Watercooling

[RubberKut]

Hi,

 

I am "dreaming" about buying a closed loop cooler for the cpu. Leaning towards the 360mm rads, because of better cooling and lower rpm's. And bigger is better right? :)

I have no experience with watercooling and was wondering, is it worth it? Or is it simply more trouble then cooling perfomance? For example leakage or breaking parts like the pump?

 

Why i would want one? Well, i like the looks of it. Somewhat better perfomance? The 7700k is a hot chip. In a few years when my cpu is becoming more outdated i figured i'll try some proper overclocking including delidding it.

 

So for the people who own or has owned various AIO coolers, is it worth it? do they perform better? What are your personal pros and cons about them?

[NelizMastr]

I have a Corsair H115i on my Ryzen 2700X and my main reason for going AIO is noise. I strapped some quiet Noctua Redux fans to it and temps and noise are very decent.

 

A 360 rad would also be much better for temps generally, because it has more cooling surface.

[Agonizel]

19 minutes ago, NelizMastr said:

A 360 rad would also be much better for temps generally, because it has more cooling surface.

I repeatedly saw that the gains from 280mm to 360mm would be minimal though. Personally I think a 280mm rad is best for low noise because first of all the fans are bigger (140mm) which means lower RPM. Second, 280mm has only 2x fans opposed to a 360mm which has 3x fans: so the 280mm has yet another reason to be quieter.

 

[Mick Naughty]

Wouldn’t be concerned about stuff breaking on an aio. Unless you can’t install the stuff. 

 

I prefer 140 fans over 120 in every scenario. That and my cases normally support a 280 as exhaust over a 360. I won’t run rads as intake anymore. Especially if there’s an open air cooled gpu behind it. 

 

But if the cpu takes priority, get a 360. 

[daimonie]

3 hours ago, Beer_Nontitju said:

I repeatedly saw that the gains from 280mm to 360mm would be minimal though. Personally I think a 280mm rad is best for low noise because first of all the fans are bigger (140mm) which means lower RPM. Second, 280mm has only 2x fans opposed to a 360mm which has 3x fans: so the 280mm has yet another reason to be quieter.

 

The bigger it is, the slower your fans can be. It's a combination of surface area and the flow rate of air through them. Larger surface area allows a smaller flow rate.

 

There are 420 rads on the market, e.g. https://www.ekwb.com/shop/ek-coolstream-ce-420-triple

[Agonizel]

2 hours ago, daimonie said:

The bigger it is, the slower your fans can be

on 360mm rads, you have 3x 120mm fans that often don't go below 800rpm. On 280mm rad you have 2x 140mm fans that can go below 700rpm.
The gains from 280 to 360mm are minimal, almost negligent.

 

So if 280mm has similar performance, needs less fans that spin slower - you can agree that it will be quieter right?

[SolarNova]

There are 'arguable' cases for running a 280mm AIO, though i would say a 360mm is the onyl real choice.

 

Most certainly ignore 240mm or below, at that size and smaller a good top of the line air cooler will do just aswell if not better.

 

The difference between a 280mm AIO and a top fo the line aircooler is ...small, but it is there. IMO though its not worth the added points of failure a AIO adds in.

 

The difference between a 360mm AIO and a top of the line aircooler however is more significant and if you dont want to, or cant afford, a full custom water loop then a 360mm AIO imo is your best bet.

 

i would go a stage further and say if u do get one, try get one that is expandable, so that if u so choose u can add in your GPU and if need be add in another radiator in the future. EK and Alphacool do expandable AIO's.

[Benjeh]

9 hours ago, Beer_Nontitju said:

I repeatedly saw that the gains from 280mm to 360mm would be minimal though. Personally I think a 280mm rad is best for low noise because first of all the fans are bigger (140mm) which means lower RPM. Second, 280mm has only 2x fans opposed to a 360mm which has 3x fans: so the 280mm has yet another reason to be quieter.

 

3 fans at low rpm will be just as loud as 2 140mm fans, you also have more surface area with the 360 meanins you can probably run the 120's lower.

