Scoob
Active member
Hey all,
Over fourteen years ago, back in early 2011, I built a new system based around the 2500k. For cooling, I didn't got the usual air cooler route, rather I got one of the fairly new at the time AIO coolers - namely the Antec Kuhler H2O 620, which only has a small 120mm radiator. This was a fantastic little cooler, very quiet and seemed to push above its weight in terms of cooling. I replaced the supplied fan with an alpenföhn 120mm Fan, which was considered one of the best for static pressure and flow at the time, ideal for a small radiator. Of course, it couldn't quite keep that 2500k @ 4.6Ghz as cool as I'd like - the frequency it lived at its entire gaming life. Gaming was perfectly fine, but when stress testing it was a little too much for it. Fair. So, I eventually went full custom loop on that system.
The Antec wasn't redundant though, I actually gained a second system - a 2600k, Gigabyte Motherboard, 32GB RAM - and it went on to cool that. At the time, Games didn't really benefit from the hyper threading offered by the 2600k, and the 2500k could clock slightly higher for the same voltage, so it remained my main gamer for a while. The 2600k gained the moniker "Gamer Jnr" as it was the PC I took with me to LAN parties, my by now fully custom-looped 2500k build not really portable.
Eventually, as things evolved, more and more stuff was able to take advantage of the 2600k's Hyper Threading, so it was the 2600k that went into my main Gamer, sitting nice and cool under the custom loop. The 2500k system became a bit of a workhorse PC, used for other activities.
As time passed, PC's changed as they do, bringing me to today. That little Antec Kuhler H2O 620 currently sits on a 4790k I got some time ago - already second-hand at the time. It's currently sat there, whirring away in near silence - the fan is louder - cooling said 4790k. It gets a bit toasty at times, as you'd expect, but it does keep temperatures in check, though the 4790k is running at stock - blasphemy I know lol. However, this is just a system I'm tinkering with, though it has inherited the "Gamer Jnr" title, not that we LAN game any more... though many have voiced interest in restarting that tradition. Supreme Commander: Forged Alliance was our game of choice, this PC is easily capable of that.
I remember a casual conversation with Tom back in the day, he was far from impressed by the idea of 120mm AIO. However, I shared my good experience with the Antec, but I think he was still sceptical. We're influenced by our own experience of course, and mine was pretty darn positive.
At one point, fairly recently in fact, I was convinced that this AIO had perhaps finally died. I turned it on (4790k) for the first time in a while, and the pump was noisy. I assumed just an air-lock from where it'd been moved - it happens - but I could not get it to go away. I could see that the coolant wasn't being moved efficiently, the block was hot, but the rad remained cold. CPU temps hitting 99c too, which was previously unheard of. After some attempts to free the air-lock, resulting in failure, I did consider that perhaps the pump had finally gone, said air lock likely killing it. I gave up.
Today, for some unknown reason, I was inspired to tinker again. System powered on, pump still noisy, temps too high. I dismounted the thing entirely, allowing gravity to do its thing as I attempted to release the air lock. Last chance. Fresh TIM appied - after cleaning to Iso-propanal - carefully remounted to not get another air lock, assuming I'd cleared the one that was there of course. Powered on...silence... is it dead? Nope, it's purring away quietly, cooling well as I mentioned at the start.
So, at over fourteen years old, and having seen pretty consistent use in various builds over that time, this little AIO is still doing well. It's not on a high-end gaming system, well, not from this era, but it's on the toasty little CPU that is the 4790k, and it's doing well. Now it's working, I'll likely be giving it a little stress, just for the fun of tinkering really. Might get some older games back on there too.
FYI: this "retro" system is using one of the two GTX 680's I bought in 2012. Still going strong too. These 680's were both water cooled all their "main gamer" life, only having the original "Blower" style air coolers popped back when they were repurposed. While not strictly compatible, this system is running Windows 11, and rather nicely too. This PC was infact my test bed for getting Windows 11 on "incompatible" hardware.
Anyway, a bit of a ramble, but thought I'd share. Tom, if you're reading, this AIO is still great!
I just noticed that my signature is still that of the original 2500k Water Cooled system, with the two 680's - which replaced two 570's - I think I'll leave it as this, as I was really proud of this system. My main gamer today - 5800X3d - is still using that same external loop.
