[SOLVED] Air cooler or AIO? EVGA CLC 280 vs Dark pro 4

[boyonfarm]

I just made a post about which AIO to get and the final answer came to the EVGA 280m but now I saw some air coolers that perform about the same such as the Dark Pro 4 and its 10 bucks cheaper and ill be honest I'm getting paranoid that the AIO might leak on my hardware and I know its super rare but it still happens so I'm just wondering what you guys thought? Evga 280m or Dark pro 4? I know the Noctua H-D15 performs around the best but I heard its only a few degrees better and the colors would look awful in my build. I have an I7 8700k and will be overclocking eventually

Coolers in question
Dark Pro 4 https://www.amazon.com/quiet-BK022-Cooler-6-Pole-Wings135mm/dp/B07BY6F8D9/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1545012272&sr=8-3&keywords=dark+pro+4
Evga 280: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01N16CAKN/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

[Supernova1138]

What kind of RAM and case are you getting. The Dark Rock Pro 4 does introduce some clearance issues, so if you plan on getting a slim case that can't accommodate at 165mm cooler, or plan on getting RAM with tall heatspreaders then the AIO might be a better choice. If you don't have any clearance issues, I'm more partial to air cooling, there is less that can go wrong with it, the only moving parts are the fans and those can be easily replaced, the same can't be said for a pump in an AIO.

 

[boyonfarm]

What kind of RAM and case are you getting. The Dark Rock Pro 4 does introduce some clearance issues, so if you plan on getting a slim case that can't accommodate at 165mm cooler, or plan on getting RAM with tall heatspreaders then the AIO might be a better choice. If you don't have any clearance issues, I'm more partial to air cooling, there is less that can go wrong with it, the only moving parts are the fans and those can be easily replaced, the same can't be said for a pump in an AIO.

Thats a good point, i already have a system built its a nzxt s340 and corsair vengeance ram

 

[Supernova1138]

The Dark Rock Pro 4 looks like it will fit inside your case, but if you have the standard Corsair Vengeance RAM you may run into clearance issues unless you move the front fan to the rear of the cooler. If you have the Vengeance LPX RAM, then there shouldn't be a problem.

 

[boyonfarm]

The Dark Rock Pro 4 looks like it will fit inside your case, but if you have the standard Corsair Vengeance RAM you may run into clearance issues unless you move the front fan to the rear of the cooler. If you have the Vengeance LPX RAM, then there shouldn't be a problem.

I just checked NZXT's website it says cpu clearance is 161 for that case, so basically i should decide between the Corsair Pro 280m or Evga 280m I can get the Evga for 20 less then the Corsair but doesn't sound like evga will very easily cover damaged parts due to a leak or something which do you think is higher quality?

 

[Supernova1138]

The Dark Rock Pro 4 looks like it will fit inside your case, but if you have the standard Corsair Vengeance RAM you may run into clearance issues unless you move the front fan to the rear of the cooler. If you have the Vengeance LPX RAM, then there shouldn't be a problem.

I just checked NZXT's website it says cpu clearance is 161 for that case, so basically i should decide between the Corsair Pro 280m or Evga 280m I can get the Evga for 20 less then the Corsair but doesn't sound like evga will very easily cover damaged parts due to a leak or something which do you think is higher quality?

As far as the AIOs go, they pretty much all used the same pump and radiator system from Asetek, the only difference between them really being the fans and warranty support. If this is the new Corsair H115i Pro, then it is using a newer Asetek pump that might be slightly better than the EVGA one which I think is still using the older Gen5 design. The EVGA fans are known to be a tad noisy, but at its cheaper price point that's seldom a huge complaint. EVGA is known to provide good customer service with their GPUs, but I don't know what their warranty is like in regards to catastrophic failure on water coolers. Whether you want to spend the extra $20 for the slightly better Corsair cooler is up to you.

 

[boyonfarm]

The Dark Rock Pro 4 looks like it will fit inside your case, but if you have the standard Corsair Vengeance RAM you may run into clearance issues unless you move the front fan to the rear of the cooler. If you have the Vengeance LPX RAM, then there shouldn't be a problem.

I just checked NZXT's website it says cpu clearance is 161 for that case, so basically i should decide between the Corsair Pro 280m or Evga 280m I can get the Evga for 20 less then the Corsair but doesn't sound like evga will very easily cover damaged parts due to a leak or something which do you think is higher quality?

