Installation
We mounted the CPU wterblock on to a ASRock PG SONIC motherboard. Installation was OK and everything went accordingly with no issues at all. However, the amount of cables from the fans and the CPU waterblock was a bit of a nightmare. A total of 8-9 cables, all of which had to be conneted to the iCUE Commander Core unit. 😐
We then mounted 360 radiator on the top of the NZXT H6 Slow chassis. No issues here. Everything fitted nicely.
If you look at the last photo above, you’ll see the iCUE Commander Core unit with all the cables plugged in, which includes the SATA power. I’m not really a big fan of fan/RGB controllers. I just can’t stand all those cables … arrrghh!
Once all those cables are connected properly, and you’ve done your best in cable management …. only then can you power up your PC, and enjoy the fruits of your hard labour!
Corsair iCUE Software
The Corsair iCUE software is intuitive and simple to use. You can use it to control the LCD display and synchronize your PC with other iCUE devices, such as RGB cooling fans, keyboards, mice etc. You can also use it to monitor fan and pump speeds, clock frequencies, utilization, temperatures and more.
CORSAIR’s latest iCUE software with Murals enables you to create the ultimate RGB setup that not only fits your style, but can be dynamically changed to match your favorite visuals or digital content. iCUE Murals is easy, intuitive, fun, and the color options are nearly limitless.
Here are some of the things you’re able to do with the iCUE software.
- Virtually Unlimited Customization
- Synchronized Lighting Effects
- Monitor System Temps
- Set Custom Fan Curves
- Create RGB Temperature Alerts
- Command All Your Compatible CORSAIR Devices
- Third-Party Motherboard Support
- Elgato Stream Deck Integration
- Philips Hue and Nanoleaf Smart Lighting Control
You can download Corsair’s iCUE software here.
Test setup and Testing Methodology
The system used for testing is listed in the table below. Ambient temperatures were kept at 24 degrees Celsius +/- 1 degree. We used the included thermal paste, which I think is more than adequate. The fan speed was set to default. The idle temperatures were recorded after 10 minutes of idle and max temperatures were recorded after a 5 minute torture test using Adia 64 CPU System Stability Test and recording the Cores values and taking the average.
| CPU | Intel Core i9-13900K |
| Cooling | Corsair iCUE H150i Elite LCD XT AIO CPU Cooler Liquid Cooler |
| Motherboard | ASRock Z790 PG SONIC |
| Cooling Fans | Corsair AF120 RGB (included) |
| Ram | Corsair Dominator Titanium DDR5-7200 32GB Memory Kit |
| SSD | Lexar NM800 Pro 2TB |
| PSU | Gigabyte UD1000GM PG5 (Rev. 2.0) 80 Plus Gold 1000W |
| VGA | Gigabyte GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER |
| OS | Windows 11 |
Idle Temps
For our tests, we used our Intel Core i9-13900K processor which is know to run fairly hot, and has a default TDP of 125W. With no workload on the CPU … idle temps was around 40 degrees Celsius. Nothing really out of the ordinary here.
Load Temps
At 100% CPU load, the CPU temperatures reached a high of 95 degrees Celsius and 98 degrees Celsius for the CPU package. The E-Cores maxed out at 95 degrees Celsius, while the P-Cores hit between 95 to 100 degrees Celsius,
These high temperature readings were no surprise to us. That’s because we all know that Intel’s 13th and 14th Gen processors run extremely hot due to its insanely high Turbo Boost TDP of 253+W (full load).
We highly recommend you use a 360 AIO cooler for Intel’s 13th and 14th Gen processors.
Now lets move on to the Conclusion and Verdict!
