[SOLVED] First AIO ever, What's Proper AIO mounting/orientation?

[edo101]

Hi all, after a lot of debate, I ordered the EK AIO 360MM rgb: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0842YK4L5/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

To cool my 10850K which can do 5.0 all core and possibly more.

When I asked about air vs CLC vs AIO, people mentioned having proper orientation and so I watched these two videos; Gamer Nexus:

And Jayz3cents:

I do plan on top mounting the AIO since doing front mounting might get in the way of future expansions HDD cage wise in my case: Phanteks P500a RGB
From these two videos, it appears I should be good just mounting the AIO on top? And the main risk is when you do front mounting? Is that the gist of these two videos?

Just want to make sure the AIO is mounted properly so it can last longer. Also people have told me if it's top mounted, the fans need to be exhausting air from the radiator. I honestly don't know how it would make your CPU cooler but apparently thats the convention?

I figured it wouldn't matter top or front which way to orient the fans (exhaust vs intake) as you're pull and exhausting into the same air and case either way?

 

[USAFRet]

Top mount, fans exhausting out the top.

It cools the CPU by transferring the heat to the liquid.
This liquid flows through the pipe to the rad. The fans blow air across the rad, cooling down the fluid for return to the pump and CPU.

Top mount exhaust also pulls air out of the case.
Front intake fans bring fresh air from outside. This air has to be pulled out somewhere....the top exhaust and a single rear exhaust.

 

[edo101]

Top mount, fans exhausting out the top.

It cools the CPU by transferring the heat to the liquid.
This liquid flows through the pipe to the rad. The fans blow air across the rad, cooling down the fluid for return to the pump and CPU.

Top mount exhaust also pulls air out of the case.
Front intake fans bring fresh air from outside. This air has to be pulled out somewhere....the top exhaust and a single rear exhaust.

So does that mean the fan on my AIO faces the top of the case or faces inside the case? @USAFRet

 

[USAFRet]

So does that mean the fan on my AIO faces the top of the case or faces inside the case? @USAFRet

The fans blow through the radiator, out the top of the case.

 

[edo101]

The fans blow through the radiator, out the top of the case.

Ok so the fan face inside the case pulling air from the case and pushing it through the radiator to exhaust hot air outside through the top of the case? @USAFRet

 

[USAFRet]

Ok so the fan face inside the case pulling air from the case and pushing it through the radiator to exhaust hot air outside through the top of the case? @USAFRet

Yes.

 

[edo101]

Yes.

Thanks for all your help man! @USAFRet

 

[edo101]

https://tech4gamers.com/ek-aio-elite-d-rgb-360mm-liquid-cooler-review/

This would be a fill port yeah? I always thought it would be on the pump itself not the radiator? @USAFRet

 

[USAFRet]

On that particular one, it is a fill port.
Much easier to get to on the rad than on the pump.

 

[Deleted member 2838871]

Top mount, fans exhausting out the top.

It cools the CPU by transferring the heat to the liquid.
This liquid flows through the pipe to the rad. The fans blow air across the rad, cooling down the fluid for return to the pump and CPU.

Top mount exhaust also pulls air out of the case.
Front intake fans bring fresh air from outside. This air has to be pulled out somewhere....the top exhaust and a single rear exhaust.

Yep! That's how I set mine... 360mm AIO on top... 3 120's blowing out thru rad.... 3 140's in the front intake... 1 140 at the bottom intake... 1 140 at the rear blowing out. I didn't come to the decision from any videos I just thought it was the best way... I was determined to change it this time. My previous build was in a small NZXT case and I had space up top for only 1 fan so I put the rad at the front. I always questioned the decision... (why am I blowing warm air INTO my case?) but it never caused any issues. After all we are probably only talking about a couple degrees either way.

A bigger case with room for airflow was one of the most important things to me when putting together my new build... and I ran into the above videos like a week after my build so I was happy they confirmed my decision as being a good one. Gamers Nexus also had this Fractal Design Meshify 2 as one of their best of 2020 and had it as best mechanical design... so that was pretty awesome to see after the fact that I made a good choice with the case.

