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

[deusExMachina]

@john1911

Here's a summary based on what I've learned so far:

AIO

1. Compared to air coolers have more moving parts that can go bad and some of them can't be replaced (pump on an AIO vs a fan on an air cooler). So you'd have to junk the whole thing.
2. There is a slight risk of leaks. It's mature tech by now, so it maybe rare though. YMMV.
3. It could work better than an air cooler when the case airflow is bad. This is because you can mount the radiator so that it directly sucks cool ambient air from outside the case. Air coolers can only use the air inside the case.
   1. Don't assume by default that an AIO can cool better. It depends on the AIO model and what you're comparing against. AIOs have thermal inertia which exaggerates the initial cooling effect.
4. It leaves more space free around the CPU, making it easier to work with things around it.
   1. This also means better aesthetics if you put the innards of your system on display (I think this and the rgb craze is just silly)
5. The physical strain on the cpu socket and motherboard is relatively less.
6. Decide on the radiator size first, based on your case design. In general the 120mm rads have comparable (not better) cooling performance as entry level tower air coolers. It's best t check benchmarks and reviews. The 240mm rads are supposed to be the sweetspot where you get improvements without it being oversized. The 360s apparently only improve things slightly
7. AIOs have shorter lives (6 years average quoted) because the liquid dries out and/or the cold plates and it's fins may corrode.
8. Entry level AIOs are more expensive than entry level after market air coolers. However mid level air cooler might be pricier than some AIOs. YMMV

Air Cooling

1. Unlike in the past where Air Cooling (thereby referred to as ArC) used to be one solid extruded aluminium heatsink with a fan. The modern ones uses heat pipes, which work very similar to the water in an AIO but with a vapor phase changing mechanism, which is actually superior to circulating water around.
2. If fed with cool air, it looks like you can always get an air cooler that's on par with or better than an AIO.
3. Case air flow is important because of pt 2. You also need a large enough case to house a big tower ArC.
4. More physical strain on the sockets from larger tower ArC, less accessible space around the CPU (but I don't think they're a big deal)
   1. It follows that it's a risky proposal to ship cases with large tower ArC preinstalled.
5. Much safer than AIOs and they have low maintenance, if a heat pipe breaks, it'll just dry out, won't leak liquid. If the fan dies, it's easy to replace.

 

[john1911]

@deusExMachina

That is an excellent compilation and writeup. Thanks.

 

[nRiTeCh]

@john1911

Here's a summary based on what I've learned so far:

AIO

1. Compared to air coolers have more moving parts that can go bad and some of them can't be replaced (pump on an AIO vs a fan on an air cooler). So you'd have to junk the whole thing.
2. There is a slight risk of leaks. It's mature tech by now, so it maybe rare though. YMMV.
3. It could work better than an air cooler when the case airflow is bad. This is because you can mount the radiator so that it directly sucks cool ambient air from outside the case. Air coolers can only use the air inside the case.
   1. Don't assume by default that an AIO can cool better. It depends on the AIO model and what you're comparing against. AIOs have thermal inertia which exaggerates the initial cooling effect.
4. It leaves more space free around the CPU, making it easier to work with things around it.
   1. This also means better aesthetics if you put the innards of your system on display (I think this and the rgb craze is just silly)
5. It physically strains the cpu socket and motherboard relatively less.
6. Decide on the radiator size first, based on your case design. In general the 120mm rads have comparable (not better) cooling performance as entry level tower air coolers. It's best t check benchmarks and reviews. The 240mm rads are supposed to be the sweetspot where you get improvements without it being oversized. The 360s apparently only improve things slightly
7. AIOs have shorter lives (6 years average quoted) because the liquid dries out and/or the cold plates and it's fins may corrode.
8. Entry level AIOs are more expensive than entry level after market air coolers. However mid level air cooler might be pricier than some AIOs. YMMV

Air Cooling

1. Unlike in the past where Air Cooling (thereby referred to as ArC) used to be one solid extruded aluminium heatsink with a fan. The modern ones uses heat pipes, which work very similar to the water in an AIO but with a vapor phase changing mechanism, which is actually superior to circulating water around.
2. If fed with cool air, it looks like you can always get an air cooler that's on par with or better than an AIO.
3. Case air flow is important because of pt 2. You also need a large enough case to house a big tower ArC.
4. More physical strain on the sockets from larger tower ArC, less accessible space around the CPU (but I don't think they're a big deal)
5. Much safer than AIOs and they have low maintenance, if a heat pipe breaks, it'll just dry out, won't leak liquid. If the fan dies, it's easy to replace.

Well written!
AIO does leaks out of nowhere even if its installed perfectly or not fiddled with.
As for Air cooler, bulky ones should be possibly avoided though now every cooler comes with a strong bracket and clips but we need to ensure it doesn't stresses the cpu zone on the mobo.

 

[superczar]

Que

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.

The key question is your workload.
I built a proper desktop rig after probably a 15 year hiatus last week. Considered an AIO and decided against it.

The rationale for me was simple - my workload (dekstop apps, games and game streaming) was simply not such that puts a sustained load on a half decent CPU.
The thermal bottleneck for me will always be the GPU and the question of my desktop CPU reaching thermal constraints does not arise in the first place making the point of an AIO moot.

Post assembly, I have never seen the CPU cross 70C (usually in the 35-45 range, 50-60 under load and 70-71 at peak bursts) so in hindsight, it was the right call.
The only expense I incurred on cooling was about 2K on 2X push and 1 x pull case fans.

