Do 120mm AIOs ACTUALLY Suck? Maybe Not...
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- čas přidán 19. 06. 2024
- When it comes to the great debate of AIO vs Air Coolers for the best CPU temperatures, 120mm AIO's seem to have a bad rap. In this 120mm AIO roundup I look at whether now in 2022 all in one water cooling performance allows some of the best 120mm AIO coolers to compete with the best air CPU air cooling options.
Buy these AIO's from Amazon:
Arctic Cooling Freezer II - geni.us/ACFREEZER120
EKWB AIO - geni.us/EKAIO120
DeepCool LS320 - geni.us/LS320
DeepCool AK620 - geni.us/AK620BLACK
Noctua NH-D15 - geni.us/NoctuaD15
be quiet! Pure Loop - geni.us/PURELOOP120
Cooler Master ML120L V2 - geni.us/ML120LV2
Corsair Hydro H60 - geni.us/H60i
Enermax AquaFusion - geni.us/AQUAFUSION120
TUF LC120 - geni.us/TUF120
Check out the NZXT H7 - geni.us/NZXTH7
TIMESTAMPS
0:00 - Testing 120mm AIOs in 2022
1:08 - AIO vs Air Cooling Prices
2:06 - Some MAJOR Changes to AIO's
3:05 - Understanding Performance Charts
3:57 - 95W Cooling Performance
4:37 - 125W Cooling Performance
5:11 - 155W Cooling Performance
5:56 - Gaming Performance
6:10 - Do AIO's Just LOOK Better?
9:03 - Installation Complications!
10:38 - Recalls Everywhere!
11:10 - Building the ULTIMATE 120mm AIO
12:12 - So do they Suck?
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Review unit provided free of charge by ????. This video is sponsored by ????. As per Hardware Canucks guidelines, no review direction was received from manufacturer. As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.
Gear list (Available on Amazon):
Main Camera (Dmitry) - geni.us/SONYA7III
Main Lens (Dmitry) - geni.us/Tamron2875
Main Camera (Eber) - geni.us/CanonEOS-R
Main Lens (Eber) - geni.us/dLL
Main 2nd Lens (Eber) - geni.us/Canon24-70MKII
Main Camera Mic (D & E) - geni.us/RODEMIC
Cheap 4K Camera (Panasonic G7) - geni.us/24nm
Awesome Slider - geni.us/1Hwt
Our Shotgun Mic - geni.us/Sennheiser-MKE600
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#hardwarecanucks - Věda a technologie
sadly some of these 120mm AIOs cost as much as some good 240mm & 280mm AIOs, the Deepcool Castle EX (240mm & 280mm) destroy all of these while costing $80 & $95 respectively so if your case can fit either of those just get them instead.
i agree. ive used deepcool AIOs in my builds since 2015. no drips and they keep my CPUs cool :) i wish they’ll make a NEW iteration of the Deepcool genome which was a case with an integrated AIO.
I'm currently using a Deepcool Captain 240. It's a good cooler but I don't have my R5 2600 overclocked because @ 4.1GHz my CPU gets really hot using arctic silver 5.
I totally agree, but for those who insist on a tiny ITX build, this may be their choice... a choice that I don't understand at all, if you want performance AND quiet, then you need to sacrifice space.! I cannot imagine anyone literally NEEDING that extra little bit of space, and yet people are willing to spend extra money on a PC that is less upgradable, hotter and louder.!!!
But you literally missed the entire reason a 120mm aio exists 😂
@@ADB-zf5zr that's the problem really, compared to the rest of the coolers the 120 aio is just a tiny niche product and there are already good *enough* and more compact air coolers for itx builds anyway (or said builds can just a fit a 240 radiator rendering the rest pointless)
The replacement of fan on LFII was probably the best part of the test :) Nice job!
The LFII is really amazing. I honestly wouldn't have expected it to win against the NHD15 even with an upgraded fan, but damn. Very nicely done Arctic.
yeah, I had one that I later gave to my brother, these are great.
+ you can slap a second fan onto it for god tier performance !
