Aio vs custom cooling

[gasolin]

Often when we see linus or JayzTwoCents build a pc they often use custom cooling instead of an aio

Sometimes it's because they build in a small case and need as short tubes as possible, sometimes it's just because custom water cooling cools better

But how, how does a custom water cooling cool better than an aio ?

 

[Timelessest]

If you use custom water cooling with the CPU and GPU then you will much better performance and that's because GPU are just like CPU air coolers. Therefore, the heat from the GPU interferes with CPU's AIO. In contrast, with custom water cooling most of the heat is absorbed by the water. Finally, with custom water cooling you have 2 radiators instead of one.

 

[gasolin]

But who does custom watercooling cool better than an aio

When doing custom water cooling you don't need 2 radiators for a cpu and gpu

 

[Valantar]

But who does custom watercooling cool better than an aio

When doing custom water cooling you don't need 2 radiators for a cpu and gpu

To the extent that it does (that depends on the water loop as well as the AIO - some current AIOs are excellent (Arctic, EK in particular)), there are some reasons:

• Better cold plates with larger microfin arrays, allowing for more efficient heat transfer to the liquid
• Cooper rather than aluminium radiators, leading to better heat dissipation for the same size radiator
• Also often thicker radiators
• Higher flow rate due to more powerful pumps, again aiding dissipation
• (possibly) higher volume of liquid in the loop, taking longer to reach heat soak/thermal equilibrium, leading to perceived better performance in short workloads

Also:

• AIOs use cheap, low flow rate pumps
• AIOs use cheap, generic and not particularly good cold plates
• AIOs typically use cheap, shitty fans focused on aesthetics rather than performance

Still, the differences aren't that huge. A good AIO is an excellent cooler. The reason you can cool a CPU and GPU in a small loop is because GPUs are ridiculously easy to watercool, with their heat load spread evenly across a large die and thus allowing for very efficient heat transfer to the liquid. No GPU under 300W really needs more than a 120mm radiator as long as you're fine running it's fan at a moderate rpm. Just look at the thermal and noise performance of AMD's reference AIO GPUs (Fury X, Vega LC, also likely the rumored 6900XT LC). CPUs are on the other hand very difficult to cool due to their high thermal density and indirect cooling (having an IHS in between the die and cooler).

 

[FreedomEclipse]

AIOs typically use cheap, shitty fans focused on aesthetics rather than performance

This honestly depends on the brand of AIO itself. EK supply their Vardar fans which are pretty decent but loud at high RPMs. Arctic have their P12s or P14s which are cheap but really really good. Even most upper tier Corsair AIOs now come with ML fans which perform fairly well though maybe not as good as their original SP fans but a lot quieter due to the bearing. BeQuiet use their own Pure Wings fans which i have no experience with but are probably pretty good. Fractal with their Dynamic X2 or Venturi fans -- again excellent fans. Maybe Coolermaster or Enermax supply their AIOs with crap fans.

 

[ThrashZone]

Hi,
About the best thing 2 cents does is custom piping
Reality is an aio will save you a lot of time and money, have a 5 year warranty and if goes bad you get a new one for rma shipping costs one way
These things are not custom loop options lol

 

[mrthanhnguyen]

You can lower water temp of a custom loop by adding more radiator and lower cpu or gpu temp by using a good waterblock. AIO cant do that. However, if between 360mm AIO and 360mm custom loop, they are the same thing unless you have a very good waterblock which may yield 5c-7c lower.

 

[joemama]

Other than the radiator/water block difference, custom loops usually have higher liquid flow rate and also more liquid within, the higher flow rate helps transfer the heat to the radiator while the larger liquid volume leads to a higher heat capacity and thus extends the time for to reach thermal equilibrium during heavy load of the CPU/GPU.

I have a simple custom loop myself and it looks awesome, but I gotta say unless you have a lot of money and time to waste, don't get a custom loop.

 

[timta2]

In my book It's like asking what's better, a stock car or one that has been customized? Car manufacturers use parts that are price conscious and work just fine. Aftermarket parts are often better quality with improved performance, but are more expensive. Of course some people spend fortunes on their cars. A lot of it is what matters to you.

I bought a used custom loop kit with a D5 and 360 radiator from a TPU member over a decade ago and it still works great. I think I paid $120 (iirc) for it. Not much more than an AIO then or now.

 

[cvaldes]

As someone who has moved from AIO cooling (both CPU and GPU) to a custom loop, I have some observations.

