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Cooler lifespan

Rainbrew
By Rainbrew
in Cooling
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Go to solution Solved by bowrilla,

AiO (closed loop) water coolers loose coolant through permeation. Over time the amount of coolant drops and with it the performance. At some point there won't be enough coolant in your loop to prevent your pump from sucking in air. It's basically garbage at that point unless you are willing and technically skilled enough for taking it apart and trying to refill it (and getting it sealed afterwards).

 

Air coolers just work. The only moving thing is the fan and good fans usually work pretty well as long as you keep your system reasonably clean. If too much dust accumulates some might enter the hub and make the hub build up more and more resistance. But too much dust might also block the fins of your cooler OR your radiator so keeping your system reasonably clean is a good idea(depending on the environment and whether you use filtered intakes cleaning it probably from once a year to every 3 month or so would suffice).

 

In regards to longevity - as long as you don't buy a sleeve bearing you can mount them in every direction without risking a higher rate of wear. The best bearings are fluid dynamic bearings (aka hydrodynamic bearings or hydrostatic bearings) closely followed by ball bearings. Corsair's magnetic bearing is good but the fans overall are not as good as their price tag and the magnetic bearing would make you expect. 

 

In the 120mm range, the best overall choice with money no object would be the Noctua NF-A12x25 (hydrodynamic bearing) and the budget option the Arctic P12 (ball bearing). The Corsair ML120 are overall surprisingly loud considering their bloody magnetic bearing. As pure case fans th Scythe Kaze Flex 1200RPM PWM is also a very solid choice (or again the Arctic P12). If you mount fans behind some restrictive covers, go with tha Arctic or the Noctua.

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Hello I'm putting together a PC and the general theme is black/white. I would also like this PC to last quite a while without any fiddling or upgrading so I'm generally looking for a cooling setup that will not only be effective but last a long time. My main question is, do air coolers "live" longer than AIOs? Additionally would corsair ML case fans last longer than other fans due to the levitating bearing? I'm looking for some case fans as well and I know certain types of bearings work best in certain orientations but I'd assume these have the longest lifespan. Thanks in advance!

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Aio water coolers have an additional point of failure (the pump) and the whole thing will have to be replaced once it does fail - which is a lot more expensive than just a fan. 

 

That said, my dad is using my 10 year old pc with an Aio and is fine. 

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  • Solution

AiO (closed loop) water coolers loose coolant through permeation. Over time the amount of coolant drops and with it the performance. At some point there won't be enough coolant in your loop to prevent your pump from sucking in air. It's basically garbage at that point unless you are willing and technically skilled enough for taking it apart and trying to refill it (and getting it sealed afterwards).

 

Air coolers just work. The only moving thing is the fan and good fans usually work pretty well as long as you keep your system reasonably clean. If too much dust accumulates some might enter the hub and make the hub build up more and more resistance. But too much dust might also block the fins of your cooler OR your radiator so keeping your system reasonably clean is a good idea(depending on the environment and whether you use filtered intakes cleaning it probably from once a year to every 3 month or so would suffice).

 

In regards to longevity - as long as you don't buy a sleeve bearing you can mount them in every direction without risking a higher rate of wear. The best bearings are fluid dynamic bearings (aka hydrodynamic bearings or hydrostatic bearings) closely followed by ball bearings. Corsair's magnetic bearing is good but the fans overall are not as good as their price tag and the magnetic bearing would make you expect. 

 

In the 120mm range, the best overall choice with money no object would be the Noctua NF-A12x25 (hydrodynamic bearing) and the budget option the Arctic P12 (ball bearing). The Corsair ML120 are overall surprisingly loud considering their bloody magnetic bearing. As pure case fans th Scythe Kaze Flex 1200RPM PWM is also a very solid choice (or again the Arctic P12). If you mount fans behind some restrictive covers, go with tha Arctic or the Noctua.

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7 hours ago, Rainbrew said:

Hello I'm putting together a PC and the general theme is black/white. I would also like this PC to last quite a while without any fiddling or upgrading so I'm generally looking for a cooling setup that will not only be effective but last a long time. My main question is, do air coolers "live" longer than AIOs? Additionally would corsair ML case fans last longer than other fans due to the levitating bearing? I'm looking for some case fans as well and I know certain types of bearings work best in certain orientations but I'd assume these have the longest lifespan. Thanks in advance!

 

I don't see how an air cooler can not "live longer."

It is literally just pieces of metal...

Only thing that could fail are the cooling fans, but that can be always...

Yes, if fans fail, it is usually the bearings.

 

As for AIO liquid cooling, more points of failure.

Fans, pump (many points of failure within the pump itself), radiator / tubing (degrading plastics, leaks), coolant evaporating out of the closed loop system, etc.

 

If you want something reliable, and longer lasting, the "traditional" CPU cooler is the way to go, over an AIO.

 

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AIO lifespan is bit questionable. And I say that because they haven't been on markets for that long yet. Just about that 10 years, with Corsair H60, which I consider one of the first mainstream AIOs, being released 2011. Now, I haven't read that many threads about AIOs to figure out exactly what the lifespan would be. I would say that you get 5-7 years easily and after that we come to hazy territory. With more modern hardware probably being either better or worse (consumerism and all that).

 

Air coolers have only one mechanical part, fan. And changing fan is easy. Also I have yet to have fan die on me. My main Noctua A15 turns 8yo next summer, thats the longest I have had modern fan in my system.

 

Both do have other issues that may or may not play major role. One is dust accumulation. You just can't just leave PC without cleaning it at least once a year. Another is thermal paste. I would say you have to change that before your cooler dies. Like in every 3 years or something like that. Which would mean I'm bit overdue with last change being from 2016.

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