@@Thib0Bav Same for me cooling a 5900X without any problem!!
legit arctic is a must in most of the builds i make, their fans beat noctuas fans in thermals and noise while costing 1/5th of the price while having the same warranty length, customer service it's extremely friendly even with second hand products, no diarrhea color, and their AIOs are nuts
Yeah, they really just took advantage of that thicker radiator.
@@creaturedanaaaaa thing not any of the other aio's bothered doing while being able to do so
120mm AIOs are great in certain small form factor PC build where you don't have enough clearance for an air cooler. It's interesting to see the comparison. Thanks for the video!
Well said.
.
I tried a 120mm AIO a few years ago (CM I think), and it was handily beaten by the classic 212, which ran the same temperatures with half the noise, yes, the pump (air bubble.?) might have been a factor, but the outcome was an obvious win for (at the time) a £25 212EVO vs a £50 120mm AIO... Things have become much closer, but as always, buyer beware.
not to mention the p12 fans from artic generate really good directional air flow for small builds like that and the arctic fans are fractions of the cost of noctua fans. So their aio and chassis p12 fans(with added emphasis to the ones that let you multiconnect 3 fans per header with pwm on all 3) for those low count fan header Itx boards as it is.
Yeah, the good comparison would be using some SFF coolers on SFF case and see which of these 120mm fit.
Also the Arctic FII would be awesome with its VRM fan, though it also might be a little too thick for most cases.
'certain' for sure since there are plenty sff cases out there now at good price points supporting 240s, and you can even squeeze two into a few of them.
@@kaupaxup Oh yeah it's definitely changed since GPUs have become 3+ slot monsters! But go back a few years and cases like the Dan A4 (92mm) and SG13 (120mm) were mainstays. Plus it wasn't uncommon to see 2x 120mm builds in the NCase M1 or Loque Ghost S1. It's less necessary now, but there are still people with those cases who might want a new Ryzen or Intel CPU but don't want to buy a new case.
Damn, just found this channel and it already answered 2 specific questions that I was sure would not find it, yet here I am, not only answered but with a lot of MORE information that just added up. Subscribed without a doubt
A lot of prebuilt PC's can only be upgraded with these kind of coolers so it's a great video to have out there
Yeah I got the Arctic Freezer on my HP Omen 30l runs great and the Tiny Fan block fan actually helps cause crappy Prebuilt Motherboard VRM doesn't have heatsinks.
They may not perform as well as big air coolers, but they fit in very compact cases. They also make transportation safer in the event of sudden shocks that could damage the motherboard with heavy air coolers.
Good points!
I have seen catastrophic motherboard damage from a Le Grande Macho RT. Friend was transporting his computer and had to brake hard to avoid someone who just decided that suddenly stopping on the interstate was the perfect place to do... I dunno, something.
Turns out a couple pounds of metal pulling hard on a motherboard in a sudden, jerking fashion doesn't go well.
...I replaced my Le Grande Macho RT with a 360mm Arctic Liquid Freezer II. Kind of a shame, seeing that gigantic thing in my case was funny. That thing is so big.
The 120mm AIOs mostly suck because they have an expiry date compared to a standard tower heatsink.
That said, there's one area where 120mm AIOs make sense: compact cases.
Otherwise, just get a 240mm AIO, they aren't that much more expensive and they perform much better at lower noise levels.
Its basically the same cost to produce a 120mm vs 240mm. A beefy tower cooler is literally better and cheaper
As you said, I had a Corsair H60 (New design) cooling my 6600K Overclocked to 4.3Ghz from 3.5 Ghz ,in a compact case. Anyway, it did fantastic. When everything was cleaned I never saw temps over 125*F. Unfortunately the Corsair took a dump on me twice within 6 years so I bought a Scythe Big Shuriken Rev B and it does a great job but honestly cannot come close to the Corsair.
@@Jibberish18 I thought you said Celsius at first LOL
@@hman6159 Sorry man. I know a lot of PC enthusiasts use Celsius but I just can’t. If the weather outside has to be Fahrenheit then so do PC temps for me.
@@Jibberish18 np
Thanks for testing, im going to use this test for reference when im building a SFF.
