Do 120mm AIOs ACTUALLY Suck? Maybe Not...

[@shanksisnoteventhatstrongbruh]

sadly some of these 120mm AIOs cost as much as some good 240mm & 280mm AIOs, the Deepcool Castle EX (240mm & 280mm) destroy all of these while costing $80 & $95 respectively so if your case can fit either of those just get them instead.

[@cebukitty]

i agree. ive used deepcool AIOs in my builds since 2015. no drips and they keep my CPUs cool :) i wish they’ll make a NEW iteration of the Deepcool genome which was a case with an integrated AIO.

[@Steve30x]

I'm currently using a Deepcool Captain 240. It's a good cooler but I don't have my R5 2600 overclocked because @ 4.1GHz my CPU gets really hot using arctic silver 5.

[@ADB-zf5zr]

I totally agree, but for those who insist on a tiny ITX build, this may be their choice... a choice that I don't understand at all, if you want performance AND quiet, then you need to sacrifice space.! I cannot imagine anyone literally NEEDING that extra little bit of space, and yet people are willing to spend extra money on a PC that is less upgradable, hotter and louder.!!!

[@thetechrealist]

But you literally missed the entire reason a 120mm aio exists 😂

[@kharak6204]

@@ADB-zf5zr that's the problem really, compared to the rest of the coolers the 120 aio is just a tiny niche product and there are already good *enough* and more compact air coolers for itx builds anyway (or said builds can just a fit a 240 radiator rendering the rest pointless)

[@revnto7k]

The LFII is really amazing. I honestly wouldn't have expected it to win against the NHD15 even with an upgraded fan, but damn. Very nicely done Arctic.

[@Thib0Bav]

yeah, I had one that I later gave to my brother, these are great. + you can slap a second fan onto it for god tier performance !

[@uk4890]

@@Thib0Bav Same for me cooling a 5900X without any problem!!

[@ishiddddd4783]

legit arctic is a must in most of the builds i make, their fans beat noctuas fans in thermals and noise while costing 1/5th of the price while having the same warranty length, customer service it's extremely friendly even with second hand products, no diarrhea color, and their AIOs are nuts

[@creaturedanaaaaa]

Yeah, they really just took advantage of that thicker radiator.

[@ishiddddd4783]

@@creaturedanaaaaa thing not any of the other aio's bothered doing while being able to do so

[@abcd-fs2de]

The replacement of fan on LFII was probably the best part of the test :) Nice job!

[@jhanschu]

They may not perform as well as big air coolers, but they fit in very compact cases. They also make transportation safer in the event of sudden shocks that could damage the motherboard with heavy air coolers.

[@HardwareCanucks]

Good points!

[@Diviance]

I have seen catastrophic motherboard damage from a Le Grande Macho RT. Friend was transporting his computer and had to brake hard to avoid someone who just decided that suddenly stopping on the interstate was the perfect place to do... I dunno, something. Turns out a couple pounds of metal pulling hard on a motherboard in a sudden, jerking fashion doesn't go well. ...I replaced my Le Grande Macho RT with a 360mm Arctic Liquid Freezer II. Kind of a shame, seeing that gigantic thing in my case was funny. That thing is so big.

[@StrangerDanger0Snack]

120mm AIOs are great in certain small form factor PC build where you don't have enough clearance for an air cooler. It's interesting to see the comparison. Thanks for the video!

[@ADB-zf5zr]

Well said. . I tried a 120mm AIO a few years ago (CM I think), and it was handily beaten by the classic 212, which ran the same temperatures with half the noise, yes, the pump (air bubble.?) might have been a factor, but the outcome was an obvious win for (at the time) a £25 212EVO vs a £50 120mm AIO... Things have become much closer, but as always, buyer beware.

[@anhiirr]

not to mention the p12 fans from artic generate really good directional air flow for small builds like that and the arctic fans are fractions of the cost of noctua fans. So their aio and chassis p12 fans(with added emphasis to the ones that let you multiconnect 3 fans per header with pwm on all 3) for those low count fan header Itx boards as it is.

[@SrSamuerto]

Yeah, the good comparison would be using some SFF coolers on SFF case and see which of these 120mm fit. Also the Arctic FII would be awesome with its VRM fan, though it also might be a little too thick for most cases.

[@kaupaxup]

'certain' for sure since there are plenty sff cases out there now at good price points supporting 240s, and you can even squeeze two into a few of them.

