BEST AIO LIQUID CPU COOLER!

[AdjustedMold97]

Despite what you may have assumed based on the title of this topic, I have not found the BEST AIO LIQUID CPU COOLER!! But rather have come here to ask you guys if you knew what that would be for my needs. I have a little extra money to throw around right now so I decided to upgrade my CPU cooling solution from stock cooling to top of the line liquid cooling. My case is a Deepcool Tesseract SW, so I can only fit a dual 120mm rad. My CPU is an AMD FX-6300, and I'm planning on upgrading to an 8350 soon.  My mother board is and ASRock 970 Extreme 3 R2.0, just in case you needed that information... Anyway as far as purposes goes, I plan on using my rig to play games and record some gaming videos with a webcam, video editing and rendering, etc. So generally some pretty CPU intensive stuff, so I'm looking to overclock a little. So, price aside, which AIO liquid CPU cooler (that fits my rig situation of course) is the BEST!?!?

 

Thanks in advance!

[Enderman]

H105/H100iGT/H100iGTX

 

these are all 240mm radaitors, 30mm thick, and have the same fin density, so they all pretty much perform the same

just pick the one you think looks best

[Spring1898]

Greetings!

 

1st, I would recommend a full 990FX series motherboard. Your motherboard probably won't be able to keep up with the power demand of the FX 8350 if you want to overclock. Insufficient power phases means that you may risk burning out your board and lacking stability. A 990FX series board would likely be your best bet. The Gigabyte 990fxa UD3 is a pretty budget oriented 990 series board, decently durable, and full 8 power phases. If you want to go higher, the Asus Sabertooth 990FX. Above that you have the more "premium boards"

 

2nd, the Tesseract does have room for a 240mm rad on top, however, given the narrow distance between the top of the motherboard and the top of the case you will likely only be able to mount the radiator inside and have to mount the fans on the outside of the case. Still works, but may be less aesthetically pleasing.

 

If you don't think you will like the looks of that set up, you may prefer to go with a 120mm rad in the rear mounted spot, possibly a "thick" 38mm rad to maximize your performance with the possibility of a double fan set up. This generally performs closer to a standard 240mm set up.

 

3rd, if you do that, the double fan set up will likely cover the VRM on the motherboard. Since overclocking FX chips draws a lot of power, it is generally recommended to keep the VRM area cool with its own fan blowing over them. The thicker radiator and double fan set up prevents that from happening with the side mounted fan on the case, so you may have to rig up a smaller fan underneath for airflow.

 

4th, if you don't plan on overclocking, an aircooler like the Hyper 212 Evo could save you all that trouble.

Or choose a less power hungry FX CPU like the FX 8320e, 8370e, or my favorite, the FX 8310 (tiger direct is the only place that sells this OEM chip which is essentially an 8370e but with 0.1ghz faster base clock and $60 cheaper)

[tomas710]

H105/H100iGT/H100iGTX

 

these are all 240mm radaitors, 30mm thick, and have the same fin density, so they all pretty much perform the same

just pick the one you think looks best

The H105 is 38mm thick, the others are 27mm

[Enderman]

The H105 is 38mm thick, the others are 27mm

only the H100i is 27mm

 

The H100iGTX is 30mm

 

but yeah youre right the H105 is 38, and thats the one that performs best

[tomas710]

Despite what you may have assumed based on the title of this topic, I have not found the BEST AIO LIQUID CPU COOLER!! But rather have come here to ask you guys if you knew what that would be for my needs. I have a little extra money to throw around right now so I decided to upgrade my CPU cooling solution from stock cooling to top of the line liquid cooling. My case is a Deepcool Tesseract SW, so I can only fit a dual 120mm rad. My CPU is an AMD FX-6300, and I'm planning on upgrading to an 8350 soon.  My mother board is and ASRock 970 Extreme 3 R2.0, just in case you needed that information... Anyway as far as purposes goes, I plan on using my rig to play games and record some gaming videos with a webcam, video editing and rendering, etc. So generally some pretty CPU intensive stuff, so I'm looking to overclock a little. So, price aside, which AIO liquid CPU cooler (that fits my rig situation of course) is the BEST!?!?

 

Thanks in advance!

I was recently in the same situation. The corsair H105 is thicker, which gives it slightly better performance than other 240mm AIOs, My other option was the Enermax Liqtech, the build quality is amazing and it shows in performance, the thing is built like a tank, i went for the H105 simply cause at the time it was cheaper, but now they are the same. There is a newer Enermax cooler, the Liqmax II, but i don't recomend getting an AIO that's new to the market, many people who bought the Cooler Master Glacer 240L got leaks and now it's basically phased off, so i would stick with products that have been in the market at least a year.

http://www.amazon.com/Enermax-LIQTECH-Pre-Filled-Coolant-ELC-LT240-HP/dp/B00JD4TDDE/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1436811479&sr=8-1&keywords=enermax+liqtech+240&pebp=1436811481718&perid=1ENHHX21D3TV5CJSKW11

http://www.amazon.com/Corsair-Extreme-Performance-Liquid-CW-9060016-WW/dp/B00HKEI3EY/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1436811758&sr=8-1&keywords=corsair+h105&pebp=1436811760810&perid=0STWR6N6WS64SCQS03ZX

[tomas710]

only the H100i is 27mm

 

The H100iGTX is 30mm

 

but yeah youre right the H105 is 38, and thats the one that performs best

That's why i got it, really didn't care for corsair link and couldnt hook it up anyway since my mobo has 1 USB 2 header, so i went for a bit more performance. You got one of those fractal design units, couldnt find them anywhere, how does it perform?