Should have also included the best of low-profile coolers from your other comparisons in the mix. What a lot of people don't realise is the thing about 120mm AIOs is they are extremely low profile *at the socket* There's lot of small ITX and mATX cases (particularly older ones but even many modern ones) which don't have any room whatsoever for a monster tower air cooler, though they can fit a 120mm AIO just fine since the radiator is *remote* and works with the majority of 120mm fan locations. So it doesn't matter that some gi-normous air cooler is as good as or more quiet when you can't fit it at all to begin with. And by gi-normous/monster I mean even cheap tower-style air coolers are in this category--just way. Too. Big. Anyone that has been building smaller form factor PCs consistently over the years, knows this.
There are no LP air coolers that seem to even come close to a 120mm AIO. Look at your guys' own review of "the GOD of LP coolers" and watch how at 95W and say 38dB it's at *82C*. The worst AIO in this test group, at 95W and 38dB it's at 61C--a full 21 C degrees lower! Even at 125W, 38dB, the worst in this group is better than "the GOD" of LP coolers at 95W in your LP reviews. This is what you should be comparing 120mm AIOs to, because they fit in the same space (provided there's a 120mm fan mount in the case with good space) at the socket. Plus they don't interfere with things around the socket like RAM, etc. like some LP coolers do.
this is actually true. I'm using a Silverstone SG13 coupled with a full size atx PSU, leaving only 61mm of space for a LP air cooler. the i3 12100f with the stock cooler reaches 82°C on a full load Benchmark with 58w TDP, which is concerning but still well under 95°C.
now that I plan to upgrade to an i5 13500 with a TDP limited to 115w, I don't think there's a LP air cooler nearly capable enough to tame it down. the only solution is to go AIO cooling with 120mm rads.
these are the hurdles when building sff PCs, extensive research needs to be put in and be planned well before even buying the components, but the reward and satisfaction of cramming all that performance into such small footprints is like no other.
I love Mike hosted videos, so chill yet so energetic. Like a fast CPU properly cooled.
Your comparisons are amazing, keep it up!
Thanks!
Having a phanteks shift, 120mm aio was probably the best i could do. Went with corsair H80iV2 cause of the tickness (49mm) and nice pumpblock. Keeps my 5600x decently in check
I had the Corsair H55 in my Fractal Node 202 cause it was one of the only ones that could fit in the thing. Worked really well and kept the machine cool. Had it routed right next to my 1070 mini in the GPU side of the case.
Thanks Mike, I loved to see this. One thing I would have liked added is the stock AMD cooler as that would be the first point of upgrade.
Thanks a lot for explaining the test methodology and the charts.
Love your cooling reviews, keep it up!
I've seen HC for a long time but this is the 2nd of your videos that I've seen and I must say, the content and way you present information is brilliant.
Doing god's work here dispelling common misconceptions with legit testing. Thanks.
Thanks god, i have 120mm corsair since 2018
this video really help me decide wether im buy new one or still hold my 120 aio
mikes content always a must watch for sff enthusiasts!!❤👌
Love this type of mayhem battle of the same type products.
I'd love to see some big brand itx cases cooling comparison like nr200, ssupd, lianli H2O.
Thanks! Good suggestion!
120mm AIO are great for SFF builds, other than that I would ususually recommend go air cool or improve to 240/280mm at least.
but it nice to see they can keep up even with the smaller ones.
I had a Corsair H80i cooling a Q6600 back in the day, was only running a slight overclock on it, I had that CPU as I can remember at 2.87 GHz on all cores from 2.4ghz and that H80 kept that thing super cool, well under 50 degrees at load
This is a perfectly timed video, I recently won a EK AIO 120 in a giveaway and i'm contemplating whether to put it in my system with a Ryzen 5600 on a stock cooler.
Very good content. Really interesting for me personally
Thank you
There's been a boom in off brand tower air coolers that have been awesome for the price. So I'd be really interested in seeing if you could find/ do a round up of off brand 120mm AIOs and see how they compare
Correct. I've got a vetroo $35 tower cooler on my i7-12700k. Works great. I thought I'd have to go to water cooling, but I really don't have to. Never heard of the company before, but they did well in a tower cooler shootout at a way lower price point.
There are some great cheap coolers out there.
Thanks for this video! been looking into 120mm aios. Do you have any videos on 80mm and 92mm fans?
