Question Which AIO Cooler

Brian_278

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Asus Rog Ryujin ii 360 or Corsair h150i Elite Cap?

To be quite honest, I have one of the Asus in my system now. It's big, it's a beauty but not quite as powerful as I thought $600 would be. I had one of the h150i's in my system before this one and after using Prime95 and Cinebench found that the Asus is actually 5 degrees warmer. One would think for double the cost it would at match the Corsair. I just kept the factory paste for each and did the testing. Now I am days away from still being able to return the Asus for a full refund and just get a Corsair or cross my fingers and try to tweek the Asus a bit more including maybe swapping out for better paste, on fence as to what I should do. I kind of don't want to let the Asus go as I see on partpicker, like nobody has it in stock and the cheapest price I could find was on Amazon at $858. And I also don't see this cooler being compared to anything else no matter how hard I try to search the net. I see reviews for the Asus, but don't see it on any top 10 or top 5 lists.
 
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Nephern

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i suggest getting an air cooler, theyre quieter (noctua d-15), and keep your system cooler than most aios.

but thats just a personal opinion with my d-15 and any other air cooler, really depends on preference.
 

Eximo

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You generally won't find reviews for silly products like that. There is going to be little performance difference between the various 360mm AIO. It is mostly down to the fans. All the AIO and pump blocks are basically made by 1 of 3 companies.

There are a few exceptions like the all copper Alphacool Eisbaer line up, and the quick disconnect pre-filled from the likes of EK.

If you are going to spend $600, you should have gone with a custom loop if you wanted superior cooling.
 

Brian_278

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Honestly I never really thought about air cooling, I hate to admit it but I personally think they are ugly as heck, BUT, again, never thought that they could be liquid, that's an interesting point.
 

Brian_278

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You generally won't find reviews for silly products like that. There is going to be little performance difference between the various 360mm AIO. It is mostly down to the fans. All the AIO and pump blocks are basically made by 1 of 3 companies.

There are a few exceptions like the all copper Alphacool Eisbaer line up, and the quick disconnect pre-filled from the likes of EK.

If you are going to spend $600, you should have gone with a custom loop if you wanted superior cooling.
I have read that, go custom if you going to spend that much. But honestly I have no issues assembling systems, but when it comes to liquid loops I just don't trust myself enough and IF it should spring a leak, well, we know what happens then. It is quite ridculious to spend that much on a cooler I will be the first to admit.
 

Eximo

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They are also very maintenance heavy, having to be changed every 2-4 weeks.

Hmm? 2-4 years maybe. Enthusiasts willing to do custom loops tend to swap out components at a regular enough basis that the loop will get drained in a relatively short interval.

I think my 7700k went almost three years with no issues. Plain distilled water, a little biocide and there shouldn't be any problems. People that choose to use colored, pastel, etc fluids will have to change that out at least annually, and give all the components a good cleaning.
 

Eximo

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I have read that, go custom if you going to spend that much. But honestly I have no issues assembling systems, but when it comes to liquid loops I just don't trust myself enough and IF it should spring a leak, well, we know what happens then. It is quite ridculious to spend that much on a cooler I will be the first to admit.

There are a few options. If you still want to go for aesthetics, a full custom loop is best. And you can do a lot to minimize the work. Alphacool's Eisbaer Extreme, for example, comes with a CPU block, Tubing, Fittings, Pump/Reservoir/Radiator, all ready to use as an AIO or the core of a custom loop (They even sell the Core, which is just the pump/res/rad, what I used in my system)

You also have a lot of more recent options. Specific cases that come with distribution blocks built in and pre-planned routing for eveything. Add in a full coverage mono-block for the CPU/Motherboard, and you only have to run a few tubes, most straight (nothing says you can't use soft tubing in those chassis either for ease of construction)

If you just want functionality, the aforementioned pre-filled expandable loops are an option. No fluid to add, just unplug the quick disconnect, expand with another prefilled cooling component, like a GPU block, and you go from there. Quick disconnects are bulky and you don't get to choose tubing length.
 

Brian_278

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There are a few options. If you still want to go for aesthetics, a full custom loop is best. And you can do a lot to minimize the work. Alphacool's Eisbaer Extreme, for example, comes with a CPU block, Tubing, Fittings, Pump/Reservoir/Radiator, all ready to use as an AIO or the core of a custom loop (They even sell the Core, which is just the pump/res/rad, what I used in my system)

You also have a lot of more recent options. Specific cases that come with distribution blocks built in and pre-planned routing for eveything. Add in a full coverage mono-block for the CPU/Motherboard, and you only have to run a few tubes, most straight (nothing says you can't use soft tubing in those chassis either for ease of construction)

If you just want functionality, the aforementioned pre-filled expandable loops are an option. No fluid to add, just unplug the quick disconnect, expand with another prefilled cooling component, like a GPU block, and you go from there. Quick disconnects are bulky and you don't get to choose tubing length.
Wow, holy cow, that is all food for thought, thank you for all that, time to do some research!!
 

