Custom water cooling just took another step towards being a viable option for many more system builders, thanks to Corsair. With its Corsair CH405i iCUE Link water cooling kit, it has provided a single-purchase route to water cooling your PC, but not only that, each component only needs a single cable to connect it all together.
Corsair has previously announced individual Corsair iCUE Link compatible water cooling components but the new XH405i is the first complete kit to be updated with the technology. No iCUE Link kit is yet to grace our best CPU cooler and best PC fan guides but it’s probably only a matter of time.
For those unfamiliar, iCUE Link was the first of now several solutions for providing a single cable or single connection between cooling components, replacing the fan controllers, RGB hubs, and individual cables to connect each component. So, instead of a 360mm AIO cooler requiring a couple of cables (power and pump control) for the waterblock and three individual fan cables for each fan, just a single cable is require for the whole unit. Fans can also be daisy-chained together without extra cables – an idea that predates iCUE Link and that Lian Li pioneered.
Meanwhile, Corsair’s Hydro X series water cooling kits have also been around for a while, including everything you need to plumb your gaming PC, including water blocks, tubing, connectors, coolant, a radiator, fans and more. The new XH405i kit includes a CPU water block that’s compatible with all the CPUs on our best gaming CPU list and you can also buy the new iCUE Link XG7 GPU water block that’s compatible with various brands of RTX 40 series GPUs. These deliver on their iCUE Link branding by having single-cable connection for the 16 addressable LEDs mounted thereon.
RGBs are also abound in the rest of the system with the pump/reservoir, CPU waterblock, and trio of 120mm fans all sporting plenty of lights. And again, the key thing here is that you only need a single iCUE Link controller unit hidden round the back of your motherboard tray to control and power all the fans, pumps, and LEDs.
Completing the kit is the tubing, connections, iCUE Link hub, coolant, and even tools you’ll need (for cutting and fitting the tubing).
The only real downside, then, is the price. At $699.99 for the full kit, without a GPU block – that’s another $229.99 – it’s not the cheapest way to cool your gaming PC. However, full custom-loop water cooling has never been cheap and this is perhaps the easiest route yet to making it happen.
For those not with enough cash to go the water cooling route or who just prefer an easier leak-free life, you can instead check out our best CPU cooler and best PC fan guides for some cooling upgrade inspiration.