[@StrangerDanger0Snack]

@@kaupaxup Oh yeah it's definitely changed since GPUs have become 3+ slot monsters! But go back a few years and cases like the Dan A4 (92mm) and SG13 (120mm) were mainstays. Plus it wasn't uncommon to see 2x 120mm builds in the NCase M1 or Loque Ghost S1. It's less necessary now, but there are still people with those cases who might want a new Ryzen or Intel CPU but don't want to buy a new case.

[@lennard9331]

The 120mm AIOs mostly suck because they have an expiry date compared to a standard tower heatsink. That said, there's one area where 120mm AIOs make sense: compact cases. Otherwise, just get a 240mm AIO, they aren't that much more expensive and they perform much better at lower noise levels.

[@fjalls]

Its basically the same cost to produce a 120mm vs 240mm. A beefy tower cooler is literally better and cheaper

[@Jibberish18]

As you said, I had a Corsair H60 (New design) cooling my 6600K Overclocked to 4.3Ghz from 3.5 Ghz ,in a compact case. Anyway, it did fantastic. When everything was cleaned I never saw temps over 125*F. Unfortunately the Corsair took a dump on me twice within 6 years so I bought a Scythe Big Shuriken Rev B and it does a great job but honestly cannot come close to the Corsair.

[@hman6159]

@@Jibberish18 I thought you said Celsius at first LOL

[@Jibberish18]

@@hman6159 Sorry man. I know a lot of PC enthusiasts use Celsius but I just can’t. If the weather outside has to be Fahrenheit then so do PC temps for me.

[@hman6159]

@@Jibberish18 np

[@kelbinhow]

Damn, just found this channel and it already answered 2 specific questions that I was sure would not find it, yet here I am, not only answered but with a lot of MORE information that just added up. Subscribed without a doubt

[@rolandm9750]

Should have also included the best of low-profile coolers from your other comparisons in the mix. What a lot of people don't realise is the thing about 120mm AIOs is they are extremely low profile *at the socket* There's lot of small ITX and mATX cases (particularly older ones but even many modern ones) which don't have any room whatsoever for a monster tower air cooler, though they can fit a 120mm AIO just fine since the radiator is *remote* and works with the majority of 120mm fan locations. So it doesn't matter that some gi-normous air cooler is as good as or more quiet when you can't fit it at all to begin with. And by gi-normous/monster I mean even cheap tower-style air coolers are in this category--just way. Too. Big. Anyone that has been building smaller form factor PCs consistently over the years, knows this. There are no LP air coolers that seem to even come close to a 120mm AIO. Look at your guys' own review of "the GOD of LP coolers" and watch how at 95W and say 38dB it's at *82C*. The worst AIO in this test group, at 95W and 38dB it's at 61C--a full 21 C degrees lower! Even at 125W, 38dB, the worst in this group is better than "the GOD" of LP coolers at 95W in your LP reviews. This is what you should be comparing 120mm AIOs to, because they fit in the same space (provided there's a 120mm fan mount in the case with good space) at the socket. Plus they don't interfere with things around the socket like RAM, etc. like some LP coolers do.

[@AlifarelVirya]

this is actually true. I'm using a Silverstone SG13 coupled with a full size atx PSU, leaving only 61mm of space for a LP air cooler. the i3 12100f with the stock cooler reaches 82°C on a full load Benchmark with 58w TDP, which is concerning but still well under 95°C. now that I plan to upgrade to an i5 13500 with a TDP limited to 115w, I don't think there's a LP air cooler nearly capable enough to tame it down. the only solution is to go AIO cooling with 120mm rads. these are the hurdles when building sff PCs, extensive research needs to be put in and be planned well before even buying the components, but the reward and satisfaction of cramming all that performance into such small footprints is like no other.

[@FrankOnline007]

Having a phanteks shift, 120mm aio was probably the best i could do. Went with corsair H80iV2 cause of the tickness (49mm) and nice pumpblock. Keeps my 5600x decently in check

[@hwi7114]

Doing god's work here dispelling common misconceptions with legit testing. Thanks.

[@mattyP27]

I'd be intrigued to see how the Arctic Freezer II 120 compares to the 240mm.

[@DarthChewie]

Agreed. If anything, I'd actually be interested to see how the Arctic Freezer 120 compares to an Asetec 240mm. I bet it's surprisingly close (with standardized fans)

[@ireeb]

Even if 120mm AiOs and comparable air coolers have a similar price-to-performance proposition, the lower reliability of AiOs tips the scale for me towards air coolers. The only case where I find them useful are in SFF cases where there just is no space for a decent aircooler, that's an important point you mentioned.

