link software automagically changed to maximum.

With that said, running on the default profile wasn’t very loud and the noise didn’t increase during CPU stress, it was just more than I preferred.

I searched the internets for answers, but I eventually decided to test Hero’s ability to control the fans. The pump that sits on the CPU connects to the CPU_Fan port on the motherboard via a single wire. It simply reports the RPMs of… not sure really. It was always showing about 2,000. I disconnected that from the CPU_Fan. I connected the radiator fan closest to the radiator input/output tubes to the CPU_Fan and the second radiator fan to the CPU_Opt port. I then disconnected the USB header on the pump from the motherboard. I left the SATA power connected. You need that for the pump motor. It no worky for sure if you disconnect that.

I ran the AI Suite III fan profiler and then allowed the motherboard to actively manage the fans. It is much quieter now and the temperature is as lows as it ever was. I uninstalled the Corsair Link software and my system has been running well.

Intel Core i7-4770K 3.5GHz LGA 1150 Quad-Core CPU
Corsair Hydro Series H100i CPU Water Cooler
Asus Maximus VI Hero Motherboard
G.SKILL Trident X Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3 2400 Memory
MSI Gaming GeForce GTX 770 TF 2GD5/OC Video Card
Samsung 840 EVO 500GB SSD
Cooler Master Silent Pro Gold Series 1000W Power Supply
Corsair Obsidian Series 550D Black Case

[Chino]

In the past, Corsair Link wouldn't play nice with AI Suite. It was either use one or the other but not both at the same time. If a user opt to use the Corsair Link software, he'd install his fans into the CPU block like recommended. But if he prefers to use AI Suite or the BIOS to control his fans, he can connect them directly to the motherboard fan headers like you did.

The USB cable coming from the H100i is used to control the LEDs and fan speed if I'm not mistaken. The constant 2000RPM reading you're seeing is probably the speed for the pump. Since it is cannot be adjusted by the user you can connect it to any fan header and have it run at 100%.

[HiVizMan]

Nice share of information my friend and Chino is correct the pump speed is not controllable.

[Vheom]

Did you managed to connect without problems your H100i to the Corsair Link?

Mine just wont show up on the corsair link. Any clues on what may be causing it?

I'm using the same motherboard.

[pills]

I have the same setup save for a 4670k. I've been using Link and honestly haven't had any issues with it, it does feel a bit unfamiliar and confusing but for the most part no issues. As far as noise go did you try changing the various fan profiles? You can select each of the two h100i fans and choose between quite/balanced/performance/default/max speed/set RPM/set %

[Hopper64]

I'm using the H100i too with my M6E. I had similar concerns with fan noise, so I bought 4 PWM SP120 Corsair fans and simply never installed the stock fans that came with the H100i. I really haven't noticed a big problem with fan noise with this combination.

The corsair link software is another issue. I originally installed the corsair link software with my first windows 8 build and set the pump led and the fan profile to balanced (I think). But when windows 8.1 came out, people were reporting all kinds of problems, so I never reinstalled the corsair link software in 8.1 at all. Device manager had an entry for corsair link and stated a driver was not installed, but so what? The pump and fans were functioning quite well without the software as it was set in firmware from my prior windows 8 build. If you look at the corsair forums, there's a long discussion on the beta link software. The beta has been there about 3 months and there are all kinds of problems reported. I didn't even bother to install the beta as the hardware was working fine. My temps on the CPU have been OK. And the problems reported with the corsair link are more problematic to me when you look at the various posts because people are not outlining their hardware and software to determine a common issue. It was very confusing to me.

So I gave up similar to DoGood and recently simply removed the corsair link cable from the pump block and the corresponding USB header connection on the M6E. Device manager has no entry for a driver for a corsair link device and the hardware works well without all the software headaches. The software seemed a bit flaky to me anyway even in windows 8.

So I agree with the OP on this, except my fans are still connected to the pump block and seem to work quite well.

[clubfoot]

I connected mine to the usb port at the ROG_EXT connector USB1314.

[Hopper64]

A little off topic, but for my next build, trying to avoid all the issues above, I am looking at this:

http://www.coolermaster.com/cooling/cpu-liquid-cooler/nepton-280l/

But using these fans:

http://www.noctua.at/main.php?show=productview&products_id=65&lng=en

I don't really know if this will work, but I may give it a go.

[Magic815]

I've been recently having some issues (BSOD) that seem to point to Corsair Link and the AI Suite. Reading online, it does seem like these two programs tend to not work well together. Like you, I've begun to think I should just get rid of Corsair Link altogether. As for right now, we're almost 6 months later and they still don't have a fully working release of Corsair Link for Win 8.1.

Before I try your method of attaching the H100i fans to the MoBo (I have your exact CPU and MoBo), I had a couple questions:
- By disconnecting the pump from CPU_FAN, what becomes the "check" for if the H100i pump ever fails? I'd hate for the pump to die one day down the road and fry my CPU because the MoBo had no way to indicate to me that the pump had stopped running.
- I see the stock H100i fans are only 3 pin. When I plug them into CPU_FAN and CPU_OPT, is it definitely able to control the RPM speed on these? I thought I read somewhere that the fans run at some constant speed and can't be adjusted.

Thanks!

[kwelz]

Magic815 wrote:
I've been recently having some issues (BSOD) that seem to point to Corsair Link and the AI Suite. Reading online, it does seem like these two programs tend to not work well together. Like you, I've begun to think I should just get rid of Corsair Link altogether. As for right now, we're almost 6 months later and they still don't have a fully working release of Corsair Link for Win 8.1.

Before I try your method of attaching the H100i fans to the MoBo (I have your exact CPU and MoBo), I had a couple questions:
- By disconnecting the pump from CPU_FAN, what becomes the "check" for if the H100i pump ever fails? I'd hate for the pump to die one day down the road and fry my CPU because the MoBo had no way to indicate to me that the pump had stopped running.
- I see the stock H100i fans are only 3 pin. When I plug them into CPU_FAN and CPU_OPT, is it definitely able to control the RPM speed on these? I thought I read somewhere that the fans run at some constant speed and can't be adjusted.

Thanks!

The fans that come with the H100i are 4 pin.