do AIO coolers suck or are Noctua air cooler just godly?

[Srnewbee]

I switched to corsair h100i v2 couple month ago and I think AIOs suck. I can't believe I paid so much for a cooler that is weaker than a much cheaper air cooler. What are your thoughts?

[dizmo]

You're comparing a mid range AIO to a top tier air cooler. Have you tried switching out the fans?

[Srnewbee]

2 minutes ago, dizmo said:

You're comparing a mid range AIO to a top tier air cooler. Have you tried switching out the fans?

but to be fair... h100i v2 is more expensive and bigger. It has more points of failure and yet it does not perform as well. I dunno man, this just seems f*ed up. Why do I need to shell out additional $50 to buy proper fans? From all the reviews I read, the h100i v2 with noctua a15x25pwm perform marginally better than the stock ones. The only difference is the slight noise reduction. No thanks man. I know Corsair supports LTT big time but marketing can go only so far. Corsair really needs to make better products instead hiding behind their marketing team! They should either design their own AIO or ask asetek to make better crap. Instead slapping their sticker on OEM asetek products and trying to spin it as if corsair made it, they should do some heavy mod on it. For instance, some IWC watches use stock ETA movement but they heavily modify it. Simiarly, Corsair needs to make some mods to asetek products. I guess they did try with their ICUE programs but those programs are so so so so so so bad!!! Worst program ever. I dunno. I just think corsair sux now. 

[dizmo]

9 minutes ago, Srnewbee said:

but to be fair... h100i v2 is more expensive and bigger. It has more points of failure and yet it does not perform as well. I dunno man, this just seems f*ed up. Why do I need to shell out additional $50 to buy proper fans? From all the reviews I read, the h100i v2 with noctua a15x25pwm perform marginally better than the stock ones. The only difference is the slight noise reduction. No thanks man. I know Corsair supports LTT big time but marketing can go only so far. Corsair really needs to make better products instead hiding behind their marketing team! They should either design their own AIO or ask asetek to make better crap. Instead slapping their sticker on OEM asetek products and trying to spin it as if corsair made it, they should do some heavy mod on it. For instance, some IWC watches use stock ETA movement but they heavily modify it. Simiarly, Corsair needs to make some mods to asetek products. I guess they did try with their ICUE programs but those programs are so so so so so so bad!!! Worst program ever. I dunno. I just think corsair sux now. 

What are you basing the performance metrics on? Everything I've seen shows differently. The fans on it are fine, you can get ones to improve it.

You do know that virtually every cooler uses an Asetek pump right?

 

The H100i V2 performs better than the D15 by 6 degrees in performance mode.

Is that worth it to you? No idea.

Not only that, you're not only paying for the cooling performance, but also partially the aesthetic. To some people that matters.

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[Srnewbee]

6 minutes ago, dizmo said:

What are you basing the performance metrics on? Everything I've seen shows differently. The fans on it are fine, you can get ones to improve it.

You do know that virtually every cooler uses an Asetek pump right?

 

The H100i V2 performs better than the D15 by 6 degrees in performance mode.

Is that worth it to you? No idea.

Not only that, you're not only paying for the cooling performance, but also partially the aesthetic. To some people that matters.

aesthetics I do understand. h100i v2 in performance mode is unbearably loud. So its not exactly practical. Oh btw, these tests were all within an hour. After an hour, the Noctua air cooler would win hands down.

 

[dizmo]

2 minutes ago, Srnewbee said:

aesthetics I do understand. h100i v2 in performance mode is unbearably loud. So its not exactly practical. Oh btw, these tests were all within an hour. After an hour, the Noctua air cooler would win hands down.

 

Without knowing the performance mode, those tests aren't as accurate.

Yes, the D15 is quieter. So too would a 360mm radiator. Again, comparing top end to top end.

 

[Srnewbee]

6 minutes ago, dizmo said:

Without knowing the performance mode, those tests aren't as accurate.

Yes, the D15 is quieter. So too would a 360mm radiator. Again, comparing top end to top end.

