AIO or custom water loop

[Jun Wei Goh]

Which one is better in terms of lowering the temperature pre filled or custom water loop?

[Imbellis]

I'd say custom loop because of how much you could expand it; however, custom looping easily gets to hundreds of dollars. It's also kind of hard to define a custom loop because they can vary from a single 92mm radiator to 480mm radiators +.

 

For almost everybody, an AIO is a better choice - either with a 240mm or 280mm radiator.

[BluJay614]

7 minutes ago, Jun Wei Goh said:

Which one is better in terms of lowering the temperature pre filled or custom water loop?

For the same size, they are pretty much the same. Personally, I don't have anything against an AIO, but I would prefer custom loop(partially due to the upgradeability). The biggest downfall to custom loops, is the price.

[AnalogCanavity]

AIO for CPU

AIO for GPU

https://www.nzxt.com/products/kraken-g12-white

[Jun Wei Goh]

59 minutes ago, Zic05 said:

AIO for CPU

AIO for GPU

https://www.nzxt.com/products/kraken-g12-white

but the vram how it get their cooling .Is not directly stick with the cooler?

[AnalogCanavity]

35 minutes ago, Jun Wei Goh said:

but the vram how it get their cooling .Is not directly stick with the cooler?

The fan on the side cools the VRAM

[Damascus]

1 hour ago, Zic05 said:

The fan on the side cools the VRAM

Not very well.  For anyone getting a gpu AIO the arctic ones are faaaar superior.

[Damascus]

I recommend either air cooling or a custom loop, aios just aren't worth it.  Let's say you get a 280mm for the cpu and a 140mm for the gpu, with a bracket as well

 

$150

$100

$20

 

$270 total, at that point you should just get an ekwb kit (fluid gaming comes to mind) with full vrm coverage and a 240mm + 360mm setup

[AnalogCanavity]

2 hours ago, Damascus said:

I recommend either air cooling or a custom loop, aios just aren't worth it.  Let's say you get a 280mm for the cpu and a 140mm for the gpu, with a bracket as well

 

$150

$100

$20

 

$270 total, at that point you should just get an ekwb kit (fluid gaming comes to mind) with full vrm coverage and a 240mm + 360mm setup

I don’t know where your getting these prices from

http://www.corsair.com/en-us/hydro-series-h50-quiet-cpu-cooler

and a 240mm or 280mm for 130 that’s $210

[Damascus]

7 minutes ago, Zic05 said:

I don’t know where your getting these prices from

http://www.corsair.com/en-us/hydro-series-h50-quiet-cpu-cooler

and a 240mm or 280mm for 130 that’s $210

Talking about getting nzxt x62/x42.  Anything less and you are better off with an nh-d15 or drp4

[AnalogCanavity]

22 minutes ago, Damascus said:

Talking about getting nzxt x62/x42.  Anything less and you are better off with an nh-d15 or drp4

So your saying everything that’s not NZXT is worthless and your should go to air cooling.

[Damascus]

3 hours ago, Damascus said:

aios just aren't worth it

 

9 minutes ago, Zic05 said:

So your saying everything that’s not NZXT is worthless and your should go to air cooling.

I'm saying all AIO's are relatively worthless.  With a few exceptions like the liqtech tr4, be quiet silent loop and fractal design celcius/Kelvin aios are, in my eyes, completely worthless.  Even then they are all neck and neck with much cheaper air coolers that are incapable of failing.

 

They have:

• Weak pumps
• Garbage tier radiators
• Awful fans

The kraken lineup is one of the best in the aio game and even then I don't recommend them - they are just compatible with the bracket.

[AnalogCanavity]

6 hours ago, Damascus said:

 

I'm saying all AIO's are relatively worthless.  With a few exceptions like the liqtech tr4, be quiet silent loop and fractal design celcius/Kelvin aios are, in my eyes, completely worthless.  Even then they are all neck and neck with much cheaper air coolers that are incapable of failing.

 

They have:

• Weak pumps
• Garbage tier radiators
• Awful fans

The kraken lineup is one of the best in the aio game and even then I don't recommend them - they are just compatible with the bracket.

Do you have any price to performance/temperature charts or reviews between custom loops and AIOs

[Damascus]

7 minutes ago, Zic05 said:

Do you have any price to performance/temperature charts or reviews between custom loops and AIOs

 

 

[Jun Wei Goh]

15 hours ago, Zic05 said:

The fan on the side cools the VRAM

what serious is the thermal pad even contact with any cooler or the fan just blow the bare vram? 

[Damascus]

8 minutes ago, Jun Wei Goh said:

what serious is the thermal pad even contact with any cooler or the fan just blow the bare vram? 

Depends on the cooler model.  My strix 980 ti had a nice heatsink going directly on to the vrms but not the memory, most zotac models just have a fan.

 

Really it's best to go custom loop

[OzzyC]

I would say go custom loop if you are mainly worried about temps or the ability to expand. you will get a better rad in a custom loop usually, and i guess the way i look at it, if your loop costs the same as my pump alone, im guessing its performance will not be fair fair to compair. 

I personally got frustrated with AIO systems having a tendency to get noisy grinding sounds if they get any form of an air bubble to the pump, or if the voltage isnt just perfect for them, etc. any point of failure means replace the entire thing.

if you are trying to decide which direction to go, you may find a lot of value in something like this

 

https://www.ekwb.com/news/ek-predator-is-setting-a-new-standard-for-aio-liquid-cooling/

[Psittac]

If your main goal is price to performance, a custom loop isn't the way to go.  You will get more for your dollar with higher end components that are air cooled.  Custom loops are primarily for looks and silence with excellent cooling being an added bonus.

 

You could always go aio on cpu and a hybrid pre-water gpu.

 

Then there is the ekwb kit's available, a nice inbetween.

 

Just remember that to water cool a gpu with a custom block you need to get a reference gpu board or one of the few non-reference boards that has a block made for it.

[Tam3n]

Obviously a custom loop, if the money is not an issue... Also depends heavily on the component you will be cooling and how big you go with your loop.

When I changed my CPU cooling from Corsair H100 noctua push/pull to custom 360+480 mm loop, I reduced my Prime95 CPU core temps from 84 C avg to 57 C avg @ 4.6 GHz overclock.