[D] AIO Water-Cooling Experience

[Ghost]

This is the first weekly discussion topic. For more discussions and an explanation of them click

 

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Lots of people come here to find out about All-in-one watercoolers (AIOs). Because of the way things work there is almost no positive feedback about any of these AIO units on these forums. It would be great to get some experience stories from people. Here are some things to talk about;

 

 

• How easy was it to mount?
• Were you impressed?
• There is a lot of talk of overclocking with AIOs. Did you do it? Was it easy?
• How did you decide which AIO unit you bought?
• Any small issues that you wouldn't usually mention with your AIO cooler?
• Would you recommend it for the price to other people?
• Any tips for people buying your model of AIO cooler?

Thanks for posting and participating in the discussion!
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Post Discussion Notes:

Cooler - Author - Post Number

Swiftech Coolers

H220  - NamelessTed - #2

Corsair i Series Coolers

 

H100i - XiaoPigs - #6
H100i - Nerd - #7
H100i - Tito - #9
H100i - swordlord357 - #12
H80i - Proff - #13
H80i - Basher99 - #11

 

Corsair Old Coolers

H100 - RollerGold - #3
H80 - Theo - #8
H70 - losinator501 - #4
H60 - Hoppa - #10

Antec

Khuler 920 - Whaler

[NamelessTed]

I am currently running my rig with the new Swiftech H220. So far I think it is going to be a great cooler, and it has me excited to expand it in the future.

 

I started out with an H80 about a year ago, and I was happy with it. Then it developed a noise so it got RMA's just a few weeks ago and it was replaced by an H80i. I very much dislike the H80i. The physical installation was all pretty much the same, but the thicker tubes seemed to get in the way a little bit more. Then I had a few problems with the software and such. For a basic AiO cooler I think the button on the H80 and H100 made way more sense to use than shitty software.

 

But now I have an H220, and I love it. As shown by Linus' benchmarks, the temps out of the box with this thing beat everything else on the AiO market. I really like the mounting mechanism that Swiftech uses for the CPU, making it easier to mount than the H80i. The tubes also feel looser and easier to move and adjust compared to the H80i. One frustration with block is that the way the tubes come out the sides, the left tube rubs up against the heatsink on the mobo. It is possibly most motherboards wouldn't have this problem, it might just be with the way ASUS placed them on the P8Z77-v pro.

 

I like the way the fans are mounted on the H220. They provide separate short screws to mount the fans on the rad, and since I have mine top mounted, in a pull config, I can then just mount the fans straight to the case. One frustrating thing about mounting the H80i is that they provide longs screws that go through the case, fan, and then into the rad. So you have to balance the case between the radiator and case, and feed the screw through and fiddle with it until you get it in the rad and get it threaded.

 

Also, the included fan controller is a great value add. It isn't anything too fancy, and you can just stick it anywhere on the backside of a case with the pre-applied double sided tape. You can plug up to 8 fans into the thing, which is plenty for the kind of setup where an H220 makes sense. I can only assume you would want a more powerful pump if you were using something like a 4x120mm radiator. Also, the way I have my H220 plugged in is that I have the 4-pin from the pump plugged in to my CPU header and then have the 8-port fan controlled plugged into the CPU_optional header. This way I can control/monitor the pump separately from the fans. It works out quite well.

 

tl;dr: I really like the H220 so far. I would highly recommend it to anybody looking to buy any sort of AiO water cooler.

[Rollergold]

A year before I built my custom loop I went out a bought an H100 from memory express.

 

• How easy was it to mount?. Compared to my Hyper 212+ a breeze, the nuts with my 212+ had some imperfections in the threading so when I was screwing it down I scratched a few of the PCB traces on the back of my board causing some of the ram to go haywire, had to replace the board. With the H100,everything clicked and fit in with no fuss or muss, mounting the fans was a pain but only Swiftech's H220 has short screws for mounting fans to the rad.
• Were you impressed? Very impressed, went from 3.5ghz on my 920 @ 80+c to 4.01ghz @ 76c. Without a big old block of metal hanging off my board. The fan's are retardo loud but I knew that before I bought it and also bought some GT 1850's. 
• There is a lot of talk of overclocking with AIOs. Did you do it? Was it easy? Yep I did some overclocking, was no harder than with the 212+, got more out of the H100 but my 920 is not a really good overclocking chip (it needs to run at 1.415 volts to stay stable @ 4ghz   <_<)
• How did you decide which AIO unit you bought? I bought corsair because of the kick butt warranty, the looks and the fact no one else at the time had a 240mm AiO 
• Any small issues that you wouldn't usually mention with your AIO cooler? Besides the retardo loud fans, I wasn't a fan the fact you had to screw right into the fins on the rad by a little bit to mount the fans 
• Would you recommend it for the price to other people? If you can find it at a discount go for it, its still a great cooler.
• Any tips for people buying your model of AIO cooler? Don't use the stock fans and don't use the corsair link software both are failures. The fans are way too loud and the corsair link software doesn't play nice with enough fan models to be really useful, it couldn't even control corsair's own AF and SP fan series properly. Get some proper fans and run them at a constant speed if you ask me.

