Looking to buy a new CPU cooler for my desktop.

Dagnis · 7 May 2017 at 12:40

Hi guys,

Hope you can help me out. I currently have one of these Corsair H*** which I bought few years ago. Not sure what the model number was. Few months ago I upgraded to a 6700k. It has been working fine so far, with no temperature increases whatsoever. Just to make the final change I would like to get a new water cooling to replace the old one. My case is 650D, i know it is quite an old one, but I love it and won't change it to other at the minute. Current radiator is mounted to the top, would like to keep it that way.

Any options for upto 150£?

Thanks in advance.

doyll · 8 May 2017 at 12:47

If you stay liquid I would recommend be quiet! Silent Loop, Alphacool Eisbaer, and Fractal Design Kelvin. All are AIO that are not CLC and have components assembled with proper fittings that hose can be changed/replaced, fill port for cleaning/topping up coolant, better pump that flows more liters per hour and copper radiator versus aluminum in CLCs. These are all much better quality than CLCs and if needed each component can be replaced, hoses can be cut to length, they can be serviced, coolant topped up, even expanded as long as there is not too much added resistance. Silent Loop come with 120mm, 240mm or 280mm radiator. Eisbaer and Kelvin come with 240, 280 or 360mm radiator.
I'm using be quiet! Silent Loop 280mm and am very pleased with it. I tried several CLCs and found them all to be too noisy for my liking, the pumps even at idle can be heard. be quiet! Silent Loop is so quiet I cannot hear pump at all.

Dagnis · 8 May 2017 at 14:08

Proper explanation, thanks dude!

Looking into each coolers reviews!

Thanks.

doyll · 8 May 2017 at 15:28

Be careful looking at reviews. Most are personal feelings base on very little knowledge of how cooler actually works and performs. Prime example is reveiews testing in cases to 'give real world' comparisons. How can a cooler being tested in a case using room ambient air temp compare to other coolers? Answer is it cannot. They are only testing and comparing how cooler perform in their system, so unless you system is identical it is not a 'real world' comparison to your world. To compare coolers to coolers requires testing coolers all receiving the same temperature of air .. meaning test needs to be based on temp of air going into cooler, not what the room temp is. Using room temp for a cooler in a case is like cooking in the kitchen and looking at lounge thermometer to determine the temperature in the kitchen .. not the same temp with hob, oven, etc. heating up kitchen but not the lounge.

padman · 8 May 2017 at 18:07

I'd stay way from Alphacool Eisbaer. I've just replaced mine with the new Kraken X62. After 4 months since purchase pump's RPMs started randomly dropping down to 50-60% of what it should have been and a horrible noise like if someone was drilling was coming out of it. I've tried refilling it but no coolant was missing. It didnt sound like a bubble either.It simply started dying on me.

doyll · 8 May 2017 at 19:21

padman, my guess is you had the bad luck to get a defective pump. Could happen with any AIO or CLC or even a custom loop with pump alone costing more then your new X62.

The overall quality of Eisbaer is significantly better than any CLC I know of, but it is still not perfect. All of the AIOs I listed above are Alpacool OEM. Any water cooling system regardless of the price is as trouble free as air coolers .. and none of the CLCs or AIOs are significantly better than top tier air coolers when airflow is setup correctly.