Should AIO coolers be equal or better than their air cooler versions?

[SilentGameTestR]

When it comes to case fans/coolers, i tend to buy Popular cheap brands that you wont find on OCUK as i like to spend as little as i can and dont care for brands as long as it does what its meant to and so, if i cant find the solution to my ram dilemma, then i will get an AIO at some point.

Im eying up a brand that i use their case fans from which im happy with, but cheap or the big brands, i was curious if the AIO are made to the same quality or better quality than their air cool options?

 

[doyll]

Check out Thermalright coolers, as they have great performance at very low prices. There are several recent thread here about Thermalright coolers, and OCUK have several listed on their website.

 

[dave28]

The problem is when you try to go cheap on an AIO then the chances of running into pump failures or other problems may increase.
I would really advise getting a quality one or just stick to an air cooler.

 

[SilentGameTestR]

Check out Thermalright coolers, as they have great performance at very low prices. There are several recent thread here about Thermalright coolers, and OCUK have several listed on their website.

funnily enough its a cooler from that brand i was looking at when i thought to make this threads. its their case fans im using both normal and argb and ive been really impressed with how next to no sound they make. bequiet and corsair fans i had before that were meant to be super silent had nothing on these. its why i take a chance on cheap brands. paying all that money for decent fans from a top brand that sound like turbines when they shouldnt. seems a waste.

the AIO from thermal is a single 120mm fan which is all i can fit. its an AQUA ELITE 120 V3 .

The problem is when you try to go cheap on an AIO then the chances of running into pump failures or other problems may increase.
I would really advise getting a quality one or just stick to an air cooler.

To be fair my only experience with an AIO cooler was a few months ago when i had a proper workstation system running an 8086k before i sold it. dont know exact model, but it was a 240mm corsair that the logo lit up. that system was a few years old when i got it and i only used it for a few months. No issues from it.

as i said above, i use that brand Thermalright for case fans which i prefer over corsair, bequiet to name 2 and i used to only ever by the top brands. However Thermal might make good case fans, air coolers, but bad AIO im not sure which is why i asked. The comparison also includes the big brand options.

 

[doyll]

funnily enough its a cooler from that brand i was looking at when i thought to make this threads. its their case fans im using both normal and argb and ive been really impressed with how next to no sound they make. bequiet and corsair fans i had before that were meant to be super silent had nothing on these. its why i take a chance on cheap brands. paying all that money for decent fans from a top brand that sound like turbines when they shouldnt. seems a waste.

the AIO from thermal is a single 120mm fan which is all i can fit. its an AQUA ELITE 120 V3 .

To be fair my only experience with an AIO cooler was a few months ago when i had a proper workstation system running an 8086k before i sold it. dont know exact model, but it was a 240mm corsair that the logo lit up. that system was a few years old when i got it and i only used it for a few months. No issues from it.

as i said above, i use that brand Thermalright for case fans which i prefer over corsair, bequiet to name 2 and i used to only ever by the top brands. However Thermal might make good case fans, air coolers, but bad AIO im not sure which is why i asked. The comparison also includes the big brand options.

Thermalright is a good company founded in 2001cc. They've been in business for long time being one of very first to use heatpipes in computer coolers. While their retail pricing is much lower than many other brands, their quality is just as good.

The world has come to associate price with quality. But in reality that is often not at all true. Many companies mark their prices up because buyers will pay more thinking it's better when reality is selling is just making more money on same quaity product selling for 1/3 the money, sometimes even less.

Thermalright is one company selling at reasonable prices. So is ID-Cooling. Look at Gamer Nexus resent video of cooler testing. Both Thermalright and ID-Cooling coolers are as good any other. Both are significantly lower priced than most others. Both are within a few degrees of very best cooling cooler (NH-D15 G2) at same noise levels. But 1-3c difference is also well within margin of error in cooler testing. Slight differences in base flatness cooler base and CPU IHS changes how well heat transfers from CPU to cooler, thus causing cooling results to vary with same coolers on different CPUs.

 

[JonRGV250]

The problem is when you try to go cheap on an AIO then the chances of running into pump failures or other problems may increase.
I would really advise getting a quality one or just stick to an air cooler.

Nope.
I’ve had 3 Corsair H150i LCD AIO’s and the pumps have failed on all 3, bear in mind that cooler costs £300.
I’ve got a Thermalright frozen vision now which is working just fine and was £120.

 

[Kurgen]

Nope.
I’ve had 3 Corsair H150i LCD AIO’s and the pumps have failed on all 3, bear in mind that cooler costs £300.
I’ve got a Thermalright frozen vision now which is working just fine and was £120.

i have the basic thermalright vision in a PC was £45.90 seems ok to me, well packaged, and easy to install...

 

[zaniro]

More parts on an AIO that can go wrong than on an air cooler, so build quality and therefore price needs to be a consideration.

 

[varkanoid]

I've still got the OCUK OEM branded one going strong in my son's PC only reason I keep it because its one of those 120mm's which are really thick radiators - 40cm I think, been in 3 PC's (at least) and just looked up when I bought it nearly 10 years ago now. Cooling an I5 13400 at the moment.

 

[Vexr]

I'm still rocking a Corsair Hydro H90 140mm I bought as part of a used FX-8350 build around 12 years ago. I think the true age of it is nearly 15 years old.

The fan died on it while still on the FX-8350 (a 125W TDP chip) and I didn't even notice. It was basically cooling passively just with the pump and heatsink.

I'm now rocking a 5700X3D on this cooler and have long since slapped a 140 mm Noctua fan to the heatsink. Still running cool and silent for my main use case (gaming).

I can't see myself ever going back to an air cooler after this experience with a rather modest AIO.

 

[Zeebedy]

I switch to a Thermalright air cooler and for 35 bucks does an awesome job on my 7900X.