Looking for a 'silentish' AIO to replace Swiftech H240 X2

Mr Carrot · 4 Apr 2018 at 11:20

Morning all, whilst waiting for them to finally ship the Caylos NSG-S0 PC Fridge my trusty old H240 pump has **** the bed and died.

My gut reaction was to pick up the latest Swiftech to replace it but getting the original a few years ago related in me having to sacrifice my firstborn and summom Cthulu it seems they have carried on busy not actually making anything.

So what do you guys recommend in terms of current AIO. A lot of the review sites are US centric so Alphacool and BeQueit don't feature highly in the rankings so looking for on the ground experience.

Not interested in faffing around with a custom loop for a 6 month build.

Quietness is key.

Can fit up to 360mm radiator in top of p380 case and happy to buy fans seperately to replace crap ones in a kit so not an issue (I have a bunch of 120mm silentwing 2 fans)

doyll · 4 Apr 2018 at 12:55

I'm going to assume you want a AIO that is not a CLC.
be quiet! Silent Loop are quiet.
Silent Loop 360mm is £149.99
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/be-quiet-silent-loop-superior-liquid-cpu-cooler-360mm-hs-01a-bq.html

Fractal Design Kelvin (not Celcius!)
Kelvin S36 'B'grade is £119.99
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/b-gr...-all-in-one-water-cooler-bg-01m-fd.htmlKelvin

Alphacool Eisbaer
Alphacool's new Eisbaer LT are selling at lower prices than others but pump is wihtout reservoir, radiator is is a little smaller & thinner, but still all copper, all fitting are threaded, has fill port, etc. like original Eisbaer.
Aisbaer LT360 is £99.95
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/alph...water-cooling-unit-240mm-11446-hs-006-ac.html

All of above are made by Alphacool with pump based on DC-LT

I'm using be quiet! Silent Loop 280 in one of my rigs and love it. It's the only AIO I've used that has been in use longer than it takes to test / review. but it's an AIO and not a CLC like all but a few other AIOs like Swiftech and Alphacool make.

Kelt · 4 Apr 2018 at 13:15

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/cool...l240l-rgb-aio-cpu-cooler-240mm-hs-07p-cm.html

Gets pretty good write ups, especially considering its cost.

There's a non-rgb option as well if it's not your thing.

Mr Carrot · 4 Apr 2018 at 14:30

Cheers guys,

Really helpful Doyll, so basically if I get the bequiet! I'm getting an alphacool pump etc. with bequiet! fans - with the difference in price being a bit of design and better fans?

doyll · 4 Apr 2018 at 15:06

Mr Carrot said:
Cheers guys,

Really helpful Doyll, so basically if I get the bequiet! I'm getting an alphacool pump etc. with bequiet! fans - with the difference in price being a bit of design and better fans?

The fans are not the only difference.

The be quiet! Silent Loop pump is not identical to the Alphacool Aisbaer or Fractal Design Kelvin, but I don't know if there is much difference between them. be quiet! says

"This innovative, decoupled pump assures excellent cooling efficiency and whisper-quiet operation. The pump’s “reverse-flow” technique draws the liquid coolant from an outer cavity of the pump housing across the base plate, discharging the warmed coolant through a second level inside. This is key to guaranteeing the silent be quiet! operation."

What the actual differences in flow and noise levels are I don't know because I have not tested/used any of the other Alphacool AIOs.

Reviews I've read indicate they are all quite good. The new Aisbaer LT series reviews say it's very good, and it's price is much lower than almost all other AIOs including CLCs, and I don't know how they are able to market copper radiator, threaded fittings and I assume better pump then typical Asetek made CLCs have for same or lower prices. For example, Corsair H150i is £164.99, and many of us know Asetek OEM is not very good, yet reviewers rave their so called wonders.

My guess is Asetek OEM CLCs price reflects extreme mark-up from actual cost of making them versus their retail price. This has been going on from beginning of CLC sales with all the marketing hype about 'water cooling' and reviewers testing in case built systems where air temp into an air cooler is 10-30c higher than room air temp being drawn into CLC radiator mounted as intake. End result is CLCs get remarkably lower CPU temps than air coolers, but when the air temp is the same the numbers become very similar .. and even better for air coolers when noise levels are the same or similar. But the price difference is just a guess of how marketing hype and supply/demand has played out. My guess is now that Alphacool has lowered the retail price of AIO with threaded fittings, copper radiator and high flow / lift rated pump we will either see a price drop in CLCs or the new Aisbaer LT price will go up. But again, this is only a guess.

I'm trying to find out if new Aisbaer LT is as good as other Alphacool OEM. but even if I do it will take some time (and probably money) to get, test, disassemble and evaluate. Even then it will only be one person's opinion and we really won't know for at least a few years how well they last.

