Thinking of my first AIO for a 6700k.

[Tieox]

Hi all.

 

Looking for a £50 firm AIO for my 6700k on an h170 Pro gaming, I do not have an OC and have the whole system in an NZXT 340, I'd prefer a two 120mm fan arrangement on the intake of the front of the case, not bothered regarding RGB if it has it is a bonus!

 

I tend to buy my computer hardware from www.scan.co.uk but as this will be my first foray into AIO systems I'd like to throw myself open to advise and the experience of others.

 

 

  

[Slottr]

Please do not buy a 50£ AIO 

 

There's plenty of good air coolers at that price that will perform just as you need without leaking 

[Tieox]

Is the quality control that bad at the lower price points? if so I will certainly steer clear!.

 

On-air coolers my primary concern is them fitting in the NZXT 340 case with their height.  My current cooler is an Artic Alpine 11 Pro Rev.2 which was fine for my i5 6600 before but sees temps 85c+ when in games.

 

 

[GoldenLag]

5 minutes ago, Kierax said:

Looking for a £50 firm AIO

You cant get a good AIO at that price......

 

Get a 35£ aircooler. Like the arctic freezer 34 esports one. Which will perform better, while being quieter, not have pump hum and last but not least not leak.

[SpookyCitrus]

I would NEVER spend that low on an AIO, all of the ones in that price range are going to be garbage and definitely not worth the risk.  For your uses I would say go for a high end air cooler within your budget.

[Tieox]

I see, sodding the AIO idea off, and going from a suggestion here, got this bookmarked now.

 

https://www.scan.co.uk/products/arctic-freezer-34-esports-red-1x120mm-fan-single-tower-aluminium-fins-4x-direct-touch-copper-heatpip

[Votivee]

7 minutes ago, Kierax said:

On-air coolers my primary concern is them fitting in the NZXT 340 case with their height.

Trust me you have nothing to worry about. I have a Dark Rock Pro 4 in my S340 with no issues. The Dark Rock Pro 4 is one of the biggest air coolers on the market.

[WoodenMarker]

32 minutes ago, Kierax said:

Is the quality control that bad at the lower price points? if so I will certainly steer clear!.

 

On-air coolers my primary concern is them fitting in the NZXT 340 case with their height.  My current cooler is an Artic Alpine 11 Pro Rev.2 which was fine for my i5 6600 before but sees temps 85c+ when in games.

Most AIOs are bundled with crappy high rpm fans to win at performance / price. Although not a hard rule, they're generally not very quiet especially on the lower end. 

The S340 can fit coolers up to 161mm which includes most air coolers. 

Your current cooler should be fine for the 6700k. Are you using the default motherboard settings with core voltage left at Auto? That may result in higher voltage than necessary and be the cause of your high temps. If you haven't already, try setting the core voltage manually to 1.2v and seeing if that helps. 

[Tieox]

32 minutes ago, WoodenMarker said:

Most AIOs are bundled with crappy high rpm fans to win at performance / price. Although not a hard rule, they're generally not very quiet especially on the lower end. 

The S340 can fit coolers up to 161mm which includes most air coolers. 

Your current cooler should be fine for the 6700k. Are you using the default motherboard settings with core voltage left at Auto? That may result in higher voltage than necessary and be the cause of your high temps. If you haven't already, try setting the core voltage manually to 1.2v and seeing if that helps. 

Here is a snapshot the bios, all the voltages are set to auto.  And seem to be around 1.2v.

 

[SPARTAN VI]

There was a time when about 55GBP would get a decent AIO. Too bad Arctic doesn't make these bad boys anymore. A 120mm rad AIO for $70 USD that outperformed many 240mm rad AIOs. 

[Tieox]

When trying to alter the voltages I just get a CPU auto override error, not up on bios OC'ng so just leaving it alone for now.  

[TheTallGuy]

2 hours ago, Kierax said:

Hi all.

 

Looking for a £50 firm AIO for my 6700k on an h170 Pro gaming, I do not have an OC and have the whole system in an NZXT 340, I'd prefer a two 120mm fan arrangement on the intake of the front of the case, not bothered regarding RGB if it has it is a bonus!

 

I tend to buy my computer hardware from www.scan.co.uk but as this will be my first foray into AIO systems I'd like to throw myself open to advise and the experience of others.

 

 

  

 

 

I've got the Corsair Hydro H80i v2 in my system and its working perfectly fine. I am running the i5 8600k @4.8GHz with no problem, temps never get any higher than ~75 degrees Celcius. I would not recommend an AIO at that low of a price (£50).

[Tieox]

Thanks, been doing a bit of Aida64 stress testing, and I have found something interesting, 5-minute stress on the CPU puts the CPU at 67c maximum with a really rapid drop then the test is ended.  However, if I do the GPU and CPU then my temps head to the 80c mark on the CPU with the GPU never exceeding 72c.

 

@WoodenMarker Also the XMP profile is set to 1.2v I am unsure how to change this, but going from the above it seems excess GPU heat is being caught in the CPU and causing my temps to rise.  Going to play with the Qfan controller and the top fans speed to see if I can improve upon that.  Thanks for giving me something to investigate!

[SparkShot]

The best bang for your buck AIO that I have found is Coolermaster. Not only are you getting a quality product, you've got a great company behind it. One of my AIO coolers came with the wrong fans. I did the RMA through CM directly and they shipped a whole new unit out but allowed me to just swap the fans rather than having to completely rip the first unit out of my system.

[WoodenMarker]

6 hours ago, Kierax said:

Also the XMP profile is set to 1.2v I am unsure how to change this, but going from the above it seems excess GPU heat is being caught in the CPU and causing my temps to rise.  Going to play with the Qfan controller and the top fans speed to see if I can improve upon that.  Thanks for giving me something to investigate!

