Anyone using a 120mm AIO with decent results?

Relentless81

Relentless81

Relentless81

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Hi,

I've been looking at AIOs as I fancy a change from Air cooling, my case is a Meshify C and I have quite a long GPU and tall RAM so AIO fitment is an issue.

I could put up to a 360 in the front but I dont like the idea of heating up my GPU with CPU heat and I noticed some 120mm AIOs are quite thick, I realised I could mount it as intake at the front above the GPU so the CPU gets the best temps as intake and put a fan in the ceiling above it and link both fans to the CPU header so the warm air coming in get exhausted out the top

This means the GPU will still have its own 140mm intake fan in front of it at the bottom

Anyone ever done a setup like this? The Arctic Liquid Freezer 2 120 is 38mm thick so its quite a bit bigger than other 120mm AIOs, there isnt much info on it though, just one Youtube review where some guy replaced his Esports Duo with one and reported better temps but in a completely different case

CPU is a 2600X so not the most difficult to cool anyway (I know you're thinking just get a smal tower cooler but I want a change)

Failing that, anyone else with a Meshify C run an AIO with tall RAM or long GPU?

Cheers
 
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I used a Coolermaster 120AIO on my 6600K that was pretty highly clocked, CPU temps never got past 60 degrees from memory, but it was a while ago now. I do remember being impressed with the drop in temps when it was installed :)

edit: It was the Coolermaster Seidon V3 I used, just located the thing sitting in a box of spares :)
 
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Relentless81 said:
I could put up to a 360 in the front but I dont like the idea of heating up my GPU with CPU heat
Click to expand...
So you want to do reverse, and use inside air heated by GPU to push through a 120mm rad? GPU emits much more heat than CPU
Put the radiator in front intake, use the coolest outside air. If you have exhaust fans, GPU will be absolutely fine
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xNAMxZgvves&t=730s
 
alec said:
So you want to do reverse, and use inside air heated by GPU to push through a 120mm rad? GPU emits much more heat than CPU
Put the radiator in front intake, use the coolest outside air. If you have exhaust fans, GPU will be absolutely fine
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xNAMxZgvves&t=730s
Click to expand...

No, I would install it as front intake above the GPU and put a fan in the ceiling behind it to exhaust the majority of warm air from AIO

The GPU should be unaffected as it will still have a 140mm intake in front of it and the 120mm AIO will be above that. It might even be better off as it wont have an air cooler above it.
 
From my own experice, my front mounted rad made little difference to the GPU I'm using in my rig (Vega 64 Red Devil)

JM6SPlu.png

rExaj94.png

CPU is a 3600X. Now the under load was only a few mins and the hot spot does peak to about 85c after a long gaming session. But prior to the AIO I was seeing those temps with a Noctua CPU cooler.
 
montymint said:
From my own experice, my front mounted rad made little difference to the GPU I'm using in my rig (Vega 64 Red Devil)

JM6SPlu.png

rExaj94.png

CPU is a 3600X. Now the under load was only a few mins and the hot spot does peak to about 85c after a long gaming session. But prior to the AIO I was seeing those temps with a Noctua CPU cooler.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the info, what radiator was this? It doesn't make much of a difference I'm guessing because if you used an air cooler that warm air is in the case anyway.

I'm looking at thick 120mm radiators so it can mounted as intake but not affect the GPU as much because below the radiator will be a 140mm fan pulling in external air for the GPU
 
Relentless81 said:
Thanks for the info, what radiator was this? It doesn't make much of a difference I'm guessing because if you used an air cooler that warm air is in the case anyway.

I'm looking at thick 120mm radiators so it can mounted as intake but not affect the GPU as much because below the radiator will be a 140mm fan pulling in external air for the GPU
Click to expand...

Unfortunately mine won't fit in your case, being an artic liquid freezer II 360. My case is a phantex 400A (digital) and I put two 140mm fans on top and a 120mm out the back.
 
montymint said:
Unfortunately mine won't fit in your case, being an artic liquid freezer II 360. My case is a phantex 400A (digital) and I put two 140mm fans on top and a 120mm out the back.
Click to expand...

It would fit the case, but my GPU wouldn't and that would be a problem :)

I think I'm going to bit the bullet and give it a try, will be interesting to compare the temps of a little 120mm AIO to some of the larger tower coolers I've had and trying as intake or exhaust to see the differences in temps
 
I use a 140mm in push/pull AIO in my Meshify C and have it setup so my CPU and GPU get cold air from outside. Has worked well for me.. no issues with my 3900x/1080ti.

YkFnePB.jpg.png
 
K4Y84 said:
I use a 140mm in push/pull AIO in my Meshify C and have it setup so my CPU and GPU get cold air from outside. Has worked well for me.. no issues with my 3900x/1080ti.
Click to expand...

Thanks for this that's exactly how I'm looking at setting mine up, what model is the radiator and do you know what the thickness is please? Seems to fit perfectly

Oh and the size of the fan below the radiator?

Sorry another question, was you unable to flip the radiator so the pipes were at the top not would it not fit that way?

Edit, did a bit of googling and its an X41 - looks like they are discontinued. There doesnt seem to be any 140mm AIOs so might have to stick with 120mm but I'll have another look
 
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Relentless81 said:
Thanks for this that's exactly how I'm looking at setting mine up, what model is the radiator and do you know what the thickness is please? Seems to fit perfectly

38mm

Oh and the size of the fan below the radiator?

140mm

Sorry another question, was you unable to flip the radiator so the pipes were at the top not would it not fit that way?

Radiator can go either way in this case, but I perfer it this way.

Edit, did a bit of googling and its an X41 - looks like they are discontinued. There doesnt seem to be any 140mm AIOs so might have to stick with 120mm but I'll have another look
Click to expand...

That's a shame!
 
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Relentless81 said:
Sorry another question, was you unable to flip the radiator so the pipes were at the top not would it not fit that way?
Click to expand...

Its best practice to have the pipes in a position where air in the circuit isnt trapped in the pipework, so its better to have them in the position pictured above from K4Y84

I dont have your case but I have two 120 AIO (cpu & gpu) venting outwards from the case, top and rear. The 1080 Ti GPU AIO extracts out of the top as it generates more heat than my 3800x cpu
 
FlyingFish said:
Its best practice to have the pipes in a position where air in the circuit isnt trapped in the pipework, so its better to have them in the position pictured above from K4Y84

I dont have your case but I have two 120 AIO (cpu & gpu) venting outwards from the case, top and rear. The 1080 Ti GPU AIO extracts out of the top as it generates more heat than my 3800x cpu
Click to expand...

Thanks but isn't it the opposite? The pipes should be higher than the pump which they would be if the radiator was flipped around so that air stays put of the pump and in the radiator

FlyingFish said:
Oh and it looks like you can buy the NZXT 140mm X42 AIO new from ebay ;)
Click to expand...

Thanks I'll have a look, the X42 is thinner than the X41 though, I want the thickest radiator I can get. Really not sure on CAM either, prefer to use the BIOS, can you use these without CAM do you know?
 
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