AIO vs Custom Water cooling

[KoeppColto024470]

So this is probably a really dumb question but I'm new to liquid cooling so I think its something I should understand. What's the difference between a all in one cooler and doing a custom loop other then having to buy tubing radiators and reservoirs seperate for custom loop. is there any sort of benefit for going custom loop over a AIO 

[stealth80]

1 minute ago, KoeppColto024470 said:

So this is probably a really dumb question but I'm new to liquid cooling so I think its something I should understand. What's the difference between a all in one cooler and doing a custom loop other then having to buy tubing radiators and reservoirs seperate for custom loop. is there any sort of benefit for going custom loop over a AIO 

Mainly the fact you can include other components. Also, a Custom Loop "Should" perform better

[menchx]

I think the main reason to go for a custom loop should be if you want to watercool your GPU (or more parts) as well as your CPU. Otherwise, I don't think the research, cost, maintenance and the actual hassle (not to mention the risk involved even after you install it) is not worth the trouble when you can just buy an AIO cooler for your CPU that performs in the ballpark.

[NoobCase]

12 minutes ago, menchx said:

I think the main reason to go for a custom loop should be if you want to watercool your GPU (or more parts) as well as your CPU. Otherwise, I don't think the research, cost, maintenance and the actual hassle (not to mention the risk involved even after you install it) is not worth the trouble when you can just buy an AIO cooler for your CPU that performs in the ballpark.

Done several custom loops, but agree with this.

 

today you do custom loops for the fun of it and the ability to go overkill on rads in order to reduce the noice as much as possible and of course for looks.

[tikker]

Mostly for fun, looks and like other said to cool more than just the CPU. Custom loops tend to get expensive though (looking at you Bitspower fittings  ) and require some maintenance once in a while, so they're never truly "worth it" over a good air cooler or an AiO watercooler.

[PrimeSonic]

Likes others said, building a custom loop is mainly for the glam factor.

 

An AiO requires no maintenance, is simple to install, and can give you pretty good cooling performance.

Heck, now that we finally have 360mm AiOs, we'll finally see some that can truly outperform the massive air coolers.

 

Custom water cooling should be something you get into first and foremost because you want to.

It's more of a(n expensive) hobby than anything.

I don't tinker with cars but I get to mess with my PC every six months now without necessarily buying new actual components.

[andrewmp6]

A aio can be a ok option with it not having the maintenance a custom loop has,Which is every 6 months to a year depending which coolant you use.The maintenance can be a rise with distilled water to full blown strip it and clean every block by hand.A aio most are 4 or 5 years you just throw it away and buy another one.The down side to a aio is they can leak and if not seen could kill a gpu or motherboard.And the pumps they use can go bad.A custom loop can leak also but if installed right the odds are small.A custom loop pump almost never die unless ran dry while priming the system.Some even run dual pumps so the 2nd is a back up incase the first one dies.It comes down to price and are you willing to do the maintenance or not.

[SolarNova]

in a nutshell....

 

Asthetics.

Performance.

Acoustics.

 

Custom loops can look insanely good, the more money and time you put into one the better it looks.

 

Custom loops can perform vastly better than AIO's if again, you put the money into it. More and bigger rads means more thermal disipation potential. Which means one can achieve higher OC's and thus more performance for the PC itself.

 

Custom loops 'can' have superior Acoustics. If you build a loop with quiet operation in mind, then you go overboard on the radiators, and run fans at slow speeds.

 

And ofc, the 'fun & satisfaction' value is there aswell.

[Damascus]

On 08/03/2018 at 1:34 PM, stealth80 said:

Mainly the fact you can include other components. Also, a Custom Loop "Should" will perform better

A single 120mm GTR will cool parts better than 90% of aios

[stealth80]

1 hour ago, Damascus said:

A single 120mm GTR will cool parts better than 90% of aios

You see you ruled through my should, I wrote that purposefully, if people wanna put ram, 2 gpus and an o/c CPU on a 240mm rad then no it wont. But I agree, a "well planned loop" WILL outperform an AIO 

[Damascus]

20 minutes ago, stealth80 said:

You see you ruled through my should, I wrote that purposefully, if people wanna put ram, 2 gpus and an o/c CPU on a 240mm rad then no it wont. But I agree, a "well planned loop" WILL outperform an AIO 

I'm actually going to be testing the absolute limits of 240mm hardwarelabs radiators, Ill try and remember to tag you.

 

I'll be pitting various radiators against the claimed max thermal dissipation (1100w in the case of a GTR 240) by setting up my 3 770s, 980 ti and 6950x on full burn.  To test 1100w I'll take the cpu out for an estimated 1050w power draw

[stealth80]

12 minutes ago, Damascus said:

I'm actually going to be testing the absolute limits of 240mm hardwarelabs radiators, Ill try and remember to tag you.

 

I'll be pitting various radiators against the claimed max thermal dissipation (1100w in the case of a GTR 240) by setting up my 3 770s, 980 ti and 6950x on full burn.  To test 1100w I'll take the cpu out for an estimated 1050w power draw

please do I'll be interested in that! 

[Tam3n]

The so called max thermal dissipation depends on how warm water you consider acceptable... Lets say a rad dissipates 200 W at 20 C ambient and 30 C water. The same setup would dissipate 600 W at 10 C ambient and 40 C water.

[RobV1306]

Hey guys,

 

Sorry to re-invigorate this old thread but since this is exactly what I'm wondering about, it seems foolish to clutter up the forum with yet another topic.

 

I've read through the above, and researched elsewhere, but still can't get a decent answer on why custom loops will perform better (and by this I mean from a thermals perspective). Is it purely because with a custom loop, you can include as many rads as you want to give you the right amount of heat dissipation for you or is there something more fundamental in the design of AIOs which mean that they are simply not as good at extracting the heat from a CPU in the first place?

 

For my intended use, I only want to liquid cool the CPU. I'm happy with my GPU performance and the Founders Edition cooler looks real nice (RTX20 series, not 30 before you all start hating me for being one of the lucky few - I'm not). If I got a 360mm AIO, I can't see any reason why that would perform worse than setting up an entire custom loop with a single 360mm rad to cool just the CPU. Anyone able to demistify this for me please?