The_Staplergun :
Jacknaylor I beg to differ on the CLC fact. Each one has it's advantages.
A high end air cooler (being the NH-D15) is big and bulky, but it cools on par with high end CLC. A CLC is used for any array of purposes, ranging from needing a compact cooling solution that puts the main heat dissipation point away from the CPU because it either doesn't fit to it works better in the case like that.
Either one works just as good as the other. It's actually proven in most cases that a good CLC will cool better than any air cooling solution.
You can beg to differ, but the published facts do not support that position, they prove decidedly otherwise. Not as good and not even close. See 23:00 mark
To get within 3C of the Noc, the H100i has to be
12 times as loud.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PYKdKVxbnp8
They are not in fact smaller, they just move the "big part" to another place.
Sorry to be a bit blunt but I'm tired of reading posts where people shut someone down over an opinion when there's hard facts that state otherwise.
Providing accurate information is not shutting someone down. The user has a unit which he has tried to resolve problems without success. Various solutions were offered and it would be irresponsible to not offer an alternative which would not only eliminate the problem but, in all likelihood, improve thermal and acoustic performance. The facts are there, your misstatement of them does not change the actual published results.
We have been building PCs for 25 years, we have tested these things in house, we read the published tests on reputable sites. Out test rig includes 6 thermal sensors (4 liquid / 2 air), and 6 channel digital display (both accurate to 0.1C) and we utilize a fog machine to test air flow and infrared thermometers to detect surface temps.
The hard facts about CLCs, OLCs and air coolers are plainly evident in the above. In addition:
-The 1st rule of water cooling is that you never mix metals within a loop, all CLCs violate this rule mixing aluminum rads with cooper blocks, essentially creating a galvanic corrosion cell..
https://martinsliquidlab.wordpress.com/2012/01/24/corrosion-explored/
-It is a well known fact that cooling increases with increased flow up to a bout 1.00 gpm where it starts to level off. Corair's flagship H100i delivers 0.11 gpm
-Aluminum rads are not as efficient in heat transfer
-The low pump flow and reduced heat transfer combine to require extreme speed fans which produce more noise... 1950s style vacuum cleaner like noise.
https://youtu.be/cTf0Vq1j4Ec
-When corrosion inhibitors lose their effectiveness after 12-18 months, you can not add any to the system.
-No reservoir
There's nothing inherently wrong with using an all-in-one water cooling system, you can pay $150 for a Kraken X62 CLC with all of the above weaknesses ... or you can pay $150 for a Swiftech H220-X2 OLC with none of them.
But the cold (pun intended) hard facts are that CLCs do not bring anything to the table at comparable cost. Even at the Hyper 212 beats CLCs (H55) costing more than twice as much.
To beat the Noc, the simple fact is you are going to have to spend a lot more money and live with a lot more noise (OC AIDA 64). And that's with the very best CLCs, the more popular models are further behind.
Noctua NH-D14 ($80) - 70C @ 43 dbA
Cryorig A40 CLC ($115) - 69C @ 50 dbA
The "big secret" ... the reason that CLCs are able to stay close to air cooler performance is a simple one ... extreme speed fans. Put 1200 - 1500 rpm fans ... the same ones that air cooler vendors use ... and cooling tails off sharply.