Should I...?

SHG_Marsh · July 11, 2018

Ive had my computer finished for a couple of weeks now. Its air cooled and it does pretty well. In the future I would like to get an AIO for my 1500x to that I can over clock it. I have an NZXT S340. I know i have room for a 120 mm AIO but will the air flow still be good? I would put the AIO in a place where I have an exaust fan and I only have 2 exaust fans. So should I get an AIO or should I not. Also in the future I would like to water cool.

Also what AIO should I get?

orangecat · July 11, 2018

Watercooling requires maintenance sometimes and I generally recommend avoiding it unless you are willing to deal with the issues that can come along with it such as leaks for example. You could also just buy a good air cooler. I use a NH-D15 on my 3570K and it cools just about as good if not better than some dual 120mm AIO coolers and on top of that it's quieter and no leaks. I can't imagine a 1500x would need an AIO even when overclocking as most Ryzen chips struggle to get much past 3.9-4.0 Ghz anyways. I assume you're using the stock cooler so why not just see how far you can go with that cooler and if you wanna go further maybe look into something like a Hyper 212 as it shoudl be more than enough. I know mine was until I delidded my CPU.

bowrilla · July 11, 2018

1 hour ago, Kilobytez95 said:

Watercooling requires maintenance sometimes and I generally recommend avoiding it unless you are willing to deal with the issues that can come along with it such as leaks for example. You could also just buy a good air cooler

While I agree, that a good air cooler is more than capable and on par with good AiOs I don't really see the argument of maintenance. What are you servicing on an AiO? There are no (user) serviceable parts. All you need to do is keep your system clean so that air can flow. Leaks on AiOs are also very (!) unlikely. Still, especially on Ryzen a top of the line air cooler will perform just as good as a top AiO while being way cheaper.