H115i Pro or H100i v2?

[doyll]

Being on carpet does not mean bottom intakes can't be used. Simple solution is to put case on an open center castor base with not only raises case up a little more then caster size (most common is 40mm .. I often use 30mm) it also makes case much easier to move.

Radiator in front means everything being cooled by front intakes will be using pre-heated airflow coming through radiator .. not really a logical thing to do with everything air cooled with heated air in order to lower CPU temps a couple degrees at most.

Radiator in top with good front and bottom intakes means GPU heated air moves back and out open GPU slots and other rear venting while cool air from front intakes pushes heated air back and their cool air goes up into radiator.

If you are looking at CLCs, I suggest you look at AIOs that are not CLC for similar or slightly more money like be quiet! Silent Loop, Fractal Design Kelvin or Alphacool Eisbaer. Much better construction with copper radiator, more powerful pump, real fittings and hose that can be cut to length, replace parts or to expand system as needed .. and a fill port to top up / change coolant in a year or two .. and all liquid cooling needs to be maintained by at least topping up coolant occasionally. It's the next biggest reason CLC pumps fail after poor quality .. maybe 1st reason most fail.
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/b-gr...perior-liquid-cpu-cooler-240mm-bg-10g-bq.html
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/be-quiet-silent-loop-superior-liquid-cpu-cooler-280mm-hs-016-bq.html
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/b-gr...in-s36-all-in-one-water-cooler-bg-01m-fd.html

 

[adrichardson81]

Being on carpet does not mean bottom intakes can't be used. Simple solution is to put case on an open center castor base with not only raises case up a little more then caster size (most common is 40mm .. I often use 30mm) it also makes case much easier to move.

Radiator in front means everything being cooled by front intakes will be using pre-heated airflow coming through radiator .. not really a logical thing to do with everything air cooled with heated air in order to lower CPU temps a couple degrees at most.

Radiator in top with good front and bottom intakes means GPU heated air moves back and out open GPU slots and other rear venting while cool air from front intakes pushes heated air back and their cool air goes up into radiator.

If you are looking at CLCs, I suggest you look at AIOs that are not CLC for similar or slightly more money like be quiet! Silent Loop, Fractal Design Kelvin or Alphacool Eisbaer. Much better construction with copper radiator, more powerful pump, real fittings and hose that can be cut to length, replace parts or to expand system as needed .. and a fill port to top up / change coolant in a year or two .. and all liquid cooling needs to be maintained by at least topping up coolant occasionally. It's the next biggest reason CLC pumps fail after poor quality .. maybe 1st reason most fail.
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/b-gr...perior-liquid-cpu-cooler-240mm-bg-10g-bq.html
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/be-quiet-silent-loop-superior-liquid-cpu-cooler-280mm-hs-016-bq.html
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/b-gr...in-s36-all-in-one-water-cooler-bg-01m-fd.html

Thanks - that's good to know! I've had a look at the KL07 now, having seen how much dead space I'd end up with in the Define S, and how little room I'd have in the Define C...

That would tie me to using the radiator as an intake (not the end of the world as my 1080 hits a power ceiling long before temps are an issue as is), but I'll definitely be going with the Be Quiet in that case. Any idea if the AM4 mount is bundled now? I'll also take a look at castors - never occurred to me before!

 

[doyll]

Thanks - that's good to know! I've had a look at the KL07 now, having seen how much dead space I'd end up with in the Define S, and how little room I'd have in the Define C...

That would tie me to using the radiator as an intake (not the end of the world as my 1080 hits a power ceiling long before temps are an issue as is), but I'll definitely be going with the Be Quiet in that case. Any idea if the AM4 mount is bundled now?

You might like some of the Phanteks cases. Good build quality and good stock fans too, so not as much extra to get good fans.

Pretty sure they all supprot AM4. Should say in cooler specs or contact customer support.

 

[adrichardson81]

I'll take a look - the main think for me is having a silent case with decent radiator support. Potentially there's 55mm of clearance in the Define S, so I should be able to fit a 280mm at the top. That would leave a lot of space at the front, but that does mean I could add a custom loop if I ever get that serious... On the other hand, P400s is interesting!

 

[doyll]

P400 is entry level. While a good case for it's price it's not really all that great. Also only has front radiator support, so if radiator is in front everything not on loop is trying to cool with pre-heated air.

