AIO to Air

slipd

slipd

slipd

Soldato
Joined
26 Feb 2004
Posts
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Location
Hampshire, England.
Hi guys,

I'm considering moving back to an air cooled solution for my main gaming rig... I might have been unlucky but I've had 4 different AIO's since mid-Lockdown 1.0! My current Corsair is on the verge of going back because it's just so noisy :( The hum of the pump is the only think you can hear in my rig when it's idle and its doing my head in.

I'm after recommendations; I'd still consider a decent AIO but I think I'm finished with Corsair and Coolermaster. And air coolers? With fans, max budget of £150. I just want silence :cool:

Rest of rig in my sig.

Thanks!
 
slipd said:
Hi guys,

I'm considering moving back to an air cooled solution for my main gaming rig... I might have been unlucky but I've had 4 different AIO's since mid-Lockdown 1.0! My current Corsair is on the verge of going back because it's just so noisy :( The hum of the pump is the only think you can hear in my rig when it's idle and its doing my head in.

I'm after recommendations; I'd still consider a decent AIO but I think I'm finished with Corsair and Coolermaster. And air coolers? With fans, max budget of £150. I just want silence :cool:

Rest of rig in my sig

Thanks!
Click to expand...

Define 7 is a good case with lots of room for big air cooling.
Stock fans are not very good, but could be worse. 3x high pressure 140mm intakes (2x front & 1x bottom) might help, but I would try stock fans first.
With front full of intake fans and all openings not covered by them blocked / taped over so no air ca leak around into area in front of fans and go in circles instead of all air having to flow on though case to go out back or top.
Bottom intake with same blocking / taping openings often helps GPU get cool air. Usually removing all unused PCIe back slot covers increase rear vent area around GPU, thus improving front to back airflow so cooler air enters GPU for lower temps and fan speed.​
You might find link below to basics of airflow and how to optimize case airflow of interest:
https://forums.overclockers.co.uk/t...-i-put-my-temp-sensor.18564223/#post-26159770

Ryzen 3600 does run about 10c hotter than my older CPUs. My idle and normal low load temps are easily 10c warmer than my 6700 or even my 920 @ 4.2GHz. I'm running ARO-M14O which is not the biggest / best cooler, but is still quite good. It's a couple degrees warmer than D15 but D15 is also 3-4dBA louder. Full load is about the same. Again it's hard to know exactly what temps are because of temp movement / spikes making graph look like wide ribbon instead of normal line.
3600 idle / surfing web temps are 30-40c with lots of temp movement / spikes making graph look like a funky fuzzy ribbon instead of normal line. Max temp <74c
6700 doing same is 26-31c with a few spikes. Max temp <73c
[email protected] is a couple degrees warmer (28-33c), both with almost no spikes. Max temp <75c​

I assume you have isolated noise to pump and ruled out any possibility it's from GPU, PSU, fan/s, etc. AIO/CLC pump noise is very common problem many users don't notice. Even custom loop pumps need to be idled way down to be silent. Few CLCs allow pump speed control. That's probably good because their AIO/CLC pumps have very low flowrates .. about the same as a healthy young male urinates. That's 45-52L/h. For comparison D5, most popular custom loop pump has 1000L/h flowrate. People knowledgeable of water cooling say that as flowrates drop from about 150L/h on a hot CPU / GPU temps go up. At flowrates between 50-100L/h the effect is even greater, and below that the temp changes are even greater.

As to what coolers to consider, the bigger / more heatpipes a cooler has the better it can cool and the quieter it will be. That's assuming good build quality and design.
 
Wow, thanks for some great suggestions here people! I keep seeing the Arctic Freezer II coming up, both here and from research? I nearly bought this when I got my Corsair AIO originally but I opted instead for brand familiarity - I have Corsiar RAM, mech keyboard etc.

I'm so undecided right now, the air cooling options just seem a bit simpler and there's less like hood of pump noise - which yes, @Sgarrista, I will confirm later for sure but I'm almost 100%. Unless its the southbridge fan on the mobo, but I've no way of monitoring that without the side off? Doesn't seem to be a sensor for it - not one that picked up in any Windows apps anyway.

^^ Also, I'm not much of a modder, I've never had windowed cases, so the aesthetics of "cool" looking cooling are wasted with me :D

Re: my other cooling, I bought a pack of 5x Arctic PWM fans in the summer and recently moved them on in places of some Noctua NF-P14s; 2x 140mm intakes at the front, 1x exhaust and 2x NF-P12 120mm, cooling the rad. I'm well happy with them, they're quiet but they shift heat (quietly!) when they need too.

Some of the Noctua air solutions look interesting...
 
Air cooling is simpler than water with less moving parts and much longer life. Only thing that fails in air coolers is fan/s which are not expensive or hard to replace. Fans are usually replaced for other reasons long before they wear out. While heatpipes do have a lifespan, it's longer than they have been in use in home computers. I've heard anywhere form 15 to 30 years expected life. I know several owners of early heatpipe coolers like Thermalright Ultra 120, Silver Arrow, NH-D14, Ultima 120 Extreme, IFX-14, etc. that came out from 2007 to 2012 that are still in use with no loss in performance. In fact most are performing better now because they have better fans on them. ;) .
 
