Trying a new AIO water cooler product

[trents]

that sucks trents, swap the fans with the corsair and see if it catchs up.

The H100 is RMA'd right now. Fan controller bit the dust. Had to ship everything back to them, including the fans. I had a couple high pressure Silverstone 120x32mm that I was using on the Corsair but the screw threads are a different pitch on the Enermax radiator. Went to the hardware store today to try to find something that would work but to no avail. I could zip time them on, I guess.

Yeah, I tried removing the stock paste on the Emermax pump block and replacing it with AC MX2. Maybe got 1c improvement. I even remembered to take the protective plastic cover off the heat plate.

 

[RnRollie]

Give it a day or two for the MX2 to "settle", but it'll probably come down to the fans.

Although, i dont get the screw threads issue... the kit should come with the correct screws/bolts of different lengths...
Use the short ones to bolt the rad to the case and the long ones to bolt the fans to the rad
The long ones should be long enough to accommodate 25mm fans + case-wall + washers and then some. They should be long enough for bolting 32mm fans directly to the rad.
Unless of course enermax has chosen to "save" a few cents by only including 28mm bolts.

ah well... a visit to hardware store is always more enjoyable vs going shoe-shopping with the missus

 

[trents]

No, the long screws are not long enough to bolt a 32mm fan down to the radiator.

This was purchased from Amazon and I have until June 30 to return it free of charge, which I intend to do. I just printed the RMA form. This unit should perform better than this. Is there air in the lines or something? The stock fans seem to provide a good push of air. Quite a lot of air can be felt coming through the top of the radiator when the fans are on full. Is the pump weak? Something is amiss.

 

[ATMINSIDE]

Look at the Cooler Master Nepton 280L
It's been putting up the best temperatures that I've seen out of an AIO.

 

[trents]

Look at the Cooler Master Nepton 280L
It's been putting up the best temperatures that I've seen out of an AIO.

Yeah, I've been looking at that one. Found this: http://www.frostytech.com/articleview.cfm?articleid=2752&page=5

Seems to beat out the Corsair H100i when fan speeds are on high. So I just cancelled my Corsair H100i Amazon order and replaced it with the Nepton 280L. Hope there are no clearance problems.

 

[Tech Tweaker]

Look at the Cooler Master Nepton 280L
It's been putting up the best temperatures that I've seen out of an AIO.

It seems I really need to look into getting a Cooler Master 280L at some point to try one out and see what it can do. I didn't know they performed as well as they apparently do.

It seems it beats the Corsair H105, 110, 100i, and the Antec Kuhler 1250.

Plus beating out a water cooling kit (Larkooler SkyWater 330), which should theoretically be able to beat the 280L, but strangely enough doesn't. It's possible though that the review site just didn't make the loop large enough with enough capacity to handle the heat load being put upon it.

http://www.tweaktown.com/reviews/61...formance-liquid-cpu-cooler-review/index6.html

 

[trents]

I'll tell you Tech Tweaker, it can be very difficult to sort these things out. There are just too many variables in testing methodology. No two testing reviews seem to agree. What I try to go is look at a wide variety of reviews and see if there is a pattern where some products generally finish near the top. The other thing that makes it hard is the fact that we usually aren't talking about huge disparities in performance between different products so small changes in testing variables can skew results from one test review to another.

One of the things I like about Frostytech reviews is that they don't test using a PC but a hotplate where they can control the heat produced and measure thermal resistance and actually measure temp deltas with equipment rather than software. So the variables remain constant from one test to another. They also have a running data base of testing results covering years and many different products for comparison.

One thing that just makes sense to me is that if you really want a meaningful improvement in temps with these AIO water coolers you need to look first at the single most significant component and that is the surface area of the radiator. In my mind, that has to be the single most important factor. So for me, that means start looking at 280 mm products instead of 240 mm products, then look at other system components after that. All the marketing hype in the world about this improvement or that improvement doesn't amount to a hill of beans compared to going to a bigger radiator.

 

[RnRollie]

^^^yes
No substitute for cubic inches

Or surface area in case of radiators.

I tend to repeat myself, but as far as AIO & AIO-like cooling is concerned
- Swiftech Hx20/Coolermaster Glacier
- Coolermaster Eisberg

 

[GTXJackBauer]

^^^yes
No substitute for cubic inches

Or surface area in case of radiators.

I tend to repeat myself, but as far as AIO & AIO-like cooling is concerned
- Swiftech Hx20/Coolermaster Glacier
- Coolermaster Eisberg

I agree as well. Obviously custom is the way to go but if you're really strapped on cash than the only few AIOs would be those. I even don't mind the corsair line.

It is obvious that more heat surface will dissipate the heat generated than its lesser counterpart.

 

[trents]

Well back to my disappointment over the Enermax AIO. To put it in perspective, I removed the unit and put back in my Noctua D14. The Noctua gave me 6c lower max temps when stress testing with Intelburntest on high setting.