First of all, the volume/flow rate of the cooling liquid is not particularly important. I've ran my custom loop at a very slow pump speed while using the same fans (Noctua NF-F12) as I've used on AIO CLC loops (I always swap out the AIO manufacturer's bundled fans with Noctuas so I'm comparing apples to apples concerning the fans). Increasing the pump RPMs on the custom loop doesn't affect the temperature in any significant way.

Even using the same Noctua fans (high static pressure) on the same size radiator (120mm, 240mm, 360mm) the custom loop cools better. This appears to be largely due to the limitations of the cooling block design in AIO loops versus custom loops. In the latter, there is typically no pump in the cooling block so the coolant channels can be designed to provide better flow and coverage.

It's worth pointing out that a pump in a cooling block also generates its own heat. Asetek holds the patent on the cooling block mounted pump. On a custom loop, the pump is often a discrete loop component.

Thus a pumpless CPU cooling block paired with a 120mm radiator on a custom loop should run cooler than an AIO CLC with a 120mm radiator.

There's also the difference in radiator design between AIO units and custom loop radiators. It appears the radiator design is significant despite the fact that they look nearly identical externally. This is on top of the radiator thickness which apparently is a big deal (more cooling area).

For a while I used the NZXT Kraken G12 bracket on an Nvidia GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER Founders Edition card and the EVGA 120mm AIO CLC cooler. Later, I modded an EVGA 240mm AIO CLC cooler to accept the Kraken G12 bracket. That worked well from a heat dissipation standpoint. Today I have an Alphacool GPU block on the 2070 SUPER paired with a 240mm radiator.

Again the biggest difference is the cooling block design followed by radiator design. The NZXT Kraken G12 solution is really a hack. It only cools the graphics processor silicon, again with a cooling block that has a built-in motor. You still have a 92mm fan blowing air on the GDDR4 chips and VRM. The Alphacool GPU cooling block provides liquid cooling for most of the key silicon on the PCB.

I am not doing any significant overclocking either with my CPU (Ryzen 5600X) nor GPU (2070 SUPER). The performance between the AIO cooled system and custom loop systems are essentially the same.

There are three main differences between AIO loops and custom loops. First, the radiator fans in the custom loop run slower to provide adequate cooling. Second, the Alphacool GPU block is thin enough for me to use the graphics card in an SFF case (NZXT H210) whereas the NZXT Kraken G12 hack wouldn't have worked. Third is the cost.

I read a comment by another TPU reader than implementing a custom cooling loop on a mid-tier GPU like a GeForce xx70 series card isn't cost effective. Now that I've done it myself, I completely agree (and I paid $500 MSRP for my 2070 SUPER a year ago, not today's crazy scalper prices). I learned a lot moving from a rather ordinary AIO-cooled micro-ATX build to a custom-cooled mini-ITX SFF build while spending a bunch of money without gaining anything but acoustic performance. But at the time, the 2070 SUPER was what I had (and it had already been modded for AIO cooling).

From a price-performance perspective, I should have just stuck with the EVGA AIO CLC 120mm cooler for the Ryzen 5600X and used the full block Alphacool Eiswolf AIO 240mm cooler on the 2070 SUPER rather than the NZXT Kraken G12 kludge.

But hey, I have a decent gaming build with aRGB cooling blocks in a pretty case. That's worth something; it helped keep my mind occupied during the pandemic lockdown.

I did take my recent custom cooling experience to a newer build. Again, there is a steep cost associated with custom cooling. And there simply aren't that many AIO-type cooling solutions for GPUs like the NZXT Kraken G12.

 

[hat]

Often when we see linus or JayzTwoCents build a pc they often use custom cooling instead of an aio

Sometimes it's because they build in a small case and need as short tubes as possible, sometimes it's just because custom water cooling cools better

But how, how does a custom water cooling cool better than an aio ?

Mostly for the same reason a custom built PC can be better than a prebuilt. With an AIO, you get what you get, and it does a decent job, but the components aren't going to be the greatest. The pump may not be as strong as the pump you might choose to put in your custom loop. Most (but not all) AIO radiators are aluminum, while you would usually choose a copper radiator for your custom loop. Your custom loop will also probably have a reservoir, something AIO units lack. Some time ago there was somebody who added a reservoir to his AIO, I believe a Corsair H50, and just doing that alone improved his temperatures considerably.

 

[FireFox]

Finally, with custom water cooling you have 2 radiators instead of one.

In part it's true but not always works that way, some people use a single Rad to cool both, CPU and GPU

 

[Jetster]

Simple answer, volume of water and radiator surface area
Have you ever drained a AIO? Not much there

 

[xtreemchaos]

i use a single rad to cool both cpu and gpu and it isnt a thick one and coolness is confirmed, aio vs custom loop, water vol and speed is better on a custom loop but a custom loop costs a hell of a lot more than a aio but a aio do a very good job so id say its down to what you like best.