What ram are you using?

Temps being higher with the graphics card under load is normal and it means there could be improvement with the system airflow. 

Are you just using the stock case fans?

[Tieox]

9 hours ago, WoodenMarker said:

What ram are you using?

Temps being higher with the graphics card under load is normal and it means there could be improvement with the system airflow. 

Are you just using the stock case fans?

I'm using 2x8GB of Corsair Vengeance LPX 2133mhz. 

 

Case fan wise I am using Be Quiet Pure Wings 2 PWM.  

 

Spent some time in QFanControl in the bios and altered the fan profiles and added a front intake, part of the issue I am beginning to believe is that the NZXT 340 is bottlenecked on the front air intake, to the point adding more fans does not equal more airflow.  I could, however, be wrong on this. 

[WoodenMarker]

8 hours ago, Kierax said:

I'm using 2x8GB of Corsair Vengeance LPX 2133mhz. 

Case fan wise I am using Be Quiet Pure Wings 2 PWM.  

 

Spent some time in QFanControl in the bios and altered the fan profiles and added a front intake, part of the issue I am beginning to believe is that the NZXT 340 is bottlenecked on the front air intake, to the point adding more fans does not equal more airflow.  I could, however, be wrong on this. 

You can check if the front panel is the bottleneck by removing it and seeing if temps improve.

The S340 is designed with negative pressure with the stock cooling configuration. This pulls air from the pci slots underneath the graphics card which helps cool it. Adding front intakes can remove this intake of air which may balance out or worsen graphics card temps. Additional front intakes generally result in better cpu temps though. 

If you haven't moved the stock case fans, you can try moving the top exhaust fan to the front for intake and see if that helps. 

[Tieox]

I've been using the Be Quiet fans in :

 

1x120mm exhaust top.

 

1x120mm exhaust rear.

 

1x120mm intake front. 

 

Today though I noticed that just by removing the magnetic front dust filter, the amount of air the front fan could push out, increased enough that I could easily feel the difference on my hand.  Going through Aida64 though after 5minutes the CPU is at 81c GPU 71c.

 

I think trial and error with stress testing to validate is my only approach, that or perhaps a case more optimized for airflow?

[Tieox]

1 hour ago, WoodenMarker said:

You can check if the front panel is the bottleneck by removing it and seeing if temps improve.

The S340 is designed with negative pressure with the stock cooling configuration. This pulls air from the pci slots underneath the graphics card which helps cool it. Adding front intakes can remove this intake of air which may balance out or worsen graphics card temps. Additional front intakes generally result in better cpu temps though. 

If you haven't moved the stock case fans, you can try moving the top exhaust fan to the front for intake and see if that helps. 

Probably going to look into a beefier CPU cooler, it seems ramping up the GPU's fans in MSI Afterburner with a very aggressive curve reaching 100% at 60c keeps the CPU temps at 72c, however, it is LOUD.

 

Going from a comment above from @Votivee my current thinking is a Noctua NH-U14s.  Airflow seems limited in my case, and having a beefier cooler that is a bit overkill will hopefully keep temps lower, and not require such aggressive fan curves on the GPU during these warmer ambient months. 

[WoodenMarker]

19 minutes ago, Kierax said:

Would an AIO then be wise with the front intake being what it is on an NZXT 340? presuming I could increase the budget what would be recommended as decent?

An air cooler would be quieter and / or cheaper.

If you just want something better, the Gammaxx 400 is alright:

The SR Slim would be better if you want something very quiet: https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/product/Zr2kcf/be-quiet-cpu-cooler-bk010

If you want rgb, the Hyper 212 RGB BE performs a bit better but isn't as quiet: https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/product/hHDJ7P/cooler-master-hyper-212-rgb-black-edition-573-cfm-cpu-cooler-rr-212s-20pc-r1

[Tieox]

Quietness is vital, looking into Noctua seems the S340 runs into height issues on some coolers, I've got plenty of researching to do, and quite a few options, thank you.

[Tieox]

1 hour ago, WoodenMarker said:

An air cooler would be quieter and / or cheaper.

If you just want something better, the Gammaxx 400 is alright:

The SR Slim would be better if you want something very quiet: https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/product/Zr2kcf/be-quiet-cpu-cooler-bk010

If you want rgb, the Hyper 212 RGB BE performs a bit better but isn't as quiet: https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/product/hHDJ7P/cooler-master-hyper-212-rgb-black-edition-573-cfm-cpu-cooler-rr-212s-20pc-r1

Just to update this, ordered a Cryorig H7A, reviews look solid, Pauls Hardware used one of them inside an NZXT 340, also going from Wooden's recommendations on airflow issues with the NZXT ordered a low rpm but decent cfm front intake 140mm, hopefully, things work out

[WoodenMarker]

Just now, Kierax said:

Just to update this, ordered a Cryorig H7A, reviews look solid, Pauls Hardware used one of them inside an NZXT 340, also going from Wooden's recommendations on airflow issues with the NZXT ordered a low rpm but decent cfm front intake 140mm, hopefully, things work out

The H7 is a good option although it's not as quiet as the SR Slim. It's not that big of a deal unless you're sensitive to noise.

[Tieox]

I can be, normally it's kept under 10c in my computer room, but this warmer summer has the ambient temp at 22c right now.   May just end up disconnecting my audio setup and purely running noise cancelling headphones till this flipping heatwave is over.  (I prefer colder temperatures ) 

[Tieox]

Went to collect my order only to be told it was not possible to supply me one due to it being listed in stock and them not having one.

 

Ended up with a Noctua NH-U9S which was on discount, the system is 20c cooler under Aida64 (10minute test) running 65c hottest and 62c on the GPU.

 

Job jobbed, thanks for talking me off AIO's  @WoodenMarker