[@gavinf4667]

FWIW I had a 120mm AIO that lasted 13 years before it stopped working. No leak - just clogged up.

[@ireeb]

@@gavinf4667 a sample size of 1 is irrelevant though. And it did fail in a way an air cooler couldn't.

[@Nicc93]

i have 3 corsair aios, all perform good and not a single issue :) i guess the software part could be a problem for some people but with my 5900x and 5950x i havent noticed any drop in performance.

[@MonicaHolly143]

@@gavinf4667 air coolers dont clogged up......... U didn't understand his point. The probability is the issue. A plastic bottle would never shatter while a glass bottle will

[@ireeb]

@@MonicaHolly143 yeah people really don't understand statistics. 1 or 3 AiOs that didn't fail mean nothing. It's also not just about whether or not it will fail, but when. Even an air cooler will fail at some point, but statistically speaking they outlast AIOs.

[@CorbettK42]

A lot of prebuilt PC's can only be upgraded with these kind of coolers so it's a great video to have out there

[@ericshun2552]

Yeah I got the Arctic Freezer on my HP Omen 30l runs great and the Tiny Fan block fan actually helps cause crappy Prebuilt Motherboard VRM doesn't have heatsinks.

[@Jooeffoh]

I was building, using custom loop water cooling for around 14 years, but I was using FAT radiators. Like 60-65mmx360mm plus another 240mm in the loops too. Temps were good, especially on the GPU's which would usually run 3 to 5 degrees above ambient, under load. I got fed up with the hassle of having to drain and clean the system periodically though and decided to try a Noctua NH-D15. I couldn't be more happy with the performance and more importantly, next to no maintenance. Maybe a blow out of dust every now and then, which is quickly done. I will never use an AIO cooler. They're a cheapo crappy solution that wont last and will need binning sooner than later. I still have all my water cooling gear if I ever did want to go back to a custom loop, but doubt I ever will.

[@fabrb26]

Just watching Arctic website and their 120mm AIO is sadly not listed anymore... I hope to find one in stock somewhere when i start my build.

[@okutaviof]

Finding Artic Liquid Freezer II 120 has been impossible for over a year.

[@tbrick4970]

they discontinued it, and the other bigger arctic lq ii series is slowly being discontinued aswell

[@l.i.archer5379]

I just finished a Ryzen 5900X SFF build in a Cooler Master RC-130-KKN1Elite case with a full-size optical drive bay. I'm cooling the CPU with the Corsair H60 120mm AIO, except that I upgraded the fan with a Phanteks T30x120mm fan. Running Cinebench R23, the CPU never went above 68 degC. Doing every day things, the temperature never goes above 42 degC. I have the CPU undervolted by -0.1V and max overclock set to 4000 Mhz.

[@DTDSasquatch]

This was really helpful, but I wish you would have included a low-profile air cooler as well because this data is not directly comparable to the "Water Cooling vs Low Profile CPU Coolers" video you put out in July. I'm having trouble deciding between the Arctic Freezer II and the Alpenfohn Black Ridge in my Cooler Master Elite 130 case, and this video doesn't quite help me there.

[@HardwareCanucks]

Remember the Black Ridge is now dead ended with no 1700 or AM5 support.

[@willis936]

I'm hunting for test results on the ALF II 120 + T30 to answer the burning question: what is the best noise-normalized standalone CPU cooler for the Torrent?

[@平和-v1z]

Your comparisons are amazing, keep it up!

[@HardwareCanucks]

Thanks!

[@eliadbu]

120mm AIO are great for SFF builds, other than that I would ususually recommend go air cool or improve to 240/280mm at least. but it nice to see they can keep up even with the smaller ones.

[@prithvib8662]

I'm having trouble understanding your testing: What does 125W Temperatures @ 38db mean if underneath it says "5800X @ 65W" ? Is it 125W or 65W? Isn't the 5800X a 105W CPU?

[@carwynvan]

There's been a boom in off brand tower air coolers that have been awesome for the price. So I'd be really interested in seeing if you could find/ do a round up of off brand 120mm AIOs and see how they compare

[@tfharper]

Correct. I've got a vetroo $35 tower cooler on my i7-12700k. Works great. I thought I'd have to go to water cooling, but I really don't have to. Never heard of the company before, but they did well in a tower cooler shootout at a way lower price point. There are some great cheap coolers out there.