 

[edo101]

Yep! That's how I set mine... 360mm AIO on top... 3 120's blowing out thru rad.... 3 140's in the front intake... 1 140 at the bottom intake... 1 140 at the rear blowing out. I didn't come to the decision from any videos I just thought it was the best way... I was determined to change it this time. My previous build was in a small NZXT case and I had space up top for only 1 fan so I put the rad at the front. I always questioned the decision... (why am I blowing warm air INTO my case?) but it never caused any issues. After all we are probably only talking about a couple degrees either way.

A bigger case with room for airflow was one of the most important things to me when putting together my new build... and I ran into the above videos like a week after my build so I was happy they confirmed my decision as being a good one. Gamers Nexus also had this Fractal Design Meshify 2 as one of their best of 2020 and had it as best mechanical design... so that was pretty awesome to see after the fact that I made a good choice with the case.

On that particular one, it is a fill port.
Much easier to get to on the rad than on the pump.

Should I use the default paste that comes preapplied to the Pump block or use the thermal grizzly I have? @USAFRet @TravisPNW

 

[Deleted member 2838871]

Should I use the default paste that comes preapplied to the Pump block or use the thermal grizzly I have? @USAFRet @TravisPNW

I had actually ordered thermal paste... but in all the annoying holiday shipping times my package was delayed. I ended up with every piece of hardware in hand and didn’t have the paste... so I built the PC using the paste pre-applied on the Z73.

No problems... running a 5.2ghz ac overclock on my 10900k and thermals are great.

 

[edo101]

I had actually ordered thermal paste... but in all the annoying holiday shipping times my package was delayed. I ended up with every piece of hardware in hand and didn’t have the paste... so I built the PC using the paste pre-applied on the Z73.

No problems... running a 5.2ghz ac overclock on my 10900k and thermals are great.

I'm utterly disspointed in the EK 360. now this is my very first mounting and very first time trying an AIO. But the thing is giving me the same temps and sometimes worse temps than the NH14 I have. I applied thermal grizzly, a solid dot of it on the centor of my IHS. For the 10850K running at 5.0 ghz with 1.47V Bios and a core voltage of 1.33V, the NH-14 actually seems to do slightly better than the EK

Some of my cores do have much better temp than the NH-14 but the hottest cores are slightly worse. the EK 360 is supposed to be a chart topper. Does this behavior indicate any seating issues? @TravisPNW

This is what the rig looks like at the moment:

 

[Deleted member 2838871]

I'm utterly disspointed in the EK 360. now this is my very first mounting and very first time trying an AIO. But the thing is giving me the same temps and sometimes worse temps than the NH14 I have. I applied thermal grizzly, a solid dot of it on the centor of my IHS. For the 10850K running at 5.0 ghz with 1.47V Bios and a core voltage of 1.33V, the NH-14 actually seems to do slightly better than the EK

Some of my cores do have much better temp than the NH-14 but the hottest cores are slightly worse. the EK 360 is supposed to be a chart topper. Does this behavior indicate any seating issues? @TravisPNW

What kind of temps are you getting? In all situations?

 

[edo101]

What kind of temps are you getting? In all situations?

This are my temps in Cinebench and this wide disparity of temps is what I normally see under high loads. I guess this might indicate that the pressure is not evenly applied/I need to remount?

@TravisPNW

 

[Deleted member 2838871]

This are my temps in Cinebench and this wide disparity of temps is what I normally see under high loads. I guess this might indicate that the pressure is not evenly applied/I need to remount?

Yes I would try that first and report back. Those temps are a lot warmer than my 10900k got running Cinebench... FYI I was about 10C cooler across the board for what that's worth.

 

[Tom Sunday]

It cools the CPU by transferring the heat to the liquid.

Yes my mind recently has been a lot on the AIO mounting details! What I noticed is that the later this year coming Alder Lake generation has a substantially larger 'rectangular shape' CPU. (500 more pins and LGA 1700) Thus my just newly purchased and very expensive $250 AIO will surely not completely cover the surface of the Alder Lake CPU! Does this mean that all present AIO footprints will essentially be outdated after Alder Lake hits the ground? My reasoning tells me that any cooling solution which does not cover the entire CPU surface is simply inadequate. And especially in the crazed overclocking world we still live in. Or will AIO makers step up to the bar and provide (free) their older customers with whatever retro-fixes needed to put their minds at ease? Of course I can always stay safe with the XPS 730x until hell freezes over. Thoughts.

