Corsair Unveils Hydro PRO Coolers, Carbide SPEC-OMEGA Chassis & Mammoth AX1600i PSU

Whether you’re looking to upgrade or build a new PC, or simply happen to be a peripheral freak, Corsair pretty much has you covered this CES. We’re tackling peripherals in another post, so for this one, I am going to focus on the components that Corsair announced outside of its press briefing.

I’ve become a big fan of Corsair’s AIO coolers over the course of Techgage’s life, but as of late, with AMD’s and Intel’s biggest, hottest CPUs, I’ve been craving some new options. This CES, we’ve got them, in the form of the PRO series. The first models to hit the lineup are the 360mm H150i PRO, and 280mm H115i PRO.

Corsair Hydro Series H150i PRO AIO CPU Cooler

Corsair sought to make its latest line of coolers look better than their predecessors, and I’d like to say the company has succeeded. These coolers naturally include RGB, and Corsair says it offers the best lighting of any one of its coolers. Beyond that, the block is shrouded in ball blasted aluminum for a slick look.

Corsair Hydro Series H115i PRO AIO CPU Cooler

What makes the Pro series notably better than the previous ones is the inclusion of the company’s ML (magnetic levitation) series fans – a mere change that can greatly reduce noise levels. To read more about these fans, check out our previous look.

New to the Carbide series is a new mid-tower: SPEC-OMEGA. This chassis comes in three color options: black on white, red on black, and black (which happens to have some red on it). SPEC-OMEGA has obviously unique styling, which is finished off nicely with a tempered glass side. Even part of the front uses tempered glass, which isn’t something we see much (ignoring the Crystal series which sports 100% tempered glass fronts).

It’s not obvious simply by looking at them, but these chassis do in fact have LED lighting via a light strip running down the front, and an included 120mm fan at the back, also equipped with the same color (these are not RGB).

Finally, there’s the AX1600i, a PSU with such high wattage capabilities, it’s not hard to figure out who the target market is (Corsair’s selling its adult hardware to miners… for shame!).

The AX1600i is designed for no-nonsense computing – the ultimate in stability, and capability. This PSU is equipped with Gallium Nitride transistors (allows for denser packaging over silicon transistors), helping the unit achieve the rare 80 PLUS Titanium efficiency rating. Despite its huge wattage, the entire PSU measures just 200mm in length.

If you’ve been familiar with Corsair’s AX series already, you may have known about its top-end 1500W model. Thus, 100W tacked on might not seem that impressive, but there are a few things to bear in mind. Corsair went over this PSU with a fine-tooth comb and figured out ways to optimize. Ultimately, the AX1600i is “5 star” in efficiency, ripple suppression, noise levels, and voltage regulation (vs. 4-star across the board for AX1500i). If you’re equipped with Corsair Link, you’ll be able to tweak the PSU to your liking, such as if you would prefer multi-rail over single.

Fortunately, this is one of those CESes where Corsair is able to deliver its product to market very quickly, so we already have pricing information. The big H150i PRO cooler is $170, while the H115i PRO is $140. The Carbide SPEC-OMEGA chassis is priced at a clean $100, while the monstrous 1600W AX1600i sells for $450.