Corsair iCUE XC7 RGB Elite LCD CPU Water Block Review (2024)

• The Corsair iCUE XC7 RGB Elite LCD CPU block comes in two color options and costs $199.99 directly from Corsair as of the date of this review.

The Corsair iCUE XC7 RGB Elite LCD is very similar to the iCUE Link XC7 RGB Elite we saw before. The two blocks share a lot, be it the design language and the positioning of the ports, the cooling engine with Corsair's new hexa-flow design, and even the cold plate has 120 tightly packed fins. The XC7 RGB Elite appears to have more fins in a square layout compared to the more rectangular version here, but suffice to say that these two were near-identical when it comes to coolant flow restriction—about average when compared to everything tested in this roundup—and thermal performance where both did well relative to most others. The difference between these two blocks was quite obvious in the performance per dollar chart on the previous page though, which makes sense when you realize the iCUE Link XC7 RGB Elite costs $105 now compared to the $200 for the subject of this review. You could argue the former does necessitate an iCUE Link hub on top, but then you also get a more unified ecosystem in case you wish to go all in. The iCUE XC7 RGB Elite LCD is a standalone device that has everything needed out of the box, and in return you get a fancy display in the middle. Both of these are top sellers for Corsair, if their web shop is anything to go by, so clearly the product segmentation is working.

When you realize that pretty much all the CPU blocks sold in 2024 perform close enough to each other, CPU block makers have to find other venues to differentiate their offerings. Some do it by simply asking for less money than others, a few go the other way with more premium materials and designs at a higher cost. There are others still who have tried unique features such as a customizable mounting pressure, but unfortunately that did not seem to have caught on—perhaps it was too complex to manufacture on scale, or too involved for the average end user. RGB LEDs are ubiquitous these days, and there have also been multiple blocks with a small screen to display useful metrics for a while too. Corsair, with the iCUE Link XC7 RGB Elite LCD, has packed both LEDs and a giant display to the point where these cover effectively the entire top of the CPU block as you see them. The screen is the unique selling point here with the software customization helping back up the hardware on offer. $200 isn't the end of the world when it comes to expensive CPU blocks either, although you absolutely have to commit to making use of the screen to justify this. I suspect this will end up serving a niche audience, especially considering those who have seen AIO coolers with such screens on the pump/block unit for a while now and wanted to have such a feature in a DIY cooling solution, but, if history is anything to go by, most others will no doubt complain about the asking price and iCUE implementation.

For those wondering about the absence of an innovation award here, there are other brands offering a similar feature set. Even if I have not tested those products yet, their existence rules out the display being an innovative feature.