Best AIO Water Cooling?

[Tweed]

What are some of the best and "affordable" AIO water coolers? I know of the NZXT x61 and Corsair H110i gtx, and that's about it :/.

[HPWebcamAble]

The two that you mentioned are some of the best, I don't know if you'd consider them affordable though.

[The_Denks]

4 minutes ago, Tweed said:

What are some of the best and "affordable" AIO water coolers? I know of the NZXT x61 and Corsair H110i gtx, and that's about it :/.

I would have said the H110I V2 over the GTX. Better pump and customizability

[Dschijn]

Best? EK Predator, but not really affordable

[Tweed]

1 hour ago, Dschijn said:

Best? EK Predator, but not really affordable

For the EK Predator, do we have to replace the water since it's an expandable system? Can i replace the stock fans on them? They don't have a 280 do they only 240 and 360? My case is the inwin 805, so i dont think they'll fit.

[Tweed]

I'm having trouble deciding whether to go aio water cooling or air cooling. NZXT x61 or Phanteks PH-TC14S. Here is my build: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/Yf9bnQ. I like the profiling of the aio water coolers, fits very well with my case. If I go aio, then i would obviously replace the stock fans to a quieter choice like Noctua or Phanteks, if that makes it more quiet. For air cooling, it fits my needs, cheap, performance is well ok, i dont have to worry about it failing. Thoughts and opinions?

[Fulgrim]

If you want good cooling, whilst being quiet, then you want the Noctua NH-D15.

 

I ditched my H110i GTX, for my NH-D15 because i couldn't stand the noise levels.

[Tweed]

1 minute ago, Fulgrim said:

If you want good cooling, whilst being quiet, then you want the Noctua NH-D15.

 

I ditched my H110i GTX, for my NH-D15 because i couldn't stand the noise levels.

I would choose that air cooler but it doesnt fit in my case. is the performance better than the h100i?

[Fulgrim]

3 minutes ago, Tweed said:

I would choose that air cooler but it doesnt fit in my case. is the performance better than the h100i?

NH-D15 beats the H100i in both temperatures, and noise levels (MUCH quieter).

 

What case you got?

[Tweed]

1 minute ago, Fulgrim said:

NH-D15 beats the H100i in both temperatures, and noise levels (MUCH quieter).

 

What case you got?

InWin 805  https://www.in-win.com/en/gaming-chassis/805

[tk421]

Personally, I prefer air cooling. I've water cooled, both custom loop and AIO, and I still come back to air. I can get better overclocks with water but it didn't result in a large performance difference in games for me and I would rather my PC be quieter. Nothing wrong with water cooling though. Just know that it's not exactly quiet.

[Trav_X]

Air = reliability, consistency, price, and longevity

 

Water Cooling = extreme OC'ing, enthusiast, expensive

 

whatever you choose, Air cooling is usually a simpler and a good enough choice for most people. Noctua, be quiet! and Cooler Master make the best coolers imho. AIO's do also have a rare tendency to either leak, evaporate, or break, whilst a air cooler has no problems besides the fan dying which doesn't ever happen cause you'll upgrade before its life ends. Air cooling is safer, but if you're an 'extreme overclocker' then get an AIO.

[Tweed]

1 minute ago, Trav_X said:

Air = reliability, consistency, price, and longevity

 

Water Cooling = extreme OC'ing, enthusiast, expensive

 

whatever you choose, Air cooling is usually a simpler and a good enough choice for most people. Noctua, be quiet! and Cooler Master make the best coolers imho. AIO's do also have a rare tendency to either leak, evaporate, or break, whilst a air cooler has no problems besides the fan dying which doesn't ever happen cause you'll upgrade before its life ends. Air cooling is safer, but if you're an 'extreme overclocker' then get an AIO.

what does "extreme" mean. like my cpu i plan to get is i7 6700k 4.0GHz. and im new to pc building so i may or may not over clock, havent grasped the concept of it yet.

[Fulgrim]

7 minutes ago, Tweed said:

InWin 805  https://www.in-win.com/en/gaming-chassis/805

Ah shite, liquid cooling is your best bet for performance then.

But personally i'd say get the Phanteks PH-TC14CS if you prefer silence. The temps will still be good, and it'll be a lot quieter than a liquid AIO.

[Tweed]

Just now, Fulgrim said:

Ah shite, liquid cooling is your best bet for performance then.

But personally i'd say get the Phanteks PH-TC14CS if you prefer silence. The temps will still be good, and it'll be a lot quieter than a liquid AIO.

yeah the only reason i considered aio water cooling is because this case is know to have bad airflow and it would look better with one.

[Trav_X]

23 minutes ago, Tweed said:

what does "extreme" mean. like my cpu i plan to get is i7 6700k 4.0GHz. and im new to pc building so i may or may not over clock, havent grasped the concept of it yet.

