AIOs - you're mounting them wrong

I’m glad someone made the vid.
I used to take great pains to disagree with people about some popular case bc the tubes couldn’t be mounted down on aio rad intake.
SFF builds are particularly painful bc they spend more effort cramming parts into a Tetris stack than evaluating cooling and ease of service.
 
somebrains said:
I’m glad someone made the vid.
I used to take great pains to disagree with people about some popular case bc the tubes couldn’t be mounted down on aio rad intake.
SFF builds are particularly painful bc they spend more effort cramming parts into a Tetris stack than evaluating cooling and ease of service.
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ive made the argument many times, i thanked gn for the proof.
 
pendragon1 said:
ive made the argument many times, i thanked gn for the proof.
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Sucks but the last box I put together incorrectly was for a friends adult kid a couple months ago.
Phanteks p300a wonky intake fan holes wouldn’t allow a 280mm aio to mount tubes down.
The case doesn’t have a basement that’ll open up enough for the bottom of the tank to slide in so tank fan holes line up like a Meshify/Define C.
Oh well, I wrench of gear for my own learning process, and the P300a won’t be thumbs up if a 280 is going to be used.
 
Basically anyone who has basic understanding of liquid pump loops knows pump shouldn't be highest point in system. To us it's just common sense to know air to collect in highest point of loop but for those who don't understand how loops work and what air entrapment is Greek. ;)
 
I think most 280mm AIO need to be installed incorrectly because of tube length unless you remove the GPU.
Not many smaller cases allow 280mm to be installed in the top.
eJ8OQBb.jpg
 
I seen that the other day but have always wondered about that because my brother has an aio and you can hear the air gap in it.
He has the rad mounted at the same height as the pump. Everything is working as it should so far.
 
Pretty good information as I'm sure a lot of people have their AIOs mounted incorrectly. I had one many years ago, an Antec Kuhler 620 that worked great for a few years and then fizzled out and died around the 5 year mark. These days I'm worried one of them will leak so I just stick to air. I don't think I'd have the patience for a custom loops or big OCs these days :p
 
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silk186 said:
I think most 280mm AIO need to be installed incorrectly because of tube length unless you remove the GPU.
Not many smaller cases allow 280mm to be installed in the top.
View attachment 272624
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I wound up with the same problem: the tubes aren't long enough to orient the rad 'properly'. Mounting at the top interferes with the memory slots just ever so slightly, so it's a bit of a catch-22 on my Define R5.
 
Meh. My tubes are at the top with front 240 rad and its been fine for almost 4 years like that. tubes are not long enough to change the orientation and they are above the pump.
 
motqalden said:
Meh. My tubes are at the top with front 240 rad and its been fine for almost 4 years like that. tubes are not long enough to change the orientation and they are above the pump.
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This. The only crucial part imo is the hose to block orientation with hose part being low as possible. With the rad, there's not much you can do about it anyways, no sense in crying about it like tech jesus.
 
with front mount and tubes on top, if you make sure the top of the rad is higher than the block it shouldnt be an issue unless you get liquid loss through permeation. then, as TJ said, you could build enough of a bubble for it to get sucked into the pump.
 
pendragon1 said:
with front mount and tubes on top, if you make sure the top of the rad is higher than the block it shouldnt be an issue unless you get liquid loss through permeation. then, as TJ said, you could build enough of a bubble for it to get sucked into the pump.
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Pretty much unavoidable with many cases.
 
doyll said:
Basically anyone who has basic understanding of liquid pump loops knows pump shouldn't be highest point in system. To us it's just common sense to know air to collect in highest point of loop but for those who don't understand how loops work and what air entrapment is Greek. ;)
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pendragon1 clearly case makers missed this memo for all those cases they give you the location on the bottom to mount the radiator :D
 
I'm not surprised he had problems with people getting things wrong with the first video. He really needs to do a better job scripting. Not every word needs to be scripted but at least some scripting would allow him to be more concise which I think would lead to less confusion. These are the first two videos of his I've ever watched (mostly due to boredom) and I don't expect I'll ever watch any others. His inability to be concise which causes him to repeat himself over and over is tedious and adds a lot of length and word count which isn't necessary. Plus he needs to hit up a "speaking" class to teach him how to pronounce more clearly. He tends to mush a lot of words causing possible misunderstandings.