I paired a $58 US, Rosewill 120 with an R7 1800X back in 2019 and had zero issues for over 2 years. It did start to cause heat related shut downs in game and I replaced it with a Hyper 212. Worth noting I did set it up with push pull on the radiator. If I had paired it with a 1600 or 2600 I'm pretty sure it would still be trucking along.
only issue i have with artic as an artic owner myself...is the "short" 3 year warranty considering that these pumps do die/etc and the typical shelf life of a high up time/high heat cpu encouraging such outcomes...But the low cost does help soften the blow of a potential failure in the future. And now they have better mounting hardware than when i did my build too. Now they upped the warranty to 6 years are one of the better performing and priced options...and have better mounting hardware making arctic my top recommendation. Their fans are quiet and get the job done and are cheap enough to buy more for push pull...or ideal directional air flow for chassis that have Fan mounts and mesh sides for mounting fans under your gpu.
Hey, I'm currently using a Corsair Hydro Series H75 I bought in 2014 in a PC I run in my stereo as a media player cooling a xeon x5675, not overclocked in a 19" rack. Does the job very well.
Even if 120mm AiOs and comparable air coolers have a similar price-to-performance proposition, the lower reliability of AiOs tips the scale for me towards air coolers.
The only case where I find them useful are in SFF cases where there just is no space for a decent aircooler, that's an important point you mentioned.
FWIW I had a 120mm AIO that lasted 13 years before it stopped working. No leak - just clogged up.
@@gavinf4667 a sample size of 1 is irrelevant though. And it did fail in a way an air cooler couldn't.
i have 3 corsair aios, all perform good and not a single issue :) i guess the software part could be a problem for some people but with my 5900x and 5950x i havent noticed any drop in performance.
@@gavinf4667 air coolers dont clogged up.........
U didn't understand his point. The probability is the issue. A plastic bottle would never shatter while a glass bottle will
@@MonicaHolly143 yeah people really don't understand statistics. 1 or 3 AiOs that didn't fail mean nothing. It's also not just about whether or not it will fail, but when. Even an air cooler will fail at some point, but statistically speaking they outlast AIOs.
The H7 Flow case is fantastic, mine arrived today :)
I was building, using custom loop water cooling for around 14 years, but I was using FAT radiators. Like 60-65mmx360mm plus another 240mm in the loops too. Temps were good, especially on the GPU's which would usually run 3 to 5 degrees above ambient, under load.
I got fed up with the hassle of having to drain and clean the system periodically though and decided to try a Noctua NH-D15. I couldn't be more happy with the performance and more importantly, next to no maintenance. Maybe a blow out of dust every now and then, which is quickly done.
I will never use an AIO cooler. They're a cheapo crappy solution that wont last and will need binning sooner than later. I still have all my water cooling gear if I ever did want to go back to a custom loop, but doubt I ever will.
excellent video like always ! french from québec here ! the biggest problem you will be surprised that the corsairs are reliable mine is 8 years old and still running strong ! .. changed to the 2018 model for 59 $ on amazon while the nuctua is sold for 109$...
I'd be intrigued to see how the Arctic Freezer II 120 compares to the 240mm.
Agreed. If anything, I'd actually be interested to see how the Arctic Freezer 120 compares to an Asetec 240mm. I bet it's surprisingly close (with standardized fans)
I just finished a Ryzen 5900X SFF build in a Cooler Master RC-130-KKN1Elite case with a full-size optical drive bay. I'm cooling the CPU with the Corsair H60 120mm AIO, except that I upgraded the fan with a Phanteks T30x120mm fan. Running Cinebench R23, the CPU never went above 68 degC. Doing every day things, the temperature never goes above 42 degC. I have the CPU undervolted by -0.1V and max overclock set to 4000 Mhz.
I do have a question, isn’t the LT the latest from DeepCool or is it the LS the latest one? Also what’s up with LS SE? Is SE better in some ways??
The BeCool unit has the pump in the tube, making it the only one in the bunch where you can mount the radiator below the cooling block.
For in Canadian pricing for certain 120mm AIO's you could even get it on special for around 50$ just like the Deepcool one i am using right now which does cool my CPU well enough being at 57c when playing a demanding game.
Would like to see that thicc artic cooler rad with a push/push+pull phanteks T30 setup.