[@nayanpitlam5621]

mikes content always a must watch for sff enthusiasts!!❤👌

[@ZeroUm_]

My older Cooler Master 120mm AIO pump started rattling hard after 5-6 years, like it didn't have enough liquid to push anymore. Earlier this month got a newer ML120L V2 for ~$50. It was relatively easy to install, and it cools a 6700k@4.2GHz super well. Sometimes it also makes loud sounds like the older one when turning on, but it goes away after a minute running.

[@kharak6204]

because it most likely didn't have enough liquid, even without leaking there are ways for that liquid to evaporate and escape the system over time most companies don't bother with this but some (like be quiet) do allow you to refill it without voiding the warranty and make the fill ports more accessible

[@anhiirr]

only issue i have with artic as an artic owner myself...is the "short" 3 year warranty considering that these pumps do die/etc and the typical shelf life of a high up time/high heat cpu encouraging such outcomes...But the low cost does help soften the blow of a potential failure in the future. And now they have better mounting hardware than when i did my build too. Now they upped the warranty to 6 years are one of the better performing and priced options...and have better mounting hardware making arctic my top recommendation. Their fans are quiet and get the job done and are cheap enough to buy more for push pull...or ideal directional air flow for chassis that have Fan mounts and mesh sides for mounting fans under your gpu.

[@Th3fox00]

What about the nzxt kraken 120?

[@avgjoesgamin9935]

i use an AIO 120mm on a 12700k and on 5800x3d and the work great. the only difference is i changed the fan the the phantecks t-30 fans. i use the cooler master nr200 cases on both systems,

[@rocketracer111]

A decent fan is viable with a 120mm aio. 👍 I slapped an A12x25 On a EVGA Hybrid Card 120rad and boom. Silent and cooler. In sff cases the t30 has more pressure tho 👌

[@nickyandreawan26]

Thanks god, i have 120mm corsair since 2018 this video really help me decide wether im buy new one or still hold my 120 aio

[@ITX-EcoClass]

Unfortunately, it looks like one of the front runners from your test (EK) has dropped out of the 120 AIO race, as the EKWB AIO cannot be found on their website or Amazon. What you feared is slowly coming to pass, Mike - damn shame, too, because that cooler was absolutely gorgeous! Sad I won't be able to get it, now.

[@Cakebattered]

The BeCool unit has the pump in the tube, making it the only one in the bunch where you can mount the radiator below the cooling block.

[@MotoCat91]

Even in cases where you're not space constrained or running high power I still prefer AIO (unless it's ultra low power where box fans with a custom temp curve are actually okay these days) The reason is accessibility - Giant towers are very effective for their price but they block ram slots or m.2 slots and make getting at the GPU release tab hard.. An AIO or small box fan simply doesn't get in the way during maintenance and upgrades

[@gettoecoding1058]

I had a Corsair H80i cooling a Q6600 back in the day, was only running a slight overclock on it, I had that CPU as I can remember at 2.87 GHz on all cores from 2.4ghz and that H80 kept that thing super cool, well under 50 degrees at load

[@sprkzz.9759]

I see the value of 120mm aios in small case builds where you might not have the space or airflow for a aircooler but the lower footprint of the aio makes it possible to have similar results as using a full size aircooler

[@SoulRollerFIN]

I had the Corsair H55 in my Fractal Node 202 cause it was one of the only ones that could fit in the thing. Worked really well and kept the machine cool. Had it routed right next to my 1070 mini in the GPU side of the case.

[@hamishthecat4370]

Hey, I'm currently using a Corsair Hydro Series H75 I bought in 2014 in a PC I run in my stereo as a media player cooling a xeon x5675, not overclocked in a 19" rack. Does the job very well.

[@maxpayne2323]

BeQuiet's pump is kinda free-moving, to avoid the usual vibrations from the clasic integrated one.

[@joshuamaserow]

I've seen HC for a long time but this is the 2nd of your videos that I've seen and I must say, the content and way you present information is brilliant.

[@lucdanh1509]

I’ve been running a deep cool capt 120 since my first build with a ryzen 1700x years ago. I’m still using it with my 5600x with no problems. No noise or aeration in the system. I can see thru the pump tube which is clear. Idles at 32* c. Don’t even know what it is when I’m gaming for hours on end. But never had an issue

[@chuduuu]

I love Mike hosted videos, so chill yet so energetic. Like a fast CPU properly cooled.