 

[adrichardson81]

Thanks - is there anything you'd recommend? I couldn't see anything else that looked like it was sound dampened...

 

[Ross Thomson]

air coming in on my cryorig ultimate with push/pull isn't warm but its a ryzen 1700 not a hot intel chip. my GPU is also water cooled with it exhausting out the top. no fan on rear but a fan blowing onto the VRMs

 

[doyll]

Thanks - is there anything you'd recommend? I couldn't see anything else that looked like it was sound dampened...

In my opinion sound dampening is highly over-rated. Reasons are many, but mostly it's down to vents let noise out, so if components are not quiet we hear them. 99.9% of the time you cannot hear my systems, and then only if they are working with CPU and/or GPU at 100% load when you can just hear them above background noise in a very quiet room. Just enough to know they are working extremely hard.

That said, I think my Define R4 is maybe a little quieter because it's front venting has panel in front of vents, no top vents open and bottom vent is above carpet.

 

[adrichardson81]

In my opinion sound dampening is highly over-rated. Reasons are many, but mostly it's down to vents let noise out, so if components are not quiet we hear them. 99.9% of the time you cannot hear my systems, and then only if they are working with CPU and/or GPU at 100% load when you can just hear them above background noise in a very quiet room. Just enough to know they are working extremely hard.

That said, I think my Define R4 is maybe a little quieter because it's front venting has panel in front of vents, no top vents open and bottom vent is above carpet.

Isn't the R4 silent? Pretty sure it was when I looked for alternatives to the R5...

 

[doyll]

Isn't the R4 silent? Pretty sure it was when I looked for alternatives to the R5...

Yes, R4 has matts in it, but they are not as important as vents not being direct sound lines, but sounds being deflected by door, floor, wall behind case. I also hve Enthoo Primo, Luxe, ATX, and mATX builds with no sound dampening and not really any louder. HDDs when they are spinning up and working are loudest of anthing in the systems.

 

[adrichardson81]

I definitely think it helps (certainly my 550d is a lot quieter than the Lian-li it replaced), but you're right that it's about balancing your sound. Decent fans, not having it vibratiung against a table etc. Definitely don't miss having mechanical drives in there!

 

[doyll]

Baffled vents vs un-baffled vents in Lian Li? That makes a huge difference.

 

[adrichardson81]

That would explain it!

 

[orbitalwalsh]

That would explain it!

not to sure if you've purchased but eisbaer LT 360 is a strong contender beating out Corsair 360 version. 25mm thick rad so allows a few extra mm of gpu clearance- though not sure if it would work in current Case . £93 not to bad a price- though would skip 240 version

https://www.eteknix.com/alphacool-eisbaer-lt-360-cpu-liquid-cooler-review/4/

 

[doyll]

not to sure if you've purchased but eisbaer LT 360 is a strong contender beating out Corsair 360 version. 25mm thick rad so allows a few extra mm of gpu clearance- though not sure if it would work in current Case . £93 not to bad a price- though would skip 240 version

https://www.eteknix.com/alphacool-eisbaer-lt-360-cpu-liquid-cooler-review/4/

Huge difference in material and construction quality between the Alphacool Eisbear line of AIOs and Corsair Hxxx series CLCs .. like real fittings (so hoses can be cut to length or components changed if needed), a fill port (so coolant can be topped up if needed and/or changed after a year or 2), pump specifications (showing how much coolant it will flow), copper radiator (not cheap aluminum) .. Much better built, better performance, quieter, etc.

 

[Perfect_Chaos]

not to sure if you've purchased but eisbaer LT 360 is a strong contender beating out Corsair 360 version. 25mm thick rad so allows a few extra mm of gpu clearance- though not sure if it would work in current Case . £93 not to bad a price- though would skip 240 version

https://www.eteknix.com/alphacool-eisbaer-lt-360-cpu-liquid-cooler-review/4/

Gamers Nexus have the original Eisbaer middle of the stack compared to other coolers, this review of the newer unit says it's the best one they ever tested though. Bit conflicting then.

 

[doyll]

Gamers Nexus have the original Eisbaer middle of the stack compared to other coolers, this review of the newer unit says it's the best one they ever tested though. Bit conflicting then.