Over fourteen years ago, back in early 2011, I built a new system based around the 2500k. For cooling, I didn't got the usual air cooler route, rather I got one of the fairly new at the time AIO coolers - namely the Antec Kuhler H2O 620, which only has a small 120mm radiator. This was a fantastic little cooler, very quiet and seemed to push above its weight in terms of cooling. I replaced the supplied fan with an alpenföhn 120mm Fan, which was considered one of the best for static pressure and flow at the time, ideal for a small radiator. Of course, it couldn't quite keep that 2500k @ 4.6Ghz as cool as I'd like - the frequency it lived at its entire gaming life. Gaming was perfectly fine, but when stress testing it was a little too much for it. Fair. So, I eventually went full custom loop on that system.
The Antec wasn't redundant though, I actually gained a second system - a 2600k, Gigabyte Motherboard, 32GB RAM - and it went on to cool that. At the time, Games didn't really benefit from the hyper threading offered by the 2600k, and the 2500k could clock slightly higher for the same voltage, so it remained my main gamer for a while. The 2600k gained the moniker "Gamer Jnr" as it was the PC I took with me to LAN parties, my by now fully custom-looped 2500k build not really portable.
Eventually, as things evolved, more and more stuff was able to take advantage of the 2600k's Hyper Threading, so it was the 2600k that went into my main Gamer, sitting nice and cool under the custom loop. The 2500k system became a bit of a workhorse PC, used for other activities.
As time passed, PC's changed as they do, bringing me to today. That little Antec Kuhler H2O 620 currently sits on a 4790k I got some time ago - already second-hand at the time. It's currently sat there, whirring away in near silence - the fan is louder - cooling said 4790k. It gets a bit toasty at times, as you'd expect, but it does keep temperatures in check, though the 4790k is running at stock - blasphemy I know lol. However, this is just a system I'm tinkering with, though it has inherited the "Gamer Jnr" title, not that we LAN game any more... though many have voiced interest in restarting that tradition. Supreme Commander: Forged Alliance was our game of choice, this PC is easily capable of that.
I remember a casual conversation with Tom back in the day, he was far from impressed by the idea of 120mm AIO. However, I shared my good experience with the Antec, but I think he was still sceptical. We're influenced by our own experience of course, and mine was pretty darn positive.
At one point, fairly recently in fact, I was convinced that this AIO had perhaps finally died. I turned it on (4790k) for the first time in a while, and the pump was noisy. I assumed just an air-lock from where it'd been moved - it happens - but I could not get it to go away. I could see that the coolant wasn't being moved efficiently, the block was hot, but the rad remained cold. CPU temps hitting 99c too, which was previously unheard of. After some attempts to free the air-lock, resulting in failure, I did consider that perhaps the pump had finally gone, said air lock likely killing it. I gave up.
Today, for some unknown reason, I was inspired to tinker again. System powered on, pump still noisy, temps too high. I dismounted the thing entirely, allowing gravity to do its thing as I attempted to release the air lock. Last chance. Fresh TIM appied - after cleaning to Iso-propanal - carefully remounted to not get another air lock, assuming I'd cleared the one that was there of course. Powered on...silence... is it dead? Nope, it's purring away quietly, cooling well as I mentioned at the start.
So, at over fourteen years old, and having seen pretty consistent use in various builds over that time, this little AIO is still doing well. It's not on a high-end gaming system, well, not from this era, but it's on the toasty little CPU that is the 4790k, and it's doing well. Now it's working, I'll likely be giving it a little stress, just for the fun of tinkering really. Might get some older games back on there too.
FYI: this "retro" system is using one of the two GTX 680's I bought in 2012. Still going strong too. These 680's were both water cooled all their "main gamer" life, only having the original "Blower" style air coolers popped back when they were repurposed. While not strictly compatible, this system is running Windows 11, and rather nicely too. This PC was infact my test bed for getting Windows 11 on "incompatible" hardware.
Anyway, a bit of a ramble, but thought I'd share. Tom, if you're reading, this AIO is still great!
I just noticed that my signature is still that of the original 2500k Water Cooled system, with the two 680's - which replaced two 570's - I think I'll leave it as this, as I was really proud of this system. My main gamer today - 5800X3d - is still using that same external loop.