 

dizmo, you are a respected member of this community. I don't understand why you are so vehemently protecting Corsair.

 

Here are the irrefutable truths

1) a consumer does not want to buy a cooler that performs poorly, meaning it has a poor price to performance ratio 

2) the h100i v2 is not good at cooling in terms of price to cooling ratio when compared to cheaper Noctua air coolers

3) the h100i v2 is also louder and unbearably loud in performance mode (you seriously cannot use it in that mode, imagine a lawnmower next to you), the D15 can also be set at high fan speed as well. So I don't understand why you keep on bringing up the performance mode.

4) it takes longer for water to change its temp, therefore, if you play games for more than an hour, air coolers are clearly better choices!

 

the only arguments for buying a h100i v2 are

1) aesthetics

2) compatibility issues with large air coolers

If your whole point is that aethetics and high compatibility is desirable. Sure, I agree. But heck, even Hitler had positive aspects as well. (e.g. helping the Aryan Germans live better economically) So judging holistically and philosophically, h100i v2 cooler does not do its job well. Almost all AIOs do not do its cooling job well. Therefore, it deserves to be criticized in a free market.  

 

And thats it. AIOs just sux. They are not real water coolers. So people should stop pretending that AIOs are real water coolers. It like driving a mercedes smart and pretending that you own a real mercedes. I really hope AIO companies step up their game. I want everyone to know that AIOs are crap and are completely not worth the cost. If you are charging premium prices for your products, you better give people something that performs at least marginally better.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[For Science!]

2 hours ago, Srnewbee said:

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In my opinion, combination of both.

 

We all know that the cooling capacity of any watercooled system is dependent on radiator space, which the H100i v2 sports a 240 mm rad that is 30 mm thick. The same can be said for an air cooler, assuming that it has enough heat pipes to transfer the heat of the baseplate to the fin stack, The D15 has slightly more beefy heatsink array compared to the H100i v2 (towers for 2x 140mm that is ~50 mm thick? eyeballing) and so it does not surprise me at all that the H100i v2 could be outperformed by the D15 in noise normalized scenarios.

 

As for water cooling up gradually, that is really only a "problem" in that it gives a false sense of cooling, in that it takes longer for an AIO to reach equilibrium temperature than a tower cooler. So the fact that it takes longer for a watercooler to heat up (and then cool down) is not an issue that argues either way. The only problem is when people takes "load temperatures" after 2 minutes of load when the water is still equilibrating.

 

Therefore as you correctly pointed out above, the primary advantage of an AIO is to relocate the "finstack array" to somewhere more convinient than just above the CPU. This comes to play largely in SFF cases that can't even fit a Hyper212, such as in my Ncase M1 build recently. In this case, getting D15-like performance where the alternative would be a low-profile CPU cooler, the winner is clear.

 

 

If your case can fit a D15 and not have clearance issues with RAM or the 1st PCie Slot, I think the D15 wins over the standard 240 mm cooler - similar performance, lower cost, less parts to fail. Looks are also worth the money, so for those who prioritize that, this is fine.

 

I also don't have an intrinsic issue with the AIOs either however, I think some media outllets have made watercooling to be like magic, and people simply have unrealistic expectations of liquid coolers. A 120 mm AIO will perform on par with a low-mid range air cooler, a 240 mm AIO will performanc on par with a high end air cooler. The cost increase is accounted for more parts, higher rates of RMA and potential needs to cover for broken parts by the warranty.

[dizmo]

18 hours ago, Srnewbee said:

dizmo, you are a respected member of this community. I don't understand why you are so vehemently protecting Corsair.

 

Here are the irrefutable truths

1) a consumer does not want to buy a cooler that performs poorly, meaning it has a poor price to performance ratio 

2) the h100i v2 is not good at cooling in terms of price to cooling ratio when compared to cheaper Noctua air coolers

3) the h100i v2 is also louder and unbearably loud in performance mode (you seriously cannot use it in that mode, imagine a lawnmower next to you), the D15 can also be set at high fan speed as well. So I don't understand why you keep on bringing up the performance mode.

