what to expect from an AIO?

[mrsteve0924]

i've been thinking about watercooling my rig. the more i research the more i like the look of hard line tubing. but the time and expense of a custom loop seems overkill for me (those parts costs add up quickly ). i figure a good AIO would be a better start/solution for me.

i have an i5-4670 oc to 4.2Ghz. i'm getting load temps of low to mid 80° running prime95 small fft.

how much temp reduction can i expect going to an AIO? i've gravitated to the corsair line, but i am not married to it. also, probably can only fit a 120 rad

thanks for the help

 

[ATMINSIDE]

IMO, its not worth it if you can't fit anything besides a single 120. You'd be better served by a quality air cooler.

What case do you have?

 

[Tech Tweaker]

What case do you have, so we can look up what might fit?

 

[mrsteve0924]

sorry thought i had that in my sig.

Rosewill Blackhawk.

 

[ATMINSIDE]

Yeah, doesn't look like there's enough room in the top without putting the fans on the exterior of the case.

As wide as that case is, you should be able to run a PH-TC14PE though.
Take a look at that, and the NH-D15.

 

[EarthDog]

There are slews of reviews online you can check as well. Id link you but I have no idea what AIO's you are thinking about.

 

[Luke1978]

Yeah, doesn't look like there's enough room in the top without putting the fans on the exterior of the case.

As wide as that case is, you should be able to run a PH-TC14PE though.
Take a look at that, and the NH-D15.

Nailed it, the fans on something like the H100 would hit the RAM

 

[mrsteve0924]

Yeah, doesn't look like there's enough room in the top without putting the fans on the exterior of the case.

As wide as that case is, you should be able to run a PH-TC14PE though.
Take a look at that, and the NH-D15.

you know you can't even fit the fans on the exterior without modding.

probably could fit. do these dual towers really blow away the single towers in performance? truthfully, i don't like the way they look in the case anyway. just too big. that's why i thought a sleek AIO would be good too.

 

[mrsteve0924]

There are slews of reviews online you can check as well. Id link you but I have no idea what AIO's you are thinking about.

well i was researching the corsairs, H50, h55, h60, H80. sticking to the 120mm rad size. but i see a lot of negative reviews.

so open to suggestions.

 

[mrsteve0924]

Nailed it, the fans on something like the H100 would hit the RAM

definitely. i've been moving hard cages around and trying to figure out other configs to get that h100i to fit, but there is just no doing it without some case modding.

 

[Luke1978]

In my source 210, which is similar in size to your case I had to move the RAD as close as possible to the door side and drill some new holes. Still couldn't have taken the RAM out without removing the rad...

 

[Witchdoctor]

Agree,

120.1 AIO will preform on par with top tier Air

What you do get is a less obtrusive cooling solution, especially if you have a windowed case or some high stix such as Flares or something along those lines.

Not familiar with you particular enclosure so it is hard to speculate.

However if you really want to enter into water cooling a top quality AIO is a good place to start. That being said it sounds like you would have to upgrade your case to accommodate a nice 140.2 or 120.2 solution to realize any true benefit

I am an advocate of the TT Water 2.0 Extreme simply because I have reviewed this product and it has served me faithfully with no issues for coming on 2 years, knocks on wood.

I was not a member here when I did this review, but it can be found here

http://www.overclock.net/products/thermaltake-water2-0-extreme/reviews/5367

Their are other fine solutions out there as well.
I have never considered Corsair to be one of them due to a high failure rate.
the Coolit pump just does not seem to be as reliable as the Asetek

good luck

 

[EarthDog]

Usually, highest end air (NHD-14, etc) beats all 'thin' 120 AIO's last I recall and falls short of dual rad(thin) AIO's.

I loved my TT water 2.0.. solid system there. I am currently rocking a NZXT Kraken x60 on a 4930K. It is good to 4.5Ghz on that thing pretty easy too!

+1 on the pumps!

