Question Going from AIO to Air - How to keep existing fans and radiator

[camason86]

Hey all,

I'm considering replacing my AIO water cooler with a nice fan for air cooling instead.

My question is, can I keep my existing fans and radiator (which are part of AIO) in place to continue using them with a fan cooler?

And if so, how do I go about removing the tubes and pump safely?

Thanks

 

[Gam3r01]

You would want to remove the rad instead of just pulling the tubes/pump.
Fans are perfectly acceptable to keep, but they are likely high static pressure fans, not high airflow fans. They will work just fine, but higher AF fans will be slightly better.

 

[Paperdoc]

Agreed. You would remove the entire pump assembly, including ant special mounting brackets and frames, and clean off the old thermal paste from the CPU. Read the installation instructions fort the new air cooler carefully. IF it depends on stock mounting brackets that were on your mobo originally, those MIGHT have been removed and replaced with others for the AIO.

Remove the entire rad and fan assembly. Remove the fans from the rad, and you can discard the rad and pump units. Then the fans can be re-used. As Gam3r01 said, they may deliver slightly less air flow compared to other fan designs, but they will work for general case cooling.

 

[camason86]

Agreed. You would remove the entire pump assembly, including ant special mounting brackets and frames, and clean off the old thermal paste from the CPU. Read the installation instructions fort the new air cooler carefully. IF it depends on stock mounting brackets that were on your mobo originally, those MIGHT have been removed and replaced with others for the AIO.

Remove the entire rad and fan assembly. Remove the fans from the rad, and you can discard the rad and pump units. Then the fans can be re-used. As Gam3r01 said, they may deliver slightly less air flow compared to other fan designs, but they will work for general case cooling.

Okay thanks. That makes sense.

Now if I keep those existing fans, how do I mount them to my case? They're attached to the rad so I'm not sure they would have anything to mount onto without it.

 

[Paperdoc]

There are bolts fastening those fans the the rad. You probably cannot use them to mount them to other fan locations on your case simply because they are too long. You may need to find other bolts of that diameter but a better length to mount the fans to existing holes.