4) it takes longer for water to change its temp, therefore, if you play games for more than an hour, air coolers are clearly better choices!

 

the only arguments for buying a h100i v2 are

1) aesthetics

2) compatibility issues with large air coolers

If your whole point is that aethetics and high compatibility is desirable. Sure, I agree. But heck, even Hitler had positive aspects as well. (e.g. helping the Aryan Germans live better economically) So judging holistically and philosophically, h100i v2 cooler does not do its job well. Almost all AIOs do not do its cooling job well. Therefore, it deserves to be criticized in a free market.  

 

And thats it. AIOs just sux. They are not real water coolers. So people should stop pretending that AIOs are real water coolers. It like driving a mercedes smart and pretending that you own a real mercedes. I really hope AIO companies step up their game. I want everyone to know that AIOs are crap and are completely not worth the cost. If you are charging premium prices for your products, you better give people something that performs at least marginally better.

I'm not protecting Corsair, I'm putting forward facts. Not the same thing.

 

1) It performs well in its price bracket. You might not want to use the performance mode, but tons of other gamers wear headsets, so it won't affect them at all. When performance mode is used, it's extremely cool. In fact, chart topping. This is why I mentioned the performance mode.

2) Air coolers are cheaper in general. This is not new or surprising. Not everyone wants one.

3) See above.

4) Sure. That doesn't mean that the H100i is a bad product. Not everyone wants an air cooler.

 

Did you see all of the coolers above the D15? All AIOs. So while a great cooler, it's not the best way to cool a CPU. It is, in fact, the only air cooler to drop below the 70 degree mark. In fact, even in quiet mode where it doesn't cool as well, it beats the D14, Dark Rock Pro 3, and R1 Universal; large air coolers.

[aezakmi]

dunno man I never had a problem with corsair AIOs, even using the stock fans they always performed as expected

 

I only had 2 problems, first, corsair link has NEVER worked for me across 3 computers, and second, while building my Intel rig, I found out the included screws in my 110i GT were too long for the 1151 socket, because of this, the backplate was loose causing the CPU to overheat, I fixed it by adding rubber washers between the plate and mobo, but imo that's one big design flaw there, I've seen a lot of ppl having the same issue, some even returned their coolers

 

20 hours ago, Srnewbee said:

h100i v2 in performance mode is unbearably loud.

there's no such thing as performance/quiet mode with asetek pumps, they just run at a static speed all the time

about the fans: they are loud, but this can be solved easily by connecting them to the motherboard headers and forcing them to run at X speed all times via BIOS setup, running any kind of auto configuration software or "fan curves" will cause the fans to ramp up to 100% even while the CPU temp is low

 

right now my CPU is idling between 16-24C and load (gaming) temps are always under 60C and I'm using the stock fans in a Pull config, both @600 RPM are dead quiet

I know winter helps, a lot. my temps during summer would be the same +20C because of the ambient temp difference, this 8600k hasn't been tested by summer yet, just 3 more months and guess we'll see if the cooler can handle it with 2 fans under 1000RPM

a 100i v1 managed to keep running an FX chip in ~50C heat days so it wasn't that bad, air coolers wouldn't be enough in that case, back in the day I had the thermalright silver arrow which was pretty good at that time (2013) and my CPU kept failing and that's why I went for the 100i and solved it

 

the noctua coolers are great too

[Speed Weed]

Noctua NH D15 S performs better than Corsair H110 on my end. 

[IAnthonyFX]

22 hours ago, Srnewbee said:

I switched to corsair h100i v2 couple month ago and I think AIOs suck. I can't believe I paid so much for a cooler that is weaker than a much cheaper air cooler. What are your thoughts?

in an AIO you pay for space savings and looks if you are into that, aswell as showing off your ram. air coolers like noctua are very well peformers but noctua a brown mess but the best (not for long tho) and be quiet is ... (damn i love be quiet, can't say much about them) but also are huge and some people cant afford tall heatsinks or want to show their rgb ram