Nephern

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ive ran with air coolers and aios and the air coolers are quieter and keep the system and cpu cooler.

also the risks of the tubes breaking or popping and ruining components for aio coolers
 

Eximo

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ive ran with air coolers and aios and the air coolers are quieter and keep the system and cpu cooler.

also the risks of the tubes breaking or popping and ruining components for aio coolers

Granted a large cooler like the NH-D15 is going to do better than a lot of 240mm AIO, most 360mm should do better. Noctua's big advantage is their fans, and you can put Noctua fans on a radiator, that will make the AIO a lot quieter. Corsair's high end AIO just have the better fans, usually RGB these days, but that has always been the difference. Entry level AIO work pretty well, but the cheap fans tend to make them pretty loud.

I ran a Corsair H80i for a while, but I used higher end Corsair SP120 fans on it. That worked pretty well, but then so did a Cooler Master Hyper 212 with the same push pull fans. But that raised the entry level $35 212 to something like $65 which is pushing into NH-U12 territory.

I'm a 140mm enthusiast, so I tend to go with 280mm radiators. Bigger fans are quieter, however, 360mm radiators are more effective, better static pressure usually so you get more airflow through the radiator. So for me, just double it up, two 280mm radiators for the CPU and GPU. (Also 360mm radiators tend to fit in more chassis, most will support a 280mm, but it will offset from center or only fit in certain places due to the available mounting holes)

I've had AIO failures. H80i sprung a leak from the connection to the pump block, the o-rings dried out and failed. And I have had an AIO pump outright fail.

Not had a leak in my custom loops, just a matter of care when assembling them. Probably helps that I pretty much use soft tubing.
 

Phaaze88

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Like Eximo posted, it's really down to the fans with these things, even though liquid > air.
The former typically has faster and louder fans included with them too. They need to be, because for some reason I don't know, many models don't use less restrictive radiators like Arctic's Liquid Freezer II and Alphacool's Eisbaers.

Balance is important. What you get will be determined by fan curves and your ears.

Asus Rog Ryujin ii 360 or Corsair h150i Elite Cap?
See, Asus shot themselves in the foot by using NF-F12s, which actually aren't very good radiator fans, even though Noctua had advertised them as such.
Poorly balanced fan curve; pretty weak throughout, up until near maximum rpm. I find they have a rather annoying sound profile before even getting up to that, likely caused by those 11 'stator vanes', as they're called.
[At least, that's my experience with several NF-F12s and the IPPC 3000 version.]

If they do a Ryujin III or something with NF-A12x25s or Phanteks' T30-120s, that thing will probably kick some booty.
 

Brian_278

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Like Eximo posted, it's really down to the fans with these things, even though liquid > air.
The former typically has faster and louder fans included with them too. They need to be, because for some reason I don't know, many models don't use less restrictive radiators like Arctic's Liquid Freezer II and Alphacool's Eisbaers.

Balance is important. What you get will be determined by fan curves and your ears.


See, Asus shot themselves in the foot by using NF-F12s, which actually aren't very good radiator fans, even though Noctua had advertised them as such.
Poorly balanced fan curve; pretty weak throughout, up until near maximum rpm. I find they have a rather annoying sound profile before even getting up to that, likely caused by those 11 'stator vanes', as they're called.
[At least, that's my experience with several NF-F12s and the IPPC 3000 version.]

If they do a Ryujin III or something with NF-A12x25s or Phanteks' T30-120s, that thing will probably kick some booty.
Ya I tested the Noc. that come with the Asus and they peak at 1800 rpms, I guess that's fine, but they advertise 2000, Crate A. never did confirm that speed, only went as high as 1800. So I swapped out for the Corsair SPs that come with their AIO and got better results, they peak at 2400 and 73cfms so that was a bit better then the Noc. that come with the Asus. Overall I have to say that it was a bit of a disappointment with that amount of money spent. I will be returning for sure, it's simply not worth it, sure a fancy lcd screen that I have looked at maybe once lol and shhhhh don't tell anyone but I just dished out $1864 two weeks for one of the new Alienware monitors so I need to give my wallet a break!