Advice for AIO

magoo

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I build custom loops.
Im rebuilding my sons pc and want to use an AIO.
I have no experience with them.
All I can use is a single rad 120mm, due to layout of his
FT02.
Cooling a 4790k that we'll probably OC just to 4.2

Suggestions welcome.
thanks
 
Best single 120mm radiator in my opinion its the vanilla Silverstone TD-03 (not TD-03-E). superior Build Quality and Excellent cooling performance.
 
My suggestion, don't bother, you can get heatsinks now that will almost match an AIO.

Why risk it? I've had my D5 pump for 6 years now and still going strong, by comparison, AIO coolers havn't even been around that long and I hear stories about pump failure in them with some frequency. If you go WC, go custom or don't bother.
 
If you're not looking to break the bank and don't intend on pushing that 4790K very far, i'd grab a Corsair H60 or one of the other Corsair 120mm models. They tend to have the better stuff with those dimension constraints.
 
I appreciate the comments.

My reasons for not using a big heatsink are space.
A custom loop is out of the question. He doesn't take care of his stuff.

The AIO won't conflict with the RAM on the motherboard. The problem with big sinks are/is they are heavy and he moves shit a lot, and the space allotted for the RAM fins.

I don't want to spend 60 bucks on a sink and find I can't install the RAM.

Ive been looking at the Corsair H75.....I'll look at the Silverstone.
 
I appreciate the comments.

My reasons for not using a big heatsink are space.
A custom loop is out of the question. He doesn't take care of his stuff.

The AIO won't conflict with the RAM on the motherboard. The problem with big sinks are/is they are heavy and he moves shit a lot, and the space allotted for the RAM fins.

I don't want to spend 60 bucks on a sink and find I can't install the RAM.

Ive been looking at the Corsair H75.....I'll look at the Silverstone.

Baffling.

A custom loop would require less maintenance than an AIO and if he doesn't look after his stuff it is a pretty significant reason to not go water at all, he may not notice a pump failure or worse, a leak.

You can go bigger but unless you go for a Megahalems or Thermalright they won't come anywhere near the weight of any watercooling loop, whether it be custom or AIO and even the largest ones still weigh less than a single 120 AIO. You basically have a copper/aluminium heatsink filled with water, a heatsink alone doesn't have the extra weight of the water or the pump and the same or less copper and aluminium.

There is a massive range of heatsinks that will cool a CPU very well and for extremely cheap, how about a Coolermaster hyper 212? super cheap (only $35USD from newegg with fan), an excellent cooler and will not interfere with ram slots as its only a moderately sized heatsink. I dropped a couple of these in my Dual Xeon server and the temps are great, the fans are not that fantastic though, only got a couple of years out of them before they started to get noisy but still, can't beat that value.
 
Baffling.

A custom loop would require less maintenance than an AIO and if he doesn't look after his stuff it is a pretty significant reason to not go water at all, he may not notice a pump failure or worse, a leak.

You can go bigger but unless you go for a Megahalems or Thermalright they won't come anywhere near the weight of any watercooling loop, whether it be custom or AIO and even the largest ones still weigh less than a single 120 AIO. You basically have a copper/aluminium heatsink filled with water, a heatsink alone doesn't have the extra weight of the water or the pump and the same or less copper and aluminium.

There is a massive range of heatsinks that will cool a CPU very well and for extremely cheap, how about a Coolermaster hyper 212? super cheap (only $35USD from newegg with fan), an excellent cooler and will not interfere with ram slots as its only a moderately sized heatsink. I dropped a couple of these in my Dual Xeon server and the temps are great, the fans are not that fantastic though, only got a couple of years out of them before they started to get noisy but still, can't beat that value.

How would an AIO require more maintenance than a custom loop?
Put in AIO, done.
Custom loops need care at minimum of once a year, complete fluid change and inspection.
I check my reservoirs at least once a week.
Not to mention the cost and build time initially.

As it turns out, the Silverstone FT02 is not water friendly one little bit without wholesale
modifications........so I simply went with a modestly priced air cooler that should do just fine and need nothing to keep it up.
 
If you research some OP, you will find most AIO's are made by the same manufacturers. Usually 2-3 main companies have been making these and re branding them for years. If models look similar, they are the probably made by the same company.

When I used a AIO, I used a corsair also, specifically because of their warranty.
 
If you're going to go use an AIO, I would not look at the H75 since its performance per dollar is pretty bad:
http://www.hardocp.com/article/2014...d_aio_cpu_cooler_update_review/3#.Var8ZPlVikp

In terms of bang for the buck value AIO wise, the Coolermaster Seidon 120V is your best bet. It costs $50 yet performs almost as well as the ~$90 Silverstone TD03 recommended earlier and completely outperforms the Coolermaster Hyper 212 Evo and Corsair H60:
http://www.frostytech.com/articleview.cfm?articleid=2744&page=5

Above the Seidon 120V, I would check out the Corsair H80i.
 
How would an AIO require more maintenance than a custom loop?
Put in AIO, done.
Custom loops need care at minimum of once a year, complete fluid change and inspection.
I check my reservoirs at least once a week.
Not to mention the cost and build time initially.

As it turns out, the Silverstone FT02 is not water friendly one little bit without wholesale
modifications........so I simply went with a modestly priced air cooler that should do just fine and need nothing to keep it up.

I've had my D5 pump and CPU block for 8 years, in that time I have only cleaned them twice, apart from that I check the res occasionally and top up when needed.

Any other times I drained and refilled was when I was changing components, all up I've done this maybe 7-8 times but you could say it was for fun, not necessity.

By contrast, the AIO cooler, yeah, zero maintenance, but how confident are you running an AIO knowing that a custom loop looses water over time. Also, if one component fails, you need to replace the entire cooler and as I said before, an AIO pump will never be as reliable as a D5. Replacement = maintenance.
 
I've had my D5 pump and CPU block for 8 years, in that time I have only cleaned them twice, apart from that I check the res occasionally and top up when needed.

Any other times I drained and refilled was when I was changing components, all up I've done this maybe 7-8 times but you could say it was for fun, not necessity.

By contrast, the AIO cooler, yeah, zero maintenance, but how confident are you running an AIO knowing that a custom loop looses water over time. Also, if one component fails, you need to replace the entire cooler and as I said before, an AIO pump will never be as reliable as a D5. Replacement = maintenance.

Read what you wrote.
Owned for 8 years. Changed out the water 7-8 times.
By my math thats once a year.
D5 pump is about 85 bucks.
AIO 120 is about the same.
Like I said....allI have is custom loops, but for my sons use
if he had the proper case, an AIO would be a good choice.
 
Poke a few holes, cut a few slots, and cram an h90 (140mm) anyplace you can squeeze it. Excellent cooling for the cash. Im sure you are no stranger to *slight* case mods.
 
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