I think AiO's is custom loop's gateway drug, after you see how good a AiO can cool your cpu you will want to put other parts under water too and your wallet will hate you for it too :P

 

 

[losinator501]

I have a Corsair H70.

 

 

• How easy was it to mount? - I haven't had an aftermarket air cooler. The instruction manual that came with the H70 wasn't very descriptive, but I got it figured out.
• Were you impressed? - Even with a non-SP NZXT fan in pull, it produced much better temps.
• There is a lot of talk of overclocking with AIOs. Did you do it? Was it easy? - I could only reach ~4GHz, but that's really just my overclocking inexperience and Thuban processors. The temps weren't the issue.
• How did you decide which AIO unit you bought? - I wanted to buy an aftermarket cooler, so I went to Canada Computers and they had the H70 CORE (no fans come with it) for $50, so I picked it up.
• Any small issues that you wouldn't usually mention with your AIO cooler? - I wish the tubes on the H70 weren't the rippled kind, I wish they were smooth like the H80i.
• Would you recommend it for the price to other people? - If you can pick up the CORE version for under $50, I'd get it. Otherwise, no.
• Any tips for people buying your model of AIO cooler? - Look carefully for the mounting diagram in the manual. Was hidden away really well.

[Whaler_99]

For one of my systems I got an Antec Khuler 920. This was a great unit for the case at the time as I only had a 120mm vent free. The extra thick rad, coupled with after market Noctua NF-F12's made this an awesome solution and simply, dead quiet. I ran it in push/pull as well.

 

Overall, the quality was what you expect of Antec, very good. Mounting was no harder then any other cooler I had and after getting setup, I was actually able to add in some high profile memory I had that would never fit before.

 

Temps were great - I don't recall off the top of my head, but was an medium OC on a 2600k and it was cool. 

 

For the most part the software was ok - every once and a while it would crash, and not work until I restarted, but would maintain my settings. Otherwise worked fine.

 

For someone looking to buy one now, there are a lot of choices.... Make sure your case will support it, checking for clearances. If you already have an after market air cooler, you only want to step up to the higher end 240/280 units. Don't be fooled by "brand names". Most are all made by one of two OEM's (Cool-it or Asustek) with the exception of the H220 and possibly the Thermaltake...

[XiaoPigs]

I'm currently using using the H100i on my main rig.

 

Love the new mounting system on Corsair's i series of AIO. Took me less then 5 mins to hook it up. I use SP series fans together with the OEM SP ones that come with the cooler itself in push/pull. Had no clearance issues at all.

 

It's a Corsair product and I was delivered the performance I was promised. 

 

Got my 3770k to 4.5ghz off the bat. Temps were kinda awesome considering the fact that the ambient temps in my country is around the high 20s to 30 degree Celsius. Mid 60s at full load on p95.

 

Not really a big fan of Corsair Link. In fact I don't use it at all. So kind of a pointless add on for me.

 

For the most part I love the H100. Simple to install gives you great performance especially if you use good fans like Noctuas. Although it's not the king of the 240mm AIOs now I would still recommend it. The only thing you can do to improve this is either get a H220 which performs better, or a Custom loop.

[Nerd]

• How easy was it to mount?

Comparable to many air coolers.

• Were you impressed?

Marginally with my H100i. Nice temperatures for the price, but the LED isn't white but rather a yellow color.

• There is a lot of talk of overclocking with AIOs. Did you do it? Was it easy?

Yes, to 4.4GHz. See my signature.

• How did you decide which AIO unit you bought?

Reviews and pictures.

• Any small issues that you wouldn't usually mention with your AIO cooler?

The LED, as mentioned above.

• Would you recommend it for the price to other people?

I'm on the fence.

• Any tips for people buying your model of AIO cooler?

Change the fans.

