Asking help from the wet bois, because in my case, air blows.

[LaPlume]

Greetings everyone!

 

TLDR: I'm looking for the best possible 120-140mm AIO for a 3900X.

And I know, 240mm or a beeffy air-cooling would be better, but it's a no-go in my case.

Max rad dimensions: 170mm x 160mm x 100mm(thickness)

 

 

And here is a resume of the 2 pages worth of back story:

 

I made at first a post in the air-cooler section of the forum, looking for an air cooler that would fit in my case, with an absolute limit of 145mm height that I managed to reach with the help of a dremel, because 4U cases aren't that roomy sometimes.

Also, I tried to avoid top-down coolers at all cost because in my configuration, it would hurt a lot the airflow, and the 3900X has a beefy 5700XT as companion of misfortune, so indeed there is some heat output that need to not stagnate in here.

My rear exhaust is 2x80mm, situated more toward the panel than the motherboard, we discussed extensively how it would suck even for an high end top-down to be in that case.

 

I was advised the pure rock slim from bequiet, of which the results were... meh, really stock-coolery, with a nice bit of middle finger because the AM4 mount for it wouldn't allow 90° rotation, and as such wasn't even doing front to back, but sipping hot air from the GPU, or suffocating the PSU while blowing onto the GPU. And the fan on it... quiet, yes, but blows? too, but not in the way that helps cooling, I would do better with my ex-smoker lungs.

 

We landed though on THE cooler that would pretty much answer all my need.

>less than 145mm high: check, it's 130mm.
>powerfull cooler: check, it's 200W TDP.
>front-to-back airflow: check, it is, with dual fans, can even support 3.

Meet the great: Alpenfohn Atlas.

 

Problem: I can't effing land one!!

So far, I ordered it at 2 different places, both took several days to come back to me and be like "none left in stock in fact sorry, here is your refund". Found it in Morocco, they don't ship to EU. Found it in Portugal and Romania, sent mails to inquire about shipping and costs, still no answer so far.

Second hand market? NOTHING, not in my country, not in the 4 countries around I checked so far.

 

And still, I received the AM4 bracket for it... which I'm considering framing and putting on the wall at this point.

 

I even ended up trying to get one for 110€ (without shipping cost), where its average retail price was around 60. Can't say I didn't tried.

 

 

So, alas, in case I have no luck with my trans-continental mails and end up really not being able to find a suitable air cooler, I'm thus looking for an AIO, because if I can't land an Alpenfohn Atlas, so far, I haven't found any other really compelling air-cooling option, and no, a top-down wouldn't do.

 

Air vents:

> single front intake, dust filtered, populated with a NF-P12

> double extract 80mm NF-R8 s at the back.

> to come, a dual 5.25 bay with a 80mm fan.

 

As for the only place I can put the rad in, it's the 120m front intake. But here is the thing:

I don't mind dremelling (did for GPU width and cpu cooler height clearance), or drilling my own 140mm mounting holes.

I have a space for the rad+fan that is as follow:

-160mm height, limited by the outside case panels.

-160mm width, limited by outside shell, and front panel PCB connector. Past 10mm of "thickness" (aka, like with a fan in front of the rad), that width space goes as far as 170-175mm.

-the full assembly can't be thicker than 100mm, else it would collide with the GPU's butt (saying that in case of push-pull configurations)

 

So what I'm really looking for is the beefiest single slot AIO I can cram in that space, the one true chosen one that would give me the most headroom/ best sustained load performances on the 3900X, dissipating heat like a champ with decent CFM, instead of just radiating it into my poor GPU.

[johnny5c]

Do you have any space for a pump/res combo because the best single 120mm option would a custom loop with a 60mm thick rad like the EK XE-120?

