120mm VS 240mm Radiator for CPU only liquid cooling

[jacobsavona]

Hey everyone,

 

I'm looking to upgrade from everyone's favourite Coolermaster Hyper212 EVO to a closed loop liquid cooler, and am wondering how much of a performance difference there is between a 120mm and 240mm radiator.

Does anyone have personal experience or links to a review/benchmark with some temps?

I have a Fractal Design Arc Midi R2 so I can install either, just curious to see some numbers!

Cheers,

Jacob

[kizoku_95]

240 mm radiator is better than 120mm radiators by a significant amount as it theoretically has double the surface area of a 120 mm rad.

But the performance of corsair h80i performance/thick rad edition is comparable to a standard h100i

But still 240 mm rads are the best way to go imo.

[Saladin]

If you are going with an All In One get a 240 (ie an h100i) the cooling performance is better and the fans don't have to spin as fast to keep the CPU cool (thus making it quieter, especially if you upgrade the fans), you also gain some redundancy in case of a fan failure (admittedly a rare occurrence).