Not the first time. I doubt it will be the last either

Just look at what I said in my previous post. It doesn't take rocket science to see why AIOs like Alphacool make are so much better then the CLC Asetek make for Corsair. Just look at what components are in each. It's not about getting lower temps as much as it's about quality of product and if something does wear out or fail being able to replace / fix individual components it instead of throwing the whole thing in the bin.

 

[orbitalwalsh]

Gamers Nexus have the original Eisbaer middle of the stack compared to other coolers, this review of the newer unit says it's the best one they ever tested though. Bit conflicting then.

And then OCUK of 240 isn't as good. There's that fine balance of thermal heat conductivity/transfers and seems 25mm thick 360 has it perfect and 240 is lacking but cheap.
Reasons for increased performance could be down to the pump unit design and belong less restrictive or turbulent , then you also got to factor in case and Mobo being used and hot it controls the fan speeds . New rad looks even less restrictive with the original ST30 being the least restrictive on the market

Not the first time. I doubt it will be the last either

Just look at what I said in my previous post. It doesn't take rocket science to see why AIOs like Alphacool make are so much better then the CLC Asetek make for Corsair. Just look at what components are in each. It's not about getting lower temps as much as it's about quality of product and if something does wear out or fail being able to replace / fix individual components it instead of throwing the whole thing in the bin.

I have a feeling Corsair contract with Asetek is a long one as Alohacool are doing their custom loop parts . Shame, alpha could have easily of tailored the AIO to have ilink software

 

[Ross Thomson]

Huge difference in material and construction quality between the Alphacool Eisbear line of AIOs and Corsair Hxxx series CLCs .. like real fittings (so hoses can be cut to length or components changed if needed), a fill port (so coolant can be topped up if needed and/or changed after a year or 2), pump specifications (showing how much coolant it will flow), copper radiator (not cheap aluminum) .. Much better built, better performance, quieter, etc.

not everybody wants to be able to cut hose lengths or care about topping up/changing fluid. aluminium isn't cheap and performance isn't better and noise is mostly fan related.

 

[doyll]

I have a feeling Corsair contract with Asetek is a long one as Alohacool are doing their custom loop parts . Shame, alpha could have easily of tailored the AIO to have ilink software

More likely the fact Asetek has US atent on pump on waterblock concept, so no one can make a similar CLC and sell it in USA or any country that honors US patents.

not everybody wants to be able to cut hose lengths or care about topping up/changing fluid. aluminium isn't cheap and performance isn't better and noise is mostly fan related.

True, just as not everyone has enough knowledge to understand just how poorly built Asetek CLCs and other are. If I had used H100 when it came out I quite possibly would have had leaks in the first few months (many of the first ones out were defective) and I doubt I would still have original one on my sig rig after all these years like. The PH-TC14PE works as well today as it did first day of installed (I did change stock fans to TY-143 and later to TY-147 because originals were not PWM, red cooler and red of TY-143 match, but changed to TY-147's because I needed TY-143's on Silver Arrow IB-E for eXtreme testing and never changed them back.)

They depend on very aggressive marketing program that is often not truthful, but more like a snake oil salesman or carny barker.

As for prices of aluminum vs copper, MetalBulletin today has copper for 7070 and aluminum for 2182 .. copper costs more than 3 times as much as aluminum.

Being able to cut lines and top up coolant are a couple of the many things I listed that is better in Alphacool AIOs than in Asetek CLCs.

The Alphacool radiators do not have the dense fin spacing and do not require much higher airflow so more powerful fans moving air through them as Asetek radiators require.

Alphacool give us the flowrate, lift rate, amp rating, etc. for their pumps in their marketing literature.
Asetek give us generation number but no flowrate, no lift rate and no amp rating. If their CLC pumps are so good, why is it they do not publish the pump specifications? It is because they have very low flow and lift rates, which independent testing has proven. 40-60 liter per hour for Asetek compared to Alphacool 72-100 liters per hours and Swiftech 660 liter per hour or a D5 custom loop pump being 1500 liters per hour at full speed.

CLCs have way too many negatives (higher cost, less dependable, more noise, if pump dies no cooler where an air cooler costs less, is more dependable is quieter and the only thing that can fail is fan and if fan dies a big cooler will still cool at low load and any fan can be held on with rubber bands until suitable replacement is in hand.