Switch back to air cooling, or stick with liquid?

[JazmaN]

Hey guys, i need a bit of advice, its not really an important thing, more of a slight annoyance.

Those of you who read my Xieron rig post may remember that im currently running a Antec Kuhler H2o 920 in my rig for cooling. However im a bit unsure if i want to keep using it or to switch back to my BeQuiet Dark Rock Pro...

Basically its noise and temperature im bothered about.

With the Dark Rock Pro, my CPU temps usually Idle'd at the 33 - 37C mark and it was nice and quiet, however the Antec Kuhler im a bit unsatisfied with and ive been using it since christmas 2011. Its just louder than i had expected it to be, not too loud, i just spent a while making my pc nice and quiet and its sort of ruining it for me. Heres the temps it runs at when the machine is idle. (what i class as idle is basically me sat on it doing things like posting on here)

Liquid Temp / sound level (i know the sound isnt much):

Here are the settings i have for the cooler:

CPU TEMPS (these bother me the most)

As you can see they are a lot hotter than they would be if i where using the dark rock pro, not to mention the kuhler can get a little noisey when running games.

So theres 3 choices i set myself, and im unsure which option to take:

• Just put up with it
  
• Replace the cooler fans with quieter ones (perhaps the ones off my dark rock pro?)
  
• OR switch back to the dark rock pro
  

Some input would be greatly appreciated

Jaz

 

[Perturabo]

From my point of view I dont see a choice here. The Kuhler runs hotter and is louder, so there is no benefit to using it surely? I would sell it and go back to the dark rock.

 

[Josh Weston]

Have you tried resitting the Antec and reapplying the thermal paste etc?

 

[JazmaN]

From my point of view I dont see a choice here. The Kuhler runs hotter and is louder, so there is no benefit to using it surely? I would sell it and go back to the dark rock.

Thats what im thinking, only thing really is that the machine looks nice with the liquid cooling, but i suppose its not about looks in this case

Have you tried resitting the Antec and reapplying the thermal paste etc?

I have unfortunately

 

[Josh Weston]

Thats what im thinking, only thing really is that the machine looks nice with the liquid cooling, but i suppose its not about looks in this case

I have unfortunately

Is it too late to RMA?

 

[ruthless_villain]

the antec unit is not water cooling

its crap

 

[JazmaN]

Is it too late to RMA?

Im not entirely sure, it was a present and i cant get in touch with the person who gave it for a while

 

[Josh Weston]

Im not entirely sure, it was a present and i cant get in touch with the person who gave it for a while

Perhaps it would be worth trying to investigate that further, as the 920 really shouldn't be yielding such temps. Would be a shame to waste the cooler, and with it the present

 

[JazmaN]

Thats what i thought, im fairly certain im going to switch back to the dark rock pro now, at least temporarily

 

[Josh Weston]

Thats what i thought, im fairly certain im going to switch back to the dark rock pro now, at least temporarily

A good plan

 

[MadMarc]

Before you go back to the dark rock pro, I would give the be quiet fans on the antec cooler a try, since it's so little work, it's worth trying. Especially since you prefere the Antec cooler's design

 

[JazmaN]

Before you go back to the dark rock pro, I would give the be quiet fans on the antec cooler a try, since it's so little work, it's worth trying. Especially since you prefere the Antec cooler's design

Hmmm good point! i'll give that a try first, this weekend, see how it goes (if they fit)

 

[JazmaN]

OK so i switched the fans to the ones that come with the dark rock pro and i must say its much quieter.

However there isn't really that much of a difference in temperature

Needless to say when (or if, no thanks to natwest ) i get paid on tuesday i will be buying some more thermal compound and switching back to the dark rock pro. Its a shame really, i guess the only way to do liquid cooling effectively is to build it yourself.

 

[yassarikhan786]

Yup, closed loop coolers are not that good tbh. The H100 is pretty good, but even with that the stock fans are too loud.

 

[JazmaN]

Well the Noctua NT-H1 i ordered arrived last night, so i switched back to the dark rock pro, nice and quiet, all i need to do now is clear the dust from some of the fans, not done it for a while. But all is well

 

[ronaldo61]

I've got a Zalman CNPS20LQ CPU cooler and I've had good luck with it.