Arctic Liquid Freezer 120 vs 240/360

[rbartz06]

I run an i7-6700K in a Phanteks Enthoo Luxe case with an Arctic Liquid Freezer 120. I have a temp probe in front of the Rad and my case's internal temps are usually around 2c over my room's ambient temps so my airflow is pretty good. My CPU is running a 4.6 GHz OC across all cores with a VCore of 1.36V. Any less voltage causes stability issues when torture testing with Prime95.

I am using a PWM CPU-based fan port on my motherboard to power the push-pull cooler fans. My cooler is able to keep the CPU at the internal case temps with low fan RPMs when the PC is under very light loads (light content web browsing or video streaming). Heavier loads (like gaming or a full Anti-Virus scan) raise my CPU usage, ramp the fans up, and the resulting temps spike up to the mid 60s with the internal case temp around 26c. I find this performance to be acceptable and the noise level is low.

When I torture test my PC with Prime95 my temps run up into the low 90s, which is a bit too high. How much lower would my torture temps be if I switched to an Arctic Liquid Freezer 240 or 360? Both of those radiators are much thinner than the radiator I am running now. My 120 mm radiator is 49 mm thick. The 240 mm radiator is 38 mm thick. The 360 mm radiator is 27 mm thick. I am not interested in a custom loop and I'll stick with what I have if the 240 and 360 CLCs are not any better than what I have now.

Thanks.

 

[Nebulous]

Larger surface area means lower temps. Also your pc will not be running P95 for normal operations so it won't matter so long as your temps are within reason during gaming. 60c temps are pretty nominal for a single 120 AIO cooler.

 

[GTXJackBauer]

Agree with Neb. Your temps look good for normal operations. What you don't want to do is run your CPU passed 85c, let alone 90c+. Your degrading your chips longevity at that rate but of course, overtime.

You should get better temps with more rad surface. Just play around with the fan speeds and what seems tolerable to you. Don't forget, the more rad surface you have, gives you the headroom to play with for less audibles so if you really want silence and the best temps possible from AIO, I'd say the 360mm should do you justice. Assuming your case supports this size.

 

[rbartz06]

What about the radiator thickness? It seems as though they get thinner with each step up in surface area. I'm really looking to find out how much of a drop I'd see if I moved from my 49 mm thick 120, to a thinner 240, and then to an even thinner 360. Online reviews of numerous 360 mm units don't show much of a gain over the 240 mm units. I'm reading of around a 4c difference between 240 and 360, which is pretty insignificant. For example:

http://www.tweaktown.com/reviews/65...imate-360mm-aio-cpu-cooler-review/index6.html

Thanks!

 

[GTXJackBauer]

What about the radiator thickness? It seems as though they get thinner with each step up in surface area. I'm really looking to find out how much of a drop I'd see if I moved from my 49 mm thick 120, to a thinner 240, and then to an even thinner 360. Online reviews of numerous 360 mm units don't show much of a gain over the 240 mm units. I'm reading of around a 4c difference between 240 and 360, which is pretty insignificant. For example:

http://www.tweaktown.com/reviews/65...imate-360mm-aio-cpu-cooler-review/index6.html

Thanks!

Eventually you will hit diminishing returns but again, if you want every ounce of decreased temps and low audibles, more rad surface is the answer. 240mm will be fine unless you're looking for the most OCing headroom and to dial down the audibles as much as you can, than the 360mm would be the answer.