Question Recommend an AIO for my case

[Traxan]

Hi all. I'd like to quiet my PC and have considered an AIO cooling system. I run a Core i7 8700 stock, no plans to overclock but I do want to run World Community Grid.

I was wondering what would be an ideal kit for my case. Here is a pic.

 

[ehume]

Any particular reason you want to go AIO? Even a Noctua heatsink is cheaper than an AIO.

 

[Traxan]

I want to quiet things down and improve cooling. You think a Noctua is better?

 

[ehume]

I want to quiet things down and improve cooling. You think a Noctua is better?

Nothing is free. A heatsink and an AIO both transfer heat to the air. A Noctua NH-D15 used to keep my i7 8700k under around 90c when I was using Linpack with AVX2 to heat it up to 5 GHZ. That is brutalizing one's CPU. I hope you never do it; but I was reviewing heatsinks at the time.

I looked at plenty of coolers. AIO's cool better for a bit more noise. You pays your money and you takes your choice. But I didn't think AIO's were worth the cost: 8700K's could not go a lot more than 5 GHz anyway.

 

[Traxan]

AIOs are louder than traditional heat sinks?

 

[ehume]

AIOs are louder than traditional heat sinks?

It depends. Some are, some aren't.

 

[Traxan]

Well can you recommend one?

 

[ehume]

You will have to read the reviews on the newest AIOs. It has been years since I have worked with any. As for heatsinks, the NH-D15 is still the best bet. Supposedly Noctua is working on a successor to the NF-A14/15 and will put out a 7-heatpipe version of the D15, but I don't know when that will be. For the moment the NH-D15 is still the best choice in heatsinks.

 

[Fanatical Meat]

Well can you recommend one?

Warning I’m not an expert but I have been shopping.
It is true aio coolers don’t cool that much better than high end air coolers (generally) and they can have more noise or less noise but either way it is close.
Water cooling does to better when the room temperature is warmer, they do have a lot more parts to fail.
All aio coolers are made by two companies one of which makes the majority of them. Generally speaking newer model aio coolers work better/quieter than older models.
People really appear to like Corsair a aio coolers for overall good performance and build quality or NZXT (guys who make the kraken) for lower cpu temps. Overall both vendors are very similar.
The cheaper stuff doesn’t work much differently than the more expensive stuff but could have more noise due to older pumps & cheaper fans.
I’ll give you the simple answer
Corsair & NZXT have best warranties, NZXT has complaints about thier pump control software being a pain.
Basically sub $100 USD you will have noise or less cooling but not by a large amount. Sort of thing you need to decide for yourself.

I want to go water just to try it out.

 

[VirtualLarry]

I've been using Cooler Master MasterLiquid Lite units for a while, they've been good to me so far, very quiet (well, mostly, I generally have larger fans going in the room, so that might drown out any noise from my LC kit). I don't know if the ML AIO kits that you get these days are the same, Asetek sued some of the AIO kit mfgs for patent violations, and some of them licensed / re-labeled Asetek kits from then on. I don't know the store with CM.