AIO or custom to quieten power hungry kit?

bluebox · 14 Sep 2015 at 19:37

I'm re-using a box I built as a home server as a gaming PC and need to quieten things down. The CPU is an AMD FX-8320 with a stock cooler and the GFX card is a Radeon R9 285, both of which are power hungry space heaters.

I'm not really looking to OC just want to reduce the noise levels. My case (another vendor's own brand "gaming case") has room for a 140mm fan on the back and 2x140mm fans on the side.

My question is would a single loop custom setup with a 280mm rad on the side and CPU and GFX blocks be better than the simpler and cheaper option of a couple of AIO coolers like the NXZT X41, one for CPU and one for GFX?

zeegy · 17 Sep 2015 at 16:10

the 8320 can be a bit of a beast, especially on a single rad / aio - running a 8320 at work on a h80i is considerably better than stock HSF, but not silent either!

Custom loop would be my recommendation here - they key part is that you are wanting to cool the gpu too, they run at just shy of 200w TDP.

vantastic · 17 Sep 2015 at 16:44

Custom loop is more fun, looks better, expandability etc.. AIO is cheaper. I would go for the custom loop.

zeegy · 17 Sep 2015 at 17:00

vantastic said:
Custom loop is more fun, looks better, expandability etc.. AIO is cheaper. I would go for the custom loop.

probably wouldn't be much cheaper with a closed gpu cooler.

vantastic · 17 Sep 2015 at 17:35

zeegy said:
probably wouldn't be much cheaper with a closed gpu cooler.

Ah it will be cheaper all day long mate!