Extreme means like pushing the limits of your processor. Like trying to OC past like 4.6-4.7 stable OC on a 6700k. If you just want to push a little COMFORTABLE performance out of your processor, like going to 4.2-4.3 GHz, air should be able to keep your chip cool and stable. But if you really want to bust a nut and spray your juices all over your chip (figuratively) and get as far into that OC as you can, AIO's are the best option besides a full $600+ liquid cooling setup. Personally, if you're new, just go Air cooling and upgrade if you absolutely feel like you need the extra headroom for OC'ing. I'm experienced in PCs mostly and I don't push my OC's too far, just for stability and cool running performance and silence on a gaming rig. The clock speed of your CPU won't affect THAT much in games. 

[tk421]

26 minutes ago, Tweed said:

yeah the only reason i considered aio water cooling is because this case is know to have bad airflow and it would look better with one.

Keep in mind that bad air flow won't necessarily be fixed by adding an AIO cooler. Radiators provide a good bit or resistance to air flow, just as a heatsink would.

[Tweed]

9 minutes ago, Trav_X said:

Extreme means like pushing the limits of your processor. Like trying to OC past like 4.6-4.7 stable OC on a 6700k. If you just want to push a little COMFORTABLE performance out of your processor, like going to 4.2-4.3 GHz, air should be able to keep your chip cool and stable. But if you really want to bust a nut and spray your juices all over your chip (figuratively) and get as far into that OC as you can, AIO's are the best option besides a full $600+ liquid cooling setup. Personally, if you're new, just go Air cooling and upgrade if you absolutely feel like you need the extra headroom for OC'ing. I'm experienced in PCs mostly and I don't push my OC's too far, just for stability and cool running performance and silence on a gaming rig. The clock speed of your CPU won't affect THAT much in games. 

and you yourself use an aircooling? so you recommend noctua, bequiet!, cooler master. im going on a batman theme'd build so as much as i would love to go with noctua, their colors don't blend well with my almost all black/gray colored build. people have recommended phanteks, do you agree?

[Tweed]

1 hour ago, tk421 said:

Personally, I prefer air cooling. I've water cooled, both custom loop and AIO, and I still come back to air. I can get better overclocks with water but it didn't result in a large performance difference in games for me and I would rather my PC be quieter. Nothing wrong with water cooling though. Just know that it's not exactly quiet.

what kind of CPU do you have?

[tk421]

4 minutes ago, Tweed said:

what kind of CPU do you have?

My main rig is an i7-4770K. No overclock at the moment because I wasn't seeing any noticeable difference.

[Tweed]

50 minutes ago, tk421 said:

My main rig is an i7-4770K. No overclock at the moment because I wasn't seeing any noticeable difference.

So even though I have plans to get the i7-6700k, arguably the highest end cpu there is today, i should still air cool? i dont see any builds using air cooling that have 6700k like on pcpartpicker.

[tk421]

Really depends on if you are going to overclock or not. Aside from the cooling capabilities, AIO coolers have become kind of a fad even for people who run at stock speeds (I'm guilty of this in the past). It does look pretty cool, though. Air cooling used to be the only way to overclock but now that temps run so high when CPUs are OC'ed, water cooling has become standard. It just all depends on whether or not you overclock and if you want that "wow" factor or not.

[Tweed]

1 minute ago, tk421 said:

Really depends on if you are going to overclock or not. Aside from the cooling capabilities, AIO coolers have become kind of a fad even for people who run at stock speeds (I'm guilty of this in the past). It does look pretty cool, though. Air cooling used to be the only way to overclock but now that temps run so high when CPUs are OC'ed, water cooling has become standard. It just all depends on whether or not you overclock and if you want that "wow" factor or not.

I probably won't overclock knowing the fact that I don't really know what it is, besides that it gives your computer that "kick" or boost to perform "better." I mean, 4.0 GHz on the i7 6700k is already fast isn't it, 0.3 or more GHz wont make it that faster will it.

[tk421]

1 minute ago, Tweed said:

I probably won't overclock knowing the fact that I don't really know what it is, besides that it gives your computer that "kick" or boost to perform "better." I mean, 4.0 GHz on the i7 6700k is already fast isn't it, 0.3 or more GHz wont make it that faster will it.

In my experience, no. We used to be able to get tons more performance WAY back in the day, but much less now. Overclocks can certainly help if you are running at very high resolutions, or if you're using the PC as a workstation for rendering and such. Then you'll certainly see an improvement. But for your average gamer, not much if any difference in most games. These days, I think it's more of an enthusiast hobby than anything. Still cool though. And I still enjoy it whenever I get a new CPU. (Gotta see what she can do! lol)

[Tweed]

1 hour ago, tk421 said:

Really depends on if you are going to overclock or not. Aside from the cooling capabilities, AIO coolers have become kind of a fad even for people who run at stock speeds (I'm guilty of this in the past). It does look pretty cool, though. Air cooling used to be the only way to overclock but now that temps run so high when CPUs are OC'ed, water cooling has become standard. It just all depends on whether or not you overclock and if you want that "wow" factor or not.

Ok thanks tk for helping me out. I was pretty firm on water cooling just so it looks good in my case InWin 805, but I'm certain im going to go air cooling now. i just have to research now which air cooler is worth my investment and fits my case lol.