How much can I expect temps to drop if I go AIO?

[beany_bot]

Im currently using an Arctic Cooling Freezer Pro 13 to cool my CPU (for arguments sake its slightly worse than an Evo 212). It works OK, Im in the 60's gaming hard. Just wondering how much of a drop I could expect going to one of those single Rad, AIO CPU coolers? A "budget" one I'm guessing due to funds. Something Like an H60?

 

[pastymuncher]

A overclocked 4690K at 4.5Ghz hitting the 60's while gaming is actually pretty good. You have nothing to worry about. This review put's it in the midfield and ahead of the H50 (H60 not featured) and not far behind much more expensive coolers. At the end of the day it will all depend on your case airflow setup.

 

[doyll]

What /\ /\ /\ said.

Even the best CLCs are not really any better than top air coolers .. and if their noise level is taken into account they are not as good. Put extreme fans making as much noise as CLC fans do on a top air cooler (and increase case airflow to match) and air cooler temps will be lower than CLCs.

Edit: I say 'CLC', not 'AIO' because only Swiftech and EKWB are only AIO. All others are AIO CLCs. The difference being Swiftech and EKWB Predator are not factory sealed closed loops. They are really component systems assembled and filled. They can be expanded, customized, coolant topped up and/or changed, etc. CLC cannot do anything but run until they die. ;p

 

[FatRakoon]

I have been using a few number of AIO coolers in my PC for something like 3 or 4 years now, give or take.

In truth, they are not THAT much better than a good Air cooler. They only help people think they are running a Watercooled setup and in truth, they are not really real watercooled... Not really. They are more like flying a kite and calling yourself a Pilot.

I think about £ for £ they are probably the same, and a few models go either way, and there is scope, but overall, there isnt a million miles between them.

Your case air flow is mroe important I think.

The only bonus you will truly get from an AIO setup is that the size of an Air Cooler needed will be fairly huge when an AIO is in comparison, minute ( Apart from the obvious pipes and rad )

Weirdly enough, having said that, and its far, far too easrly for me to give any fair answer here, but my latest build, is a 32Core Dual CPU Opteron 6830 setup and I have used a pair of Nuctua NH-12 coolers in there and the temps are fairly high, and so, I am looking into getting either one or two AIO setups for it... I dont know yet cos I have not found any.

But that said, the Case, even though its a great big one, ( Thermaltake Armor ), I have found to be VERY VERY cramped inside there and the Air flow in the case is very poor right now.

So, I am getting 64c on each CPU using AIR

I think that a better air flow will drop that like a stone, and I have a few more fans on the way, so maybe?

 

[doyll]

I do a lot of airflow work with computers. Used to do a lot of airflow work with engines, both inside and outside of them.
FatRakoon, it sounds like you know a fair bit too. You probably know all of this, but if not some of it might be of interest. 1st topic is what I use to check airflow temps inside of case and what the air temp going into coolers is. 1st post is intex, click on topic of interest to see it. http://www.overclock.net/t/1491876/ways-to-better-cooling-airflow-cooler-fan-data/0_20

 

[Sven69]

So what do you recommend then Doyll?

Would like to get into Water but I'm just not sure. Been looking into getting something low end like H110 GT/GTX - NZXT Kraken X61. or do I just go high end Air Cooler Noctua or Cryorig?

 

[RockoSRI]

60's isn't bad at all. I'd stick with what you've got really if i'm honest. Some of the high end air coolers are usually just as good as AIO's anyway from what i've seen very close really that's why i've stuck with air. I'm running on a Phanteks Air Cooler at 4.5GHZ on an i7 5820K 60's in gaming as well. If you're looking at Water cooling should look at building you're own loop! Some inspiration available in the projects section some awesome builds in there

 

[FatRakoon]

Id just go for it to be honest.

Just need to make sure that you dont only have a 120mm space, but also enough to fit both the radiator AND the fan into wherever, plus the hoses need to be long and flexible enough to go from the CPU to where they will go into the RAD... In 90% of the time you wont have any issues, but just in case...

For example, a couple of system I knocked up for myself lately, were with ITX... I bought a Global#Win 130 from the MM here and that takes coolermster Seidon 120 and so I bought one of those AIO coolers. The Mobo and CPU are AMD A10 and the gap between the CPU and the PSU was really small and so a, AIO was the perfect choice, plus the 120mm at the front of the case also gave enough spec to fit the Radiator and the Seidon 120 was the PERFECT choice for that Case.

