AiO vs air, a few questions

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Rhialto

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Feb 23, 2004
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What about the noise? In a mostly quiet PC can we hear the pump? Depends on model I guess? H75 vs NH-U9S for example. I'm afraid a continuous pump noise can be more annoying than air flow you almost don't hear unless RPM goes high because of temp.

Also I know AiO are sealed but after 5 years does it perform the same as day 1?
 
In theory it would perform the same in 5 years as on day one. The coolant shouldn't degrade or evaporate significantly over that time. The pump may be a bit noisier as the bearing wears, and the fan bearings may also wear a bit. As long as you keep the rad free of dust it should be fine.

But of course these are mechanical devices with moving parts...So the pump could fail well before 5 years, so could the fans. The noise depends largely on the manufacturer, the goals of the system (cool or quiet?), the orientation of the mount, and the acoustics of your case.

So honestly it's a hard question to answer. A good AIO is pretty damn quiet and will last the life of the CPU/MB.
 
ok, thanks!

I tried to find a clip on YouTube for pump noise but no results, except people asking if defective. Was just curious to hear a mic next to a case with pump in it.
 
Rhialto said:
ok, thanks!

I tried to find a clip on YouTube for pump noise but no results, except people asking if defective. Was just curious to hear a mic next to a case with pump in it.
Click to expand...

Even if you could find a clip, it'd be very hard to compare, unless you have the exact same configuration as used in the video. I'd say make sure you look for an AIO with good reviews and a PWM-controlled pump and you should be fine.
 
Ok in first post I talk about H75 but it would be the H55 so I'll look for reviews and all that. I'm curious if the H55 of today is exactly the same as in 2012.
 
I'm about 90% sure it is, as Corsair usually changes the model name when they make something different.
 
Pretty sure most AIO pumps allow you to set pump RPM. I keep mine low till it's cooling stuff, then the fans are louder (My system was quiet enough to just hear an annoying whine of the pump when everything is idle).
 
Rhialto said:
Ok in first post I talk about H75 but it would be the H55 so I'll look for reviews and all that. I'm curious if the H55 of today is exactly the same as in 2012.
Click to expand...

as far as the H55 goes yeah i don't think it's changed at all since 2012, the H60 is the slightly better version and i believe has an updated fan on the models being sold currently compared to the original H60. as far as pump noise you shouldn't be able to hear it over any system fans, if you can then it probably has a bad bearing which i've only seen on 2 of the 12 AOI coolers i've installed out of the box.
 
Honestly - don't worry about the pump noise.

I used a Kraken in my M1 and once the pump settled down it was silent. I had to touch it to even tell if it was on - my fan was set at 900 rpm ( arguably a bit low) and it was fine.
As for the sealed part - I would argue that AIO's are much less work than a custom loop. Most loops contain several ëxtra" features that increase complexity over an AIO and will require periodic maintenance.

Also - I'd add that most of the Youtube video on terrible AIO pump noise are due to cavitation. It's easy for any loop whether it's AIO or custom to develop some pretty scary sounds if there is a trapped bubble. Sometimes this can take days to get out of a system.
 
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