[@andrewt9204]

I'm using the LFII 120 on my 5950x, it's just enough to keep those temps around 80c on the most demanding tasks. I would have went with the 240, but my older case can't accommodate it easily and I didn't want to change all that. I did build a PC with the LFII 240 and an 11700K though, and during benchmark tests, it kept it at less than 80c at I want to say ~240 watts or so. I think that's pretty good.

[@paullasky6865]

Agree..my over overclocked 9900k has been fine with a Corsair h60i. I think this is more snobbery and people sticking their nose into other people's builds.

[@DIE2dayORelse]

@@paullasky6865 true real world performance is similar to air and keeps some heat out of the room your in, bigger is better but if you’re not overclocking and using good fans/paste they perform surprisingly well

[@FasuloA]

I have a Cooler Master Elite 130 case, which has very little clearance on top of the CPU. I tried a c7 copper with Kryonaut paste and there was just no cooling my i5-11400. (I have power limits off so it was kind of an unrealistic expectation) But my H60 120mm AIO finally answered my prayers and keeps the CPU in the mid 60’s even while doing long encoding runs. I definitely think there are use cases for these things.

[@shannonrhoads7099]

This was a really helpful post, as I too have the Elite 130. I have an I7-11700F and even Noctua's legendary NH-L9x65 using NT-H1 paste (the largest I could fit) was choked when using an ATX PSU. I had to swap motherboard settings to use the 'Box Cooler' profile, limiting the thing to 65w and 2.8 GHz! It was the only way to avoid throttling. Using an SFX PSU helped but the beast still overheated. At least now I could run casual gaming and entertainment/internet activity and the 'Tower Cooler' setting (130W, 4.3 gHz) for a few hours at a time. I have a refurbished NZXT M22 AIO arriving on Halloween, we'll see if it solves the issue. At least I know it'll fit if your H60 did so - they are similar size. I will leave the motherboard on 'Tower Cooler' and see what happens. Thanks for your post!

[@FasuloA]

@@shannonrhoads7099 best of luck to you! Should be fine, I think. I do have a sort of push/pull with mine (I had a spare slim 120mm fan I used on the inside as a “pull”… that’s all I could fit depth wise) but I can’t imagine that’s making a ton of difference. Hoping you have good results, my set up went from thermal throttling within 20 seconds to running nice and cool just from the AIO.

[@shannonrhoads7099]

@@FasuloA Things are looking good so far! Fingers crossed...

Thanks for testing, im going to use this test for reference when im building a SFF.

[@SaucerX]

Did enermax fix their quality problems with newer coolers? I love the looks of the aqua fusion series but i'm sceptical about the reliability.

[@mike850826]

Love this type of mayhem battle of the same type products. I'd love to see some big brand itx cases cooling comparison like nr200, ssupd, lianli H2O.

[@HardwareCanucks]

Thanks! Good suggestion!

[@gS-kt2ff]

Thanks a lot for explaining the test methodology and the charts.

[@chickenpasta7359]

Imo this should've been tested in smaller ITX builds especially with a toasty GPU since a lot of these small form factor cases can be toasters. 120mm for mATX and up makes 0 sense, but for ITX it's worth considering cause of it's small volume

[@StaySic4Ever]

Yeah they can be quite pricey for higher brand ones vs dual or even triple fan ones though. If you don't go for cheaper brand which would make more sense price wise. Though thicker 140mm could be neat.

[@anhiirr]

I went with the 280mm arctic II. Bigger fans are quieter and are equally good at cooling esp when in push pull makes it even less necessary to crank up the fans. Then again mounting matters and the quality of your gpu/cooler when in the 200w+ range of gpu's. If you have a good cooler like an x trio or ROG gpu. You can easily do a front mount with the AIO and not really worry about how the intake/thermals affect gpu....vs an FE card or more base model that would potentially generate more heat or high Vram temps. Then the top area of your build has completely un-obstructed exhaust and the vrm/chipset never gets hot either vs having a top mount AIO and a huge heat pocket near the rear exhaust/vrm

[@utilityaccount8514]

How do these AIOs perform when you put a 120mm x 38mm 5,500rpm industrial fan on them?

[@carlaustin1093]

I've been using the small AIO's since they came out (over ten years ago) and still have one that works after all these years. One thing I've always done is had the rad mounted in the rear of the case as a intake instead of a exhaust and have the exhaust mounted on the top of the case. This works kind of like a push/pull configuration and has always left me with very acceptable temps.

