Hi. I am new to this forum. I have just bough my first liquid cooling system for my PC, Hydro Series H80i. I am satisfied with my purchase and these are my first impressions about the product and the software to control it.
In a nutshell I would say that it is a great product concept, not so well implemented.
About Corsair Link
The concept is fantastic. A control center from which you can read all temperatures and control all cooling and lighting devices (fans, pumps, leds) in your PC. The graphical design is really awesome. However:
1.- Software soundness and reliability has a significant margin for improvement. Just read the posts in this section. Sensors appear and disappear without a reason, incorrect readings, crashes, incompatibility with other monitoring software, etc.
2.- The logic architecture is extremely rigid. Users should be allowed to create or delete their own groups (not necessarily one group per sensor), and arrange all sensors, fans and leds in whatever manner they wish. :idea: A good idea would also be the possibility to create user defined "virtual" sensors by averaging the actual readings from other hardware sensors.Also the user should be able to create whatever logic to control the devices, maybe with some safety boundaries not to damage certain hardware.
3.- A lot of sensors missing. A popular monitoring software is recognizing in my PC a total of 25 different temps. CL shows just 10, 2 of which are unusable (0ºC and 1ºC permanently).
4.- The software should be able to control ALL fans (as far as they are 4-pin PWM), including GPU, independently if they are connected to the H80i pump or not. Otherwise it will never be the complete thing.
About the H80i cooler
Very good design, compact and very efficient. Does its job very well. However:
1.- The connectors (all connectors) to the pump should be inserted vertically, not horizontally as they are really difficult to see and insert in the right location once the pump is in place.
2.- The idea to use a proprietary "Y" cable to connect fans is not a good idea. It is a type of cable really difficult to locate (still looking for a spare one). Why not include some extra 4pin PWM sockets in the pump straight away?
3.- The pump should also have additional sockets to connect led stripes, without the need to purchase an additional device (the pump should act as a Link hardware control center).
Thanks for keeping this forum up and running. :biggrin: