single 120mm rad vs cheaper air cooling

[Captain Shiny]

single 120mm rad vs air cooling

Hello!

I'm new here and I hope you can help me with a thing I'm wondering about for a while now.

I'm currently planning a system upgrade (an I5 most likely) and I'm wondering if a lower priced watercooling would be a viable option compared to a moderately priced air cooling solution. Now I'm on a relatively tight budget so I definately couldn't afford a dual radiator so a single rad watercooler around 60€ is what I'm aiming at. I'm thinking about a "Corsair H60" for example or even cheaper models like the "Cooler master Seidon 120v" or an "antec H2O 650"

As exciting as watercooling is, I don't want to blow money just because it's flashy so it has to perform at least a bit better than a cheaper air cooler like for example a "scythe mugen 4" or a "scythe ashura" or a "thermalright macho" just to give a few examples of air coolers around 40€ from which I know would perform pretty well. They also should be pretty similar to each other in terms of noise and performance.

So how would those two options compare to each other in cooling performance and noise levels (especially important for me) and would there be a model you'd recommend specifically? Thanks in advance for any answers!

 

[Surfie]

The whole idea of water cooling comes down to three things; silence, performance and aesthetics. You will note, price is not on that list.

Generally speaking, water will perform *much* better than air at cooling your components. This is because water is a better medium than air for getting the heat away from the component creating the heat, and rushing it off to the heat exchanger to cool it down (typically, this will be a rad).

Now, I am not familiar with the air cooler or the aio water coolers you have mentioned (I use a custom loop myself, and previously used the h100i), but my own take on it is based on a couple of principles which are almost rules in water cooling, so should be quite close to the mark I think.

Which will perform better? The aio water coolers will, in the long run show a lower temperature on your cpu. This is because of the way water cooling works, which I explained above. However, the size of the radiator DOES impact this, as does your overclock. Because the rad on the units you are after are only a 120 or 140mm unit, the performance will be less than if you used a h100i or similar (in my opinion, I would only go for the dual fan radiator size - but I use a 2011 chip, which is famous for being a hot chip).

Will there be air coolers which run cooler? Yes. As I mentioned, the radiator size you pick can only cool the cpu so much, and a single fan unit is the lowest you can go (although, sufficient for a cpu, it wont perform as well as a 2 fan length unit). Because of this, there will be some air coolers that will outperform it - but these will (in my view) be the higher/more expensive air cooling units (like the Silver Arrow).

Which will be quieter? Generally, the water cooling units are quieter. Because you will only have a single fan length rad, your fans will need to be turned a little higher on the rpm to assist with cooling, and this will mean a little more noise from them (can be negated with Corsair SP120 Quiet Edition, or Noctua NF-P12 fans for a 120mm unit) when compared to other water coolers, I would still expect it to run quieter than any air cooler.

Hope this information is helpful to you!

 

[Captain Shiny]

The whole idea of water cooling comes down to three things; silence, performance and aesthetics. You will note, price is not on that list.

Generally speaking, water will perform *much* better than air at cooling your components. This is because water is a better medium than air for getting the heat away from the component creating the heat, and rushing it off to the heat exchanger to cool it down (typically, this will be a rad).

Now, I am not familiar with the air cooler or the aio water coolers you have mentioned (I use a custom loop myself, and previously used the h100i), but my own take on it is based on a couple of principles which are almost rules in water cooling, so should be quite close to the mark I think.

Which will perform better? The aio water coolers will, in the long run show a lower temperature on your cpu. This is because of the way water cooling works, which I explained above. However, the size of the radiator DOES impact this, as does your overclock. Because the rad on the units you are after are only a 120 or 140mm unit, the performance will be less than if you used a h100i or similar (in my opinion, I would only go for the dual fan radiator size - but I use a 2011 chip, which is famous for being a hot chip).

Will there be air coolers which run cooler? Yes. As I mentioned, the radiator size you pick can only cool the cpu so much, and a single fan unit is the lowest you can go (although, sufficient for a cpu, it wont perform as well as a 2 fan length unit). Because of this, there will be some air coolers that will outperform it - but these will (in my view) be the higher/more expensive air cooling units (like the Silver Arrow).

Which will be quieter? Generally, the water cooling units are quieter. Because you will only have a single fan length rad, your fans will need to be turned a little higher on the rpm to assist with cooling, and this will mean a little more noise from them (can be negated with Corsair SP120 Quiet Edition, or Noctua NF-P12 fans for a 120mm unit) when compared to other water coolers, I would still expect it to run quieter than any air cooler.

Hope this information is helpful to you!