[@tuckvison]

"very acceptable" is kinda not the point of AIO coolers given they have so many problems. their only strength is extremely low, completely blows everything out of the water temperatures so that they're at least useful for overclocking even though they're outmatched by tower coolers in every other aspect

[@AlexBazs]

Bought the DeepCool Maelstrom 120L many years ago as the cheapest 120mm AIO I could find and it still is going strong and temperatures are still very good on my Ryzen 1700!

[@jforce321]

120mm aio's only really have a place in compact ITX builds that support then. Usually its easy to fit a 240mm+ sized aio in any case while costing less. I still go air since I don't run or overclock CPU's to the point where you'd need water cooling.

[@pascaldifolco4611]

I has a Corsair H60 for years, it was ok for my 4770K back then, but after some time I changed the fan for a Noctua Industrial PPC lol Overall the 120mm AIO coolers perform worse than hi end aircoolers, but comparable to mid range and indeed look much much better.. Now there's not many reasons to not get a larger 240+ AIO unless in SSF small cases

[@boomshaka918]

Thanks for this video! been looking into 120mm aios. Do you have any videos on 80mm and 92mm fans?

[@acanalesc]

I don't get the chart at 5:09 125w temperatures? 5800x @65w???

[@HardwareCanucks]

Yeah my mistake. It should be 125W

[@GrizzAxxemann]

I went to a 120mm AIO after the fan on my air cooler died (was an older design, crappy fan mount/no fan swapping.) My lical PC parts store had the H60 on for 5 bucks more than the only air cooler option they had. On my FX-8120, I never got above 60°C when running full out at my 4.3gHz overclock. Idle temps would drop as low as 13°C on the AIO. I never could push that hard with air cooling. It made a migration (more like stayed put) when I recently and finally went AM4. No idea on temps with it because neither Speccy nor Ryzen Master are showing temperatures for my CPU since the upgrade. You'd figure a B550 mobo would have those sensors in place. If/when I swap cases, I'll move to a 240 or 360mm AIO. This case simply has limited options for placement.

[@Alex_Bket]

excellent video like always ! french from québec here ! the biggest problem you will be surprised that the corsairs are reliable mine is 8 years old and still running strong ! .. changed to the 2018 model for 59 $ on amazon while the nuctua is sold for 109$...

[@ianemery2925]

I have used 2 of the Corsair H45, their system integrators special that sold for far less than the cheapest "consumer" 120mm AIO in their range. Other than issues with a noisy fan bearing on the first one, the AIOs have performed superbly; to give you an idea of how long I have had them, the first system was a FX6300; it was a very poor CPU, and it needed heavy O/C'ing to get it up to the performance of the previous generation Phenom II. SO much O'C'ing, it was clocked to 5.01*GHz and pulling 200+ watts (max'ed Vin), yet the H45 kept it to 50C under Prime 95. * The highest clock where it was 100% stable

[@thegeneral123]

Used one for years on an overclocked Q6600 which is known to hit pretty high TDPs when overclocked. Base TDP is 105w. Handled it just fine.

[@robdp8900]

I can attest that the AF2 is almost as good as some of the 240mm AIOs I have used. Hard to tell the difference in day-to-day use.

[@DEZ7ROYER]

Love your cooling reviews, keep it up!

[@Arelius.D]

I do have a question, isn’t the LT the latest from DeepCool or is it the LS the latest one? Also what’s up with LS SE? Is SE better in some ways??

[@JustinCrediblename]

does the Gentle Typhoon help the air coolers too?

[@fukairen9601]

I suggest you can test these aio with replaced some other high-end fans, such as Nuctua A12-25, phanteks T30. Then we could see how much difference between their pump and radiators.

[@eddiea3782]

I had an H80i V2 back in the day. That thing was one hell of a good cooler. Surprisingly good.

[@kcolg321]

Im still rocking a h80i GT from 8 years ago, still keeps my i5 4690 very cool.

[@ironmann16]

I have a thermaltake 120mm AIO cooling a ryzen 7 5800x, and it maintains around 72c under load as long as the pc is cleaned well. That's also with a mild cpu overclock applied

[@unclecreepy4324]

My first aio cooler install on my Ryzen 5600X was a 120mm Deepcool 120L castle that cost me $50 on Amazon. Under full load the highest temperatures I hit was in the low 60c and it looks cool as hell. A midrange air cooler costs about that much and looked hideously in my Inwin 101 case. I know the life expectancy is 5 to 8 years but hell I'll do an upgrade and new build before then.

