[SOLVED] Can I have two aio's on one system?

maskedterminal

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I'm currently using an AIO loop for my CPU and I want to modify my GPU with the NZXT GPU AIO attachment. My only concern is having two AIO working on one motherboard. I was told its possible and easy to do but I'm not sure how and whether or not my MB can handle it.. I'm currently using a ROG strix b450 gaming MB and it only has one AIO port
 
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Contact Asus and ask them what the other headers are rated for. That's the best thing you can do to be safe, as they don't appear to list this kind of information anymore.
On some boards, the headers are all 2A; I remember some Gigabyte Aorus boards are set up like this.
On other boards, the liquid cooling headers are 2A, and all the others are 1A.
My board(X299 Prime Deluxe) has: a 3A W_PUMP+ header, 2A AIO_PUMP header, and all others are 1A, but this info wasn't all in one place; I had to poke around for it:
-The W_PUMP rating was just there on the product overview page.
-The rating for the non liquid cooling headers was found in the manual.
-The AIO_PUMP is more an educated guess based on the technical specs of hybrid coolers and...

Bassman999

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I'm currently using an AIO loop for my CPU and I want to modify my GPU with the NZXT GPU AIO attachment. My only concern is having two AIO working on one motherboard. I was told its possible and easy to do but I'm not sure how and whether or not my MB can handle it.. I'm currently using a ROG strix b450 gaming MB and it only has one AIO port
I see what you are saying, you need another header to run it. They sell splitters.
 

maskedterminal

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Aug 27, 2018
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Can you connect the GPU to case fan header?
I could but the problem with doing that is the fans will be going as fast as my case fans speed no matter how hot it may become.. I think the only way I could get it to work that way without everything getting too hot is to manually increase my case fan speeds as a whole.. but like, I'm not too sure on that either. I've never tried it, i'm just going off comments I've read from other people. I could be wrong on these points.
 
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Bassman999

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I could but the problem with doing that is the fans will be going as fast as my case fans speed no matter how hot it may become.. I think the only way I could get it to work that way without everything getting too hot is to manually increase my case fan speeds as a whole.. but like, I'm not too sure on that either. I've never tried it, i'm just going off comments I've read from other people. I could be wrong on these points.
If someone else comments Ill be interested to hear their opinion.
Ive thought about doing this, but didnt think about pwm control.
I almost bought a hybrid 2080ti but decided to get something else that was new.
My main concern was space.
Im going to do some research on this. Ill post what I find if anything.
 

Bassman999

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I dont really see full on solutions.
Looks like most will either get a fan controller for gpu fans and run gpu pump on regular fan header and itt runs 100% all the time.

Seems like the best solution isnt really great since you already have the 2 AIOS, but to run a custom loop instead.
 

Phaaze88

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Contact Asus and ask them what the other headers are rated for. That's the best thing you can do to be safe, as they don't appear to list this kind of information anymore.
On some boards, the headers are all 2A; I remember some Gigabyte Aorus boards are set up like this.
On other boards, the liquid cooling headers are 2A, and all the others are 1A.
My board(X299 Prime Deluxe) has: a 3A W_PUMP+ header, 2A AIO_PUMP header, and all others are 1A, but this info wasn't all in one place; I had to poke around for it:
-The W_PUMP rating was just there on the product overview page.
-The rating for the non liquid cooling headers was found in the manual.
-The AIO_PUMP is more an educated guess based on the technical specs of hybrid coolers and motherboards that did have the rating for this header listed.

But yeah, you can do 2 hybrid coolers in one system, though in your situation, you'll probably have to run one of the 2 pumps directly to the psu via SATA power - the connector should be provided in the cooler's packaging.
You won't be able to control or monitor pump speed of the device using this connection though.
Not having the ability to monitor pump speed isn't much of a downside - there's other ways to ID pump failures.
Not having control over the pump speed is worse, IMO. It's best to set a static speed for these than to let them adjust dynamically; easier on the motor. The same rule applies to fans.


The following is subjective input based on personal experience - do not take it all as factual:
I have such a setup, but I'm having 2nd thoughts. I did it to sate my curiosity and to see if I could sustain the overclock my 7820X was binned for by Silicon Lottery[ultimately couldn't, so I ended up dialing it down].
Now that my curiosity is sated, and my experiments(OC'ing, delid and direct die mount, lots of different fan & cooler configs) are finished, it's a pain in the butt.
Fractal Celsius S36 on the gpu, Alphacool Eisbaer Aurora 360 on the cpu = too many bloody screws(44)... it's become very tedious for cleaning, which I prefer to do every 2-3 months.
Come the next PC cleaning, I'm going to put the NH-D15S back in there.
Hybrid cool one, air cool the other. Hybrid coolers on cpus is overrated; isn't as productive to the whole system like gpu hybrid cooling is, especially when running 300w+ gpus in one's PC.
Big gpus hit those kinds of power rates regularly, cpu's don't. Part of the reason some cpu's get as hot as they do have to do with the darn IHS; they protect the cpu, but reduce cooling efficiency. Gpu cooling is already on-die.
Gpu hybrid cooling is unfortunately not as convenient to set up, which is one of the reasons cpu hybrid cooling is so popular.
... best stop here before this essay gets worse.
Again, subjective input based on personal experience.
 
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carocuore

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and it only has one AIO port
There's no such thing as AIO port, it's simply a fan header with another label, don't worry about it. The pump is most likely powered by the power supply while the PWM signal cable is the only one going into the fan header, this is useful to check temps or switch between pump speed modes. For the fans you can either control them via the AIO itself, another fan header with a splitter or a dedicated hub.

I dont really see full on solutions.
Looks like most will either get a fan controller for gpu fans and run gpu pump on regular fan header and itt runs 100% all the time.

Seems like the best solution isnt really great since you already have the 2 AIOS, but to run a custom loop instead.
A proper custom loop with decent parts costs a small fortune, 2 AIOs and a graphics card bracket are way cheaper and easier to install, quality isn't great though.
 
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Bassman999

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There's no such thing as AIO port, it's simply a fan header with another label, don't worry about it. The pump is most likely powered by the power supply while the PWM signal cable is the only one going into the fan header, this is useful to check temps or switch between pump speed modes. For the fans you can either control them via the AIO itself, another fan header with a splitter or a dedicated hub.


A proper custom loop with decent parts costs a small fortune, 2 AIOs and a graphics card bracket are way cheaper and easier to install, quality isn't great though.
I agree about the price as well as added complexity.
Removing/replacing parts would be a pain.
Theres got to be a way to do it since water cooling is commonplace now.
 
Jan 16, 2022
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I actually had a similar question and I am curious what you ended up going with. I have a GPU AIO co0ler thats mounted at the front of the case (it wont fit at the top). I am upgrading my CPU and was wondering if an AIO cooler would help with the fact that the front of the case might be pulling in hotter air since its moving through the radiator. Or if an air cooler would work fine...