Choosing AIO for my rig

[Thaldor]

I have planned to upgrade my Scythe Katana4 to AIO cooler because I cannot seem to get satisfying clocks or temps out of my FX-8350. The problem is which one to get.

I was looking for Arctic Cooling Liquid Freezer 240, but when I started to measure how much space I have in my case (Nanoxia Deep Silence 3) and I have around 35 - 40mm room between RAM sticks and cases roof, so probably every 240 AIOs are out of question. Also it seems that in the front of the case there's 3.5" and 2.5" bays that cannot be removed without starting to cut the case into pieces, so no room in the front for 240.

With this I probably need to stick with 120 AIO, but there's also size problem. In the rear of my case there's just room for 120mm fan so the maximum width of the cooler also must be 120mm. I have been looking for Arctic Cooler Liquid Freezer 120 for it's price (from the store I usually buy my gear 64,90€) and that it comes with push-pull configuration, which I think I need since with AsRock 990FX Professional as my mobo I need to some cooling for my VRMs so I probably keep my 2 Nexus 120mm fans at the roof of my case to provide good airflow for those.

I have thought for budget to be around 100€. So, what do you think?

Also pic of my rig about now (~month old, changed SB X-Fi XtremeSound to SB Z from above the PSU and added red LED-strip to the roof to hide the horrendous colormix of my cables, sorry for that):

 

[Clanscorpia]

If you cant get a 240+ AIO just get a really good air cooler like the Dark Rock 3

[Thaldor]

40 minutes ago, Clanscorpia said:

If you cant get a 240+ AIO just get a really good air cooler like the Dark Rock 3

That is also an option. I'm ready to get anything in the budget and probably even a bit over it. I just thought getting AIO so I would get some first hand experience on liquid cooling and how it works.

 

Also now that I got my caliber out, it could be just and just possible to ram Alphacool Eisbaer 120 (would go ~5€ over my budget, but that isn't a problem) to the rear of my rig. And if I'm correct there is chance to add another cooler later if I see it's not enough and get my rear up and rip the 2.5" bay out of my case to add the cooler to the front?

[Clanscorpia]

41 minutes ago, Thaldor said:

That is also an option. I'm ready to get anything in the budget and probably even a bit over it. I just thought getting AIO so I would get some first hand experience on liquid cooling and how it works.

 

Also now that I got my caliber out, it could be just and just possible to ram Alphacool Eisbaer 120 (would go ~5€ over my budget, but that isn't a problem) to the rear of my rig. And if I'm correct there is chance to add another cooler later if I see it's not enough and get my rear up and rip the 2.5" bay out of my case to add the cooler to the front?

You cant add 2 coolers to a CPU. Dont get a 120mm liquid cooler. They are never worth it

[Thaldor]

(This thread could be moved to the planning)

 

It's possible to attach second radiator to the Eisbaer 120, but at least what I have read and looked, there's no info how much second radiator would load the pump and would it even have positive outcome. At least I cannot even see if there's secondary radiators sold at this moment, but I suspect they at Alphacool would go over the trouble of designing whole new quick attach system, so, probably hardware stores have something that works.

 

On air side of the thing. That Dark Rock Pro 3 doesn't look bad at all, but then I can save ~10€ by getting Noctua NH-D15, ~20€ with NH-D14. Looks ain't the problem since I hate cases with windows.

[WoodenMarker]

If you want the best of Air Cooling, it's hard to go wrong with the NH-D15. 

You need to quote a post or tag a member or else thy won't get a notification you replied to them.

[Thaldor]

14 hours ago, WoodenMarker said:

If you want the best of Air Cooling, it's hard to go wrong with the NH-D15. 

You need to quote a post or tag a member or else thy won't get a notification you replied to them.

Yeah, I know about the quote, just forgot to quote.

 

Been doing some measuring and seems that the Noctua NH-D15 might be a quite tight fit, but doable if the second fan can be mounted to the rear of the cooler (RAM getting on the way). But as I said I thought about 100€ budget, I could also get Noctua NH-U14S and second NF-A15 fan for it and it would land ~92€. But with googling around it looks like 50/50 chance is the U14S with push-pull even with D15 at the cooling power. It's a bit more expensive than D15 (86.50€), but if it can really perform as well, it would solve the problem with RAM clearance.