Plus, could you retest showing the best 120mm AIO vs the "worst" (and then maybe a "better") 240/280 AIO
Like here in Australia, its around $20-50AUD difference from a few of the mainstream 120mm to 240mm AIOs - lets see in testing how much value you get for that little extra spend
Just watching Arctic website and their 120mm AIO is sadly not listed anymore... I hope to find one in stock somewhere when i start my build.
i use an AIO 120mm on a 12700k and on 5800x3d and the work great. the only difference is i changed the fan the the phantecks t-30 fans. i use the cooler master nr200 cases on both systems,
A decent fan is viable with a 120mm aio. 👍
I slapped an A12x25 On a EVGA Hybrid Card 120rad and boom. Silent and cooler.
In sff cases the t30 has more pressure tho 👌
I see the value of 120mm aios in small case builds where you might not have the space or airflow for a aircooler but the lower footprint of the aio makes it possible to have similar results as using a full size aircooler
I suggest you can test these aio with replaced some other high-end fans, such as Nuctua A12-25, phanteks T30. Then we could see how much difference between their pump and radiators.
I haven't had a problem with 120mm coolers. Generally in the past I've only installed them into cases with no provisions for AIO's - I can get away with using the rear fan mount. With so many modern cases supporting larger (and larger, and larger still) AIO's, the rarity of the 120mm coolers, and factoring in the price difference, I generally end up with using 240's and up if I'm going with an AIO (though my actual preference for client systems is to avoid using an AIO - air is much less complicated and safer).
Even in cases where you're not space constrained or running high power I still prefer AIO (unless it's ultra low power where box fans with a custom temp curve are actually okay these days)
The reason is accessibility - Giant towers are very effective for their price but they block ram slots or m.2 slots and make getting at the GPU release tab hard..
An AIO or small box fan simply doesn't get in the way during maintenance and upgrades
My older Cooler Master 120mm AIO pump started rattling hard after 5-6 years, like it didn't have enough liquid to push anymore.
Earlier this month got a newer ML120L V2 for ~$50. It was relatively easy to install, and it cools a 6700k@4.2GHz super well.
Sometimes it also makes loud sounds like the older one when turning on, but it goes away after a minute running.
because it most likely didn't have enough liquid, even without leaking there are ways for that liquid to evaporate and escape the system over time
most companies don't bother with this but some (like be quiet) do allow you to refill it without voiding the warranty and make the fill ports more accessible
What about the nzxt kraken 120?
dude, i don't know, i used to have a gamemax iceber 120 in my gaming rig and lasted 3 months until the pump failed, so at least for me i learned the lesson and no more watercooling for my rig.
For now my rig is working with the stock wraith stealth my 4600g came from factory but i'm looking for and aftermarket air cooler, the problem is my case is corsair carbide spec 05 and only can fit an 150mm heatsink, so any suggestions? here where i live, i can get a noctua LH9a and a deepcool ice edge mini v2 o should i get a better AIO
Used one for years on an overclocked Q6600 which is known to hit pretty high TDPs when overclocked. Base TDP is 105w. Handled it just fine.
1 fan AIO are far less popular on the market. However, they do have their uses. I wanted to try out AIO, but my old computer case could not fit anything more than a single fan effectively. So, the only option was vertically mounted fan where usual chassis fan is supposed to be.
Unfortunately, it looks like one of the front runners from your test (EK) has dropped out of the 120 AIO race, as the EKWB AIO cannot be found on their website or Amazon. What you feared is slowly coming to pass, Mike - damn shame, too, because that cooler was absolutely gorgeous! Sad I won't be able to get it, now.
That liquid Freezer from arctic is VERY good, my brother has an i7 with a very basic H motherboard, we were having issues with BSODs with the i7 because of the mobo VRM being too hot... this cooler improved that by a lot, literally that PC has two years working without any other problems thanks to the arctic cooler and the VRM fan.
I has a Corsair H60 for years, it was ok for my 4770K back then, but after some time I changed the fan for a Noctua Industrial PPC lol
Overall the 120mm AIO coolers perform worse than hi end aircoolers, but comparable to mid range and indeed look much much better.. Now there's not many reasons to not get a larger 240+ AIO unless in SSF small cases
I have used 2 of the Corsair H45, their system integrators special that sold for far less than the cheapest "consumer" 120mm AIO in their range.
