[SOLVED] CPU Cooling - Liquid or air

[Blu_ee]

Hi,

I currently have a Ryzen 5 3600 with the stock cooler on it currently. I am looking to upgrade the stock cooler.

However, I have a small problem. I can't decide if I should get an air or liquid cooler.
The problem with the liquid cooler is that I can't put it on the top of my case as according to Corsair pictures I can only put 2 fans on top. If I were to go liquid I would have to put the liquid cooler fans at the front which will then blow in hot air and 2 fans on top which will have to be exhaust so dust won't get in (I believe)

My specs are:
Motherboard: ROG Strix B450-F Gaming II
RAM: Cruical Ballistix 3600mhz CL16
GPU: Gigabyte RTX 2060
Fans: Deep cool RF120 3in1, 120mm
CPU: Ryzen 5 3600
Case: Corsair Spec-5

I may look into doing a overclock along with my GPU.

Thanks for the help.

 

[Prad_Bitt]

Hi,

I currently have a Ryzen 5 3600 with the stock cooler on it currently. I am looking to upgrade the stock cooler.

However, I have a small problem. I can't decide if I should get an air or liquid cooler.
The problem with the liquid cooler is that I can't put it on the top of my case as according to Corsair pictures I can only put 2 fans on top. If I were to go liquid I would have to put the liquid cooler fans at the front which will then blow in hot air and 2 fans on top which will have to be exhaust so dust won't get in (I believe)

My specs are:
Motherboard: ROG Strix B450-F Gaming II
RAM: Cruical Ballistix 3600mhz CL16
GPU: Gigabyte RTX 2060
Fans: Deep cool RF120 3in1, 120mm
CPU: Ryzen 5 3600
Case: Corsair Spec-5

I may look into doing a overclock along with my GPU.

Thanks for the help.

If you're gonna GPU OC, you're gonna wanna give more importance to GPU temps. So either you top mount the CPU radiator, or you go air cooling op. Front mounting the radiator will draw in hot air for the GPU. 120/140mm AIOs are completely useless and are outperformed by quality 120mm air coolers.

I assume you got one stock fan with the case. So you have 4 fans in total. You should probably do a 2 intake 2 exhaust setup. Put the more powerful fan combo as intake. (more air in, less out through fans = +ve air pressure = less dust)

You should also use an air cooler instead since you can't fit a 240mm top radiator. If you can fit one, it's your wish, but for GPU OC, do not front mount the rad. If you're not, I think you'll be fine with a front mount rad. Problem with cases like yours where there's no dedicated GPU cooling is you cna use aio at the trade off of higher cpu temp (aio exhaust) or higher gpu temp (aio intake)

 

[Blu_ee]

If you're gonna GPU OC, you're gonna wanna give more importance to GPU temps. So either you top mount the CPU radiator, or you go air cooling op. Front mounting the radiator will draw in hot air for the GPU. 120/140mm AIOs are completely useless and are outperformed by quality 120mm air coolers.

I assume you got one stock fan with the case. So you have 4 fans in total. You should probably do a 2 intake 2 exhaust setup. Put the more powerful fan combo as intake. (more air in, less out through fans = +ve air pressure = less dust)

You should also use an air cooler instead since you can't fit a 240mm top radiator. If you can fit one, it's your wish, but for GPU OC, do not front mount the rad. If you're not, I think you'll be fine with a front mount rad. Problem with cases like yours where there's no dedicated GPU cooling is you cna use aio at the trade off of higher cpu temp (aio exhaust) or higher gpu temp (aio intake)

I bought the case without the fan as it came with like a £10 discount which is quite big just for a fan and I thought I would not need it.

What would you recommend? I'm not sure how much I'll overclock the CPU nor GPU it's more testing for me and asking on overclocking sites.

 

[Prad_Bitt]

I bought the case without the fan as it came with like a £10 discount which is quite big just for a fan and I thought I would not need it.

What would you recommend? I'm not sure how much I'll overclock the CPU nor GPU it's more testing for me and asking on overclocking sites.

I'd say two intake one exhaust then. Again if you can fit top 240mm AIO, you should be fine with going liquid. Otherwise I'd recommend air, but unless you live somewhere where ambient temps are high (tropical areas close to equator) you should be fine. If you live in Canada or some freezing place like that you should be fine with anything really lol

 

[rubix_1011]

This does not make sense to me:

However, I have a small problem. I can't decide if I should get an air or liquid cooler.
The problem with the liquid cooler is that I can't put it on the top of my case as according to Corsair pictures I can only put 2 fans on top. If I were to go liquid I would have to put the liquid cooler fans at the front which will then blow in hot air and 2 fans on top which will have to be exhaust so dust won't get in (I believe)

There are a lot of 240mm AIOs on the market - these have 2 fans which would fit a 2x120mm set of fan openings in the top, which is what your case has.

 

[Blu_ee]

This does not make sense to me:



There are a lot of 240mm AIOs on the market - these have 2 fans which would fit a 2x120mm set of fan openings in the top, which is what your case has.

Yeah, this did not make sense to me either. I found this picture which shows what fans and radiators can be placed and how big they can be. It said one radiator with a fan can be placed on the back and 2 radiators with 2 fans can be placed on the front. On the top it only said 2x120mm

 

[Blu_ee]

I'd say two intake one exhaust then. Again if you can fit top 240mm AIO, you should be fine with going liquid. Otherwise I'd recommend air, but unless you live somewhere where ambient temps are high (tropical areas close to equator) you should be fine. If you live in Canada or some freezing place like that you should be fine with anything really lol

Alright, thanks for the help.