 

[FireFox]

a custom loop costs a hell of a lot more than an aio

Indeed.
My current Custom Loop costed €1000+

 

[TheoneandonlyMrK]

Often when we see linus or JayzTwoCents build a pc they often use custom cooling instead of an aio

Sometimes it's because they build in a small case and need as short tubes as possible, sometimes it's just because custom water cooling cools better

But how, how does a custom water cooling cool better than an aio ?

For a start custom pumps are better, the pipes are thicker and the radiator's are not made quite so much to a price.

 

[R0H1T]

AIOs typically use cheap, shitty fans focused on aesthetics rather than performance

And yet many of them come with 5-6 years warranty? I mean if cheap, shitty stuff lasts so long then really is it actually that cheap/shitty

 

[gasolin]

Simple answer, volume of water and radiator surface area
Have you ever drained a AIO? Not much there

Arctic freezer II

 

[ThrashZone]

And yet many of them come with 5-6 years warranty? I mean if cheap, shitty stuff lasts so long then really is it actually that cheap/shitty

Hi,
Last I looked corsair for an example used ML series fans on their newer aio's
ML series are very good fans not cheap I have many non rgb twin packs they were nicely priced too.
Most older were SP series not the greatest but still most these aio's go for quiet not high rpm and noisy

Arctic freezer II

I've heard good things about that aio

 

[Mussels]

I can finally help answer this!

1. Custom loops are way quieter. The D5 pump is AMAZING.
2. Having ran two AIO's in a system for a year, i can say a custom loop runs WAY cooler, WAY quieter, and fits in a much smaller case.
3. GPU support. With the exception of pure GPU cooling on the NZXT G12 (with no modern GPU support, and no active VRA\ VRM cooling), why aircool your 65W CPU when theres a 300W-400W GPU there? I cant get an AIO to slap onto my 3090's VRMs
4. The sheer customizability. Holy crap i blew a lot of money whenever i changed hardware and the goddamn AIOs would no longer fit, or the hoses were the wrong lengths. Oops sorry, hits your RAM now. New mobo? woops hits the oversized VRM heatsink, gotta go front mounted now. Gotta flip the AIO over to make the hose reach, oops now the temps are 15C higher (yeah, that all happened)

downside: i'm still crying at what i've paid, i resorted to GPU mining on the 3090 to pay for its water cooling upgrade

attached is the pics as i went through all this bullcrap with dual AIOs, , a GPU with an AIO that just goddamn sucked (dual AIO just sucks unless the hose length is perfect) then a CPU AIO starving the air cooled GPU with its stupid custom heatsinks to cool the VRMs, and finally giving in to custom water on the GPU - then realising the 280mm rad i had on the custom loop cant be top mounted because it hits the RAM, and having to get a slim 360mm for the top and a CPU block -.-

I have ADHD (and probably ASD) and random noises like rattling fans drive. me. f*cking. bonkers.
GTX 1080 with a kraken G12 and dual corsair AIO (cool, but noisy AIO pump. could not be oriented or located ANY other way, jammed into the 24 pin power cable and RAM)

AIO GPU - crap hose length, frustrating fan cables, and ofc it leaked.

Admittedly the native AIO GPU and CPU AIO looked SWEEEEET.

3080 leaked, 3090 was the only thing in stock. Air + AIO? yeah 105C VRAM temps said oof.

Lets fight with cooling this bitch when the AIO blocks the cool air intake...

Custom water (mostly second hand parts) for GPU, GPU temps 40C lower. CPU temps... did not like the preheated air.

What i should have caved in and done all along.

 

[gasolin]

Nzxt kranken is also good. Simple answer, volume of water and radiator surface area,don't apply to them since performance is as good as a equally priced custom water cooling

 

[R0H1T]

i changed hardware and the goddamn AIOs would no longer fit

You had the same issue with AM4? Maybe going from 3xx series chipsets to x570 but aren't you glad you don't have to change mobos nearly every year like Intel forced you to?

 

[Mussels]

Oh i forgot, and because AIOs look like this eventually and you cant tell without destroying them

My photo, from a thermaltake 120mm AIO on a 'dead' system i refurbished

You had the same issue with AM4? Maybe going from 3xx series chipsets to x570 but aren't you glad you don't have to change mobos nearly every year like Intel forced you to?

Not the socket directly, i mean the mobo would move where the socket is and the AIO would no longer reach, or it'd hit VRM heatsinks, RAM and so on.

