What's an inexpensive AIO product line with a strong pump and low price?

TPCEA · May 11, 2024

Desktopstu said:
Why do you think pumps fail on AIOs? I have my own opinions and heat isnt one of them, thats based on pumps ive worked on.

I use a mix of AIO and air for cpu cooling on my many computers. One of the AIOs on one of my builds (no longer with me, its my daughters gaming pc) dates back to 2012 and is still running fine cooling a 3770. That pc gets shed load of use, though rarely pushed the cpu that hard I suspect. Personally I like AIO partly for the asthetics and part for the control aspect of the heat dissipitation - easy to get a bigger AIO, an air cooler you kinda run out of room.

I built a custom loop based on an EVGA 680i Black Pearl (oh my, that takes me back!) back when water cooling was very niche. It was.... sublime. In fact it was a very difficult decision to break it up but i worked away from home for weeks at a time and water cooling does not like being stagnant.

I'm no expert, but the reasons I can think of include:
Points of Failure: In addition to the 2 points of failure in an air cooler, water coolers (closed and custom) suffer from others, including:

Closed:

Aside from hardline tubing, all tubes are made of some type of rubber, which is porous - the more flexible, generally, the greater the porosity and, thus, the faster air enters the loop;
leaks after installation is complete, for several reasons but usually due to a failed gasket, damage to a tube, corrosion or manufacturing defect;
pump failure, which is made worse by the fact that many motherboards do not have a failure alarm that goes off;
corrosion of metals due to using more than one type of metal in the parts of the system that are exposed to the water, or could accidentally be exposed if an internal gasket fails (some manufacturers will lie to cover up that their product is mixed-metal so that they can sell products that will fail and need replacing more often);
clogging due to manufacturing debris and other particulates that the factory didn't remove prior to assembly;
clogging due to the buildup of biofilm from biological activity in the loop because there is no biocidal agent in it to prevent the proliferation of bacteria, fungus and other living organisms; and
the pump running dry due to air build-up with the pump being put in a place where the air will be trapped, the impeller freezing up, or overheating due to close proximity to the heat source, which is only possible within the water block.

Custom:

hardline loops are very hard to configure correctly and install;
leaks during testing the fitting of hard and soft tubes in a custom loop due to mistakes such as incorrect coupling, incompatible parts, missing, failed, decaying or mis-seated gaskets, excessive pressure, etc, including errors made at the factory, which can result in damage to other parts or destroy the PC;
leaks after installation is complete, for the same reasons and with the same consequences;
pump failure, which is made worse by the fact that many motherboards do not have a failure alarm that goes off;
corrosion of metals due to using more than one type of metal in the parts of the system that are exposed to the water, or could accidentally be exposed if an internal gasket fails (some manufacturers will lie to cover up that their product is mixed-metal so that they can sell products that will fail and need replacing more often);
clogging due to manufacturing debris and other particulates that the factory didn't remove prior to assembly (fairly unlikely except in the radiator);
clogging due to the use of thick/viscous liquids;
clogging due to the use of glitter or colorants as these will inevitably accumulate in low-pressure locations or block high-pressure ones, and also avoid food coloring and other organic dyes. They will become food for lifeforms in the water;
slower movement of the liquid due to viscosity (thickness) – oil is more viscous than water;
clogging due to the buildup of biofilm from biological activity in the loop because there is no biocidal agent in it to prevent the proliferation of bacteria, fungus and other living organisms; and
the pump running dry due to air build-up with the pump being put in a place where the air will be trapped, the impeller freezing up, or overheating due to close proximity to the heat source, which is only possible within the water block.