[Agonizel]

Alright, let me repeat myself since you didn't take the time to read trough further comments: 120mm fans are unable to reach as low RPMs as 140mm fans. So no, 3x 120mm fans at a minimum of 800rpm are not as quiet as 2x140mm fans that can go down to 650rpm

And again, let me repeat that the temps gain with 360mm over 280mm are negligent

[Benjeh]

2 hours ago, Beer_Nontitju said:

Alright, let me repeat myself since you didn't take the time to read trough further comments: 120mm fans are unable to reach as low RPMs as 140mm fans. So no, 3x 120mm fans at a minimum of 800rpm are not as quiet as 2x140mm fans that can go down to 650rpm

And again, let me repeat that the temps gain with 360mm over 280mm are negligent

I have 3 of each, while the 120mm fans aren't as slow rpm wise, they only make the same amount of noise at the same speed percentage, the temp difference note, negligent? maybe on an aio but on these custom loop rads I have here, it wasn't negligent at all when one of my fans was removed from the 420mm and for my own curiosity unplugged the remaining to and compared each rad with or without fans. You could of replied with less hostility btw, there was none in my post but you seem to have been upset by it in some capacity.

[daimonie]

13 hours ago, Beer_Nontitju said:

Alright, let me repeat myself since you didn't take the time to read trough further comments: 120mm fans are unable to reach as low RPMs as 140mm fans. So no, 3x 120mm fans at a minimum of 800rpm are not as quiet as 2x140mm fans that can go down to 650rpm

And again, let me repeat that the temps gain with 360mm over 280mm are negligent

While RPM doesn't translate to sound equally, your point seems valid to me.  It does matter what particular fans they are and such. 

[Benjeh]

2 hours ago, daimonie said:

While RPM doesn't translate to sound equally, your point seems valid to me.  It does matter what particular fans they are and such. 

exactly, there are different variables.

[RubberKut]

Ah, couldn't you guys make it easy for me? haha..
 

Still doubting between the 360 and 280, I already was thinking of changing the fans for the rad, my choice would be a noctua the new one af12 something. It's a 120mm fan, which would be perfect for the 360mm, on the other hand, they do provide a way of assembling it to a 140mm sized rads and ofcourse claiming it is just as good or even better as any other 140mm fan.

 

At the moment i still lean towards the 360mm, it would fit in my case, only have to remove my cd drive and score some dust filters. Getting a 280

 

Anyway thx a lot for the replies.

[SolarNova]

Nocuta does NFA14 140mm fans aswell.

[Columbo]

What AIO and watercooling in general lack in noise they make up for in ambient heat in your room. My 240mm AIO has had zero problems. My next build already half pieced together will feature a 280mm coolermaster AIO. I do admire the custom loops that some of these custom builders put together. I can't help but think dropping 1k for a custom loop yields little over AIO coolers besides the cool factor. It also seems the custom loops are specific to the build and not easily parted into another build. 

[SolarNova]

19 hours ago, Columbo said:

What AIO and watercooling in general lack in noise they make up for in ambient heat in your room. My 240mm AIO has had zero problems. My next build already half pieced together will feature a 280mm coolermaster AIO. I do admire the custom loops that some of these custom builders put together. I can't help but think dropping 1k for a custom loop yields little over AIO coolers besides the cool factor. It also seems the custom loops are specific to the build and not easily parted into another build. 

Not sure what u mean about heat.

 

Both air and water cooling disperse heat into the air, that how cooling works.

Air coolers with sufficent case airflow drop heat into the room just as a rad does.

 

In regards to Custom loop upgradability. With a AIo or air cooler u may need to get a new mounting bracket for a new CPU socket,

With a custom loop CPU blocks can usualy be reused so long as the mounting bracket can be swaped out , however GPU's are a different story and require new blocks each upgrade., BUT there is most certianly a performance differnece that makes it worth while. not to mention the asthetics.

 

Nowdays custom loops can be done on the cheap, dont need to spend 1k. EK kits are a good start, aluminium kits are even cheaper, and chinese brand (Bykski, Barrow) kits are cheaper still. All those options will be better than a AIO but ofc still cost more.