[SOLVED] Cooler master hyper 212 vs cooler master ma410p vs cooler master ml120l vs thermaltake UX200

[pooeyman]

Which of these coolers would be better for a ryzen 2600? theyre all pretty much within margin of error in terms of pricing

 

[Barty1884]

theyre all pretty much within margin of error in terms of pricing

They're all going to perform with a couple degrees of each other....

Personally, I'd avoid the 120mm AIO at the pricepoint and opt for whichever air cooler you like the aesthetics of the most.

 

[pooeyman]

They're all going to perform with a couple degrees of each other....

Personally, I'd avoid the 120mm AIO at the pricepoint and opt for whichever air cooler you like the aesthetics of the most.

can i ask why avoid the aio? and the thing is that reviews online are so inconsistent. the hyper 212 and ma410p being in margin in pretty fair, but some reviews show them crushing the ml120l, other reviews paint the exact opposite picture

 

[Barty1884]

can i ask why avoid the aio? and the thing is that reviews online are so inconsistent. the hyper 212 and ma410p being in margin in pretty fair, but some reviews show them crushing the ml120l, other reviews paint the exact opposite picture

AIOs add an additional point of failure (pump), and 120mm's rarely offer performance that are noticeably better than some decent air coolers to offset the additional point of failure.

The ML120L specifically, only comes with a 2 year warranty vs 3 which is a bit more standard (Kraken M22) or even 5 years (Corsair H60 etc), suggesting it's really build down to it's pricepoint.

As for results, it's really going to depend if noise normalized etc. Any cooler can look better than it should be by including a really fast/loud fan &/or brute forcing fan speed. You'd have to look at test methodology for the reviews you're looking at.

 

[rubix_1011]

I would only ever recommend a 120mm AIO in very small chassis like mITX or where no other options are available.

The issue is that many people assume that because the term 'liquid' is used for an AIO, it automatically means its better, which is not true at all. Most AIOs in general use very cheap parts and use pumps which move very small volumes of liquid compared to custom watercooling pumps. Ex: AIO pumps might move less than 1 liter per minute, where a custom watercooling pump like a D5 or DDC might move nearly 4-5x that much per minute. For AIOs, the benefits come from the larger radiator size and high RPM fans to dissipate thermal energy.

Liquid cooling requires the following to work:

Pump/coolant flow rate
Block effectiveness (pressure drop, thermal conductivity and specific heat)
radiator effectiveness (volume LxWxH, fins per inch, number of cooling channels, pressure drop)
thermal efficiency of coolant/water used
fans used: CFM and static pressure
ambient air temperature

If you wish to change any of these values but maintain the same performance, you must change another item in the equation to balance it out. It is not possible to maintain or improve liquid cooling performance without changing 1 or more parts of the equation balance.