CPU/Mobo AIO Water coolers : What advantages do they have these days? is it worth the leak-risk / shorter life?

deusExMachina

deusExMachina

Disciple
I've seen benchmarks of common AIOs against tower coolers with heat pipes. The thermal capacity advantages (if any) aren't much for the AIOs. I understand that maybe they put less stress on the motherboard mounting points BUT are there any other advantages to them?

My take is that air coolers are a better choice because a catastrophic failure there is just reduced cooling performance vs a liquid spill on electronics. Also, from experience, air coolers last a long time but the official service life of an AIO apparently is about five years. The internal fins get clogged with gunk or corrode by that time, reducing performance.

Please share your experiences with using them. Especially if you've been using one for more than a decade.
 
AIOs rarely leak, the fear is with custom loops not AIOs. Budget AIOs mostly under 10K perform close or nearly close to high end Air coolers such as Noctua. AIOs have the advantage of having less dust inside the case since most of it gets blocked by the radiator if using as intake. Air coolers need regular maintenance since dust likes to cake up on them and the inside of the case becomes dusty too. That's the only advantage besides the looks and less noise unless you go big and over with 360mm and higher rads then Air coolers may not catch up.

As for service life, it depends how you install it (orientation) and the manufacturing quality. For instance, Arctic provides a 6 year warranty on LF2 line-up so that says something.
 
I disagree on the dust caking with air coolers, based on experience. It gets dusty in there when I blow them out (~6 - 8 months) but there was never anything caking in there. My PCs are run nearly 24x7 but they do have coarse filters at the inputs (too keep out the larger stuff like hair).
 
deusExMachina said:
I disagree on the dust caking with air coolers, based on experience. It gets dusty in there when I blow them out (~6 - 8 months) but there was never anything caking in there. My PCs are run nearly 24x7 but they do have coarse filters at the inputs (too keep out the larger stuff like hair).
Click to expand...
That bit really also depends on what kind of area you live in. Dust cakes up only 5-6 months later with no cleaning. Blowing the dust regularly won't let that happen.
 
A very useful thread for me.

I have been wanting to build a balls to the wall PC, most likely mini-ITX, for quite some time now and will be building it next year. I couldn't decide between air cooler and AIO. Hopefully the insights I get from this thread will help me decide one.
 
deusExMachina said:
I've seen benchmarks of common AIOs against tower coolers with heat pipes. The thermal capacity advantages (if any) aren't much for the AIOs. I understand that maybe they put less stress on the motherboard mounting points BUT are there any other advantages to them?

My take is that air coolers are a better choice because a catastrophic failure there is just reduced cooling performance vs a liquid spill on electronics. Also, from experience, air coolers last a long time but the official service life of an AIO apparently is about five years. The internal fins get clogged with gunk or corrode by that time, reducing performance.

Please share your experiences with using them. Especially if you've been using one for more than a decade.
Click to expand...
AIO is cooler technically. The top air cooler can match aio level and the difference is somewhat of 3 to 4 degrees at max. aio can dry up based on usage while air coolers don't have this issue and can last longer without RMA. Most important. AIO is expensive but for looks, it's more customizable and easy to install than that air cooler. rest up to you.

I have used both so the info is based on my experience.
 
I've been using air cooler since 2008 and I've never come across a situation where the cooler itself was caked with dirt. Most of the dirt stuck to the fan fins. I believe AIO would shine where there is space for greater temp reduction possible like high end intel and ryzens
I would take a air cooler over AIO as I don't have extreme or above normal cooling requirements. Lesser moving parts in air cooler compared to AIO so lesser points of failure and lower replacement costs(a fan or a clip in case of air coolers). Not worth spending a huge amounts of money for diminished returns unless the situation demands for it.
 
I was in this dilemma when I was building my pc, and decided to go with an air cooler, I think the most important decision ( apart from cost :) ) here is what are we trying to cool, and what is the expected use for example in my case I am just using a 5700g ( non overclocked) which runs around an avg. of 4-5 hours a day with high loads of around 2 hours, so an air cooler does the job pretty well.
The second selection criteria should be the build size, and aesthetics, for smaller sized builds aios are way easier to manage, and for the giant air coolers with multi fans setup, ram clearance might become an issue, also the clearance of the cabinet might become an issue. On the other hand a 360 + mm aio radiator is hard to fit in budget cases, and not all budget case support aios in all configurations, which might lead to early pump failures.
Keeping everything equal the temps in any decent aio with a radiator size > 240 mm will always be lower then the temps in a similar air cooling setup, although not by much in case of very high standard air coolers ( most gameranxx reviews show a difference of few degrees, but I think they are under ideal conditions which might not be a case for us, so the difference might be greater then a few degrees in most cases) so for something with a very high tdp, running a huge load for decent chunk of time ( ex 5800x / 5900x + / i7 12700k+ / threadrippers etc.) a big aio makes sense.
 