 

[damric]

I did several water builds earlier this year ranging from dirt cheap to expensive.

First, let it be known that you can indeed build a good full custom loop for very little as long as you don't mind waiting a little bit for overseas parts from places like ebay, aliexpress, banggood, ect.

Example: my folding rig:

Vinyl Hose (I swear it's identical the EK stuff) from HW store: $8.
Bykski CPU block, ebay: $20
240mm aluminum radiators, ebay: $17
AE-YOLOWIN-WP, Aliexpress: $15
Generic GPU block, ebay: $15
Multipack fittings, ebay: $15
Barrow Reservoir, ppcs: $15
1 gallon distilled water, grocery store: $2

Total: $107, and you could shave off even more money if you glue on the cheapest of all water blocks from banggood.com.

Second, it's possible to take old AIOs and mod the hell out of them because they actually use plastic barbs. I was very happy to take some 3/8" vinyl hose and a mason jar and improve an old H50 (copper rad) that still had a working pump. Now it has a reservoir and clear tubing for less than $10.

In my main rig I spent much more on more extravagant stuff like a 1080mm copper rad, dual D5s, full cover blocks, ect, easily over $500.

 

[gasolin]

I can finally help answer this!

1. Custom loops are way quieter. The D5 pump is AMAZING.
2. Having ran two AIO's in a system for a year, i can say a custom loop runs WAY cooler, WAY quieter, and fits in a much smaller case.
3. GPU support. With the exception of pure GPU cooling on the NZXT G12 (with no modern GPU support, and no active VRA\ VRM cooling), why aircool your 65W CPU when theres a 300W-400W GPU there? I cant get an AIO to slap onto my 3090's VRMs
4. The sheer customizability. Holy crap i blew a lot of money whenever i changed hardware and the goddamn AIOs would no longer fit, or the hoses were the wrong lengths. Oops sorry, hits your RAM now. New mobo? woops hits the oversized VRM heatsink, gotta go front mounted now. Gotta flip the AIO over to make the hose reach, oops now the temps are 15C higher (yeah, that all happened)

downside: i'm still crying at what i've paid, i resorted to GPU mining on the 3090 to pay for its water cooling upgrade

attached is the pics as i went through all this bullcrap with dual AIOs, , a GPU with an AIO that just goddamn sucked (dual AIO just sucks unless the hose length is perfect) then a CPU AIO starving the air cooled GPU with its stupid custom heatsinks to cool the VRMs, and finally giving in to custom water on the GPU - then realising the 280mm rad i had on the custom loop cant be top mounted because it hits the RAM, and having to get a slim 360mm for the top and a CPU block -.-

I have ADHD (and probably ASD) and random noises like rattling fans drive. me. f*cking. bonkers.
GTX 1080 with a kraken G12 and dual corsair AIO (cool, but noisy AIO pump. could not be oriented or located ANY other way, jammed into the 24 pin power cable and RAM)
View attachment 204832
AIO GPU - crap hose length, frustrating fan cables, and ofc it leaked.
View attachment 204831
Admittedly the native AIO GPU and CPU AIO looked SWEEEEET.
View attachment 204830
3080 leaked, 3090 was the only thing in stock. Air + AIO? yeah 105C VRAM temps said oof.
View attachment 204829
Lets fight with cooling this bitch when the AIO blocks the cool air intake...
View attachment 204828
Custom water (mostly second hand parts) for GPU, GPU temps 40C lower. CPU temps... did not like the preheated air.
View attachment 204827
What i should have caved in and done all along.

Nr 1 not true

Nzxt kraken x63 and Cooler Master MasterLiquid ML360R RGB has a pump that is silnet you don't notice them at max rpm

My PowerCooler rx 6700 xt red devil stays at below 70c when gaming (depends on the game) and below 60c when not gaming, i don't need to cool it, it's also very silent (silent bios).

I7 10700kf at lower vcore then my i5 10600k at 4.9ghz, i can run my i7 at 5.0ghz but even with a 360mm aio im getting mid 90's or avarage in the early 90's in prime 95 small fft. Custom water cooling a silent pump + Reservoirs alone costs more than a arctic freezer II 360mm aio and it performs really good, although i feel my Nzxt kraken X63 and Cooler Master MasterLiquid ML360R RGB has a more silent pump, i can't see why you wan't to buy what's equal to 3x arctic freezer II 360mm aio's to get a decent custom water cooling for a cpu, unless your rendering every week or have an i9 or ryzen 9 with 12 or 16 cores you want to max out with a rx 6900xt or rtx 3900 xt and 3-4 high res,high hz monitors