Air Cooler vs AIO with LM (noise sensitive)

[Net3]

I cannot decide between what to buy. I was looking between Ninja 5000 and something from EK water block as for AIO. I am deciding between 240 and 280mm AIO. Now If I'd go with 240 AIO which has 120mm fans I'd mostly like replace them with scythe or noctua's fans which would be mostly likely NF F12 PWM. 

Now I cant really decide what to pick, because on one hand I have an option of OPTing for air cooled option, which is aluminium plate based and I couldn't apply LiquidMetal on it, tho who really knows if LM at this point is even worth it since you have a massive tower cooling your CPU with low noise fans that arent really providing much other than moving air slightly on that cooler. Then an AIO cooler which is copper plate and you can apply LM on it, but then you have the pump itself that can be loud, i don't have any experiecne with AIOs so i can't say if they are loud or not, but right now i have stock 3600 cooler that is just for god sake the most annoying thing ever. 

 

EK WB AIO: 

+ It's copper plate enabling me to add LM to it

- the noise of the pump (stock fans would get replaced anyway)

- pump noise??? is it loud???

 

Ninja 5000:

+ it's big, it cools well, costs less, low noise dBA fans) 

- it's massive, but it'd would probably cool same as AIO, but unable to apply LM

 

Now I just want to know what is more worth it here. I know that for Ryzen3600 might be an overkill, but let's also say if I'd be to upgrade to more higher end like 5800x in the future or better.

Would LM make any sense in this composition? 

 

Bonus question: But let's speculate that LM wouldnt bring any shifting difference eitherway, would it make difference with GPU die instead?

[maartendc]

53 minutes ago, Net3 said:

I cannot decide between what to buy. I was looking between Ninja 5000 and something from EK water block as for AIO. I am deciding between 240 and 280mm AIO. Now If I'd go with 240 AIO which has 120mm fans I'd mostly like replace them with scythe or noctua's fans which would be mostly likely NF F12 PWM. 

Now I cant really decide what to pick, because on one hand I have an option of OPTing for air cooled option, which is aluminium plate based and I couldn't apply LiquidMetal on it, tho who really knows if LM at this point is even worth it since you have a massive tower cooling your CPU with low noise fans that arent really providing much other than moving air slightly on that cooler. Then an AIO cooler which is copper plate and you can apply LM on it, but then you have the pump itself that can be loud, i don't have any experiecne with AIOs so i can't say if they are loud or not, but right now i have stock 3600 cooler that is just for god sake the most annoying thing ever. 

 

EK WB AIO: 

+ It's copper plate enabling me to add LM to it

- the noise of the pump (stock fans would get replaced anyway)

- pump noise??? is it loud???

 

Ninja 5000:

+ it's big, it cools well, costs less, low noise dBA fans) 

- it's massive, but it'd would probably cool same as AIO, but unable to apply LM

 

Now I just want to know what is more worth it here. I know that for Ryzen3600 might be an overkill, but let's also say if I'd be to upgrade to more higher end like 5800x in the future or better.

Would LM make any sense in this composition? 

 

Bonus question: But let's speculate that LM wouldnt bring any shifting difference eitherway, would it make difference with GPU die instead?

Personally I would always go with air cooling, just for maintenance free operation. No leaking, no breaking, air coolers just work. I have heard the average lifespan of an AIO is like 4-5 yrs.

 

As for LM, I would not bother. It is not without risk, harder to apply, more frequent reapplication needed (If I am not mistaken), and unless you are doing some serious overclocking not worth the hassle.

 

Just use a good air cooler with a good quality Thermal Paste (Arctic MX-5, Thermal Grizzly Kryonaut, or similar) and you should be fine to cool a 3600 or 5800X for sure. For a 3600 all those coolers are way overkill anyway. Only for something like a 5900X or 12900K you need to get the BIGGEST cooler.

 

Good luck!

[Net3]

2 hours ago, maartendc said:

Personally I would always go with air cooling, just for maintenance free operation. No leaking, no breaking, air coolers just work. I have heard the average lifespan of an AIO is like 4-5 yrs.

 

As for LM, I would not bother. It is not without risk, harder to apply, more frequent reapplication needed (If I am not mistaken), and unless you are doing some serious overclocking not worth the hassle.

 

 

Yeah. 4-5 years is more than enough. I don't even think of keeping same build for years. If anything upgrading everything every 1-2 years or more accurately generations. 

So that number is pretty cool with me, but I just don't know the pump fan's life span or more exactly how quality it is after few months or year, if it is the same as new. 

 

I hear that LM wont bring any benefit if the heatsink cant be cooled properly or dissapate heat then the transfer through IHS to heatsink wouldnt really be that much beneficial? 

In any case I agree with you. I think it's hard to really abuse the amount of heat LM can trasnfer through heatsink without really having the ability to dissipate heat with fans beforehand 

[RejZoR]

I'd advise AGAINST using liquid metal. I've tried it several times and it's TERRIBLE option. It worked great for a month and then it just diffused into copper to a point I was getting hard system crashes and absurd temperatures because the layer of it between cooler and chip was literally gone. And after it was diffused into copper it was impossible to clean off. I literally had to sand off a layer of copper to get off nasty ugly ass liquid metal off of it. And it did this crap even on IHS that's nickel platted. It was so nasty you couldn't even read anything from it anymore. People think it's only an issue with aluminium because it literally eats it, but it's shit with copper too. Even nickel platted one! Just avoid it.

 

Get best regular thermal paste money can buy and use that. I'm not touching liquid metal ever again. Get Cryonaut and call it a day. Great thermal paste, easy to work with, easy to clean, performs great and doesn't diffuse into anything.

[Boyohan]

I have recently changed from AIO to Air.

 

Earlier this year I changed my PC case, cooler and case fans. 

I upgraded my GPU but still used the same CPU/MoBo. 

 

My old build was a massive RGB puke fest with 360 AIO and 9x 120mm fans in a Lian Li O11 Dynamic.  

My new case is a BQ 500DX with Noctua NH-D15 (dual NF-A15 fans) and 3x Noctua NF-A14 case fans.

 

I ran Cinebench and Prime95 to test my temps before and after switching case 

Max temp was 1-2°C lower on air-cooling. 

Overall big AIOs should be slightly better than air-coolers but it is very close. 

I believe the reason for lower temps on air-cooling is due to the fact that my new case has a lot better airflow. 

Noctuas fans are awesome so the noise levels has also gone down a lot. 

 

Do not compromise on the airflow of the case or you will need to run your fans at a higher RPM to overcome the restricted air intake. 

 

It is normally not recommended to use liquid metal pastes on top of the IHS. 

But it depends on what type of cooler you use and what material that cooler is made of. 

Some AIOs have aluminium coldplates and LM will basically destroy that aluminium.

I would recommend Thermal Grizzly Kryonaut.