Best AIO's in the market today?

[TickleMyElmo]

If you had to choose the top 3 brands and sizes for AIO's for best cooling what would they be? More of a poll than anything. I'm curious.

 

[EarthDog]

You mention different sizes, but in most cases 3x120 beats out 2x120...so aren't all 3x120s better/the best versus 2x120 performance wise?

Do you want the 3 highest performing 3x120 aios? 2x120?

 

[Ben333]

You mention different sizes, but in most cases 3x120 beats out 2x120

LTT did a test and the 2x 120 they tested actually outperformed their 3x 120. Must have been a pump related thing.

Many "brands" on the market. Most are manufactured by Asetek, then whatever logo slapped on. Most, not all, are made by them. They hold some important patents for CPU block + Pump combo units, AFIK.

 

[dejo]

One thing to note is that if you look at several reviews or shootouts of AIO's you will find that many seem to conclude different results, even among the same units. Site A may conclude that Brand X is the best and Site B may conclude Brand Y as the better unit.

 

[EarthDog]

LTT did a test and the 2x 120 they tested actually outperformed their 3x 120. Must have been a pump related thing.

Many "brands" on the market. Most are manufactured by Asetek, then whatever logo slapped on. Most, not all, are made by them. They hold some important patents for CPU block + Pump combo units, AFIK.

Oh yes.. not surprised and why I said most! There's always some curious exception.

I swear its 90% asetek, lol...no doubt!

Anyway just searched the webz and found this...look at the huge list of results.
https://www.guru3d.com/articles_pages/corsair_h100i_elite_capellix_review,12.html

 

[Ben333]

EarthDog that is a great link, I'll have to hang onto that. But yeah many of the AIOs are so similar, testing all over the place. Quality of the rads im sure is all a scattershot. To the OP, looks like Corsair's H110i is a solid choice. $140 is a bit up there, but looks like a solid AIO. I have a MasterLiquid V2 RGB 240mm and they rank that at the worse end, however it was about half the price of the H110i at $79.

https://www.corsair.com/us/en/Categ...Performance-Liquid-CPU-Cooler/p/CW-9060026-WW

 

[EarthDog]

Testing methods are different. Some post max temps, some post delta...thermal paste applications, different loads on different chips...

its really tough to compare these things, but as you said most likely size perform similarly.

 

[MaddMutt]

EarthDog that is a great link, I'll have to hang onto that. But yeah many of the AIOs are so similar, testing all over the place. Quality of the rads im sure is all a scattershot. To the OP, looks like Corsair's H110i is a solid choice. $140 is a bit up there, but looks like a solid AIO. I have a MasterLiquid V2 RGB 240mm and they rank that at the worse end, however it was about half the price of the H110i at $79.

https://www.corsair.com/us/en/Categ...Performance-Liquid-CPU-Cooler/p/CW-9060026-WW

I have 2 versions of the Corsair H100 and both still work many yrs later ~4/7. I have a Fractal Design Celsius S36 360mm that died from pump failure ~ 2yrs (Nov 17 - Feb 20) :-(
I will admit that I have Beat (Benching) the crap out of the AIO's.

 

[Ben333]

You're saying you've owned two H100s, one is 4 yrs old and the other 7 yrs old? Both still working properly? I'd love to see the coldplate & coolant inside a 7yr old aio.

 

[trents]

With AIO water coolers I think most of the differences in cooling are fan related. So, depends on how much fan noise you are willing to tolerate.

 

[TickleMyElmo]

White noise i can handle all night. It's when the fans start humming or whining which drives me crazy. Especially when they cycle up an down. I always have my fans set at 100% in the bios

 

[EarthDog]

White noise i can handle all night. It's when the fans start humming or whining which drives me crazy. Especially when they cycle up an down. I always have my fans set at 100% in the bios

Why? There's no need for such a thing...especially if nlose drives you crazy.... why would you crank fans?