Certainly dont need a £150 air cooler, massive high quality twin fan ones are like £65 - £85 usually.
There are some really good this VS that air cooler tests online with temp results and noise levels.
From memory the best ones are the top of the range noctua ones
 
While Noctua are some of the best they are not better than many other similar coolers from other companies, and they cost significantly more for same performance.

Cooling 3600 is not very difficult. Just keep in mind it runs about 10c hotter than others because of it's many extreme spikes. I suggest using a top tier brand cooler with 5 or more heatpipes in single or twin towers with single or double fans. Running 2 fans on these coolers, even twin towers in only 1-3c difference in temps, and at same fan speed there is almost no difference. Reason is 2x fans make more noise, and if 2x fanned cooler is running at same noise level as same cooler with 1x fan the temps are the same.

To me the advantage of using bigger coolers with more heatpipes is they give the same cooling as smaller / less heatpipe coolers with fans at lower speed so make less noise.
 
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Dark Rock 4 Pro. Dead silent. Set to 60 - 70% and forget.
Tried the Corsair AIO, good performance but HATE the high pitch noise from its pump.
The Arctic Freezer II is very quiet, and unless pushing the fans over 60-70%, which shouldn't be needed anyway, should be very quiet.
The only issue with the Arctic Freezer (AIO) is the slightly thicker rad which, depending on the case, may be an issue.
But as someone who went overkill on custom loop and tried quite few AIO, I would only suggest the Arctic if you want an AIO or the Dark Rock Pro 4 if going Air. The Arctic has more room for performance and will be less affected by the case airflow, unless chocked. If you get a case like the torrent, the Dark Rock or similar cooler will perform at its maximum potential.
 
I would get the Arctic, they are great coolers in terms of noise and thermals, reasonably priced and now with a 6 year warranty. If you can fit a 420mm AIO in your case there is a good deal on currently (just realised you have a 3600 so is probably overkill and the 240 is plenty): https://www.overclockers.co.uk/arct...ormance-cpu-water-cooler-420mm-hs-07m-ar.html

Otherwise one of the Noctuas like the D15 or U12A (similar performance but much smaller) would be good if you want the best money can buy, there are black versions if you'd prefer.

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/noctua-nh-u12a-high-performance-cpu-cooler-120mm-hs-03k-nc.html

However, a Noctua U12S would probably be enough for a 3600 (black version): https://www.overclockers.co.uk/noctua-nh-u12s-chromax-pure-black-cpu-cooler-hs-03n-nc.html

Traditional colour: https://www.overclockers.co.uk/noctua-nh-u12s-se-am4-cpu-cooler-hs-03b-nc.html

Noctua performance rating: https://noctua.at/en/noctua-standardised-performance-rating

https://ncc.noctua.at/cpus/model/AMD-Ryzen-5-3600-1023
 
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Thanks all, went for an Arctic Liquid Freezer II 240mm in the end - I've got a spacious case but I still need use of an optical drive periodically and if I want the rad at the top, which I do, I'd be prevented from having a 360mm. So far so good though and it is definitely quieter than the Corsiar and my temps are better. I didn't realise it had a six year warranty on it?

If it starts to get too noisy, I'll be going for air cooled :cry:
 
grajey said:
I've had an EVGA and Corsiar AIO leak.

I am now back on air Noctua NHD15.

PC kit is too expensive to lose to a leaky AIO.
Click to expand...


Did you get any compensation from either company or wasn't it a claim situation for either leak.?

Did you lose much.?
 
Fortunately, I keep an eye on my kit.

There was a very slight dribble on both CPU coolers which I spotted before any damage was done.

This was over a number of years rather than months but both ended with a leak.
 
slipd said:
If it starts to get too noisy, I'll be going for air cooled :cry:
Click to expand...

Myself and my two sons have AIO's and they are fairly quiet, no pump noise. I built a new PC for my nephew and put an air cooler in it and I was quite amazed at how loud it was having not had one for a while and it was only cooling a Intel i5 8500T which are cool CPU's. Possibly the RTX 2060 dumping hot air onto it.

I also had a Noctua NH15 for my eldest when I fitted his 3600 and that was noisy too, replaced it with an MSI AIO 240mm and its a lot quieter.
 
I've used / tested many AIO/CLC and even more air coolers over the years and when case airflow is setup properly air cooling a quieter in all but extremely rare occasions.

There is no reason for a NH-D15 on a 3600 to be noisy unless case airflow was not at all good.

Air cooling last way longer than AIO/CLC will with none of the performance degradation that comes with CLCs.

Key to cool and quiet is good airflow for both air cooler and AIO/CLC. Installing AIO/CLC in case venting is really only way to mount the, so obviously give much better out of the box system airflow for dumbies, but there's not a lot of knowledge needed to do a decent job of setting up good system airflow. There are several case airflow guides around, link below is to one:
https://forums.overclockers.co.uk/t...-i-put-my-temp-sensor.18564223/#post-26159770
 
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