As for your Swiftech H240 X2, I think the pump can be purchased and replaced.

orbitalwalsh · 4 Apr 2018 at 15:25

@doyll

silent loop shares same pump as Eisbaer and Eisbaer LT - LT is just visually different, big bro has storage tank and pump at a different angle which causes a little hum.

silent loop has 30mm thickness over LT 25mm rad . Also LT uses current Eiswind fans whilst Eisbaer will switch over to bequiet Pure Wing fans.

Eisbaer pro i believe will use Silent Wing 3!!!! and a D5 pump haha, so wont be as silent due to that

factal design used the older pump version before bequiet bought the OEM rights to new pump design

alphacool have the advantage of owning a large stake where the rads are produced , other companies share a factory(s) for their rads - so this helps keep prices down

Mr Carrot · 4 Apr 2018 at 15:27

hah, quite a mind boggle but it looks like things might move quickly in this space.... for the cash I may just plump for air for six months or so (have an old NH D15 kicking about).

I will cry if the NS0 ends up being noisy!

doyll · 4 Apr 2018 at 16:20

orbitalwalsh said:
@doyll

silent loop shares same pump as Eisbaer and Eisbaer LT - LT is just visually different, big bro has storage tank and pump at a different angle which causes a little hum.

silent loop has 30mm thickness over LT 25mm rad . Also LT uses current Eiswind fans whilst Eisbaer will switch over to bequiet Pure Wing fans.

Eisbaer pro i believe will use Silent Wing 3!!!! and a D5 pump haha, so wont be as silent due to that

factal design used the older pump version before bequiet bought the OEM rights to new pump design

alphacool have the advantage of owning a large stake where the rads are produced , other companies share a factory(s) for their rads - so this helps keep prices down

Ah, I'm not sure we are on the same page here. Original Aisbaer pump/waterblock have a reservoir / 'storage tank', new Aisbaer LT pump/waterblock does not have a reservoir/

Yes, Silent Loop radiator is different, but similar to Eisbaer radiator. New Eisbaer LT rediator is different width, length and thickness.

I'm not familiar with 'Eisbaer Pro', but if it usesl Silent Wings 3 fans and D5 pump why would it not be as quiet? D5 is variable speed from 1800-4800rpm so when slowed way down is quiet. Flowrate specs vary with some saying up to 350 l/h and others saying up to 1500 l/h. Either way, even 350 l/h is many times what Asetek pumps will flow. (40-60 l/h).

Could you give us some links to your sources for Aisbaer Pro?

doyll · 4 Apr 2018 at 16:23

Mr Carrot said:
hah, quite a mind boggle but it looks like things might move quickly in this space.... for the cash I may just plump for air for six months or so (have an old NH D15 kicking about).

I will cry if the NS0 ends up being noisy!

D15 is a very good cooler and will serve you better than even the best AIO will. Even your H240 X2 is only slightly better than D15 if your case airflow is optimized so cooler is using air at or near room ambient.

What do you mean by 'NSO'?

TheVoice · 4 Apr 2018 at 16:27

Corsair H115i Pro is very quiet, I run mine on the lowest pump and fan speeds and it's barely noticeable, and even in gaming on that profile it keeps temps at an acceptable level. There's the H150i Pro if you want bigger, they both use the same newer Corsair ML fans.

orbitalwalsh · 4 Apr 2018 at 16:36

doyll said:
Could you give us some links to your sources for Aisbaer Pro?

I know of the UK sales manager and know the marketing EU manager

Will have to take them up on a trip to Germany , before we leave the EU pmsl

Since they manufacture their own version of D5 they thought why the hell not , doesn't cost them any extra . And one ups manship over EKWB with their DDC unit

momo56 · 4 Apr 2018 at 17:28

+1 for the Eisbaer. I've had a couple of AIO pumps and Eisbaer was the quietest. Under 2000 rpm made it almost inaudible too.

Perfect_Chaos · 4 Apr 2018 at 18:40

It's Eisbaer extreme, I'm not aware of a Pro version. I messaged AC myself and they said around August for release, and that it will use a custom type of D5 pump.

I do know the pump on my Eiswolf seemed to be pretty quiet, even though it killed my GPU and i gave up on that then.. IMO with the Eisbaer LT coolers they should just release a GPU bracket to have a hybrid card, much simpler to fit and less to go wrong. Like the EVGA Hybrid kit thing.

doyll · 4 Apr 2018 at 20:16

orbitalwalsh said:
I know of the UK sales manager and know the marketing EU manager
Will have to take them up on a trip to Germany , before we leave the EU pmsl

Since they manufacture their own version of D5 they thought why the hell not , doesn't cost them any extra . And one ups manship over EKWB with their DDC unit

Yeah the upcoming extreme definitely looks interesting. Would love to get an in with them to test / review their products. I've done lots of air cooling and fans and am pretty well versed on them .. and a fair few CLCs which I didn't find much good (and that's being kind). But their Aisbaer line and OEM products for be quiet! and Fractal Design are good, so I expect new LT and future Extreme to be even better.

TheVoice said:
Corsair H115i Pro is very quiet, I run mine on the lowest pump and fan speeds and it's barely noticeable, and even in gaming on that profile it keeps temps at an acceptable level. There's the H150i Pro if you want bigger, they both use the same newer Corsair ML fans.