 

[Ben333]

TBH, all my fans are also set to PWM / DC control disabled. (100%)

They are fairly quiet fans. With a box fan on, or my room AC on low, I can not hear the computer at all. Running 7 120s in the case, plus the power supply fan & gpu fan. Those last two are self-controlled. (GPU sounds like a leafblower if you force 100%)

When the AC comes out, BIOS fan control will resume though.

 

[EarthDog]

All my fans are as quiet as they can be.

I buy enough cooling to run it this way.

 

[Woomack]

With AIO water coolers I think most of the differences in cooling are fan related. So, depends on how much fan noise you are willing to tolerate.

For me, the biggest difference makes the block/cold plate and pump. It's visible especially when you install the AIO on 12 core+ CPU or something like i9-10900K. This is what some mentioned earlier, so good 2x120 units can beat weaker 3x120 ... but not on all CPUs as there is also something like thermal capacity. Because of that, top air coolers beat 2x120 AIO without problems.
Most brands, even in more budget units, use not bad fans. Most use high static pressure series and it's more like every fan from popular AIO will make about the same work... just some need a bit more speed what causes noise.
The best balance between performance and noise give 2x140 AIO.
If you compare various coolers on higher series CPUs or those with more cores then it looks like:
budget air coolers < 120 AIO < mid air coolers, up to ~200W TDP < 2x120 AIO < high air series < 2x140 AIO < 3x120 AIO

There are maybe 4 block/pump manufacturers which are OEM for most popular AIO series. The most popular is Asetek but some others are also not bad. There isn't one good brand of AIO as every single brand made mistakes in the past. I find Enermax really good but they also had not the best products. Corsair is like 50/50, some their coolers are great, some are meh. They had at least 2 pump OEMs in last years.
No one mentioned Deepcool so far. They have high performance 2x120 units which at least in my tests were better than anything else in this size but the last time I was testing their AIO maybe 2 years ago. Since then products have changed.

There is one more thing. AIO pumps don't have a long life. They're designed to work without issues for 2-3 years. This is what you can expect not mentioning what happens with the liquid inside. Personally, I see no point in spending money on anything below 2x140/3x120 AIO, unless it's for a specific build.

 

[JrClocker]

My 5820K (in my sig) uses an AIO...it it overclocked and runs at about 150W. I tried:

1x120 (thick radiator) from Corsair
2x120 from Corsair
2x140 from Corsair
3x120 from Corsair
3x120 from Thermaltake

I used the same type of fans for all experiments (Corsair ML series...not the ML RGB versions, they don't move as much air as the ML versions with a fixed LED color type). What worked the best was the Corsair H80i v2:

- This is a thick radiator (49 mm vs the "standard" 25 mm)
- I use Corsair ML120 (Red LED fans) in a push/pull setup
- I keep the fans at about 75% (can't hear them)
- I keep the pump at 100% (can't hear it)

I was shocked that a thick 1x120 mm AIO cooled better than a 3x120 or 2x140 AIO. I tested it twice, and came up with the same result.

So - this unit runs with the Corsair H80i v2...been running this since September 2016 (4 years)

 

[Ben333]

Awesome to hear that input Jr. If I move into a smaller case I'll definitely look into the H80i.

 

[EarthDog]

Oh yes. There are always exceptions to the 'rule' (larger is better) for many reasons (flow, FPI, fans, block, etc.).

I really like the roundups/additive data and the snapshot it provides. That said, you're (almost) better off making sure your TIM application and mount is proper, especially if you trying to discern between 1-2C differences.

 

[samsa]

The ones that I have tested in 2020 were Arctic LF II 280/360. Some weeks ago i saw the ALF II 420 but is too big or my case. EK AIO 360 and H115i iCUE Capellix are recommended aswell.

Beware that all Arctic LF II use 38mm rads instead of more common 25-27mm like DeepCool Castle, EK, CoolerMaster, etc.

Regards