It's another piece for the puzzle, so yeah, thanks. Reviews about the topic are just such a pain because noise levels are rarely measured together with CPU load relative to fanspeed but rather in fan voltages - and sure - a 2500RPM fan gets a little bit louder on 12V than a 1500RPM fan.
Btw, I currently use a custom fan curve on my CPU cooler and I'd do that with a new system as well.

 

[vorticalbox]

It's another piece for the puzzle, so yeah, thanks. Reviews about the topic are just such a pain because noise levels are rarely measured together with CPU load relative to fanspeed but rather in fan voltages - and sure - a 2500RPM fan gets a little bit louder on 12V than a 1500RPM fan.
Btw, I currently use a custom fan curve on my CPU cooler and I'd do that with a new system as well.

A lot of people wire the fans directly to the psu and leave them be, either 12 or 7 volts(fan speed reducer).

I believe tom does that on orca.

 

[Captain Shiny]

A lot of people wire the fans directly to the psu and leave them be, either 12 or 7 volts(fan speed reducer).

I believe tom does that on orca.

I rather use a PWM connector and control the whole thing through software like speedfan. That way I have a completely silent system on idle at least and I can finetune myself how loud the system gets on full load. I prefer it that way and also you might get a decent compromise between noise levels and performance out of the included fan rather than buying a new one.

 

[KTM_RULZ]

Generally speaking, water will perform *much* better than air at cooling your components. This is because water is a better medium than air for getting the heat away from the component creating the heat, and rushing it off to the heat exchanger to cool it down (typically, this will be a rad).

I (kind of) disagree. Although water can absorb more energy than air before it raises its temperature by 1 degree, you still need air to cool it down. The trick is that you can effectively take the heat away from the cpu area and transfer it to an other area of the case that you have more room (heat exchange surface). The Noctua NH-D14 is so good because its got all that heat transfer area. But its heavy and most of all that weight is supported by your mobo. Anyway most AIO 120mm kits have more surface than a standard Intel or AMD cooler. In that sense they should be better.

 

[Surfie]

I (kind of) disagree. Although water can absorb more energy than air before it raises its temperature by 1 degree, you still need air to cool it down. The trick is that you can effectively take the heat away from the cpu area and transfer it to an other area of the case that you have more room (heat exchange surface). The Noctua NH-D14 is so good because its got all that heat transfer area. But its heavy and most of all that weight is supported by your mobo. Anyway most AIO 120mm kits have more surface than a standard Intel or AMD cooler. In that sense they should be better.

It has nothing to do with the ability of water absorbing more energy to get hotter. It has to do with the material being used to transfer the heat from the generating source, to the heat exchanger. In that regard, water is a better material than metal is. And not to disparage the mighty NH-D14, but the simple fact is that while it is an awesome air cooler, most aios' will have the same or better performance for around the same price.

If it did have to do with the amount of energy that water can absorb, then you would see much closer results in terms of the performance of an aio when compared to a custom loop. This is because the temperature of the chip is measured at the chip. If energy absorbtion were the cause off the difference, then ALL water coolers would result in the same temperatures at the chip, with custom loops out performing somewhat due to increased rad space. But the difference would not be much. Also, in that scenario, heat exchangers have a much lesser impact on temperatures than what we see in practice, because the water is absorbing the energy, and not transporting it - likewise reservoirs would have a much more important role, because by increasing the volume of water in a loop, you are increasing the amount of energy it can absorb. In practice, the performance differential between a single 120mm length aio to a dual 120mm fan length aio is significant.

You are, however absolutely correct in the principle being used by both modern air coolers and all water coolers: it really is about taking the heat away from the generating component and exchanging the heat somewhere else...

 

[tinytomlogan]

H75 and H60 from corsair is fine without massive overclocks but I wouldnt go below that really for a 'performance' rig

 

[KTM_RULZ]

I'm sorry but no. Water has less heat conductivity than aluminum or copper. Its just easy to use and rubber hoses can be bent and fit to all combinations of mobo/case.

 

[Surfie]

Sure. It does. But you seem to be thinking of it as a stationary element, which it is not. The water is nothing more than a transit mechanism, like a train. In a water cooling loop, the waters job is to take the heat from the heat generator to the heart exchanger, that's all it does.

The better performance comes from the fact that the water is constantly cycling, rather than with an air cooler, where the hot metal (say copper for instance) sits on the chip and radiates heat up to the heat exchanger through its entire length.

At the end of the day, they are both doing much the same thing in different ways, and at different performance levels. Kind of like busses and trains: same job, different ways to go, different costs.

 

[Captain Shiny]

H75 and H60 from corsair is fine without massive overclocks but I wouldnt go below that really for a 'performance' rig

Alright! Thanks Guvnor! First I will keep the stock cooler, anyway until I can afford a new one together with a half decent case, so that I finally have a decent looker and performer on my desk.