[SOLVED] Arctic Liquid Freezer water cooler

[RagnaSE]

So, due to 2020 and home office time, i am currently building a computer that is a bit more modern than my old fx6400 or something.

But i did run into a problem with some hardware. I currently have a b550 mainboard with a ryzen 7 3700x on top. It ran pretty hot with the cooler that was included (although it looked neat). So i went to my local retailer and we browsed the web for a good cooling alternative and got some advice from YouTube (mainly Gamers Nexus i think) who suggested the "Arctic Liquid Freezer AIO" ...

Long story short, i bought it and spend maybe 2 hours trying to install it in my old case (a mid tower Dell something) .. only to figure out that it would not fit .. also, my friend told me that my case had no air intakes anyway.

So i went back to the shop and bought a NZXT-h510 .. mainly because it looked clean and the description said it could do a 280 AIO in the front. - So i dragged this case home and my friend and i swapped the components over to the new case ... only to realize that the radiator STILL would not fit?!?

Do we do things wrong? or is the AIO incompatible with the case? I actually looked up the compatibility charts .. and it did say NZXT-h510 .. well, but it said "Elite" but when i went to NZXT homepage, it stated that the Elite had exactly the same dimensions as the "i" version. So it "should" fit into the case.



- to be clear, i can screw the radiator to the mount (the tray that can be pulled out) easily .. but i cannot slide it in. On the web page it says .. "60mm clearance" .. which explains why it does not work .. because the whole assmebly is 65mm deep .. . But is there another method to mount it? After all, it says it can be mounted on the h-510 elite.

Or should i just return the case and get a bigger one...

Maybe someone here has a NZXT 510 and an Arctic freezer .. and has managed to put it in?

 

[Phaaze88]

It's just a slight oversight.

You see, the radiator on the Liquid Freezer 2 products are quite a bit thicker(38mm) than the 27-30mm 'standard' that most other hybrid coolers are. Therefore:
H510 front clearance: 60mm
LF 2 rad: 38mm
LF 2 fan: 25mm
= 63mm

Simply return the LF for one of the usual Corsair, NZXT, Fractal Design, Cooler Master, etc., and they'll fit.

What is the gpu, by the way? That chassis doesn't work too well with high power gpus; they will run a bit toasty.

 

[RagnaSE]

Thank you for the reply - .. not sure what LF is. From context i guess it is a fan.. . Now .. the fan of the AIO is 27mm, not 25, according to the Arctic website .. and most other fans appear to be a standard 25mm. With that in mind .. it still exceeds the clearance by 3mm.

The GPU is a Nvidia quadro p4000. It is a very small graphics card.

I did look up low profile fans of 140 size but most of them look pretty cheap. The alternative is to buy an air cooling tower of course - that seems a lot less complicated.


edit: never mind, you meant to take the whole AIO back .. yes, that is a plan .. but i dont think i want to deal with another water cooler again anyway. I just wanted to avoid taking the product back to the store because it feels bad to return things, especially when they have been opened. I did buy the entire new pc enclosure to avoid returning the AIO lol

 

[Phaaze88]

LF = Liquid Freezer for short.

I did look up low profile fans of 140 size but most of them look pretty cheap. The alternative is to buy an air cooling tower of course - that seems a lot less complicated.

Well, the problem with that first idea is that you can't simply replace the stock radiator fans with just anything.
The radiator itself is an additional point of air resistance. If the fans aren't replaced with models that are just as strong as the stock or stronger, you'll end up with worse performance.
Most hybrid coolers require, and are preinstalled with high CFM + high static pressure fans to overcome the chassis restrictions and the radiator.

Getting an air cooler would be a good alternative.

I just wanted to avoid taking the product back to the store because it feels bad to return things, especially when they have been opened.

I know that feeling; I'm pretty stubborn with that myself. I know I should return the product, but hold on to it as a reminder that I did wrong by myself.

I did buy the entire new pc enclosure to avoid returning the AIO lol

Unfortunately, you have to pick one of the following due to the incompatibility:
-Return the hybrid cooler
-Return the chassis

 

[RagnaSE]

Well, thanks for the advice .. i ll return the AIO i guess. YouTube build videos made it look much easier than it turned out to be - my friend advised me to get a big Noctua air cooler instead, no tubes, no radiator .. and he says it is pretty much just as good.

 

[Phaaze88]

Your friend is pretty much right.
That said, hybrid coolers do have their place, pros and cons, etc, just as air coolers do.