 

[ATMINSIDE]

you know you can't even fit the fans on the exterior without modding.

probably could fit. do these dual towers really blow away the single towers in performance? truthfully, i don't like the way they look in the case anyway. just too big. that's why i thought a sleek AIO would be good too.

well i was researching the corsairs, H50, h55, h60, H80. sticking to the 120mm rad size. but i see a lot of negative reviews.

so open to suggestions.

Huge heatsink comparison

The only single AIOs that can keep up with an NH-D15 are the H80 and new Cooler Master 120.
Keep in mind though, they're only a couple Celcius better on a good day, but about 10-15dB louder than the NH-D15.

With your side panel on, you'll never hear the NH-D15 at all.

The vast majority of single AIOs are built cheaply, used by companies to prey on uninformed people thinking "water must be better".

Remember also that the AIO can have a leak or a pump failure.
The only thing that'll fail on an air heatsink is a fan, which is incredibly rare.

 

[Tech Tweaker]

I'm not finding any reviews from any reputable websites I recognize of your current heatsink, the Rosewill AIOLOS Plus.

I did find several for the original Rosewill AIOLOS though, seems it is a low end heatsink and performs quite badly in testing of overclocked LGA1155 CPU's (2500K, 2600K, etc) sometimes with temps going up to 94-98°C.

I don't know what changes or improvements were made with the Plus version, or how much better it performs than the original for comparison sake.

Since you're limited to a 120mm radiator, I'd recommend the Corsair H80 or H80i if you want to go with liquid cooling. The H60 probably doesn't have the thermal capacity to remove the amount of heat your 4670K produces though, and the H50 and H55 definitely wouldn't be able to handle the heat load.

As far as air cooling goes, Noctua NH-D14 or Phanteks PH-TC14PE are good heatsinks.

 

[Robert17]

I posted this up a few weeks or so ago. The thread was about an H50 mounted to a GPU, but the pix I posted show the CPU (4770k) running at 100% load and @ 4.1GHz while folding and with my H100i the temps are 57°C. I certainly don't mean to imply that air cooling is inferior. I've used much air over the years as well. With the AIOs that I've used I've been fortunate in that I've had no failures; been using them since the H50 came out. I like the fact that I get very good air flow through the case, no RAM clearance issues, equal or easier maintenance, low noise (as quiet as air for the most part, at least in my rig), and I don't concern myself with any MB stress issues from the weight of big air, not that I've heard many complaints along those lines either. And if you read enough of my posts you'll discern that although I don't consider myself a 'fanboi' to AIO, I don't have any reservations about using them.

http://www.overclockers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=745650

 

[mrsteve0924]

In my source 210, which is similar in size to your case I had to move the RAD as close as possible to the door side and drill some new holes. Still couldn't have taken the RAM out without removing the rad...

oooh i thought for sure after reading this that this was the solution to fitting a 120.2 . but won't work the way the case is designed

 

[mrsteve0924]

hey thanks for all the great advice. this really helped me. sounds like a 120mm AIO is just not worth it.

i know i said i wanted to stay away from custom solutions...but would 2 120mm rads in a single loop be a good set up since i cant fit anything bigger?

a 120 at the back of the case and one in the front under hdd cage maybe??

 

[GTXJackBauer]

hey thanks for all the great advice. this really helped me. sounds like a 120mm AIO is just not worth it.

i know i said i wanted to stay away from custom solutions...but would 2 120mm rads in a single loop be a good set up since i cant fit anything bigger?

a 120 at the back of the case and one in the front under hdd cage maybe??

You could if there's clearance and holes in the front for one. Than you have to measure the thickness of the rad and fan and make sure nothing gets in the way. If you really went this route, I'd look for used watercooling parts. I am sure you can find the whole setup you need for under $100.

 

[mrsteve0924]

You could if there's clearance and holes in the front for one. Than you have to measure the thickness of the rad and fan and make sure nothing gets in the way. If you really went this route, I'd look for used watercooling parts. I am sure you can find the whole setup you need for under $100.

well i'm not adverse to drilling a few holes if i have to. used parts? i wouldn't have thought of that? would the parts be reliable? What's a good source?