[Theo]

So i have an H80 and here is my experience:

1) pretty easy to mount though i dont know how much pressure to put on my cpu block, how far to tighten the screws ( on a 1090T)

2) Not impressed, still getting 40C load temp on stock, if i try to overclock then itll jump up to 58C and with a max safe temp being 62C on those chips, might be doing something wrong but just not really impressed.

3) As i said on my point before, wanted to OC but not feeling too comfortable reaching so close to the max safe temp of the chip

4) Reviews and pictures, kinda let down for me as i said before

5) Would not recommend to someone who was looking to get into watercooling, custom is much better but for someone who doesnt want to get into that, id recomment the H100i or higher, not a single 120rad though

 

[tito]

I just got my Corsair H100i a few days ago, and I wanted to share my experience

• How easy was it to mount? I had a Hyper 212 which had a custom backplate, so in order to install my H100i I had to remove the entire thing, not a big deal, but took me a little longer than I expected, mainly because of my crappy case. So summing up, if I hadnt had to switch the backplate I would say that the installation was the easiest I ever made
• Were you impressed? Holly crap!! Got 10 degrees celcius at idle with stock clocks, 28 on full load. With my Hyper 212 I had 30 for idle, so yes I was very impressed since  the first boot.
• There is a lot of talk of overclocking with AIOs. Did you do it? Was it easy? I mainly bought it to improve my OC, I was able to get my FX8320 up to 4.8Ghz using the stock fans at full speed, full load temp was 65. Im now running it at 4.4Ghz and Im getting 21 celcius on idle and 55 on full load, with the same stock fans using a custom fan speed curve, after a few hours of prime, 
• How did you decide which AIO unit you bought? I was actually going for a custom loop, but here in my country, Argentina, are several issues to get imported parts, besides a "custom loop" like a Raystorm Kit with 240 rad is around 500USD, which is more than half the price of my entire build, so decided to look for some AIO and found that the H100i was 150USD so I just bought it because a custom loop was definitivly out of my budget.
• Any small issues that you wouldn't usually mention with your AIO cooler? Corsair Link sometimes thinks that has two sets of lightings, and let me control both, but obviously only one works, and also the fans are quite loud when running at high speeds.
• Would you recommend it for the price to other people? I would totally recommend it, anyone can mount it, get a great performance, and it doesnt breaks your wallet
• Any tips for people buying your model of AIO cooler? If it fits your budget I would recommend to get some quieter coolers.

[Hoppa]

- H60 cooling a i7 930

 

- Running at 3.6Ghz

 

- 65° under full load (ambient temp is around 22° - 24°)

 

- between 70° and 80° full load at 3.8Ghz

 

- Been using it since 2011 (i think just after it came out)

 

- Not 1 problem

 

- Can't hear it =]

[Basher99]

I just recently went from a 212evo on my 8350 to an H80i and I am pleased with it.  I was able to sorta OC on the evo to the turbo 4.2... but any higher and my temps would go ballistic.. the H80i keeps me cooler so I have OCd higher.. probably as high as I am willing to go with summer almost here :)

 

• How easy was it to mount?  I was a fairly straight forward mounting process only made slightly more difficult by having to put the stock amd mounting brackets back on the motherboard heh
• Were you impressed?  Overall yes.. So far I have been able to OC to 4.5GHz @ 1.392V
• There is a lot of talk of overclocking with AIOs. Did you do it? Was it easy? Yes and Yes
• How did you decide which AIO unit you bought? I only have a 120mm or a 140mm fan mount open in my case(antec 302) and I was not sure the Kraken 140 would clear my other hardware in the top 140 spot
• Any small issues that you wouldn't usually mention with your AIO cooler?  The antec 300 series of cases were not developed with AIO cooling in mind.. plugging in the cables was abit of a chore lol
• Would you recommend it for the price to other people?  Sure.. even a better buy if you can grab it on sale.
• Any tips for people buying your model of AIO cooler? Make sure you use PWM fans if you want to use Corsair link... I figure thats the best bet for aftermarket fans..

[swordlord357]

I really liked my H100i. Only reason it took me three hours to mount was because some fool told me it was very flimsy. Turns out it isn't. Very impressed. At 100% load with my 4.2 Ghz, I reach around 66 degrees celsius. My only tip and complaint, be a tad careful when screwing in the screws for the fans, it could chew a bit of the radiator otherwise. Also, if you want to P/P, I recommend you get 8 long screws instead of 16 standard ones. Keeps it nice and secure. And no, I did not P/P. 

[Ghost]

This discussion thread is drawing to a close. I will list all the coolers and relevant posts in the OP so people can easily find what they are looking for.

 

Thanks for posting everyone!