[@CSEabdulalimkhan]

I knew they expired, but damn, 4 YEARS?? On the low side? The way people talk i thought it was closer to 2 years.

[@thesuremen]

can you find & test this one? it was a single tower AIO cpu cooler. coolermaster MasterLiquid Maker 92 cooler.

[@abductedagain]

If I wanted to liquid cool my GPU similarly to something like the MSI Seahawk, which of these AIO is up to the challenge?

[@Razear]

The length of warranty on most of these is actually pretty reasonable. At least you can buy them with a degree of confidence knowing it'll last a decent amount of time. But the D15 is a tank, really can't beat that if you plan on using the same cooler forever, and you only have to worry about replacing an aging fan.

[@jeremyocampo1529]

What if you do a push pull fan configuration? I got some 120m fans from 360mm aio

[@mysteryboyee]

as someone who's planning on my next cooler upgrade being an AIO, one thing that while you do mention, you don't really give enough credit for IMO: space constraints, my case is a bit on the narrow side and i can't fit any of the large tower coolers like the nh-d15, and a lot of the low profile air coolers cause ram clearance issues, or just may not perform well enough to keep my pc comfortable

[@SyedWajihHassan]

Very good content. Really interesting for me personally Thank you

[@reizhi]

How long does an AIO need to cool down from 80+℃ temperature to around 40℃ after 30 minutes of gaming? Since the heat capacity of water is much more higher than metal, I don't think they can cool down in seconds like air coolers do.

[@rocketracer111]

They cannot cool down as fast but fast enough. I let my whole pc with a 360 aio cool down like 5-10min max before shutting down after a 3h+ session. But my water temp of 30-37°C isnt anywhere near a „dangerous“ zone so why really bother. 😂 never really did tbh.

[@ChadKenova]

I have an arctic freezer ii 120mm push/pull in a itx tinker build that ive tried 3600, 3900x and even a 5950x and it cools all them better than I expected.

[@xetaseaton]

Can you test SilverStone PF 120 ARGB V2? I've heard it's quite good while being silent

[@airBornFpv]

AMAZING! LS360 does great and looks great and basically with in a degree from nh-d15! Artic also look great specially with more modern fan! PLEASE do continue! people need to give 120mm second look! I'm decently not gonna do dual loop or air-cooling in SFX case with 5800x3d any more! - you should do x3d chip tests on those 120mm AIO because they are design uniquely and it is harder to cool smaller die area

[@EcksGamer]

For in Canadian pricing for certain 120mm AIO's you could even get it on special for around 50$ just like the Deepcool one i am using right now which does cool my CPU well enough being at 57c when playing a demanding game.

[@ttattx]

I have an MSI aegies ZS with a 120MM AIO that died in less than a year - did NOT make the recall for some reason (same exact thing as the two that did - but what evs) and just sent in for RMA -- my question, would it be smart to stick a case fan in its place (rear mount) and instead place a 240 AIO up top? the case will accomdate, but can't seem to find a clear answer any help greatly appreciated!

[@OcihEvE]

I paired a $58 US, Rosewill 120 with an R7 1800X back in 2019 and had zero issues for over 2 years. It did start to cause heat related shut downs in game and I replaced it with a Hyper 212. Worth noting I did set it up with push pull on the radiator. If I had paired it with a 1600 or 2600 I'm pretty sure it would still be trucking along.

[@EliseoBLK]

dude, i don't know, i used to have a gamemax iceber 120 in my gaming rig and lasted 3 months until the pump failed, so at least for me i learned the lesson and no more watercooling for my rig. For now my rig is working with the stock wraith stealth my 4600g came from factory but i'm looking for and aftermarket air cooler, the problem is my case is corsair carbide spec 05 and only can fit an 150mm heatsink, so any suggestions? here where i live, i can get a noctua LH9a and a deepcool ice edge mini v2 o should i get a better AIO

[@ragingmonk6080]

I use a 240mm right now but have used the 120mm. I front mount the rad and it is pulling air from outside the case. Air coolers have to use the air coming off the GPU as well.

[@oTYL3R]

This is a perfectly timed video, I recently won a EK AIO 120 in a giveaway and i'm contemplating whether to put it in my system with a Ryzen 5600 on a stock cooler.