Just another Asetek with all it's hype ab

Perfect_Chaos said:
It's Eisbaer extreme, I'm not aware of a Pro version. I messaged AC myself and they said around August for release, and that it will use a custom type of D5 pump.

I do know the pump on my Eiswolf seemed to be pretty quiet, even though it killed my GPU and i gave up on that then.. IMO with the Eisbaer LT coolers they should just release a GPU bracket to have a hybrid card, much simpler to fit and less to go wrong. Like the EVGA Hybrid kit thing.

out how great they are but never publish any specifications of their pumps .. and Corsair originally said to mount their CLCs as intake which gives them better temps but cooked everything else in the case except CPU. :rolleyes:

Doesn't take many brain cells to know all air cooled components in a system need a flow of cool air, not air being pre-heated by a radiator cooling something else.

Ah, now it makes sense. Yeah I saw a teaser for it in January and keep hoping for but haven't see any more info.

Perfect_Chaos · 4 Apr 2018 at 21:17

doyll said:
Doesn't take many brain cells to know all air cooled components in a system need a flow of cool air, not air being pre-heated by a radiator cooling something else.

What if you only have room for rad up top and one in the front? 240 front/bottom with an extra 1 fan bringing in cool air from the bottom or 1 120 in the back for the GPU and top 360 for CPU, with 2-3 fans bringing air in at the front.

Btw i have an Eisbaer 240 LT coming from eBay which i got for £55, will probably be used for someone else with my spare x58 parts, but i could link it to my extra 240 st30 rad first and see what kind of difference it makes to temps.

doyll · 5 Apr 2018 at 13:42

Perfect_Chaos said:
What if you only have room for rad up top and one in the front? 240 front/bottom with an extra 1 fan bringing in cool air from the bottom or 1 120 in the back for the GPU and top 360 for CPU, with 2-3 fans bringing air in at the front.

Btw i have an Eisbaer 240 LT coming from eBay which i got for £55, will probably be used for someone else with my spare x58 parts, but i could link it to my extra 240 st30 rad first and see what kind of difference it makes to temps.

So which is it? Radiator in top? Radiator in front? 120mm radiator? 360mm radiator? What will be cooled by what radiators? What case?

Way too many variables in your questions to give any kind of concise answer without it being several paragraphs.

TheVoice · 5 Apr 2018 at 15:08

doyll said:
Just another Asetek with all it's hype about how great they are but never publish any specifications of their pumps .. and Corsair originally said to mount their CLCs as intake which gives them better temps but cooked everything else in the case except CPU. Doesn't take many brain cells to know all air cooled components in a system need a flow of cool air, not air being pre-heated by a radiator cooling something else.

It's working fine for my needs, no issues with heat in the rest of the system and it keeps quiet. As my first foray into watercooling I'm very happy with it, it's a good unit.

Perfect_Chaos · 5 Apr 2018 at 16:02

doyll said:
So which is it? Radiator in top? Radiator in front? 120mm radiator? 360mm radiator? What will be cooled by what radiators? What case?

Way too many variables in your questions to give any kind of concise answer without it being several paragraphs.

Enthoo Luxe, so to have a 360 & 240 then it will be bringing in warm air since the 240 can only go front bottom or front.

doyll · 5 Apr 2018 at 17:14

TheVoice said:
It's working fine for my needs, no issues with heat in the rest of the system and it keeps quiet. As my first foray into watercooling I'm very happy with it, it's a good unit.

Just because it's doing the job does not mean it's good. If you had more experience with real water cooling you would understand why 99.9999% of experienced water coolers do not like or want anything to do with Asetek OEM coolers. Alphacool is now sell a much better cooler with threaded fittings, copper radiator higher flow rate pump, quick connect for adding another component and a fill port. for less than the cost of your H115i with no way to do anything to it but change fans. Only reason I can see for a much better quality AIO costing so much less is Asetek, Corsair and others have been making a huge amount of profit selling CLCs.

Perfect_Chaos said:
Enthoo Luxe, so to have a 360 & 240 then it will be bringing in warm air since the 240 can only go front bottom or front.

Enthoo Luxe is a nice case. I've been using one every sense they were first released.
I'm assuming you are water cooling CPU and GPU? If this is true than you will probably be fine, but keep an eye on motherboard temps. It's only a guess without knowing exactly what your components are.

Perfect_Chaos · 5 Apr 2018 at 17:30

doyll said:
Enthoo Luxe is a nice case. I've been using one every sense they were first released.
I'm assuming you are water cooling CPU and GPU? If this is true than you will probably be fine, but keep an eye on motherboard temps. It's only a guess without knowing exactly what your components are.

Not water cooling anything at the moment lol, gave up on cooling my GPU after what happened with my Eiswolf, i might try again sometime but likely only with a hybrid type which looks really easy to fit in comparison. I'll likely end up doing the CPU at least though.