dexterz said:
I've been using air cooler since 2008 and I've never come across a situation where the cooler itself was caked with dirt. Most of the dirt stuck to the fan fins. I believe AIO would shine where there is space for greater temp reduction possible like high end intel and ryzens
I would take a air cooler over AIO as I don't have extreme or above normal cooling requirements. Lesser moving parts in air cooler compared to AIO so lesser points of failure and lower replacement costs(a fan or a clip in case of air coolers). Not worth spending a huge amounts of money for diminished returns unless the situation demands for it.
Click to expand...
in 2008 we didn't had RGB craze. not the times have changed. we even need an lcd screen on an aio for what not purpose. so as I said, its upon user. what is their priority and what they want to spend for the same.
 
My 2 cents would be on an air cooler as it has a much longer life span that an AIO and provided you have a midrange CPU and a ATX build.

All AIOs are built with planned obsolescence in mind of around 5 years. Some will run for much longer but thats the baseline companies usually design and test for.

However with the trend of very high CPU TDP thats going on nowadays I would go for an AIO if you are planning for 7900X or something.
Mini-ITX would a good candidate for AIO as well since air coolers >65 mm might have compatibility issues with a substantial no. of ITX cases.

As for myself I am running a 3900X with a Noctua NH-U14S and I am okay with the performance. I have seen a friend's AIO leak in 2011 and I have been avoiding them since although AIOs have improved a lot in reliability.

Always try to follow the best mounting practices i.e. the CPU pump block should sit lower than the radiator to ensure that the pump impeller doesn't spin in air.
After some time some of the collant will evaporate which is expected but with an incorrect mounting you increase the risk of the impeller spinning without coolant.

Best option is mounting the radiator on the top with fans configured as exhaust.
It will have slightly higher temps for the CPU but its best case for longevity.

If you are mounting the radiator to the front ensure that the tube leading into the radiator is at the bottom of the case.

www.cgdirector.com

How Should You Mount The Radiator Of Your AIO & Tubes up or down?

Mounting the Radiator of your AIO CPU or GPU Cooler incorrectly can severely impact your performance. Here's what to keep in mind.
www.cgdirector.com www.cgdirector.com

Correct-AIO-Installation.jpg


Incorrect-AIO-Installation.jpg
 
Just a day ago one TE fella had a worst AIO exp. His pump failed all of a sudden with no warning signs. It was just a yr old Lianli Gallahad Aio. Now he is back to Air cooler and happy with it.
I have read/heard a lot of such unusual incidents with AIOs hence sticking only to Air coolers.

People complaining about air cooler maintenance due to their laziness, air coolers are any day better that such conking off Aios out of nowhere esp. when your bread and butter is dependent on your rig like me. I'm happy to clean my pc inside out as a regular maintenance activity.
 
princeoo7 said:
in 2008 we didn't had RGB craze. not the times have changed. we even need an lcd screen on an aio for what not purpose. so as I said, its upon user. what is their priority and what they want to spend for the same.
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I go out of my way to turn off RGB wherever it's present in my PC. So I can't relate. My 2008 point was more towards lack of accumulation of dirt rather than RGB. I prefer practical solutions rather than frills. Buy whatever your situation demands for be it air cooler or aio
 
I had an air cooler earlier and moved to a AIO, Arctic Liquid Freezer II, things I have found so far -
Pros:
1) Cleaning inside the cabinet is a lot easier with an AIO. There is simply more room to maneuver. I usually first blow the dust off and then use wet wipes to clean the fans. Since fans are away from the motherboard, so is the dust attracted by them.
2) Not having to worry about clearances for GPU, RAM etc.
3) I can choose the direction of airflow, hot air can exit from the top, bottom (even the front?) if you want it to, rather than the fixed position based on design of the air cooler.
4) Noise, I use my computer late at night, even when under load, those 3 fans are pretty quiet,

Cons:
1) RGB, I prefer keeping gastrointestinal contents away from my PC, human or unicorn.
2) Thoroughly cleaning between fins of the radiator is a pain. Fans are not clip on but rather screwed in. (Flip side may be that using a powerful vacuum cleaner to blow away the dust is easier as the jet is not directed at the motherboard or other delicate components.)
3) Liquid permeation- need to top up once ever few years, (I need to clean my PC a lot more times than that, so I didn't consider this a hassle.)
4) Catastrophic failure - the impeller failing and liquid leaking is a non zero possibility, there is no denying that. (Arctic just notified of the need to replace the gasket on some of their AIOs)
 