Other than issues with a noisy fan bearing on the first one, the AIOs have performed superbly; to give you an idea of how long I have had them, the first system was a FX6300; it was a very poor CPU, and it needed heavy O/C'ing to get it up to the performance of the previous generation Phenom II.
SO much O'C'ing, it was clocked to 5.01*GHz and pulling 200+ watts (max'ed Vin), yet the H45 kept it to 50C under Prime 95.
* The highest clock where it was 100% stable
I'm using the LFII 120 on my 5950x, it's just enough to keep those temps around 80c on the most demanding tasks. I would have went with the 240, but my older case can't accommodate it easily and I didn't want to change all that.
I did build a PC with the LFII 240 and an 11700K though, and during benchmark tests, it kept it at less than 80c at I want to say ~240 watts or so. I think that's pretty good.
Agree..my over overclocked 9900k has been fine with a Corsair h60i. I think this is more snobbery and people sticking their nose into other people's builds.
Great video. Very informative
I had an H80i V2 back in the day. That thing was one hell of a good cooler. Surprisingly good.
Im still rocking a h80i GT from 8 years ago, still keeps my i5 4690 very cool.
I have an MSI aegies ZS with a 120MM AIO that died in less than a year - did NOT make the recall for some reason (same exact thing as the two that did - but what evs) and just sent in for RMA -- my question, would it be smart to stick a case fan in its place (rear mount) and instead place a 240 AIO up top? the case will accomdate, but can't seem to find a clear answer any help greatly appreciated!
I have Arctic LFII on a R5600x inside a mini ITX case and it does wonders.
HI,Can i use one of those for cooling my brand new amd 7800x3d since i have purchased an nzxt h1 v2 and it comes with a 120mm aio? Thanks.
Did enermax fix their quality problems with newer coolers? I love the looks of the aqua fusion series but i'm sceptical about the reliability.
This was really helpful, but I wish you would have included a low-profile air cooler as well because this data is not directly comparable to the "Water Cooling vs Low Profile CPU Coolers" video you put out in July. I'm having trouble deciding between the Arctic Freezer II and the Alpenfohn Black Ridge in my Cooler Master Elite 130 case, and this video doesn't quite help me there.
Remember the Black Ridge is now dead ended with no 1700 or AM5 support.
what is the best position of 120mm aio radiator btw top or bottom? im super confuse rn I've been searching on youtube/google many times but just like 50/50 bottom and top now im super confuse what's the best position
I went to a 120mm AIO after the fan on my air cooler died (was an older design, crappy fan mount/no fan swapping.) My lical PC parts store had the H60 on for 5 bucks more than the only air cooler option they had.
On my FX-8120, I never got above 60°C when running full out at my 4.3gHz overclock. Idle temps would drop as low as 13°C on the AIO. I never could push that hard with air cooling.
It made a migration (more like stayed put) when I recently and finally went AM4. No idea on temps with it because neither Speccy nor Ryzen Master are showing temperatures for my CPU since the upgrade. You'd figure a B550 mobo would have those sensors in place. If/when I swap cases, I'll move to a 240 or 360mm AIO. This case simply has limited options for placement.
Been running a 120mm CoolerMaster AIO on my 4.3gh all core OC'ed 4770k for like 8+ years now and my temps average low 30s or under in moderate use and highs in the 50s with higher usage. I'd say its been working decent. To be fair I de-lided my 4770k and run Thermal Grizzly Kryonaut also for a little extra help.
Last week I went from a Deep Cool Assassin III air cooler to a Arctic Liquid Freezer II 360, my reasoning was the noise the Assassin's fans made when they ramped up. So far, the Freezer II is keeping my 5900x maybe a couple degrees cooler under load but I keep getting this semi high pitched sound from the pump when the pump is running slower (idle), it is a annoying sound but I'm hoping it goes away as the unit breaks in (this system is not a daily driver). But at high load where the pump and the fans are ramped up, the Freezer II is a LOT quieter (and that noise goes away) than my Assassin III was (I didn't use the included cables to slow the fans with the Assassin III since I wanted optimum cooling from it). Other than the odd semi high pitched noise from the pump (I did try stopping the little VRM fan with my finger), I'm very happy with the Freezer II 360. (top mounted in a Phanteks Ethoo Pro full tower case). :)
I have an arctic freezer ii 120mm push/pull in a itx tinker build that ive tried 3600, 3900x and even a 5950x and it cools all them better than I expected.
