CORSAIR XC7 RGB ELITE LCD: Everything you need to know

Of course, with most of our Hydro X products receiving the iCUE LINK treatment, we had to update the XC7 RGB ELITE LCD water block, too. It's not exactly part of the iCUE LINK ecosystem, as it doesn't use our connector, instead utilizing a USB Type-C connection, but we've improved it in other ways.

In this article we will run you through why the XC7 RGB ELITE LCD is now our most advanced CPU Water Block ever, and why we are incredibly excited about it!

The XC7 RGB ELITE LCD comes in two colors: Gray and white. Major visual changes from the previous generation includes:

• Inlet and outlet ports have been moved to the right side of the block (with the bottom port being the inlet).
• Mounting screws now have a Philips head instead of thumbscrews making them easier to mount.

Let's dive into some of the other features that makes the XC7 RGB ELITE LCD the most advanced CORSAIR CPU Water Block to date:

The 2.1-inch IPS LCD Display is most apparent and coolest feature of the XC7 RGB ELITE LCD. With this screen you are able to display multiple temperature sources from your system, pick an image you particularly love, or even display GIFs. It is an incredibly convenient way to quickly monitor your systems temperatures during full screen gaming, or just for having looping gifs of dancing cats—we won't judge you here.

In the box you will find:

• 1 x CORSAIR iCUE XC7 RGB ELITE LCD CPU Water Block
• 1 x AMD AM4/AM5 mounting bracket
• 1 x Intel LGA 1700 mounting bracket
• 1 x Intel LGA 1700 backplate
• 1 x Double sided tape to secure the standard AMD backplate in place (optional)
• 1 x 60cm 90 degree USB Type-C to internal USB 2.0 cable

The new and improved cooling chamber on the XC7 RGB ELITE LCD effectively splits the flow down into three individual jet-plate inlets. We call this a hexa-flow cooling engine as we have also added additional outlet channels resulting in a quicker removal of heat from the cooling fins.

Additionally, the XC7 RGB ELITE LCD also has a built in thermal sensor in the cold plate, giving you accurate temperature readings from your system.

It is worth noting that if you have an XD5 RGB Elite, or other sensors directly connected to the coolant in your loop, these might give slightly different readings as this sensor is located on the cold plate as opposed to in direct contact with the coolant.

As illustrated in the above pictures, you can see the difference between a traditional jet plate design and our improved cooling chamber.

Having multiple outlet channels results in the coolant only touching the cooling fins for a very short time so it can more efficiently absorb heat from the cold plate, which in turn more quickly removes heat from the CPU, which is the whole point here.

The cold plate on the XC7 RGB ELITE LCD has more than 120 cooling fins, and comes with our high-performance XTM70 thermal paste pre-applied in the exact quantity needed for a thin and even thermal paste spread.

Despite the increased amount of cooling fins compared to the previous generation, we are able to keep the flow resistance of the block on the same level as previous generations thanks to the improved cooling chamber.

We have also managed to fit even more RGB LED's into the XC7 RGB ELITE LCD for a more even spread of lighting effects. All of course programmable, and automatically recognized in iCUE.

Due to the built in LCD display, the XC7 RGB ELITE LCD connects directly to your motherboard via the included 90-degree USB Type-C to internal USB 2.0. Note that the XC7 RGB Elite LCD does not require an iCUE LINK cable. It might be a concern for some that iCUE LINK components requiring internal USB connections will take up all your internal USB 2.0 headers. For this, it is worth noting that each components only takes up "half" a header, so you can have both a iCUE LINK System Hub and a XC7 RGB Elite LCD on the same header.