[Enderman]

That's why i got it, really didn't care for corsair link and couldnt hook it up anyway since my mobo has 1 USB 2 header, so i went for a bit more performance. You got one of those fractal design units, couldnt find them anywhere, how does it perform?

They arent available in north america for some patent issues, i got mine from europe

 

It performs about the same as my H100i since its a little thicker but lower density radiator

they are both 240mm so not a big difference is to be expected

 

The pump does have much higher flow rate, and because of this its a little louder, but thats necessary for an expandable system

When I put in a 86mm thick 280mm radiator soon I should see much better temps

[TheCaptain53]

Despite what you may have assumed based on the title of this topic, I have not found the BEST AIO LIQUID CPU COOLER!! But rather have come here to ask you guys if you knew what that would be for my needs. I have a little extra money to throw around right now so I decided to upgrade my CPU cooling solution from stock cooling to top of the line liquid cooling. My case is a Deepcool Tesseract SW, so I can only fit a dual 120mm rad. My CPU is an AMD FX-6300, and I'm planning on upgrading to an 8350 soon.  My mother board is and ASRock 970 Extreme 3 R2.0, just in case you needed that information... Anyway as far as purposes goes, I plan on using my rig to play games and record some gaming videos with a webcam, video editing and rendering, etc. So generally some pretty CPU intensive stuff, so I'm looking to overclock a little. So, price aside, which AIO liquid CPU cooler (that fits my rig situation of course) is the BEST!?!?

 

Thanks in advance!

This might sound like a dick comment, but have you considered migrating over to Intel?

Having personally gone from an FX-6300 to an i5-4690K (it's sitting at stock), I saw much better performance in any typical gaming scenario. Not just at maximum, but average and especially minimum fps. The cost of getting a 990FX mobo, a liquid cooler and an FX-8350, you may as well have just gotten an i5-4690K, well priced Z97 board and cheap air cooler for roughly the same price.

If you're sticking with AMD (which is fair, your choice), I've seen 240mm custom loop kits for not much more than AIO coolers. http://www.watercoolinguk.co.uk/p/Alphacool-NexXxoS-Cool-Answer-240-LTST-Full-Kit_30211.html

Obviously the comparison varies between different nations, so in your area, an AIO makes more sense. But a custom loop would allow for expansion, better cooling and the chance to match to your build/colour scheme.

Just a couple of thoughts to consider.

[tomas710]

They arent available in north america for some patent issues, i got mine from europe

 

It performs about the same as my H100i since its a little thicker but lower density radiator

they are both 240mm so not a big difference is to be expected

 

The pump does have much higher flow rate, and because of this its a little louder, but thats necessary for an expandable system

When I put in a 86mm thick 280mm radiator soon I should see much better temps

Personally i rather stay with closed loops (expandable is out of my range, simple as that, i would break something...lol) I love the copper rad and brass fittings, it's a huge plus both for temps and if you're expanding, makes much more sense since most good rads are copper, and yeah, when you add that rad...no more temps concerns, simple as that. I like when mainstream companies work with water cooling ones, like alphacool, with the exception of the cooler master Glacer 240L, that was a huge fuck up, even cooler master took it off their site...lol

[tomas710]

This might sound like a dick comment, but have you considered migrating over to Intel?

Having personally gone from an FX-6300 to an i5-4690K (it's sitting at stock), I saw much better performance in any typical gaming scenario. Not just at maximum, but average and especially minimum fps. The cost of getting a 990FX mobo, a liquid cooler and an FX-8350, you may as well have just gotten an i5-4690K, well priced Z97 board and cheap air cooler for roughly the same price.

If you're sticking with AMD (which is fair, your choice), I've seen 240mm custom loop kits for not much more than AIO coolers. http://www.watercoolinguk.co.uk/p/Alphacool-NexXxoS-Cool-Answer-240-LTST-Full-Kit_30211.html

Obviously the comparison varies between different nations, so in your area, an AIO makes more sense. But a custom loop would allow for expansion, better cooling and the chance to match to your build/colour scheme.

Just a couple of thoughts to consider.

Expandable AIOs are a good compromise but i don't think he wants to do custom.

[Spring1898]

But if he does only want a 120mm, the H80i GT is the thickest 120mm available, which translates to a surface area somewhere above 80% of a 240mm radiator

[KayMarie_SB]

Swiftech H220x. The best, as it is expandable over time, and the pump and res is top notch. It is fairly pricey, though. 

[AdjustedMold97]

Thanks so much everybody! I really appreciate all the feedback! I'm genuinely surprised by how many helpful answers you guys gave me, and since there were a ton of them and I haven't checked on this post in a while, here is my response to all of them:

 

1. Thank you everybody who suggested different coolers and gave explanations as to why

2. A HUGE thanks to Spring1898 who gave me a TON of feedback and suggestions for upgrades to my system, I can't thank you enough for taking the time to help me improve my system, I really appreciate it! 

3. Thank you everybody who kept the conversation over which coolers perform the best going

4. Thank you TheCaptain53, for suggesting I switch to intel, don't worry, it didn't sound to me like a dick comment anyway, and I'm sticking with AMD for now, and honestly for what I intend on using my computer for, I think I need more cores and faster performance, so I went with the Fx-8350 (P.S. I already added it to my system)

5. I do plan on upgrading my mobo now that you guys have suggested it

6. Thank you everyone for helping me out, the feedback was great, thanks!

I can't overstate it, really thanks guys.