I'm hunting for test results on the ALF II 120 + T30 to answer the burning question: what is the best noise-normalized standalone CPU cooler for the Torrent?
I'm having trouble understanding your testing: What does 125W Temperatures @ 38db mean if underneath it says "5800X @ 65W" ? Is it 125W or 65W? Isn't the 5800X a 105W CPU?
Bought the DeepCool Maelstrom 120L many years ago as the cheapest 120mm AIO I could find and it still is going strong and temperatures are still very good on my Ryzen 1700!
So many choices, so much information. I'm building a new video editing rig based on an i5 12600k. I'm trying to get a CPU cooler that is quiet and won't break the bank. Should I go liquid or air? Cheers from Peterborough,
Depends on how much space you have. Typically I'd choose air. - Mike
very nice thanks alot i was looking for performance charts because im gonna do a ryzen 3000 or 5000 in a small for factor that i could hold in my hand
The length of warranty on most of these is actually pretty reasonable. At least you can buy them with a degree of confidence knowing it'll last a decent amount of time. But the D15 is a tank, really can't beat that if you plan on using the same cooler forever, and you only have to worry about replacing an aging fan.
If I wanted to liquid cool my GPU similarly to something like the MSI Seahawk, which of these AIO is up to the challenge?
i own corsair h55,is it worth to move on Arctic Cooling Freezer II 120 mm or EKWB AIO 120 mm??
AMAZING! LS360 does great and looks great and basically with in a degree from nh-d15! Artic also look great specially with more modern fan!
PLEASE do continue! people need to give 120mm second look! I'm decently not gonna do dual loop or air-cooling in SFX case with 5800x3d any more! - you should do x3d chip tests on those 120mm AIO because they are design uniquely and it is harder to cool smaller die area
Very happy using my NH-U12A
as someone who's planning on my next cooler upgrade being an AIO, one thing that while you do mention, you don't really give enough credit for IMO: space constraints, my case is a bit on the narrow side and i can't fit any of the large tower coolers like the nh-d15, and a lot of the low profile air coolers cause ram clearance issues, or just may not perform well enough to keep my pc comfortable
Running an EVGA CL11 AIO on my RX 480 with a GPU mounting kit. It's amazing for such a low wattage card.
Can you test SilverStone PF 120 ARGB V2? I've heard it's quite good while being silent
Let's go Mike! I'll watch you anytime
Nice video, would have liked to have seen an Aliexpress 120mm AIO in the mix (supercheap), especially with the upgraded fan.
This is a really interesting video. The charts of dB vs Temp is great.
Thanks!
can you find & test this one? it was a single tower AIO cpu cooler. coolermaster MasterLiquid Maker 92 cooler.
Yeah they can be quite pricey for higher brand ones vs dual or even triple fan ones though. If you don't go for cheaper brand which would make more sense price wise.
Though thicker 140mm could be neat.
I went with the 280mm arctic II. Bigger fans are quieter and are equally good at cooling esp when in push pull makes it even less necessary to crank up the fans. Then again mounting matters and the quality of your gpu/cooler when in the 200w+ range of gpu's. If you have a good cooler like an x trio or ROG gpu. You can easily do a front mount with the AIO and not really worry about how the intake/thermals affect gpu....vs an FE card or more base model that would potentially generate more heat or high Vram temps. Then the top area of your build has completely un-obstructed exhaust and the vrm/chipset never gets hot either vs having a top mount AIO and a huge heat pocket near the rear exhaust/vrm
I have a thermaltake 120mm AIO cooling a ryzen 7 5800x, and it maintains around 72c under load as long as the pc is cleaned well. That's also with a mild cpu overclock applied
120mm aio's only really have a place in compact ITX builds that support then. Usually its easy to fit a 240mm+ sized aio in any case while costing less. I still go air since I don't run or overclock CPU's to the point where you'd need water cooling.