[@brainfreeze1925]

So many choices, so much information. I'm building a new video editing rig based on an i5 12600k. I'm trying to get a CPU cooler that is quiet and won't break the bank. Should I go liquid or air? Cheers from Peterborough,

[@HardwareCanucks]

Depends on how much space you have. Typically I'd choose air. - Mike

[@Nuck-Fo0bZz]

Why wouldn't you do a push pull configuration? I mean the air coolers have two fans. I understand that the AIS aios don't come with two fans but it's not outside of the realm of possibility for somebody to just slap another one on if possible

[@MrLincoln87]

Would like to see that thicc artic cooler rad with a push/push+pull phanteks T30 setup. Plus, could you retest showing the best 120mm AIO vs the "worst" (and then maybe a "better") 240/280 AIO Like here in Australia, its around $20-50AUD difference from a few of the mainstream 120mm to 240mm AIOs - lets see in testing how much value you get for that little extra spend

[@paolopandas2103]

May want to look into cooling the PCH's high temperature.

[@namelessmusik4345]

I have a very very small Case build the problem with air cooler ja that my GPU temp we're too hot. With 120mm AIO i managed to get the CPU Heat directly out of the case

[@SuperMK1989]

Why isn't the asetek in this video? seems like a major oversight.

[@HardwareCanucks]

Asetek doesn't sell their own coolers in most regions. The TUF can be used as the Asetek analog

[@masmur]

sometime the confusing part about hardware reviewes chart, why not making the decibels on the vertical instead....

[@Angelfyre.]

I have a Corsair Hydro H80i with my Ryzen 7 2700, I just upgraded to a Ryzen 7 5800X and I’m wondering if I need something more

[@truthnaut7829]

My custom Pc desk mod was designed to use a single 120mm AIO or custom loop with a 120mm rad and fan. It sucks to see all the best AIOs are only offered in 240mm and 360mm configurations.

[@EduLGamer]

Do you want to Compare placing WC at the back of the case? who.said that this place is the most efficient? WC to be more efficient should be placed on the front of the case.

[@kensteadman8707]

Just got a recall notice from Artic Cooling - the fix requires taking apart the cooling block

[@HardwareCanucks]

Yeah. Sad really

[@Diviance]

To be fair, that is only a few screws and takes less than 5 minutes total.

[@rendezvu175]

Use an EVGA 120mm AIO with an NZXT Kraken G12 on my AMD RX 580 for a few years. Drop temp from 80s° to 50s during long hours of gaming. Just make sure you have it drawing air from outside the case (intake) instead of from inside the case (exhaust).

[@AMDRyzenEnthusiastGroup]

The thing is, unless you're building in an ITX form-factor, a good tower air-cooler will destroy a 120 AIO, and with less points of failure. Further, personally if I am not 100% sure that a company is going to stand behind their product if it leaks on my hardware, there's no way it's going in my PC. Cheaping-out on an AIO is almost as foolish as cheaping-out on a PSU. If using AIO's buy quality, don't try to find the cheapest thing on the market, and often times you can grab a 240mm for just few dollars more than a 120mm, with far superior results.

[@a.j.haverkamp4023]

It’s crap that you can’t find 140 mm AIOs (here in Europe). I would like to try and compare it to a Scythe Mugen 5 air cooler.

[@airBornFpv]

use Artic to make custom water loop in SFF case? :D

[@SupportNoob]

Is there a video like this BUT for SFF Air coolers? most of the time a 120mm AIO is the only option if your going SFF, else you could very probably fit a 240mm no issues but for SFF cases a 120mm AIO is viable or a sub 65mm height air cooler

[@HardwareCanucks]

We did a 120mm AIO vs sff coolers video if that's what you're after

[@SupportNoob]

@@HardwareCanucks This is going to sound ridiculous but (for SFF purposes), would it be possible to run a 120mm AIO WITHOUT the fan it comes with and just replace it with a desk fan from lasko or something similar? sounds crazy but even tho the fan may not be a high pressure fan, with the amount of CFM maybe the intense airflow is more than enough to make up for it I assume?

[@swizzler8053]

You can get a Arctic lf 240 mm for 89 euros on Amazon. Love the big size of the rad and the just one cable installation.

[@anhiirr]

yup and now theyve improved the mounting harware for easier installation and doubled the warranty from 3 years to 6. Theyve really done well with their customer feedback