Then a week of so later, I saw another case, but this was a globalWin 120 and i nwhite and of course because I liked that 130, I jumped at this one, and anyway, while I was waiting, I went out and bought another Seidon120... however it turns out that the Seidon will not fit the 120 case... No AIO will, there is simply not enough room.

GUTTED!

So, Im using a very small cooler wedged under there that is only just doing enough of a good job to make me not worry for now... I dont use the thing so its only going to be dumped with all the others, but I would liek to know its right by the tim I am through.

The AMD A10 setup with the Sedion is so sweet and cool, that I have decided to use it as my main Linux PC.

Now, as another completely lame excuse so I can waffle on like a mental patient, but the other week, I wanted to upgrade my AMD 8350 to a 9590 and I bought the CPU, but the Apfenholm AIO setup that I am using on that simply didnt do a good enough job.
I bought a Noctua HN-15 and I decided that it was simply far too heavy for me to feel comfortable with it. I then decided that the only way I can be madeto feel better and to use such a stupidly heavy cooler, was to have the Mobo lie flat and look for a case that will do that for me... My Media PC is based on the Zalman and that does it, but it is not quite high enough, but I ended up buying the Thermaltake Core X9 Snow edition, and when that came, I realised just how friggin big it was.

I then realised that I have been going weird buying so much rubbish, and I will not be actually getting any better speeds on the AMD because the 8350 is running at 4.7 anyway, so I ended up getting rid of all thse bits that I have just splashed out on.

But the fact is, that the Alpenfhon or whatever the hell it is, is one of my best 120mm AIO coolers and it is NOT as good as the Noctua NH-15.
Actually, I also got a cheap and Nasty CoolIT AIO Setup that only cost me £29 and thats on my I7-980 PC and thats keeping that absolutely stone cold so that might have been a better AIO to try on the 9590 to be honest LOL

ok, that will do.

Anyway, ignore everything I have said, just get an AIO setup for the giggles they ARE fun.

 

[doyll]

So what do you recommend then Doyll?

Would like to get into Water but I'm just not sure. Been looking into getting something low end like H110 GT/GTX - NZXT Kraken X61. or do I just go high end Air Cooler Noctua or Cryorig?

Sorry, but I'm not that kind of guy. I don't give recommendations without knowing all the facts .. and you have given me almost nothing to base a suggestion on.

Honestly, without knowing what the difference between room ambient and air temp going into coolers I have no idea what to suggest. It is entirely possible all you need to do is optimize the case airflow, because is the air temp going into coolers is 10-15c above room temp and optimizing your case's airflow lowers that to 5c your CPUs will be running 10c cooler than they now are.

As said above 60c under load is quite good.

I would also need to know how much room you have to fit coolers in, what the case is, what the fan placement is etc.

You question is like asking how strong a rope you need to pull something without telling me what the 'something' is or how much it weights.

As for the waffling, what fun would it be if we could waffle around this sort of thing?

 

[wam7]

If you do go Corsair CLC then be prepared for a good amount of noise before you can get good performance out of them. They really can't compare in quality to 'proper' AIO like the Swiftech H220-X/240-X or EK Predator. The Corsair CLC's are made out of inferior materials and the pump is 1/3 the power of the Swiftech pump. Plus the Swiftech AIO can be expanded to GPU and motherboard and another Rad and the pump still won't break a sweat.

I've had several CLC's over the years and in the end couldn't put up with the noise under load to get it performing better than high end air like Noctua D15's and this was after replacing the fans with the best performance to noise ratio SP120's.

From my experience people are better off either going Noctua D15 etc or for a bit more money than the CLC's a Swiftech/EK AIO or if they feel really flush and adventurous then full custom loop.

See this for a better explanation


Here is the direct link if the embedding doesn't work - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MjmlVs974tQ

 

[Sven69]

Sorry about the waffle. Currently have a Phanteks Evolve ATX case with the guts as described in sig below. Case is totally standard as pictured.

Room is generally around 15°C, PC idles around 30-35°C, Gaming mid to high 50's and OCCT will hit 70°C after 15 - 20 minutes.

I did try one of the OcUK 360 AIO coolers but had a noisy pump & kept getting CPU Fan error and high temps, but I did see a 10° drop in temps in OCCT with the AIO.

