Air vs AIO vs Watercooling

Minibiker

Minibiker

Minibiker

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Bristolian living in Swindon
Hi all

I'm in two minds about trying Watercooling, I've been watching some videos and a few of them have been saying you could get just as good if not better results from Air coolers or AIO's...

So my questions are:

What would you go for?
Which Air or AIO would you choose?
What are the benefits of going with a watercooled loop over the other two?

Any information and recommendations much appreciated

Thank
 
@Mcnumpty2323 @Minstadave

Both of you have gave good points on the options that I have... The only main thing that is putting me off a custom loop is the cost...

What Air cooler would be a good choice for Good performance and Quiet?

Budget doesn't matter at this moment just want to see what gets recommended
 
Mcnumpty2323 said:
Noctua, deep cool assassin, dark rock, coolermaster master air, hyper 212 evo was always good for the cost too
Air coolers not really my subject though :)
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Thanks for the recommendations, I will take a look at some air coolers aswell as AIO... Maybe watch a few more videos on results etc
 
alex h said:
I'm in same boat mate looking to cool a 3700x cpu looking at dark rock 4 and 4 pro noctua black nd 15 or scythe mugan or water cool having done both air and water I'm stuck which way to go but leaning towards air due to price and reliability
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I was just watching a video on all those coolers, it seems Noctua come out on top in most tests, Im looking for something that will be a bit quieter than my Cryorig M9 Plus but also something to do a good job with temps.

Mcnumpty2323 said:
To be fair a good air cooler works for most people
But if overclocking then AIO and custom
Loops start to be better option
Lot of us started watercooling back in
The days when gpus really were very
Loud indeed
And were no AIO then lol
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Tbh id love to have a watercooled system, It looks amazing and I imagine it can be pretty quiet.. I've seen a few posts lately regarding the noise some AIO's put out (pump noise mainly) and thats one thing I don't want :p
 
Minstadave said:
The limited overclocking of Zen 2 pushed me back to air. Yes you'll get a little more out of the boost algorithm if you can stay cool but it's nothing like the old days.
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I want a cooler that will do me for a while, whether that be AIO or Air but at this moment I'm leaning towards Air just because of a few pointers

Cheaper, Reliability and can sometimes be pretty quiet
 
Gray2233 said:
My basket at Overclockers UK:
Total: £92.98 (includes shipping: £0.00)
​

Beats out the Mugen 5 and is very quiet.

You don't need to go to extremes for something like a 3700X, honestly I'd be happy running a 3900X on this HSF personally.


As above. :p
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Cheers bud, do you know how they would compare to my Cryorig M9 Plus or is it a case of buy it and find out :p
 
Gray2233 said:
I'd need to hunt reviews (which are sketchy in some cases tbh) to show specifics.

Honestly, I would say both are a good tier or two above your M9, they're closer to a D14 than they are the M9 if that helps.

The M9 should be good enough for your 2600 though, or are you just fancying a change?

There's a guy with a 2600 on here recently bought the Shadow Rock 3 and he's reporting max temps of 60C no matter what he does, I'll try and hunt the post down.
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That's OK bud thank you... I just want a change tbh, the Cryorig does a decent job of cooling my 2600 but I feel I could get better results, I keep going back and forth between Air and AIO :p decisions decisions
 
Gray2233 said:
Edited my post above bud, give that thread a check.

The Scythe I know little about but given the heatpipe count and double tower, plus their general quality we see from the company, I'd bet good money it's a solid improvement.
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Brilliant, I'll have a read through now mate :) thanks
 
Mcnumpty2323 said:
Just to add
There is a middle ground between AIO
And custom loop
If you can get hold of one in the uk
Swiftech AIO which is quality components with the ability to be expanded
No aluminium radiator or asetek pump
And not sealed like most AIO it has standard compression fittings and standard 3/8 I'd 5/8 od tubing
Or 10mm/16mm if you think in metric :)
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Ohhh really didn't know that, i will have a Google search about these, cheers bud
 
Gray2233 said:
I came DAMN close to buying one of the EK Predator AiO's some years ago as it was essentially just a pre-built custom loop.

There's some really nice stuff out there if you know where to look, it's few and far between though, I'm usually a die hard High End Air or Custom Loop guy.

The Arctic Liquid Freezer II looks to be amazing for the price point for example, here's a great video on them:


My basket at Overclockers UK:
Total: £234.87 (includes shipping: £9.90)
​

Craps all over the more expensive AiO's, let alone those at the same price points.

As I said, I'm a hardcore high end air type of guy, but the above would tempt me.
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I was browsing OCUK just now and came across these, For their price they seem to be right up there... It's got a good look to it aswell.

What do you have in your system?
 
Mcnumpty2323 said:
You're welcome
It's a shame really their stuff is hard to find in the uk
They are a smaller company than some
So guess they don't have the marketing
Budget of say companies like corsair
But their stuff is way better quality than the asetek rebranded corsair stuff
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It's a shame there aren't more products like this tbh, i'm sure they would shift a lot of them
 
Gray2233 said:
My basket at Overclockers UK:
Total: £26.99 (includes shipping: £0.00)
​

They're a little ugly and they are quite high so you need to check they'll fit your case, you also need to buy the AM4 bracket (just under £3) if you want to go Ryzen. I bought a few of them when they were going for around or under £20 for various builds.

That said they perform amazingly for the price, five heatpipes, two big and silent 140mm fans.

I love mine but if you're going for a nice look with a case window they might not be ideal. lol
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I don't think they look that bad tbh, Yeah my case does have a window so i need it to look pretty mint aswell as perform good ;):p
 
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