As far as the AIOs go, they pretty much all used the same pump and radiator system from Asetek, the only difference between them really being the fans and warranty support. If this is the new Corsair H115i Pro, then it is using a newer Asetek pump that might be slightly better than the EVGA one which I think is still using the older Gen5 design. The EVGA fans are known to be a tad noisy, but at its cheaper price point that's seldom a huge complaint. EVGA is known to provide good customer service with their GPUs, but I don't know what their warranty is like in regards to catastrophic failure on water coolers. Whether you want to spend the extra $20 for the slightly better Corsair cooler is up to you.

I can easily pay the 20 if it means its a better cooler I was under the impression that evga was better hows corsairs support for damaged items ? i know evga isn't great I messaged them directly and they said this

I quote "Thanks for writing back to us, we can certainly let you know what is covered for a closed loop cooler. A few examples of what is covered under the warranty would be a malfunctioning radiator pump, fans no longer spinning on the CLC, no device recognition in Windows.

Any sort of leaking would not be covered under warranty as the seals go through quality control before being shipped out ensuring that no liquid escapes the unit. Damage to the hoses would not be covered as they are braided and would indicate improper maintenance or use of the product.

I hope that provided the answers that you were looking for, and of course if at anytime when receiving the product if anything looks off or is not working as intended the best thing to do is to contact us right away so we can help you troubleshoot or clarify issues that may occur. Let us know if you have any further questions and we will be happy to assist.
Any case involving one of our products being physically damaged and or damaging other hardware will need to be investigated thoroughly by having the customer ship the unit first.

Should our review reveal that the issue is a manufacturing defect then we would move forward with a resolution."

 

[Supernova1138]

I'm not too sure about Corsair's warranty policy on this, I've never owned an AIO myself, so I'm not too up on warranties for those. I have heard that Corsair does offer compensation in the event of a catastrophic failure within the warranty period, but I'm not too sure how easy that is to get without making a stink on social media. In any case, the chance of a leak is remote. If you're not comfortable with EVGA's take on this remote possibility, then maybe Corsair would be better, you can always e-mail them if you want to confirm what their stance on this issue is.

 

[boyonfarm]

I'm not too sure about Corsair's warranty policy on this, I've never owned an AIO myself, so I'm not too up on warranties for those. I have heard that Corsair does offer compensation in the event of a catastrophic failure within the warranty period, but I'm not too sure how easy that is to get without making a stink on social media. In any case, the chance of a leak is remote. If you're not comfortable with EVGA's take on this remote possibility, then maybe Corsair would be better, you can always e-mail them if you want to confirm what their stance on this issue is.

I checked they seem a tag better but overall around the same, how sure are you that evga clc 280m is using a an older Asetek generation?

 

[Supernova1138]

I'm not too sure about Corsair's warranty policy on this, I've never owned an AIO myself, so I'm not too up on warranties for those. I have heard that Corsair does offer compensation in the event of a catastrophic failure within the warranty period, but I'm not too sure how easy that is to get without making a stink on social media. In any case, the chance of a leak is remote. If you're not comfortable with EVGA's take on this remote possibility, then maybe Corsair would be better, you can always e-mail them if you want to confirm what their stance on this issue is.

I checked they seem a tag better but overall around the same, how sure are you that evga clc 280m is using a an older Asetek generation?

This EVGA AIO apparently is also using a Gen6 pump, so I guess it comes down to warranty and fans. The EVGA is cheaper but has louder fans, the Corsair is more expensive but has quieter fans. Whether you want to spend $20 more for quieter fans is up to you.

 

[boyonfarm]

I'm not too sure about Corsair's warranty policy on this, I've never owned an AIO myself, so I'm not too up on warranties for those. I have heard that Corsair does offer compensation in the event of a catastrophic failure within the warranty period, but I'm not too sure how easy that is to get without making a stink on social media. In any case, the chance of a leak is remote. If you're not comfortable with EVGA's take on this remote possibility, then maybe Corsair would be better, you can always e-mail them if you want to confirm what their stance on this issue is.

I checked they seem a tag better but overall around the same, how sure are you that evga clc 280m is using a an older Asetek generation?

This EVGA AIO apparently is also using a Gen6 pump, so I guess it comes down to warranty and fans. The EVGA is cheaper but has louder fans, the Corsair is more expensive but has quieter fans. Whether you want to spend $20 more for quieter fans is up to you.

Thank you for checking that, that does really narrow it down then. Gamers Nexus seemed to say that the evga clc 280 was a little quieter than the Corsair but maybe I read that wrong but considering all of that it sounds like evga might be the best bet for me, also since I already own evga power supply and graphics card so the color sync option will work well.