The original point of the video boils down to "air rises". Having the block/pump as the highest point in the loop is bad because air will be trapped there which degrades the performance of the loop and will eventually cause damage. Additionally, you want the barbs to be at the lowest point of the loop whenever possible to minimize the air bubbles travelling through the loop. Barbs at the bottom of the loop and the top of the radiator above the block/pump is the ideal solution to allow for the best flow and for air to most likely be trapped at the top of the radiator where it will cause the fewest issues.
 
SmokeRngs said:
I'm not surprised he had problems with people getting things wrong with the first video. He really needs to do a better job scripting. Not every word needs to be scripted but at least some scripting would allow him to be more concise which I think would lead to less confusion. These are the first two videos of his I've ever watched (mostly due to boredom) and I don't expect I'll ever watch any others. His inability to be concise which causes him to repeat himself over and over is tedious and adds a lot of length and word count which isn't necessary. Plus he needs to hit up a "speaking" class to teach him how to pronounce more clearly. He tends to mush a lot of words causing possible misunderstandings.

The original point of the video boils down to "air rises". Having the block/pump as the highest point in the loop is bad because air will be trapped there which degrades the performance of the loop and will eventually cause damage. Additionally, you want the barbs to be at the lowest point of the loop whenever possible to minimize the air bubbles travelling through the loop. Barbs at the bottom of the loop and the top of the radiator above the block/pump is the ideal solution to allow for the best flow and for air to most likely be trapped at the top of the radiator where it will cause the fewest issues.
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SmokeRngs Thanks for this summary. Saved me from the ordeal of listening to that entire video. He could have made his key points in about 2 slides and 1 minute.
 
SmokeRngs said:
He really needs to do a better job scripting. Not every word needs to be scripted but at least some scripting would allow him to be more concise
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From what I can tell it seems he's typically reading parts from a quasi-script in front of him, judging by the text-based version (of analysis and reviews for example) found on their site. I agree though that the fundamental advice could be a lot more concise. Obviously it was intended to explain more what the underlying issue is and spending time on that which I can see how the correct method got lost in there over such a long video.
 
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SmokeRngs said:
These are the first two videos of his I've ever watched (mostly due to boredom) and I don't expect I'll ever watch any others. His inability to be concise which causes him to repeat himself over and over is tedious and adds a lot of length and word count which isn't necessary. Plus he needs to hit up a "speaking" class to teach him how to pronounce more clearly. He tends to mush a lot of words causing possible misunderstandings.

The original point of the video boils down to "air rises". Having the block/pump as the highest point in the loop is bad because air will be trapped there which degrades the performance of the loop and will eventually cause damage.
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Yeah, I couldn't agree more. Great topic, but it shouldn't take a half-hour video to explain 30-60 seconds worth of content.
 
thesmokingman said:
"Not Optimal" you say... AIO's are not optimal lol.
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Not optimal for what? It's about the most optimal I can get in my case. It's either an AIO or a 40mm (height) air cooler that's has almost no room to breath. I'd be hard pressed to fit a pump + reservoir in my case, although I did think about it, just a really tight fit and not that confident in it not interfering.
Anyways, good video but in a lot of instances (as shown above in the Fractal case) it's very hard to avoid. In the case of both tubes at the top, even with the pump a little lower than the top, a big enough air pocket and it can/will find it's way into the pump depending on how fast thew water flow is and how steep the incline for the air bubble to either float or get stuck in the stream.
 