JMP said:
I had an air cooler earlier and moved to a AIO, Arctic Liquid Freezer II, things I have found so far -
Pros:
1) Cleaning inside the cabinet is a lot easier with an AIO. There is simply more room to maneuver. I usually first blow the dust off and then use wet wipes to clean the fans. Since fans are away from the motherboard, so is the dust attracted by them.
2) Not having to worry about clearances for GPU, RAM etc.
3) I can choose the direction of airflow, hot air can exit from the top, bottom (even the front?) if you want it to, rather than the fixed position based on design of the air cooler.
4) Noise, I use my computer late at night, even when under load, those 3 fans are pretty quiet,

Cons:
1) RGB, I prefer keeping gastrointestinal contents away from my PC, human or unicorn.
2) Thoroughly cleaning between fins of the radiator is a pain. Fans are not clip on but rather screwed in. (Flip side may be that using a powerful vacuum cleaner to blow away the dust is easier as the jet is not directed at the motherboard or other delicate components.)
3) Liquid permeation- need to top up once ever few years, (I need to clean my PC a lot more times than that, so I didn't consider this a hassle.)
4) Catastrophic failure - the impeller failing and liquid leaking is a non zero possibility, there is no denying that. (Arctic just notified of the need to replace the gasket on some of their AIOs)
Click to expand...
How'd you top up an AIO? I thought it was a sealed system with their own proprietary liquid?
nRiTeCh said:
Just a day ago one TE fella had a worst AIO exp. His pump failed all of a sudden with no warning signs. It was just a yr old Lianli Gallahad Aio. Now he is back to Air cooler and happy with it.
I have read/heard a lot of such unusual incidents with AIOs hence sticking only to Air coolers.

People complaining about air cooler maintenance due to their laziness, air coolers are any day better that such conking off Aios out of nowhere esp. when your bread and butter is dependent on your rig like me. I'm happy to clean my pc inside out as a regular maintenance activity.
Click to expand...
did he by any chance mount the pump above the radiator? I heard that the pumps fail fast when there are a lot of air bubbles.
dexterz said:
I go out of my way to turn off RGB wherever it's present in my PC. So I can't relate. My 2008 point was more towards lack of accumulation of dirt rather than RGB. I prefer practical solutions rather than frills. Buy whatever your situation demands for be it air cooler or aio
Click to expand...
RGB is weird. I feel like manufacturers are overcharging people using silly bling.
 
deusExMachina said:
How'd you top up an AIO? I thought it was a sealed system with their own proprietary liquid?
Click to expand...
The cooler plate can be opened up right? Thats what GN showed in their video to fix the gasket in the arctic LF2. He topped up the spilt liquid
deusExMachina said:
How'd you top up an AIO? I thought it was a sealed system with their own proprietary liquid?

did he by any chance mount the pump above the radiator? I heard that the pumps fail fast when there are a lot of air bubbles.

RGB is weird. I feel like manufacturers are overcharging people using silly bling.
Click to expand...
RGB is ok if you have a separate room for PC, but for most if you have your family member sleeping in the room with you RGB will be a headache if they are sensitive to light when trying to sleep
 
dexterz said:
The cooler plate can be opened up right? Thats what GN showed in their video to fix the gasket in the arctic LF2. He topped up the spilt liquid
Click to expand...
Same dude talked about how the liquid inside is filled under vacuum at the factory. More importantly the liquid has additives apparently to reduce gunk (and probably algae?) build up. So I'd assume that opening it up and filling our own liquid will cause it to die a lot faster.

So, to answer your question... I don't know :D
 
deusExMachina said:
Same dude talked about how the liquid inside is filled under vacuum at the factory. More importantly the liquid has additives apparently to reduce gunk (and probably algae?) build up. So I'd assume that opening it up and filling our own liquid will cause it to die a lot faster.

So, to answer your question... I don't know :D
Click to expand...
Well during that demo he opened the plate and spilt the liquid and topped it back up with the filler that arctic provided in the repair kit. So its possible i guess
 
dexterz said:
Well during that demo he opened the plate and spilt the liquid and topped it back up with the filler that arctic provided in the repair kit. So its possible i guess
Click to expand...
Possible then I guess, could open and clean the fins too then.

So, is this filler available for sale? will it cost more than the cooler itself? lol
 
deusExMachina said:
Possible then I guess, could open and clean the fins too then.

So, is this filler available for sale? will it cost more than the cooler itself? lol
Click to expand...
distilled water with some anti bacterial/microbial additives. around the 9min 30 mark he mentions how he will top it up with distilled water
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