[SOLVED] Are AIOs unreliable?

[102938]

So I'm planning on building my own PC in a few months (first time doing it) and I'm planning to go with either an i7-10400 or an i7-10700.
I had asked for some build advice and some people recommended that I go with an AIO hybrid cooler because the case I was thinking about getting only comes with 2 chassis fans.
Something like this: Corsair iCUE H100i RGB PRO XT 75 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler
My question is about reliability. I plan on using this PC for at least around 5 years and I've heard that liquid coolers tend to wear out faster than air coolers and are more expensive to replace. I'm not really a big fan of the usual air coolers because they are so big and bulky but I also don't want to get a liquid cooler that will go bad in under 2 years or something.
Any suggestions or advice is appreciated

 

[BogdanH]

I really do not believe, in my opinion, that there ANY common coolers that are overkill for a CPU that can hit 200w or higher. There just aren't. Whatever you can afford, the best you can afford, is what you get.

Agree... in sense that having additional "cooling reserve" never hurts. However, if two coolers do the job good enough for particular CPU, then I would choose the one that better suits my needs (all RAM slots usable, lower price, "aesthetics", etc.). Or: why pay more if not really needed.

Intel's 65w rating for that CPU is a fracking joke.

i7-10700K is actually rated as 125W.

Three entirely different review sites show that CPU hitting upwards of 200w under full boost.

... which gives the false assumption that CPU actually needs above 200W cooler. It's important to clarify at what conditions that can happen and for how long. In short, as long 10700K is running within Intel's specs, even if overclocked, 200W is not sustained power consumption.

The following video covers all that pretty good:
"High" power consumption explained

At the end, everyone should decide for itself -I'm only sharing my view angle.

 

[Darkbreeze]

We're not talking about the 10700k though. We're talking about the 10700 non-K, and yes, it STILL has been repeatedly shown to hit 200+w.

And it doesn't change anything, nor is it a "false assumption" of anything. If a CPU "can" hit a given condition, then you should PLAN for that possibility accordingly. You don't know what somebody may be using something for, either now, or in the future, that you don't know about, so you should always assume worst case and then anything less than that is just "gravy". If they are running applications or games that make extensive use of AVX instructions, and we have a LOT of members that end up doing exactly that, then they could run into a situation where they are actually running OVER TDP, in extreme cases, and might not be aware of the need for an AVX offset, if their BIOS even has that option.

If a CPU can hit a number, you better be able to cool at that number. Period.

 

[BogdanH]

We're talking about the 10700 non-K

-sorry, my mistake. And yes, it's rated 65W TDP. Thank you for pointing out.

and yes, it STILL has been repeatedly shown to hit 200+w.

Do you mind to give a link to source? Yes, I did check few reviews, but where 200+W was shown, power consumption of whole system was meant, i.e.: TechPowerup: i7-10700 Review

Thank you in advance.

 

[sizzling]

For example: compared to air cooling, intake vents suck-in at least 10-15°C warmer air into PC case -there's no "fresh" airflow to help cooling down graphic card, VRM, chipset, M.2 drives, etc.

I have a 360mm AIO at the front of my case but also 2x140mm fans at the base so you can still get ambient temperature air into the case and in my setup it is more directed at the gpu than any front fans.

 

[Owterspace]

I didn't see that. Well, I didn't personally test the Le Grand Macho RT, but I did test 2 of Thermalright's coolers that were also spouted to be 'Noctua Killers'... and they both failed.
Silver Arrow IB-E Extreme Rev. B
This one forces you to replace the chassis fans with other high rpm models - I had IPPC 3000s on hand, so I did that, as well as using the Thermalright fans of both heatsinks... 1 and 2 fan configs.
No dice; at worst, the Silver Arrow was a few degrees worse overall.
[7820X 4.5ghz OC]

True Spirit 140 Power
This was the one I had the most anticipation for, and disappointed the most. Thermalright rates this tall and thick(heatpipe) cooler at a crazy 360w TDP.
It did substantially worse than both of the others, even thermal throttled! I mounted this thing several times over; the results were consistent. Tried different fans too.

Interesting. I've had a D14, and it didn't perform as well as my Le Grand Macho RT, or my True Spirit 140 Power. D14 is supposedly better than a D15, even if ever so slightly.

 

[Owterspace]

@Darkbreeze
My bad experience relates to using their coolers with actual high TDP models. I'm sure they're just fine with anything else.
The heatpipes on the 140 Power are a fair bit thicker than on the 140 Direct or LGMRT, so that should've accounted for something... heh, guess not.
My curiosity gets the better of me too much. I'm currently testing ANOTHER cooler(360mm hybrid) on this cpu, and will post an update in the system build thread... I'm stuck waiting on an order of NF-F12s; the fans that come with this cooler are apparently 'meh'.


OT: The biggest downsides of hybrid coolers is needing a spare cooler on hand for when the pump inevitably dies, making them more expensive than they are on paper.

My experience has also been with a high TDP CPU. Not my 3770K which I am running at 4500 with no fan on my Le Grand Macho RT.

 

[Phaaze88]

@Owterspace
I got carried away again - Darkbreeze beat some sense into my head.

It's true: D14 can outperform D15 when they're using the same fans. Whether it's worth snagging one 2nd hand/ebay and then changing the fans too, ehh... ¯\(ツ)/¯

 

[rubix_1011]

The i9-10850k I use for CPU cooling tests/reviews can easily hit 5.0ghz across all cores but at lower fan speeds can really push 360 AIOs (I've seen the H150i Cappellix see CPU load temps in low 90's Celsius at 5ghz/all cores)

This overclock makes testing on most other coolers (which are smaller) next to impossible to collect stats for because CPU throttling.

Even at 4.6Ghz, mid/small air coolers can thermal throttle, so these i9's can get damn hot.