I ran my H80i like this for years in my main rig, it runs 24/7. It's now in my Plex Server and I think in the same orientation.
It doesn't make any noise and the CPU stays cool. I may flip it around next time I open the case if it's upside down.
IMG_1683.JPG
 
Zepher said:
I ran my H80i like this for years in my main rig, it runs 24/7. It's now in my Plex Server and I think in the same orientation.
It doesn't make any noise and the CPU stays cool. I may flip it around next time I open the case if it's upside down.
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Looks like you have the space, may as well flip it to be safe. It really.is dependent on how big of an air pocket the AIO has. Probably worse with no name brand AIO with bad QC and older AIOs that are never topped off (yes, even sealed units lose some fluid over time).
 
Ready4Dis said:
Looks like you have the space, may as well flip it to be safe. It really.is dependent on how big of an air pocket the AIO has. Probably worse with no name brand AIO with bad QC and older AIOs that are never topped off (yes, even sealed units lose some fluid over time).
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I found a pic from a last year.
It's actually in a different case, and it's upside down.
I'll flip it next time I open it up.
IMG_3923.JPG
 
Zepher said:
I found a pic from a last year.
It's actually in a different case, and it's upside down.
I'll flip it next time I open it up.
View attachment 273239
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Sometimes it's really difficult depending.on the tube length. Either to short and it can't reach, or to long and you have to coil them. I have one in my ITX and the tubes are on the side (not top or bottom), which keeps one slightly down from the top and the other almost at the bottom. Of course, I have no clue which is inlet/outlet though, lol. I just switch the case to a different style ATX and now they are at the bottom again, but I will probably be attempting a full loop in this case sometime near the end of the year. Should be interesting... 10.1 liters full size GPU and full size ATX PSU, full loop with a 240mm + additional 120mm, haha, going to be a really tight fit.
 
MrGuvernment said:
pendragon1 clearly case makers missed this memo for all those cases they give you the location on the bottom to mount the radiator :D
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It would be nice if case designers took aio hose average radius for given tank mounting positions into account.
I mean it’s their placement of cooling holes that hasn’t been advanced much beyond bigger fans mesh thingie good.

Beige box era thinking didn’t account for tower coolers or intake air, that shifted to nifty paint and case materials/sci fi faceplates.
HAF cases blew a lot of the stagnant case designs up.
Then we got Caselabs shaking up case designs for open loops.
Aios got bigger, install issues weren’t addressed bc 280 roof mounts took a few iterations before designers offset existing 2x140mm mounting holes. I’m thinking of Fractal R3-R5 here.

360 aio is its own bag of problems in that if I need that much cpu cooler then I have an increased heat load all around to contend with.
I want in the roof.
I’m going to fully populate my front intake bc I need to get air going over my motherboard components, nvme drives, stupid hot gpu, etc.

Maybe aio hose mounting considerations will occur to the designers that work at companies that sell aios.
Give the designers a bonus for reduction of aio ram due to known install issues.

I can’t wait for a 420 aio when enough mesh front 3x140mm cases are released.
 
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somebrains said:
Fractal R3-R5
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Old R3 running repurposed parts for a server, R5 under the desk now.

Biggest issue is that the R5 has the two 5.25" bays that preclude moving the AIO high enough, and that the top spacing is too shallow.

Meaning that there's lots of space, but no good space for larger AIOs.

I'm sort of starting to settle on requirements for a new case and cooling, haven't had the slightest idea until I wrote the above.
 
IdiotInCharge said:
Old R3 running repurposed parts for a server, R5 under the desk now.

Biggest issue is that the R5 has the two 5.25" bays that preclude moving the AIO high enough, and that the top spacing is too shallow.

Meaning that there's lots of space, but no good space for larger AIOs.

I'm sort of starting to settle on requirements for a new case and cooling, haven't had the slightest idea until I wrote the above.
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I'm honestly not a fan of the Fractal cases; I've got one and ran into the same problem, ended up with external fans in a pull configuration. It's like it really wasn't designed for AIOs - going to put an all-air plex server in it once I finish building my new workstation in a different case (O11 XL).
 
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