- Apr 20, 2013
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Since it seems nearly every thread on cooling these days gets jumped on by people advising AIO's are junk/worthless/etc/etc (to be fair, some are), rather than cluttering up those threads with pointless arguments, I'll share some tips/points here and be done with it. Please note this is not an attempt to say AIO's are always the best choice. There are many situations where you are better off with an air cooler.
However, in my experience, I've yet to see an air cooling setup that can match a decent AIO setup for cooling. I've been working with AIO setups pretty much since the beginning. I had both Coolermaster's and ThermalTake's early offerings. They sucked. Hard. CM's cooling performance was lackluster at best and I had multiple pump failures on the TT's. But that was a decade ago. Things have come a LONG way since then for AIO's. I've currently got 4 AIO's running at my house, two of which have been running nearly 24x7x365 since they were installed. The last pump failure I had was on the previously mentioned TT's and that was around 8 years ago. Currently my oldest AIO is a first gen Corsair H100 (non "i") and has been running since Dec 2011.
The first thing you need to consider if you are going AIO (or really liquid in general) is your case. Where can you fit a radiator? How big of a radiator can you fit? Can you fit fans on both sides of the radiator?
As far as AIO's go, there's 4 radiator sizes. 120mm, 140mm, 240mm, 280mm. The 120mm and 240mm use 120mm fans. The 140mm and 280mm use 140mm fans. I consider 240mm the minimum radiator size. Smaller than that and you really are better off with a good air cooler. At 240mm even in a sub-optimal setup will usually meet or exceed the best air cooling has to offer.
Now, where to put it. This is an often overlooked question and personally one of my issues with nearly EVERY review of an AIO I have seen. Radiators perform best as intakes. Period. Just like your cars radiator is placed at the front to take advantage of the cooler outside air, your computers radiator prefers sucking in cooler outside air. That doesn't mean you can't mount it otherwise and get satisfactory results. It just means you are either going to have to work harder on the rest of the setup or deal with lesser performance (not to be confused with insufficient performance). If at all possible, you want your radiator mounted at the front of your case as an intake. Years of experience as well as the manuals for multiple AIO kits will tell you this. Yet reviewers rarely do this which really annoy me.
There's two things that often prevent you from doing this. The design of the case or the length of the tubing on your AIO. If you're already planning on buying a new case, take this into consideration. How much does this matter? In my limited testing, I've seen temp increases of 8c-12c simply from moving the radiator from a front intake to a top exhaust. Given the whole goal here is improved cooling, that's counter productive.
That brings us to which AIO kit to get. This is actually an easier question than you might think. Many of the current generation of AIO's are re-brands of the same Asetek kit. Corsair/NZXT/etc just package them with their own fans and software. Corsair's software has a bit more features, but takes a bit more work to setup. Bonus is if you have other Corsair link components, such as a power supply, they use the same software. NZXT's is limited to just your AIO however it basically just install and forget about it. They recently overhauled it and it's a bit more resource friendly now.
You may have seen some people complain that AIO's are loud. That can be true but without more data, that's no different than saying fans are loud. There's two things generating noise on an AIO. The pump and the fans. The fans are always something you can control. However, what you may not have known is the pump is something you may have some control over as well.
If you look at the various AIO's, you'll note some specify they have a variable speed pump. You want that. For one, it's usually just a better pump in general. But, that also means you may have some control over the pump. All the AIO's software usually allows you to select a Silent/Quiet mode or a Performance mode. Across the board, this adjusts fan speeds. However, on some (I only have experience with NZXT's doing this) it also adjusts the pump speed. On performance the pump sits around 3,000rpm. That's certainly audible, although personally I'm not sure I'd call it "loud". On silent, it drops down to 1,000rpm. Personally I can't hear it at all at that speed and you're probably improving it's lifespan as well. Fan's are obviously quieter at the lower speeds as well.
However, just like most air coolers, the fans they include aren't the greatest of fans. From a performance standpoint, most of the AIO's include decent enough fans, but they are loud. Of the current AIO's I have, I found the 140mm NZXT V2's off the Kraken X61 to be the least obnoxious but that doesn't mean you can't do better. On my 120mm based radiators, I replaced the fans with Corsair's SP120's. Quieter than the stock fans (Corsair's or NZXT's) and better performing. On my 140mm based radiators, I've started running Noctua iPPC 3000rpm fans. On the AIO's silent mode they are quiet enough that I can hear them but if for some reason I need more cooling you can crank them up to silly levels of airflow.
That brings us to the fan placement. Most of the AIO's (possibly all, haven't really looked) only include enough fans for a single setup. Meaning fans on one side of the radiator. For best performance fans on both sides is preferred but single side is usually sufficient. Personally, I prefer mine setup in a "PUSH" setup, meaning the air is going through the fan, then the radiator. Especially if the fan is an intake fan as preferred.
