AIO or DIY Loop Favorites

[PineyCreek]

Do you have a favorite make or model of AIO liquid cooling solution for CPU or CPU and GPU?  Do you have a favorite purveyor of DIY loop solutions?  Who/what do you like and why?  Why would you say they're better than the rest?

[Tricky12321]

I have Corsair H100I, which i have had for almost 3 years now, and it has worked flawless!

[atomicus]

Well, AIOs and custom loops are two very different animals. They cannot be fairly compared in any way, other than they both utilise radiators, fans and liquid coolant. That's it. AIOs do not offer significantly superior cooling performance over top end air coolers and they certainly don't compete with custom loops. Benchmarks may reveal a slight edge over air coolers in some instances, but this is invariably going to be at the expense of noise from the pump, yet at twice the price of a high end air cooler. Regards brands, they're all going to perform basically the same, but NZXT, Corsair and BeQuiet are all good. In essence though, AIOs are waste of money from a performance/cost point of view, unless you simply must have one for the aesthetic. Otherwise, a top end air cooler from Noctua, Cryorig or BeQuiet would be the smartest cooling solution in almost any scenario.

 

Of course, the performance/cost argument for a custom loop is virtually non-existent, but if you want the best temps and quietest system, it is the way to go.

 

As to custom loop brands, the best would be EKWB, Heatkiller, Alphacool, Bitspower (for fittings), and Hardware Labs (for radiators). Monsoon are also worth checking out for fittings and tubing. Ultimately, the brand of choice will mostly depend on the desired aesthetic. From a build quality/reliability point of view, all of the above are solid and great choices.

[airdeano]

for me: 

AIO - h105 ((waiting on am4 brackets) the less wires the better) or h100i all mobo controlled (no OS warez for me).

custom: alphacool rad, bitspower/barrow fittings, laing D5 water pump (no PWM), koolance 80mm 'big tube' reservoir, koolance/xspc/heatkiller waterblocks, bitspower/xspc pump tops, prefer rosewill hyperborea or corsair (rings of accent) fans.