 

There's also dual 80mm rads if you could fit one in the back.

https://www.aquatuning.us/water-cooling/radiators/radiators-active/15909/alphacool-nexxxos-xt45-full-copper-80mm-dual-radiator?sPartner=googleshoppingusa&gclid=CjwKCAiA9JbwBRAAEiwAnWa4Q3LZm_fH__RYXmU_jhCfYU6xuZEUTWusjAr8sajO6kyZyGevHND_LhoCbrIQAvD_BwE

[LaPlume]

@johnny5c Full custom loop option considered, and given up on really fast already. No space for that sadly!
>Or I would have to go for one of these oddball dual-5.25bay pump-res combos, which aren't cheap for what they are, but I would be in pretty deep limbo when it's time to drain the loop... and honestly I'm not sure I can soak the cost of a custom loop right now.

 

Also, this mini rad wouldn't fit... yeah...  the NexXxoS UT60 eventually COULD, in a pull configuration (need the fan's girth to separate it from the case, else it would bump into the PCI top opening slot, which makes a bump inside), and I have EXACTLY 201mm between my PSU and GPU. So yeah, that's a tight fit, but a doable one.

 

If I could still find something like a Raijintek Triton Core 140mm (of which the double and triple rad version are part of the top tier CPU cooler list), since it's an "openable" AIO, I would gladly add a 2x80mm rad to its loop, but that would be the whole extent of what I can fit in that case, and afford to.

 

Knowing that Beat-Wheat actually showed a 3900X being cooled by an Asetek 645LT 92mm SFF AIO Liquid Cooler in "less than subpar conditions", and well better temps than what I obtain with the stock cooler or the aftermarket bug in the matrix that is the BeQuiet Pure Rock Slim on AM4, I do actually have some hopes in single rad THICC AIOs

 

[LaPlume]

And I in fact have a bit more room than I thought. Not enough for a 240mm, far from that, but enough to fit just barely one of these fatty Alphacool Eisenbar 140mm... but that quick disconnect thingy is beyond ugly, and would totally GO when installing a little thick 2x80mm rad. (I would do something like this, in the spoiler)

Spoiler

 

Unless if such top-tier openable AIO like the Triton Core option presents itself, I'm looking for the best AIO "normal" single-rad performer that would fit. Any other input?

[LaPlume]

/!\

 

Little update message to announce the closing the the "air cooled" twin thread of this post, in which discussion deviated to water cooling, and therefor I "concluded" it and enjoined people to move onto here. 

 

Some of the following messages under might be a continuation of the water cooling discussion that have been going on starting from >this message< .

 

We basically talked about variations of the shopping list in the image in the spoiler just above.

[LaPlume]

Update as promised!

 

I finally built it. I'm still waiting on some silicone based lubricant to defo seal some fittings that I'm not that trusting of because of slight deformation around the threaded holes....

Yeah. I had an issue with the dual 80mm radiator, a 1- 1.5mm tolerance issue up top against the PSU and bottom to the GPU... and let's say ain't nobody telling me "can't touch this", and I went hammer time on it, and "made it fit". 

Also had to make dirty dremel "edits" to the PSU mounting bracket to have a little more give.

 

What I was working with:

- Alphacool eisbarr 120mm AIO kit.

- Alphacool NexXxos UT60 80mm dual radiator

- A bunch of fittings

- case: IPC 4088 with dremelled back support to leave room for GPU width, and drive cages un-riveted from the front lower support for GPU length and radiator mount.

 

I used a garbagio 15years old computer to make basic leak tests before putting the thing inside my main computer:

Spoiler

Artificially put some heat to it with an heatgun to the 120mm rad to check eventual pressure related leakage, then installed it in the computer, and damn I love the look of it:

with supports out: 

Spoiler

with supports back in:

Spoiler

 

 

The 90° angle 24pin connector doodad and the two 180° angle 8 pins are really making my life easier, but I'm still waiting on my cablemod order to be shipped to really have it all neatly packed.

 The two front fans are NF A12x25, and the back ones are NF R8 redux.

 

Temps are WAY better than what that shitty bequiet cooler would achieve (it wasn't making much difference comparred to the stock cooler) and at stock speeds, no ajustements or anything, I went up by 200cb on Cinebench R20, and it never went above 75°C on spike, while I saw a 101°C spike once on the bequiet with its stock thermal paste application.

 

 

Thermal paste used: TG Kryonaut.