Hopefully this sheds some light on the various opinions you see on here.
However, in my experience, I've yet to see an air cooling setup that can match a decent AIO setup for cooling. I've been working with AIO setups pretty much since the beginning. I had both Coolermaster's and ThermalTake's early offerings. They sucked. Hard. CM's cooling performance was lackluster at best and I had multiple pump failures on the TT's. But that was a decade ago. Things have come a LONG way since then for AIO's. I've currently got 4 AIO's running at my house, two of which have been running nearly 24x7x365 since they were installed. The last pump failure I had was on the previously mentioned TT's and that was around 8 years ago. Currently my oldest AIO is a first gen Corsair H100 (non "i") and has been running since Dec 2011.
The first thing you need to consider if you are going AIO (or really liquid in general) is your case. Where can you fit a radiator? How big of a radiator can you fit? Can you fit fans on both sides of the radiator?
As far as AIO's go, there's 4 radiator sizes. 120mm, 140mm, 240mm, 280mm. The 120mm and 240mm use 120mm fans. The 140mm and 280mm use 140mm fans. I consider 240mm the minimum radiator size. Smaller than that and you really are better off with a good air cooler. At 240mm even in a sub-optimal setup will usually meet or exceed the best air cooling has to offer.
Now, where to put it. This is an often overlooked question and personally one of my issues with nearly EVERY review of an AIO I have seen. Radiators perform best as intakes. Period. Just like your cars radiator is placed at the front to take advantage of the cooler outside air, your computers radiator prefers sucking in cooler outside air. That doesn't mean you can't mount it otherwise and get satisfactory results. It just means you are either going to have to work harder on the rest of the setup or deal with lesser performance (not to be confused with insufficient performance). If at all possible, you want your radiator mounted at the front of your case as an intake. Years of experience as well as the manuals for multiple AIO kits will tell you this. Yet reviewers rarely do this which really annoy me.
There's two things that often prevent you from doing this. The design of the case or the length of the tubing on your AIO. If you're already planning on buying a new case, take this into consideration. How much does this matter? In my limited testing, I've seen temp increases of 8c-12c simply from moving the radiator from a front intake to a top exhaust. Given the whole goal here is improved cooling, that's counter productive.
That brings us to which AIO kit to get. This is actually an easier question than you might think. Many of the current generation of AIO's are re-brands of the same Asetek kit. Corsair/NZXT/etc just package them with their own fans and software. Corsair's software has a bit more features, but takes a bit more work to setup. Bonus is if you have other Corsair link components, such as a power supply, they use the same software. NZXT's is limited to just your AIO however it basically just install and forget about it. They recently overhauled it and it's a bit more resource friendly now.
You may have seen some people complain that AIO's are loud. That can be true but without more data, that's no different than saying fans are loud. There's two things generating noise on an AIO. The pump and the fans. The fans are always something you can control. However, what you may not have known is the pump is something you may have some control over as well.
If you look at the various AIO's, you'll note some specify they have a variable speed pump. You want that. For one, it's usually just a better pump in general. But, that also means you may have some control over the pump. All the AIO's software usually allows you to select a Silent/Quiet mode or a Performance mode. Across the board, this adjusts fan speeds. However, on some (I only have experience with NZXT's doing this) it also adjusts the pump speed. On performance the pump sits around 3,000rpm. That's certainly audible, although personally I'm not sure I'd call it "loud". On silent, it drops down to 1,000rpm. Personally I can't hear it at all at that speed and you're probably improving it's lifespan as well. Fan's are obviously quieter at the lower speeds as well.
However, just like most air coolers, the fans they include aren't the greatest of fans. From a performance standpoint, most of the AIO's include decent enough fans, but they are loud. Of the current AIO's I have, I found the 140mm NZXT V2's off the Kraken X61 to be the least obnoxious but that doesn't mean you can't do better. On my 120mm based radiators, I replaced the fans with Corsair's SP120's. Quieter than the stock fans (Corsair's or NZXT's) and better performing. On my 140mm based radiators, I've started running Noctua iPPC 3000rpm fans. On the AIO's silent mode they are quiet enough that I can hear them but if for some reason I need more cooling you can crank them up to silly levels of airflow.
That brings us to the fan placement. Most of the AIO's (possibly all, haven't really looked) only include enough fans for a single setup. Meaning fans on one side of the radiator. For best performance fans on both sides is preferred but single side is usually sufficient. Personally, I prefer mine setup in a "PUSH" setup, meaning the air is going through the fan, then the radiator. Especially if the fan is an intake fan as preferred.
Hopefully this sheds some light on the various opinions you see on here.