Is there any point to using an AIO other than aesthetics?

[Rusty_Shackleford]

Kind of want to get one, looking at my d15 is getting boring.

[Aytex]

it lookc c00l. just get a k0l aio and put led's on everything

[sms1202]

It gives a massive temperature decrease over any air cooling solution and gives better overclocks

Probably everybody knows it

Were you living under a rock?

[Aytex]

It gives a massive temperature decrease over any air cooling solution and gives better overclocks

Probably everybody knows it

Were you living under a rock?

and u can do all of this on a rlly gud air c00ler dou

[Rusty_Shackleford]

It gives a massive temperature decrease over any air cooling solution and gives better overclocks

Probably everybody knows it

Were you living under a rock?

 

The benchmarks in this video beg to differ.

[Bob Jim]

It gives a massive temperature decrease over any air cooling solution and gives better overclocks

Probably everybody knows it

Were you living under a rock?

Wrong. Even the best AiO in the market, the h110i GTX, only gets 2-4C lower than the best air cooler, the Noctua NH D15, and it costs a lot more.

[sms1202]

and u can do all of this on a rlly gud air c00ler dou

But the temperature dissipation of a liquid cooler is not easy to match with only dual tower or triple tower(If they exist) able to match the AIO cooling solution to a noticeable degree 

[Dobbsjr]

Kind of want to get one, looking at my d15 is getting boring.

Truth to be told aftermarket coolers and custom water cooling loops don't make any sense. There isn't a way to justify the cost.

[Aytex]

But the temperature dissipation of a liquid cooler is not easy to match with only dual tower or triple tower(If they exist) able to match the AIO cooling solution to a noticeable degree 

hah... not really.... they kinda in the same temps buddy

[Elfuego]

Truth to be told aftermarket coolers and custom water cooling loops don't make any sense. There isn't a way to justify the cost.

 

Full custom loops do make a huge difference at the really high end (My 5930K stays under 50C fully loaded), but in terms of price/performance they are pretty garbage. My water loop cost almost as much as a low end PC (around £450).

[sms1202]

hah... not really.... they kinda in the same temps buddy

But, My friend got a better overclock(4.2 to 4.7) from upgrading to h100i from NH-D15

[C0LL0SS0S]

personal preference
so now stop the fight ^^

[Nacho Marco Segui]

They are smaller,so they can fit in small cases without touching,vrm heatsinks,ram and so on.Try to fit the NH-D15 in an matx mobo with an matx case

[Nacho Marco Segui]

They are smaller,so they can fit in small cases without touching vrm heatsinks,ram and so on.Try to fit the NH-D15 in an matx mobo with an matx case

[Bob Jim]

But, My friend got a better overclock(4.2 to 4.7) from upgrading to h100i from NH-D15

Something else happened there, unless his NH-D15 was not seated properly or something. You do not just get a 1/2 gigahertz overclock by changing cooler.

[0ld_Chicken]

Something else happened there, unless his NH-D15 was not seated properly or something. You do not just get a 1/2 gigahertz overclock by changing cooler.

maybe from stock to custom cooling lol.  

 

 

 

Kind of want to get one, looking at my d15 is getting boring.

 

yeah a d15 is going to do about the same clocks as a good aio but maybe be a few degrees warmer.  I've hit the same wall at 4.9GHz with my d14 as I have with 240mm AIO's.  even with the AIO radiator submurged in ice water I was only able to get 5.0GHz and even that was iffy (at best) stability wise

edit: but I totally feel you in wanting to change things up. I do that all the time for little to no benefit just because I like it

[Emkryan]

Truth to be told aftermarket coolers and custom water cooling loops don't make any sense. There isn't a way to justify the cost.

My custom loop cost about $700ish. The cooling is good, but the looks to me are worth it. Is worth what you're willing to pay to get out of it. If you want strictly piece to performance then get a d15 if you want better performance for a but more Grrr a high end aio, if you want the best of the best and money is right then go full loop

[brandishwar]

A lot of aftermarket air coolers are bulky and weigh a ton -- something I've never been comfortable having hang off a mainboard, even with a backplate trying to help hold the weight. Back in the Pentium 4 days where you bolted the cooler through to the motherboard tray, sure.

 

But the bigger reason to go with an AIO is compatibility. You'll have a lot more luck fitting an AIO into more cases. I was able to fit one into an old Antec case I bought back in 2007 simply because it had a 120mm fan mount in the back. But virtually any aftermarket air cooler that I researched wouldn't fit -- I was trying to cool an FX-8350. In terms of silence and performance, you're not going to find much difference between them anymore, though if you get an AIO with a 240mm radiator and you're not overclocking, you might be able to keep a more silent profile due to the radiator's greater ability to dissipate heat. But even if you are, you might still be able to keep a more silent profile. That'll depend on the fans that come with it.

 

Which actually brings up another important detail. Depending on how you mount the radiator, you can set it up so the heat from the CPU always leaves the case instead of being blown into it. With either you'll always need adequate ventilation into the case. But with an air cooler, you'll need to make sure the heat that is circulated into your case off the CPU cooler can also get out of the case somehow. Ideally you should mount an air cooler so it points to an exhaust fan. If you don't have any exhaust fans and you have a tower case, mount the cooler so it blows upward.

[W-L]

Kind of want to get one, looking at my d15 is getting boring.

 

Comparing between a large air cooler and Liquid cooler like the H100i gtx to what you have will give very comparable temps but the main benefit to a liquid cooler is it's ability to either immediately exhaust that hot air straight out of the case and not heat up the surrounding or to have it as an intake to get the coldest air possible for performance but heat up the interior.

[shibbs]

The reason I did a AIO watercooler is to get the heat from the CPU out of my case, without having to move a ton of air and create a lot of noise.

 

The problem with air coolers is that they dissipate the heat from the processor into your case, which will build up over time, unless you tun a ton of fans at high speeds to exhaust the air from the case. 

 

With an AIO watercooler, I only need 2 inlet fans, and one single exhaust, and never ramp them up over 1200 RPM, so they're virtually silent. These pretty much just exhaust the heat from the video card and northbridge. 

[TheMissxu]

I got my Seidon 240M for $56 ($25 MIR and 10% discount code at Newegg). At the same time, a NH-D14 would have cost $68 (10% discount code), but performs much worse (~8C or ~17% difference, although worth noting it's much quieter). Similar story with the NH-U14S (15% worse price, 10% worse thermals, better acoustics under load). I have closed back headphones, so...

 

There are many AIOs that perform well in the temp department and look cool, so they will much much more expensive.