Best 120mm Enclosed CPU Water Cooler

[Lord_Exodia]

Is there a clear winner? As the topic says I'm curious if there is a clear winner out there worthy of my only consideration and hard earned cash.

I was almost sold on the Corsair H80i at microcenter last night but shopped on Amazon online and found it for $60 cheaper. I was about to order it for my new build but read the review here at Hardocp and it shockingly fell below a air cooler when put on a overclocking load. That kind of brings me to now and this thread. I want to buy the best possible 120mm enclosed water cooling setup and I figured someone here might know of a solid one with a great review that can show what it's capable of.

Here is the review I'm referring to: http://www.hardocp.com/article/2013...s_h80i_h100i_cpu_cooler_review/4#.VCa71BYaIfY

Thanks for looking and your help will be greatly appreciated.

 

[Araxie]

Silverstone TD-03... thats in another league of 120*120 AIO WC

 

[Lord_Exodia]

Silverstone TD-03... thats in another league of 120*120 AIO WC

Thanks for taking some time to point that one out.

I found a review here http://www.hardocp.com/article/2013...td03_cpu_liquid_coolers_review/4#.VCbArxYaIfY

Compared to the other review I linked it can't be a even comparison because they mention that their testing suite has changed to be even more strenuous. But I'm not terribly impressed with the results in the new review. Do you own this one? If so what kind of temps do you get on a full load with some major overclocking.

My new build is right next to me about to be assembled. i7 4790K (Devils Canyon) Asus Z97 mobo. I have a corsair H60 but it's long in the tooth now.

 

[Araxie]

indeed i have one mounted with an 3930K... temp wise i can tell you even at 4.8ghz its at the same level of performance than a h100i being less noisy with the stock fans.. its a solid cooler..

 

[Lord_Exodia]

Thanks, re-reading my last reply I think I worded it wrong. What I meant was in the review for the Silverstone TD02 & TD03 the testing suite got more strenuous and because of that the temps look higher. On the Antec Review the test bench wasn't as strenuous so the temps look a little better there.

So I didn't bother comparing the two because it would look better for the Antec which is likely not the case.

In either case I want a setup that can take a ass kicking. I want to overclock my 4790k to around 4.7-4.8Ghz and I'm hoping to keep the temps pretty tame.

I'm not expecting full blown watercooling results but I'm sure there an enclosed watercooling setup at 120mm x 120mm that most communities consider the current champ so I was curous what we all thought here.

Thanks again for the feedback Araxie. The fact you own it is great feedback. How much do you overclock your CPU and how hot does it get during an intense gaming session? Your sig lists a H100i corsair and a 4.5Ghz oc so I'm not sure if it's outdated or your using it for something else.

 

[Araxie]

i have 8 rigs in fact.. hehehe. my personal machine (daily use) its listed in sig, i have a 2xFX8350, 2x i7 2600, 2x3930K, 1x i5 3570K and my personal machine.. as i mentioned above i have that TD-03 mounted with a 3930K overclocked to 4.8ghz and its handling amazing well.. the cooler i was using with that CPU before was an H70 with 2x panaflo at full blast and even in that situation the TD-03 its able to outperform it by a good margin, its pretty comparable to an h100i with stock fans as the other 3930K have an h100i overclocked at the same speed in fact their system specs are practically the same..

 

[Lord_Exodia]

i have 8 rigs in fact.. hehehe. my personal machine (diary use) its listed in sig, i have a 2xFX8350, 2x i7 2600, 2x3930K, 1x i5 3570K and my personal machine.. as i mentioned above i have that TD-03 mounted with a 3930K overclocked to 4.8ghz and its handling amazing well.. the cooler i was using with that CPU before was an H70 with 2x panaflo at full blast and even in that situation the TD-03 its able to outperform it by a good margin, its pretty comparable to an h100i with stock fans as the other 3930K have an h100i overclocked at the same speed in fact their system specs are practically the same..

Nevermind, you definitely know what your talking about. Here is a current review from the last 2 months http://www.hardocp.com/article/2014/08/07/nzxt_kraken_x41_aio_liquid_cpu_cooler_review/3

If you look at the overclocking section top performers are listed as so;

1. Glacier 240L 240mm x 120mm
2. NZXT X61 240mm x120mm
3. NZXT X60 240mm x 120mm
4. Silverstone TD02 240mm x 120mm
5. Silverstone TD03 120mm x 120mm <--- Top performing 120mm enclosed loop they ever tested.

Considering that I'm going to add 2 120mm Silverstone Excalibur fans for push/pull on the radiator I should be able to keep the CPU cores below 80c at full load torture testing.

Thanks Again

 

[Araxie]

Nevermind, you definitely know what your talking about. Here is a current review from the last 2 months http://www.hardocp.com/article/2014/08/07/nzxt_kraken_x41_aio_liquid_cpu_cooler_review/3

If you look at the overclocking section top performers are listed as so;

1. Glacier 240L 240mm x 120mm
2. NZXT X61 240mm x120mm
3. NZXT X60 240mm x 120mm
4. Silverstone TD02 240mm x 120mm
5. Silverstone TD03 120mm x 120mm <--- Top performing 120mm enclosed loop they ever tested.

Considering that I'm going to add 2 120mm Silverstone Excalibur fans for push/pull on the radiator I should be able to keep the CPU cores below 80c at full load torture testing.

Thanks Again

Glad to help bud, thats definitely a great cooler you will be happy with the performance... its greater than most 240mm radiators..

(btw the Kraken X60 and X61 are both 280x140..) Glacer 240L its just own in his own league xD.. i think the only cooler able to match it, its the Swiftech H220X.

 

[Araxie]

btw i forgot to mention before, but this kind of coolers have a great advantage of cooling chips with great heatsink surface area like socket 2011 chips versus small sockets like 115X.. I think in my experience the most cooling potential are really wasted in those tiny chips.. with great and hot chips its where those AIO really shine in cooling performance..