Everything you described can be applied to air cooling. Not all cases are the same, some are too restrictive etc. Loads of different mount, TIM, fan options for Air as well.... I stand by what I said, the best air is better than the best AIO in terms of performance (by single digit %, so not much). Custom loops eclipse both of them. Not much more to it than this.
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Do you ever replace your aio?
- Thread starter skiersteve123
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Everything you described can be applied to air cooling. Not all cases are the same, some are too restrictive etc. Loads of different mount, TIM, fan options for Air as well.... I stand by what I said, the best air is better than the best AIO in terms of performance (by single digit %, so not much). Custom loops eclipse both of them. Not much more to it than this.
Caporegime
Why are people so tribal about this? I honestly couldn't give a toss myself.
I buy AIO's because I find them convenient, neater, easier to install, etc.
From my own experience I can tell you for certain that a 240 is better than a cheap air cooler.
I can't say if it's better than an expensive air cooler or not because I've not tested them back to back, but if an expensive air cooler performs better, I don't care. I'd still buy the AIO for the reasons I mentioned.
I wouldn't spend £120 etc on an AIO, that's ludicrous, my last two 240's were both under £60.
I buy AIO's because I find them convenient, neater, easier to install, etc.
From my own experience I can tell you for certain that a 240 is better than a cheap air cooler.
I can't say if it's better than an expensive air cooler or not because I've not tested them back to back, but if an expensive air cooler performs better, I don't care. I'd still buy the AIO for the reasons I mentioned.
I wouldn't spend £120 etc on an AIO, that's ludicrous, my last two 240's were both under £60.
That was my main reason. Neater and quieter. Plus they're so easy to pop off for new TIM. However, for the next upgrade I'll go for the real thing so it has thick tubes, fast flow and reservoirs.
Soldato
If you think the same restrictions apply to air I'm out. There's almost always a rear exhaust fan right behind the cooler. Some older reviews used the pre applied TIM vs some of the best off the shelf - makes the test pointless.
@Acme it's in response to something not true, I've always used air. Next people will be saying those original d15 look good and parts are avaliable right from gpus, to mobos to match one.
https://www.guru3d.com/articles_pages/corsair_h115i_rgb_pro_xt_liquid_cooler_review,12.html
Latest 280 xt beating the d15. The latest 240 xt is pretty much equal. It's also quieter under load.
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I sometimes wonder... how smelly the fluid will be? cutting them open after 5 - 10 years. Or what other lovely stuff is hidden away built up in them?
Soldato
Haha yeah totally. Done its fair share of work over the years
pump failure (probably) or lack of coolant. The pump was burning up and silent when I saw my temps skyrocketing
I understand reduction in performance due to reduced fluid mass, but I'm wondering how the pump gets to run semi-dry? Would I be correct in thinking radiator placement plays a major part here? I assume a radiator located at the top of a case will never let a pump run dry unless you lost almost all the fluid, which seems unlikely to me... for example, Arctic Liquid II 280 holds ~250ml of fluid... I would be surprised if an AIO lost >200ml.
Associate
I was cracking up watching this earlier, what if you left one for say 3 million years? Could it evolve into some sort of Lagoon Monster?
Man of Honour
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I use it a fair bit and it’s done a fair few 24/7 runs. It worked well for an overclocked 4770k and is lovely and quiet on my stock 9700k. Temps all seem fine. I’ve more than had my monies worth from it. I’ve got an air cooler to hand if it breaks at any point.
Soldato
I was thinking of getting a nzxt kraken for my setup at 5.1 GHz one of the cores in the 60 all the rest sit 45 two cores hit 90 when playing doom 2016 its been repasted couple of times will these new aio drop my temps use think .
Was happy running my h110i until the pump broke, had to drive to ocuk and get a dh15, corsair sent me a h115i replacement but the dh15 is better and won't bork
Replaced a h50 or something from years ago to be safe to in 3rd comp with a Arctic duo esports thingy, metal and fan from now on, less failure poins, cba custom water cooling, too much faff
Replaced a h50 or something from years ago to be safe to in 3rd comp with a Arctic duo esports thingy, metal and fan from now on, less failure poins, cba custom water cooling, too much faff
Associate
Has anyone refilled their AIO after 5-8 years of use? How do AIO people know when it's time to swap out or refill? I'm only on a 8 core Ryzen 1700, so a Noctua u14 does a very good job, but i suppose AIO makes a lot of sense if you're going 12/16 core.
They are not meant to be refilled, its a closed loop solution.
Associate
I watched Steve Burke from Gamers Nexus refer to refilling AIOs in a couple of videos. Throwing it away when the liquid evaporates seems a bit wasteful if the other parts are fully functional.