Desktopstu · May 12, 2024

TPCEA said:
I'm no expert, but the reasons I can think of include:
Points of Failure: In addition to the 2 points of failure in an air cooler, water coolers (closed and custom) suffer from others, including:

Closed:

Aside from hardline tubing, all tubes are made of some type of rubber, which is porous - the more flexible, generally, the greater the porosity and, thus, the faster air enters the loop;

leaks after installation is complete, for several reasons but usually due to a failed gasket, damage to a tube, corrosion or manufacturing defect;

pump failure, which is made worse by the fact that many motherboards do not have a failure alarm that goes off;

corrosion of metals due to using more than one type of metal in the parts of the system that are exposed to the water, or could accidentally be exposed if an internal gasket fails (some manufacturers will lie to cover up that their product is mixed-metal so that they can sell products that will fail and need replacing more often);

clogging due to manufacturing debris and other particulates that the factory didn't remove prior to assembly;

clogging due to the buildup of biofilm from biological activity in the loop because there is no biocidal agent in it to prevent the proliferation of bacteria, fungus and other living organisms; and

the pump running dry due to air build-up with the pump being put in a place where the air will be trapped, the impeller freezing up, or overheating due to close proximity to the heat source, which is only possible within the water block.

Custom:

hardline loops are very hard to configure correctly and install;

leaks during testing the fitting of hard and soft tubes in a custom loop due to mistakes such as incorrect coupling, incompatible parts, missing, failed, decaying or mis-seated gaskets, excessive pressure, etc, including errors made at the factory, which can result in damage to other parts or destroy the PC;

leaks after installation is complete, for the same reasons and with the same consequences;

pump failure, which is made worse by the fact that many motherboards do not have a failure alarm that goes off;

corrosion of metals due to using more than one type of metal in the parts of the system that are exposed to the water, or could accidentally be exposed if an internal gasket fails (some manufacturers will lie to cover up that their product is mixed-metal so that they can sell products that will fail and need replacing more often);

clogging due to manufacturing debris and other particulates that the factory didn't remove prior to assembly (fairly unlikely except in the radiator);

clogging due to the use of thick/viscous liquids;

clogging due to the use of glitter or colorants as these will inevitably accumulate in low-pressure locations or block high-pressure ones, and also avoid food coloring and other organic dyes. They will become food for lifeforms in the water;

slower movement of the liquid due to viscosity (thickness) – oil is more viscous than water;

clogging due to the buildup of biofilm from biological activity in the loop because there is no biocidal agent in it to prevent the proliferation of bacteria, fungus and other living organisms; and

the pump running dry due to air build-up with the pump being put in a place where the air will be trapped, the impeller freezing up, or overheating due to close proximity to the heat source, which is only possible within the water block.

I agree with this summary. From my experience the three main causes of pump failure are;

Lack of liquid (air lock), corrosion and gunk or solids. The most common being gunk.

lsevald · May 12, 2024

Just a heads up, the Arctic Liquid Freezer III series have a more powerful pump vs the II series, and it's quite noisy. In a quiet build, I had to turn it down to 45% for the piercing whine (~120hz) to go away. It's ok at 60%, but anything above gets annoying. My solution was to to tune the AIO pump curve to 45% for low to normal CPU loads, up to 60% for high loads and 100% reserved only for extreme loads like Prime95 Smallest FFT's.

System Name	Pre-10 year plan
Processor	i5 10400F
Motherboard	B560 Steel Legend
Cooling	Corsair H100i 240 AIO
Memory	2 x 8gb Silicon Power DDR4 3200 CL16 RAM
Video Card(s)	Acer Predator A770 16gb
Storage	Fikwot gen 3 m.2
Display(s)	1 x Benq 27" 4k 60Hz, 1 x AoC 27" 1080 165Hz
Case	Thermaltake Level 10 Combat edition
Audio Device(s)	On board
Power Supply	AX1200i
Mouse	Logitech G502 Hero
Keyboard	Logitech G512
Software	Windows 11

System Name	Zen4
Processor	Ryzen 9 7950x
Motherboard	Asus Strix B650E-E Gaming WiFi
Cooling	Some oem 240 AIO
Memory	2xKingston DDR5 2x16GB (Hynix M die)@6000 CL26-35-35-27
Video Card(s)	Gainward Phantom 4090 (@2.82GHz .95V UV, 350W PL)
Storage	WD Black SN850X
Display(s)	LG OLED C1 48"
Case	Phanteks P600S
Audio Device(s)	Onboard
Power Supply	Corsair RM1000i
Mouse	Logitech G Pro X Superlight
Keyboard	Corsair K70
VR HMD	HP Reverb G2
Software	Win11

What's an inexpensive AIO product line with a strong pump and low price?

TPCEA

Desktopstu

lsevald