 

[USAFRet]

Yes my mind recently has been a lot on the AIO mounting details! What I noticed is that the later this year coming Alder Lake generation has a substantially larger 'rectangular shape' CPU. (500 more pins and LGA 1700) Thus my just newly purchased and very expensive $250 AIO will surely not completely cover the surface of the Alder Lake CPU! Does this mean that all present AIO footprints will essentially be outdated after Alder Lake hits the ground? My reasoning tells me that any cooling solution which does not cover the entire CPU surface is simply inadequate. And especially in the crazed overclocking world we still live in. Or will AIO makers step up to the bar and provide (free) their older customers with whatever retro-fixes needed to put their minds at ease? Of course I can always stay safe with the XPS 730x until hell freezes over. Thoughts.

If there is a new CPU that is significantly larger, that would require a redesign of a cooler that goes on it.
Not just AIO liquid, but all coolers.

Nothing is requiring you to change to this new CPU. But if you do, it would require a different cooler to go on it.

 

[edo101]

If there is a new CPU that is significantly larger, that would require a redesign of a cooler that goes on it.
Not just AIO liquid, but all coolers.

Nothing is requiring you to change to this new CPU. But if you do, it would require a different cooler to go on it.

@USAFRet Does it even make senes that I am getting a 10 deg difference between cores? And remounted with the EK paste that comes in the package as I ran out kryonaut. and my temps got worse

 

[USAFRet]

@USAFRet Does it even make senes that I am getting a 10 deg difference between cores? And remounted with the EK paste that comes in the package as I ran out kryonaut. and my temps got worse

It may be that this one core is doing all the work at that moment.

 

[edo101]

It may be that this one core is doing all the work at that moment.

Yeah if this continues, I think I'm just gonnna slap on a DH-15 and call it a day. These 3 fans are loud even at 60% pushing air through the rad to exhaust. I like how easy it is to unmount and remount and the clearance around your CPU you get but these teamps are worse than my NH-14s and I get more noise. I don't know what I'm doing wrong but this just won't work.

Only thing left to try is front mounting the cooler but thats even more hassle. Does front mounting make a bgi differnce as opposed to top mounting @USAFRet

 

[USAFRet]

Yeah if this continues, I think I'm just gonnna slap on a DH-15 and call it a day. These 3 fans are loud even at 60% pushing air through the rad to exhaust. I like how easy it is to unmount and remount and the clearance around your CPU you get but these teamps are worse than my NH-14s and I get more noise. I don't know what I'm doing wrong but this just won't work.

Only thing left to try is front mounting the cooler but thats even more hassle. Does front mounting make a bgi differnce as opposed to top mounting @USAFRet

If it were a complete clear difference between top or front mount, we'd all be doing it.
It is not.

Front, in your case and components, may be better, may be worse.

 

[edo101]

If it were a complete clear difference between top or front mount, we'd all be doing it.
It is not.

Front, in your case and components, may be better, may be worse.

@USAFRet But does it make sense that this EK AIO which is a chart topper from most reviews is performing worse than an NH-14s?

 

[thepersonwithaface45]

My AIO is front mounted exhaust. I have 1 rear intake and two top exhaust fans. Not the most efficient configuration, but the radiator fans blow all the hot air out the front of the case, the rear intake puts fresh air into the case, and the two top fans exhaust as well.
It keeps my temps in line well enough but, I say this as an example of a working but not quite perfect setup. I'd try out a front mount and see what you can come up with

 

[USAFRet]

My AIO is front mounted exhaust. I have 1 rear intake and two top exhaust fans. Not the most efficient configuration, but the radiator fans blow all the hot air out the front of the case, the rear intake puts fresh air into the case, and the two top fans exhaust as well.
It keeps my temps in line well enough but, I say this as an example of a working but not quite perfect setup. I'd try out a front mount and see what you can come up with

Rear intake and front exhaust??

Well, if you want to go in the complete opposite direction of most case configs...I guess whatever works for you.