[WoodenMarker]

1 hour ago, Thaldor said:

Been doing some measuring and seems that the Noctua NH-D15 might be a quite tight fit, but doable if the second fan can be mounted to the rear of the cooler (RAM getting on the way). But as I said I thought about 100€ budget, I could also get Noctua NH-U14S and second NF-A15 fan for it and it would land ~92€. But with googling around it looks like 50/50 chance is the U14S with push-pull even with D15 at the cooling power. It's a bit more expensive than D15 (86.50€), but if it can really perform as well, it would solve the problem with RAM clearance.

The ram you have isn't that tall and the NH-D15 should fit just fine. 

There's little point adding another fan to the NH-U14S. It's fine with just one and it won't perform as well as the NH-D15 even with an additional one. The NH-U14S falls a bit behind the NH-D14 even with an additional fan.

[SpaceGhostC2C]

On 9/9/2016 at 9:54 PM, Thaldor said:

(This thread could be moved to the planning)

 

It's possible to attach second radiator to the Eisbaer 120, but at least what I have read and looked, there's no info how much second radiator would load the pump and would it even have positive outcome. At least I cannot even see if there's secondary radiators sold at this moment, but I suspect they at Alphacool would go over the trouble of designing whole new quick attach system, so, probably hardware stores have something that works.

I even doubt they used different pumps in the 120 and 240 version, but I might be wrong.

Going back to the freezer 120, it could be enough with its thickness. Again, I haven't tried it, but I did use an H80 on the FX-9370. I didn't like how loud it could get if not in "silent" profile, which I didn't use for stress testing. I don't know how well it would cool under stress test if kept silent. Eventually I swapped it by a Kraken x60 (280mm), and temps are essentially the same, the only improvement was in noise (I never push the fans at all). The H80 tends to be overpriced, but if the Freezer is similar in performance it could be great value (it may be that the top air coolers beat it, but they are also more expensive).

 

Having said that, you own basically the best OC motherboard ever made for AM3+ (later re-branded Extreme9), so it would be a shame if you didn't get the maximum OC for that chip. Hence, I'd say to look for reliable reviews and get the best performer that fits your budget and case  

[Thaldor]

19 hours ago, WoodenMarker said:

The ram you have isn't that tall and the NH-D15 should fit just fine. 

There's little point adding another fan to the NH-U14S. It's fine with just one and it won't perform as well as the NH-D15 even with an additional one. The NH-U14S falls a bit behind the NH-D14 even with an additional fan.

 

Thanks. In that case I will probably get the NH-D15. Seems like the best option.

 

19 hours ago, SpaceGhostC2C said:

I even doubt they used different pumps in the 120 and 240 version, but I might be wrong.

Going back to the freezer 120, it could be enough with its thickness. Again, I haven't tried it, but I did use an H80 on the FX-9370. I didn't like how loud it could get if not in "silent" profile, which I didn't use for stress testing. I don't know how well it would cool under stress test if kept silent. Eventually I swapped it by a Kraken x60 (280mm), and temps are essentially the same, the only improvement was in noise (I never push the fans at all). The H80 tends to be overpriced, but if the Freezer is similar in performance it could be great value (it may be that the top air coolers beat it, but they are also more expensive).

 

Having said that, you own basically the best OC motherboard ever made for AM3+ (later re-branded Extreme9), so it would be a shame if you didn't get the maximum OC for that chip. Hence, I'd say to look for reliable reviews and get the best performer that fits your budget and case  

 

Seems kinda odd if they had different pumps for them as the pump/reservoir/cooler units looks the same.

The Liquid Freeezer 120 seems like a good buy, but then again there's reviews and reviews. Not so many on the 120, but those few there is are kind of odd where one puts the LF 120 into the league of 240 AIOs and one where it fails quite badly with OC CPU. On the other hand the NH-D15 has a lot of data out there and it has always gained good reviews so it's probably great and when there's ~20€ price difference between LF 120 and NH-D15 I think I don't take the risk of getting the less reviewed LF 120 and bash my head to the wall from being idiot and not taking the more safe one.

 

That's acctually the reason why I need to get a lot better cooler. My FX-8350 would probably so happily get very good OCs if it wasn't for my quite shitty Katana4 (at this moment 4,6Ghz with 1.35V getting idle temps of <45 celsius, but when at load it will rocket over 60 celsius, it can just hardly keep it under the 70 celsius line and I have ziptied another fan to the side of the Katana4...) (EDIT: Also I did that only to get few more FPS in one project I'm working at this moment. It's quite stable and nice, but definetly something dangerous and something that can't last long.).