A Custom Loop LCS for a Compact PC? Corsair Floats Hydro X XD3 Pump/Reservoir
by Anton Shilov on February 26, 2020 10:00 AM EST
Corsair has unveiled its new Hydro X XD3 RGB pump/reservoir combo, which is designed for building ultra-compact custom loop liquid cooling systems for smaller enthusiast-class PCs. As SFF gaming rigs are getting rather popular these days, Corsair’s pump/reservoir is poised to become a success among the target audience.
The Corsair Hydro X series XD3 RGB pump/reservoir combo measures 114 mm × 114 mm × 58 mm, allowing it to fit easily into many form-factor PC cases, such as Corsair’s own 280X. The device uses the Xylem DDC 3.2 PWM9 pump and includes standard G1/4-inch BSPP ports, a 180 ml reservoir, an integrated temperature sensor that measures coolant temperatures and allows automatic cooling control when working with an iCUE Commander Pro controller.
The XD3 device can be paired with Corsair’s CPU and GPU water blocks as well as various radiators (preferably compact ones). Like other pieces of hardware for enthusiasts from the company, the XD3 pump/reservoir has 16 addressable RGB LEDs that can be controlled using Corsair’s iCUE software.
Corsair’s Hydro X series XD3 RGB pump/reservoir combo will be available shortly. Corsair has not announced pricing at this time.
Related Reading:
- The Corsair Hydro X Custom Water Cooling Review, on a Ryzen 9 3950X
- Corsair's Hydro X: Making Custom Loop Water Cooling More Mainstream
- Corsair Unveils New iCUE RGB Pro XT Liquid CPU Coolers: 240, 280 & 360mm
- Corsair Announces Crystal 280X RGB Case: Micro-ATX
Source: Corsair
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Valantar - Sunday, March 1, 2020 - link
It's not a waterblock, just a pump/res combo unit. No cold plate involved.Dug - Wednesday, February 26, 2020 - link
I would have to see more pictures in cases. Looking at all of this, you aren't saving any space or weight compared to a single air cooler. And with air you get rid of pump noise.PeachNCream - Thursday, February 27, 2020 - link
Yes, but lowering temps that are already well below the point of concern even further gives some people comfort and/or bragging rights along with the perception of better performance due to not-proven longer sustained periods of time at higher boost clocks. It's less about saving anything and mroe about being a more stylish hobbyist. Think hair extensions, golden belt buckles, or heel lifts, but for PCs instead.Valantar - Sunday, March 1, 2020 - link
I moved to a full custom loop partly to get rid of a whiny pump on my Fury X, but also to get maximum cooling at the lowest possible noise levels in a compact(-ish) case. There's no way I could sustain the noise levels I currently see from my H200i with air cooling, mostly as any air cooled GPU no matter how overbuilt its cooler would inevitably be louder under load than my current three 120mm fans.Bavor - Friday, April 10, 2020 - link
I had a NH-D14 and I couldn't reach anything around the CPU without removing the heat sink. I wanted to plug in another case fan to the fan header on the top of the motherboard and had to remove the heat sink. I wanted to add more RAM, so I had to remove the heat sink because it blocked two RAM slots. I wanted to change the rear fan on my case and had to remove the whatsit so I could reach the fan header. The NH-D14 is massive and takes up a lot of room inside the case. I switched to a 360mm AIO and my CPU temperatures under a 30+ minute sustained rendering load dropped 4-5C and I can reach everything around the top half of the motherboard without removing the CPU cooler.On a previous PC, I had a large air cooler and it damaged the motherboard when I picked up the PC and carried it from an upstairs bedroom downstairs to a new home office. Just walking down the stairs caused enough vibration/impact that the motherboard got damaged. The top PCIEx16 slot and 2 RAM slots wouldn't work after that. Sure its my fault for not removing the CPU heat sink, but I never expected walking a short distance would cause that much damage. I've seen something similar happen when a person brought their mATX build to a local gaming shops LAN party. The motherboard was damage in the 2 mile car ride to the shop because of the large air cooler mounted on the motherboard. I doubt the water block form a custom loop or AIO would cause that much of a problem.
I swapped the NH-D14 into another PC with an EVGA Hybrid card that has its own AIR water cooler. I ran into the issue that the hot air from the NH-D14 caused the GPU to run hot because it was blowing directly at the rear fan area where the GPU radiator and fan were mounted. Luckily, I could mount the GPU radiator to the front of the case. However, that's not an option in all cases depending on the case size.
There are more benefits to water cooling than appearance or bragging rights. There are a lot of convenience and performance reasons.
Valantar - Wednesday, February 26, 2020 - link
For a "compact" solution, that thing is rather massive. Essentially two 120mm fans stacked on top of each other with some extra thickness for good measure.Hxx - Wednesday, February 26, 2020 - link
how is this better than something like this?https://www.formulamod.com/bykski-b-ddc-itn-high-p...
And these guys I actually trust. Corsair after seeing how they designed their gpu block with 2 screws on the manifold and plastic instead of pmma, I really don't trust
Lord of the Bored - Thursday, February 27, 2020 - link
Is it worth pointing out that PMMA is a plastic?Hxx - Friday, February 28, 2020 - link
Pmma is different than injection molded plastic even though both are “plastics”Lord of the Bored - Monday, March 2, 2020 - link
That really depends on how the plexiglass was molded, doesn't it?If I recall, Corsair uses nylon because it is easier to work with in a mass production situation. Solid nylon is pretty durable(and more crack-resistant than plexiglass).