The high end Air Coolers concern me regarding weight supported on the Motherboard & also the clearance between Cooler and GFX card hence why I was thinking AIO.



Sven

 

[pastymuncher]

I really wouldn't change anything. Like I said at the begining, your temps are very good seeing as you are overclocked to 4.5Ghz. OCCT will get temps up because it uses AVX instructions that hammer Haswell and you will never get loads like that in normal use.

 

[doyll]

I really wouldn't change anything. Like I said at the begining, your temps are very good seeing as you are overclocked to 4.5Ghz. OCCT will get temps up because it uses AVX instructions that hammer Haswell and you will never get loads like that in normal use.

The divider below may help. Easy to try.

Honestly, big coolers are not a problem. Even on Skylake with thinner PCB it's not really an issue as long as you handle system with a little common sense.

There is a video of a couple of German testers beating up on a Skylake system. First dropping it a foot onto the desk, then in it's box dropping it 3 feet onto floor, finally throwing it from above their head onto floor. All of this done with system plugged in and running. and it was still running when they finished!! But the damage to components was significant when they opened up the box .. including the Skylake PCB.
Here's the video. Jump in to about 3:10 to see drop on desk, boxing, dropping etc. .. and what everything looked like when they took it out of box. Obviously CPU & socket are damaged, but would any CPU & socket survive this kind of abuse any better?
http://www.pcgameshardware.de/Skyla...ls/Skylake-Gefaehrdung-durch-Kuehler-1180505/

 

[wam7]

Have to agree with PM, the temps you are getting are perfectly acceptable. Just make sure you have good case air flow and try to make it positive air flow (slightly more air blowing in than out) as that will cut down on the dust inside.

 

[Sven69]

Ok cheers for that guys, will try the mod later on in the week when I finish this block of shifts.

That video was s good doyll, wouldn't have believed Motherboards were that strong.

Wam, Case airflow is standard, using standard fans connected to the Phanteks PWM hub but that's a different story. Can't get the sods to run less than 1200RPM, tried everything in the BIOS

 

[doyll]

The amazing thing about video is that the system was powered up the whole time they were tossing it around .. and never shorted out or stopped working.

Sounds like your motherboard is not sending a PWM signal to the Phanteks hub.

 

[FatRakoon]

Can't get the sods to run less than 1200RPM, tried everything in the BIOS

Have you tried plopping a resistor inline on the +v ?

Something like a 30ohm to 50 ohm will be great, but make sure that you use a 1.5w resistor cos cheaper lesser ones can get warm ( and even pop ) because typically resistors in maplins etc are 0.5w

 

[Jamesyboyjim]

I used to use a phanteks air cooler and since replaced it with a corsair h100i in a push / pull config. Temps are about the same if I'm honest. only a few degrees difference tops.

The benefit for me however, is that I prefer the look of the aio, the phanteks was enormous! I much prefer having a smaller block over the cpu.

 

[doyll]

Yeah, Top air do take up more space on motherboard, but overall displacement area is about the same. Difference is radiator and fans are mounted to case so their size is usually not as noticeable. The cooling to noise ratio between top air and H100i is significant. H100i is a couple degrees cooler but a whapping 20-25dBA louder. That is 4x to 6x times as loud to our ears!

The reason some CLC users see a temperature drop is not because of cooling ability, but because of massive difference in airflow and the fact the CLC is using cooler air.
The difference in airflow is why they are so loud. The cooler air is because most users do not 'tune' their cases to optimize their performance. Every degree warmer the air is going into cooler / radiator translated into CPU (and/or GPU) running about the same degrees hotter.

This graph shows the cooler / radiator intake air temp and the room air temps. notice the difference. But the difference between air and CLC intake temp in this test system is skewed / abnormal for some reason. Normally air temp into air coolers is 5-10c warmer than radiator. Also George always mounts CLCs as exhaust, never as intakes. The same testing with CLC as intake would lower CPU temps by about 8-9c .. the difference between room and case air temps .. but at the cost of making the air inside of case about 10c hotter .. meaning in a 22c room the air cooling component would be no lower than 42c. Cae would be heating some components, not cooling them.

 

[setter]

60c on a haswell at 4.5ghz is very impressive tbh. Ive owned 3 of the i7 haswell/devils canyon chips and all ran a fair bit warmer than 60c in games with a big dual tower k2 heatsink.