My first aio cooler install on my Ryzen 5600X was a 120mm Deepcool 120L castle that cost me $50 on Amazon. Under full load the highest temperatures I hit was in the low 60c and it looks cool as hell. A midrange air cooler costs about that much and looked hideously in my Inwin 101 case. I know the life expectancy is 5 to 8 years but hell I'll do an upgrade and new build before then.
I knew they expired, but damn, 4 YEARS?? On the low side? The way people talk i thought it was closer to 2 years.
I have a Cooler Master Elite 130 case, which has very little clearance on top of the CPU. I tried a c7 copper with Kryonaut paste and there was just no cooling my i5-11400. (I have power limits off so it was kind of an unrealistic expectation)
But my H60 120mm AIO finally answered my prayers and keeps the CPU in the mid 60’s even while doing long encoding runs. I definitely think there are use cases for these things.
This was a really helpful post, as I too have the Elite 130. I have an I7-11700F and even Noctua's legendary NH-L9x65 using NT-H1 paste (the largest I could fit) was choked when using an ATX PSU. I had to swap motherboard settings to use the 'Box Cooler' profile, limiting the thing to 65w and 2.8 GHz! It was the only way to avoid throttling. Using an SFX PSU helped but the beast still overheated. At least now I could run casual gaming and entertainment/internet activity and the 'Tower Cooler' setting (130W, 4.3 gHz) for a few hours at a time.
I have a refurbished NZXT M22 AIO arriving on Halloween, we'll see if it solves the issue. At least I know it'll fit if your H60 did so - they are similar size. I will leave the motherboard on 'Tower Cooler' and see what happens. Thanks for your post!
@@shannonrhoads7099 best of luck to you! Should be fine, I think. I do have a sort of push/pull with mine (I had a spare slim 120mm fan I used on the inside as a “pull”… that’s all I could fit depth wise) but I can’t imagine that’s making a ton of difference. Hoping you have good results, my set up went from thermal throttling within 20 seconds to running nice and cool just from the AIO.
@@FasuloA Things are looking good so far! Fingers crossed...
I have been running a CM Master Liquid Pro 120mm AIO for 5 years now, on my Ryzen 1600, 3600, and this year a 5600X. It's pretty quiet and highest I've ever seen temps is like 68 (Not prime95, but full load). Also think I paid $45 or $50 for it on sale.
I've been using the small AIO's since they came out (over ten years ago) and still have one that works after all these years. One thing I've always done is had the rad mounted in the rear of the case as a intake instead of a exhaust and have the exhaust mounted on the top of the case. This works kind of like a push/pull configuration and has always left me with very acceptable temps.
"very acceptable" is kinda not the point of AIO coolers given they have so many problems. their only strength is extremely low, completely blows everything out of the water temperatures so that they're at least useful for overclocking even though they're outmatched by tower coolers in every other aspect
Sorry, I use the ak620 at a 12700 kf and it is as loud as an airplane!
I would like to buy a water cooler that is 120mm and has a display for gifs
Can you recommend a good quiet and cold brand?
Imo this should've been tested in smaller ITX builds especially with a toasty GPU since a lot of these small form factor cases can be toasters. 120mm for mATX and up makes 0 sense, but for ITX it's worth considering cause of it's small volume
Ive had a 120mm aio in my 570x case with my 10700k and have loved it so far. Noise isnt my concern, looks nice and cleannnnn
With some water cooled gpus going to 360mm especially with this next gen, it would be nice to get an ultimate 120 or even 140mm aio.
Just replaced Corsair 120mm h80i v2 push/pull with a LFii 360mm.
Went from 4GHz with screaming fans to 4.4GHz with fans barely audible. My 3900x runs 20*C cooler. Only downside is the case upgrade required was not cheap.
BeQuiet's pump is kinda free-moving, to avoid the usual vibrations from the clasic integrated one.
Use an EVGA 120mm AIO with an NZXT Kraken G12 on my AMD RX 580 for a few years. Drop temp from 80s° to 50s during long hours of gaming. Just make sure you have it drawing air from outside the case (intake) instead of from inside the case (exhaust).