While I was certain of ordering at least an after market air cooler, I am probably not even going to do that now - unless someone has any suggestions on why it may help.

If OTOH I were into sustained CPU loads (Video encoding perhaps?) then it would help the cause.
On a side note, My desktop app load is intensive enough to throttle most laptop x64 CPUs but one can't really put an AIO on those

 

[panther]

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)

Arctic liquid cooler have gasket gunk up issues

 

[deusExMachina]

Well written!
AIO does leaks out of nowhere even if its installed perfectly or not fiddled with.
As for Air cooler, bulky ones should be possibly avoided though now every cooler comes with a strong bracket and clips but we need to ensure it doesn't stresses the cpu zone on the mobo.

Thanks!

I couldn't get any statistics on the leaks, did you experience a leak personally? IMO monitoring the temperatures constantly is more critical for AIOs to detect potential leaks or clogged internals.

Que

The key question is your workload.
I built a proper desktop rig after probably a 15 year hiatus last week. Considered an AIO and decided against it.

The rationale for me was simple - my workload (dekstop apps, games and game streaming) was simply not such that puts a sustained load on a half decent CPU.
The thermal bottleneck for me will always be the GPU and the question of my desktop CPU reaching thermal constraints does not arise in the first place making the point of an AIO moot.

Post assembly, I have never seen the CPU cross 70C (usually in the 35-45 range, 50-60 under load and 70-71 at peak bursts) so in hindsight, it was the right call.
The only expense I incurred on cooling was about 2K on 2X push and 1 x pull case fans.

While I was certain of ordering at least an after market air cooler, I am probably not even going to do that now - unless someone has any suggestions on why it may help.

If OTOH I were into sustained CPU loads (Video encoding perhaps?) then it would help the cause.
On a side note, My desktop app load is intensive enough to throttle most laptop x64 CPUs but one can't really put an AIO on those

Though I didn't say it explicitly, my assumption was that you have a workload that heats up the chip enough to consider an after market cooler.

I'd prefer the stock cooler if that was an option. No additional charges, small and light etc. My order of preference is Stock > aftermarket air coolers > AIO

Post assembly, I have never seen the CPU cross 70C (usually in the 35-45 range, 50-60 under load and 70-71 at peak bursts) so in hindsight, it was the right call.
The only expense I incurred on cooling was about 2K on 2X push and 1 x pull case fans.

This is perfect. Both the choice to use the stock cooler and the case fans to feed it nice cool fresh air. About the fans, afaik, 1x pull from the front and 1x push from the back has the most bang for the buck in addition to having a neutral air flow.

Arctic liquid cooler have gasket gunk up issues

Yup, apparently the ones that have the fix has a QC Ok sticker on them

 

[kiran6680]

It physically strains the cpu socket and motherboard relatively less.

More physical strain on the sockets from larger tower ArC, l

Very nice summary. If you want you can add that shipping an assembled computer is therefore advisable only with AIOs, being even superior to stock coolers in this department.

 

[dexterz]

Very nice summary. If you want you can add that shipping an assembled computer is therefore advisable only with AIOs, being even superior to stock coolers in this department.

Guess I got lucky with all my shifting around. Never gave it a thought when I had the TRUE120 installed and it went through 4~5shifts across the country

 

[deusExMachina]

Very nice summary. If you want you can add that shipping an assembled computer is therefore advisable only with AIOs, being even superior to stock coolers in this department.

Thanks! I've added that point about tower coolers.

IMO the load on the socket from an AIO pump and a small stock cooler are similar. They seem to have similar weights.

 

[kiran6680]

Thanks! I've added that point about tower coolers.

IMO the load on the socket from an AIO pump and a small stock cooler are similar. They seem to have similar weights.

Yes, similar weights, but I've seen mostly lower height of AIOs, which makes it easier on the motherboard. Though I know both are much better than even a small tower cooler in this department. So it's nitpicking to choose between them.

Guess I got lucky with all my shifting around. Never gave it a thought when I had the TRUE120 installed and it went through 4~5shifts across the country

Wow, you must have had a beast of a motherboard. I didn't know it was possible, even with somewhat careful moving.

 

[JMP]

Arctic liquid cooler have gasket gunk up issues

Yes, I have mentioned it in the post. The faulty gaskets are the reason Arctic are sending a service it. Mine should reach in a week.

 

[enthusiast29]

Yes, I have mentioned it in the post. The faulty gaskets are the reason Arctic are sending a service it. Mine should reach in a week.

Mine's shipped on 9th Sep too, didn't reach India yet, awaiting delivery. They shipped through DHL and after it reaches India then India post will handle it.
Let me know when it reaches for you.

 

[JMP]

Let me know when it reaches for you.

Sure.

 

[superczar]

Though I didn't say it explicitly, my assumption was that you have a workload that heats up the chip enough to consider an after market cooler.

I'd prefer the stock cooler if that was an option. No additional charges, small and light etc. My order of preference is Stock > aftermarket air coolers > AIO

The problem is that many people don't really take this into consideration.
Obviously I do not have data to support this but I suspect that a large number of AIO buyers will be PC gamers who buy an AIO under the assumption it will help with gaming performance.

Highly CPU dependent loads are usually limited to people using the machine for professional reasons and they will not go around changing anything from what comes stock.