When should I swap my AIO?

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MorgothPl

2[H]4U
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Oct 13, 2008
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My AIO - Nepton 280 just got 2nd birthday. Since there is no indicator to check, how much fluid is in the loop or how clogged the system is, is there a rule of thumb, how long can it work without issues? Right now the temps are stable, though from time to time, there are some weird noise from pump (usually at startup, then it gets all right).
 
Once your CPU starts shutting down or it starts screaming I guess.

Got me, is one of the reasons I've never used one.

Still have air coolers that work about as well from 20 years ago still kicking just fine here, on a rig or two.
 
as it starts to clog you will notice your temps getting higher and higher until you see an instant spike to you max cpu temp. then you know it is clogged. as far a fluid loss, there shouldn't be any lose as it is a sealed system. unless you get a leaky tube or something physically damages it.

I was given a corsair h60 that did not work at all. when I installed it on my cpu and started testing the temp would immediately spike to 60c+(amd max is 60-70 not sure which) so i'd stop it. what I did was cut off the old tubes and cleaned out the junk(looked like hard water calcium deposits) in one of the barbs on the rad. I flushed it and the pump out really good, refilled it and put on new tubing. since I have my cpu OCd really good and I have read that the h60 could not keep up with my OC I slapped it on my gpu instead. been running great and keeps temps under 50c instead of high 60s low 70c! I was playing apex earlier and it never went over 48c.

as far as the noise goes, that could be two things. either air in the pump or an aging pump. air you can fix by tilting the system around to get the pump lower than the rad so the air bubble moves into the rad. I had this issue after refilling the h60. had to get it running and then get the rad higher and jiggle it a bit to get all the air out. temps were fine but it was noisy before doing this. second thing could be the age of the pump. it will wear out over time and will get noisy then the rpm will fluctuate and then it will die. so you will have to listen to it or use something like "open hardware monitor" to watch the rpm of the pump if its on a fan header. if its direct connected with a molex youll have to just listen to it.
 
I've always worried about the same things with my AIO. That said, my H50 has been going strong for 5+ years. I'll be swapping it out when I upgrade to a Xeon processor. Replacing it with an Arctic Liquid Freezer 240 based on the excellent reviews. Should be here tomorrow...they're kind of hard to find. Originally purchased one on eBay but the seller flaked out, so I ordered another from Amazon. As far as I know, no one has come up with a way of monitoring the life cycle on AIO units. When they die, you'll know. I had a scare a couple of years ago when the fan header powering my H50's pump died. CPU temps spiked and my monitoring software started going nuts. I imagine as long as yo have some sort of warning or failsafe in place there's not much to worry about.
 
Have had a h100i for the last 4 or 5 years. Still cooling well. I think you will obviously see when it is the time to replace. I doubt they have a hard expiration date.
 
How long before a unit begins to leak?
that is my concern. that pump going out seems minor because you will usually see that coming. A leak on the other hand of any kind could be disaster for entire rig.
 
Unless you break something it should never leak. Hard hoses can crack with too much force, usually at the barbs on the rad. That's about it.
 
pendragon1 said:
Unless you break something it should never leak. Hard hoses can crack with too much force, usually at the barbs on the rad. That's about it.
Click to expand...

Good to know. I have a 3 year old unit that seems to be fine so far. Thanks
 
Still running a 6 year old H50 here. In fact it has been unused for the past two years. I have just pushed it back into service in my new 5820K build (3.8Ghz stock volts). Cleaned it up, slapped a little Noctua paste on the CPU, fitted the new mounting kit and away. Still appears to be coping just fine.
 
I have an H60 that has been running 24/7 for 5 years or so with no issues.

Just checked my order history and I bought it on 4/26/2011.
 
I had mine for about 5 years before it died one day. You should have it for at least a couple more years before anything problematic begins to occur.
 
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