AIO 120mm Advise/Sugesstion

[bubuie]

Greetings, Linus tech tips people, hope you are doing well.

 

I am facing the issue what AIO 120mm to buy for my i7 9700k

 

Physically I am in Georgia, and I have searched the local markets and found few AIO 120mm CPU coolers, and was wondering which one should I go with, keep in mind that 240mm won't fit in the case I have and neither I can order it from amazon or any other site, below you can see the 120MM AIO CPU coolers I came across.

• Water Cooler XILENCE, XC971 | LQ120, 2100 ± 10%, 4pin, 154 x 120 x 27 mm, 200W
• Water Cooler XILENCE XC072 | LQ120 RGB, 2100 ± 10%, 4pin, 200W
• GAMEMAX ICEBERG 120 Water cooling system
• GAMEMAX ICEBERG 120-Rainbow Water cooling system
• Thermaltake TH120 ARGB Sync AIO 120mm Liquid Cooler
• Golden Field GF-CI120S CPU Universal Cooler
• Golden Field GF-SF120G CPU Universal Cooler
• Deepcool GAMMAXX L120

Prices are the same as they are for example on Amazon.

 

Thank you in an advance

[Skiiwee29]

120mm AIOs are essentially useless. You can get cheap air coolers that are as effective, if not more at or cheaper than the cost of the AIO. Only time it makes sense is when physical space limitations dictate the necessity of a 120mm AIO. 

[narrdarr]

how about what case do you have or want to get?

[bubuie]

2 minutes ago, Skiiwee29 said:

120mm AIOs are essentially useless. You can get cheap air coolers that are as effective, if not more at or cheaper than the cost of the AIO. Only time it makes sense is when physical space limitations dictate the necessity of a 120mm AIO. 

The case itself is preety small , it's Golden Field Mid Tower case, that's why I am going for the 120MM AIO, plus got all the RGBs on all parts of PC, and would be nice if AIO had one as well.

[bubuie]

8 minutes ago, narrdarr said:

how about what case do you have or want to get?

Cases are really expensive here, if I order them online from amazon for example, I will need to pay triple of the price for the weight...plus space limitation at home  

 

This is the case I have

[narrdarr]

27 minutes ago, bubuie said:

Cases are really expensive here, if I order them online from amazon for example, I will need to pay triple of the price for the weight...plus space limitation at home  

 

This is the case I have

the case is an n17

ouch. on the pricing and the case. sorry to say, but your case lacks adequate airflow. you can test this just by taking your side off and having a load on the system.  even with your current cooler you should see better temps. i cant tell, but moving the front fan inside the chassis so they are pressed against the glass will help.

 

as far as coolers the case do fit up to 158mm sized air coolers. and that size a decent air cooler does beat out a 120mm aio. 

the down to the air cooler is will dump heat into the case then it needs to be moved out of the case. with the 120mm aio the heat will be dump directly out of the system. which will be better in the end? idk I stay away from those situations as I dont have the fund to test them. but, my guess would still be an air cooler 

 

with that said. none of those aios. 

there's really only 3 aio you should be looking at

artic liquid freezer ii 120mm non rgb 

ek aio 120 drgb

corsiar h80i v2 non rgb

 

the h80i v2 is probably the best performer as its radiator thickness 45mm compared to 28mm of the other two, but it's also much noisier with an older pump design and fans are simply louder. arctics and ek aios rank the best right now in the 240mm category and up. but the design is the same for 120mm aio, so there's no reason why they wouldn't be a bad choice. except for the fact it's a 120mm aio.

 

there are plenty of air coolers to choice from,

here are few favs

 

Frost Spirit 140 RGB

Venomous Plus

Macho 120

arctic Freezer 34 eSports DUO

 

 anyways yea there are many more air cooler.

 

[bubuie]

30 minutes ago, narrdarr said:

the case is an n17

ouch. on the pricing and the case. sorry to say, but your case lacks adequate airflow. you can test this just by taking your side off and having a load on the system.  even with your current cooler you should see better temps. i cant tell, but moving the front fan inside the chassis so they are pressed against the glass will help.

 

as far as coolers the case do fit up to 158mm sized air coolers. and that size a decent air cooler does beat out a 120mm aio. 

the down to the air cooler is will dump heat into the case then it needs to be moved out of the case. with the 120mm aio the heat will be dump directly out of the system. which will be better in the end? idk I stay away from those situations as I dont have the fund to test them. but, my guess would still be an air cooler 

 

with that said. none of those aios. 

there's really only 3 aio you should be looking at

artic liquid freezer ii 120mm non rgb 

ek aio 120 drgb

corsiar h80i v2 non rgb

 

the h80i v2 is probably the best performer as its radiator thickness 45mm compared to 28mm of the other two, but it's also much noisier with an older pump design and fans are simply louder. arctics and ek aios rank the best right now in the 240mm category and up. but the design is the same for 120mm aio, so there's no reason why they wouldn't be a bad choice. except for the fact it's a 120mm aio.

 

there are plenty of air coolers to choice from,

here are few favs

 

Frost Spirit 140 RGB

Venomous Plus

Macho 120

arctic Freezer 34 eSports DUO

 

 anyways yea there are many more air cooler.

 

None of those can be found in here.... that's the problem.... 

[narrdarr]

6 hours ago, bubuie said:

None of those can be found in here.... that's the problem.... 

is the deep cool gammax the v2?

[BahnStormer]

As above, even a 90mm Noctua will be WAY better... see if you can fit a small air cooler rather than a budget AIO or even a low profile passive cooler + some airflow across the top.

 

I don't have any experience with the suggested AIO's above, but I was having trouble keeping my 95W TDP i7-3770K cool when I moved it out of full tower (280mm H115i) into my son's small HTPC case, where a stock Intel cooler was all that would fit as I only had ~25mm clearance with the PSU... so I tried a budget AIO.

 

After a bit fo research, I went for a Cooler Master MasterLiquid Lite 120

 

I can NOT vouch for the longevity of this since it has only been in for 4 months, but I managed to mount one of these in the only intake vent (that was 120mm).... I wasn't expecting much as it's only a €40 AIO, but it is rated to 180W TDP and from what I've seen, that's achievable - it performed better than the 18 month old 280mm H115i!

 

I can't recall the exact idle/load temps, but idle was LOW and under load, it was WELL below any throttling limits - even after a 60min Prime95 burn-in test.