Are cheap AIO watercoolers any good?

Anox

Anox

Anox

Associate
Joined
13 Oct 2012
Posts
652
Location
North London
Been considering one for a while now, I don't really want to go over say, £60 with this. My question is that are they any better than a decent air cooler at the same price point?

Things like temps at idle, load, sound levels I pay attention to.

If anybody could give an answer that would be great.
cheers.
anox
 
At that price point, the only real difference is the looks.
A cheaper air cooler will achieve the same noise levels and temps, it just won't look as nice ;)
 
ryder said:
At that price point, the only real difference is the looks.
A cheaper air cooler will achieve the same noise levels and temps, it just won't look as nice ;)
Click to expand...

Thanks for that, good advice methinks!
 
I have both a Noctua NH-D14 air cooler and a Corsair H100i all in one, get around the same temps. The H100i is slightly louder but looks so much better and I dont have a kilo of metal hanging of my board.
 
I have a H50

performance is similar if not the same to a decent air cooler
asthetically the H50 is better as it looks tidy and doesn't involve strapping a ton of metal to the motherboard.

Temp wise I am running a 2500K @ 4.4

it hits 59 max when folding and 65 on IBT and Prime benches. I am running the rad in push pull. Ambient in my room is 19°

I run the fans through a controller and changed the fans to scythe GTs
 
Anox said:
Been considering one for a while now, I don't really want to go over say, £60 with this. My question is that are they any better than a decent air cooler at the same price point?

Things like temps at idle, load, sound levels I pay attention to.

If anybody could give an answer that would be great.
cheers.
anox
Click to expand...

High end air are bettter in performance but as everyone else said AIO water coolers are good for aesthetics.
 
Hi, I had one of the first H50's and it did very well cooling my i7 920 at 4.2ghz the only thing l did was change the fan to a Viper 120mm fan who wants a lump of scrap metal hanging off there mobo.
 
Not a massive fan of either tbh, the high end air coolers are getting hideously big, while the AIO coolers have failure and noise issues. Though the latter will let you use what ever ram you like. Performance wise there isn't much between the high end air and AIO coolers, few c at the very most.

Save up get the V8 kit? Might be £180, but it WILL outperform the high end air and AIO coolers.
 
im building a pc soon and im not sure if i should get a closed loop all in one water cooler or a fan, ive never used water cooling so im not sure what to buy ??
 
a h100 is good but pricey and the i series the corsair link is shocking and you will have to plug the fans into the mobo or a fan controller.i would say go for a k2 mount doom air cooler or just go for a proper watercooling loop
 
I was saying to myself tbh, I might as well get a cheerful hsf, then go for a proper w/c loop all custom, better to go all the way rather than a half way watercooler. It seems far more aesthetically pleasing If I were to do it myself!
 
Anox said:
I was saying to myself tbh, I might as well get a cheerful hsf, then go for a proper w/c loop all custom, better to go all the way rather than a half way watercooler. It seems far more aesthetically pleasing If I were to do it myself!
Click to expand...

this exactly

whilst the AIO coolers will do exactly what they say on the tin you have no control over asthetics. So if you want the inside looking the way you want it then custom loops are the only way to go
 
my antec 620 does me fine, looks good, and is pretty damn silent (changed stock fan out though it was awful)
 
Do the AIOs need time to settle? I tried one of OcUK's cheapy H60s and it was terrible - temps worse than the old Noctua I removed (then put back again!). I was only trying to cool a 3570 at 3.8GHz and the case has a 180mm fan pointing straight over the CPU towards the rear fan. There's no instructions with these kits so I may have got something wrong but I've been building PCs for over twenty years and think I know how to assemble an HSF.....
 
Some are good, and some just are a pile of **** , keeping a 4.4ghz i5 3570k at or under the 60 mark while gaming, 30 idle and there isn't a whole lot of noise (much quieter than my old air cooler) just make sure you find a good fan to replace the stock one as most are noisy and dont do a very good job in the first place!

2x gentle typhoons normally do the trick personally im using 2x Fractal design R2 1200rpm case fans but they are silent
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom