360mm AIO Intake Efficioency?

[Aaralli]

So I have a PC that I'm still buying a few more parts for, like a new graphics card (still using a GTX 680) and a liquid cooler for my 2600x. I was going to buy a Cooler Master MasterLiquid ML240R (240mm radiator) and put it at the top of my case as exhaust. I have a Cooler Master Masterbox MB500. I just learned that this case cannot fit any sort of radiator in the top, so now I want to put a 360mm one in the front as an air instake. the reason I want to increase the size is that I'm thinking that with more surface to cool the water, the air flowing in might be a little bit cooler for the rest of the copmponents. Is this a good idea? And by the way, I want to try upgrading my CPU in the future so I don't want to get a 120mm cooler and stick it in the back.

[jaslion]

5 minutes ago, Aaralli said:

So I have a PC that I'm still buying a few more parts for, like a new graphics card (still using a GTX 680) and a liquid cooler for my 2600x. I was going to buy a Cooler Master MasterLiquid ML240R (240mm radiator) and put it at the top of my case as exhaust. I have a Cooler Master Masterbox MB500. I just learned that this case cannot fit any sort of radiator in the top, so now I want to put a 360mm one in the front as an air instake. the reason I want to increase the size is that I'm thinking that with more surface to cool the water, the air flowing in might be a little bit cooler for the rest of the copmponents. Is this a good idea? And by the way, I want to try upgrading my CPU in the future so I don't want to get a 120mm cooler and stick it in the back.

Why not just get a aircooler? Cheaper and will run well forever. I also recommend it since due to how the case is designed only 1 and 2/3's of the second fan have clear access to fresh air, the top one has to suck in whatever is left and that may hamper cooling performance a bit.

[Aaralli]

Just now, jaslion said:

Why not just get a aircooler? Cheaper and will run well forever. I also recommend it since due to how the case is designed only 1 and 2/3's of the second fan have clear access to fresh air, the top one has to suck in whatever is left and that may hamper cooling performance a bit.

I was very convinced on getting a Cooler Master Hyper 212 Black Edition for a while, but my friend convinced me about the benefits of water cooling, since I overclock my 2600x to 4.2ghz and it now runs at around 70 degrees all the time and up to 85-90 when under a big load... Plus I'm a sucker for things looking cool, and an ARGB liquid cooler REALLY would look awesome....

[jaslion]

Just now, Aaralli said:

I was very convinced on getting a Cooler Master Hyper 212 Black Edition for a while, but my friend convinced me about the benefits of water cooling, since I overclock my 2600x to 4.2ghz and it now runs at around 70 degrees all the time and up to 85-90 when under a big load... Plus I'm a sucker for things looking cool, and an ARGB liquid cooler REALLY would look awesome....

Watercooling is quite frankly just the same as aircooling. Instead of copper heatpipes moving the heat to the fins the water moves the heat to the fins of the radiator. For the price of something like an ML360 you can get a better aircooler which will easily beat that. A hyper 212 is better than any 120mm watercooler out there. The only benefits of watercooling is being able to use them in smaller spaces (really depends on a case to case basis) and that they usually don't obstruct things.

[Aaralli]

8 minutes ago, jaslion said:

Watercooling is quite frankly just the same as aircooling. Instead of copper heatpipes moving the heat to the fins the water moves the heat to the fins of the radiator. For the price of something like an ML360 you can get a better aircooler which will easily beat that. A hyper 212 is better than any 120mm watercooler out there. The only benefits of watercooling is being able to use them in smaller spaces (really depends on a case to case basis) and that they usually don't obstruct things.

I know that if I have a particularly hot graphics card and it isn't a blower-style cooler, a lot of hot air will be exhausted into the case, sometimes choking an air cooler. If I use an AIO taking air in at the front of the case... the three fans in top and back might be able to exhaust all that heat without negatively affecting other components. An air cooler is stuck in the exact same place and therefore should be used with a blower style card. Correct me if I'm wrong about ANY of this, I'd like to learn. But this is what I've figured out on my own so far....

[WoodenMarker]

2 hours ago, Aaralli said:

I know that if I have a particularly hot graphics card and it isn't a blower-style cooler, a lot of hot air will be exhausted into the case, sometimes choking an air cooler. If I use an AIO taking air in at the front of the case... the three fans in top and back might be able to exhaust all that heat without negatively affecting other components. An air cooler is stuck in the exact same place and therefore should be used with a blower style card. Correct me if I'm wrong about ANY of this, I'd like to learn. But this is what I've figured out on my own so far....

Open air coolers on graphics cards should only be an issue for cpu cooling if the case airflow isn't very good and is struggling to remove the heat efficiently. Slightly warmer air isn't going to make a huge difference to cooling and the 2600x is pretty easy to cool so I'd recommend favoring graphics card cooling. 

The optimal intake would be just fans unobstructed by a rad.

If you really do prefer the aesthetic of an AIO and don't mind paying more for that, a 280mm would be better for graphics card cooling since the wider and lower placement would get air underneath the fans which is where it's most effective as opposed to flowing over the top of the graphics card pcb which doesn't make much of a difference to cooling. 

If you're mainly aiming for good cooling, you can get functionally similar results with a cheaper air cooler. 

2 hours ago, jaslion said:

For the price of something like an ML360 you can get a better aircooler which will easily beat that. A hyper 212 is better than any 120mm watercooler out there. The only benefits of watercooling is being able to use them in smaller spaces (really depends on a case to case basis) and that they usually don't obstruct things.

Where are you seeing any air coolers beat the ML360R?

There's an argument to be made that an air cooler can provide better cooling to motherboard components as well but I haven't seen any air coolers that consistently match the ML360R's cpu cooling performance, let alone beat. 

https://www.hardocp.com/article/2018/08/14/cooler_master_ml360r_rgb_aio_cpu_review/3

http://www.comptoir-hardware.com/articles/refroidissement/38418-test-cooler-master-masterliquid-ml360r-rgb.html?start=3

 

No, the Hyper 212's aren't better than any 120mm AIO. The Hyper 212 RGB BE is good but only about as good as the lower to mid end 120mm AIO's and don't get close to touching the higher performance ones like the H80i. 

120mm's tend to be unpopular for review and even then, they tend to only be compared to other AIO's so I don't have any direct comparisons to bring up compared to the Hyper 212 RGB BE. That being said, there are plenty of comparisons of 120mm's to what most people would agree to be better coolers like the NH-D14, NH-D15, and DRP4.

Here are a few examples that include the H60 (2018), H75, and H80i which would represent that middle to upper range of 120mm's: 

https://www.guru3d.com/articles_pages/corsair_h60_review,11.html

https://www.eteknix.com/corsair-h60-120mm-aio-liquid-cpu-cooler-review/4/

https://bit-tech.net/reviews/tech/cooling/corsair-hydro-h75-review/2/

https://tweak.dk/Køling/Corsair-H60-2018-Edition