I built this baby back in 2020 during the scalping crisis, saved a 3080 and 5600x from the sad fate of being in an Hp Omen 30l and moved it into my first AIO build. Worked for 5 years, but the AIO had been experiencing higher temperatures for the past 6 months which indicates it's on its way out. The death knell was when I tried swapping to a 5900x my friend sold me and I kept throttling.
Luckily I bought a TR phantom spirit 120 se just in case and she works like a beauty. Temps are down 10-15 degrees Celsius and shes quiet as a mouse when idle. Cinebench averaged 75 with a peak of 82 and still barely noticeable noise. I initially moved to AIOs for their silence and performance, but I can get the same with this for a much longer time.
Lesson of the day kids, air cooling is supreme.
32 Comments
I got a 3080 in an Omen 30L at the same time for the same reason. Good on you for liberating it from its sweaty prison. I’ve been too lazy to do so myself.
COOL THAT CPU RIGHT WITH A BIGASS FUGGIN BRICK OF SOME KIND OF METAL
OH AND ITS GOT LITTLE SHARP EDGES AND SHIT SO GET SOME BANDAIDS
Water cooling looks really neat and is a fun technology, but I am far too practical to ever use anything other than a tower air cooler…
My AIO is on its way out, and I’m also thinking of switching to an air tower. I love how quiet, efficient, and cool looking liquid coolers are, but I just can’t justify the cost on an old build right now. I can see the use if you have a CPU that runs hotter especially those with lots of cores that get bullied by production work. But for most gaming loads, air is all you need especially if your room is temperature controlled.
I used a h100i for like 7 years and I was never happy with the numbers. Recently switched to a $40 air cooler and I’m getting better temps, insane.
Air coolers are super underrated. Many times I’ve found that it keeps your cpu cooler than an AIO. They’re just not aesthetically pleasing so it makes them unpopular.
Air cooling ftw.
Different stokes for different folks.
I got a cheap cooler maste hyper evo air cooler which came with my pre build and it still works perfectly fine even after 2 years of using. My 5600x never goes above 70-80 so i don’t worry.
Might want to dust it off soon
You can really only notice the difference in aio vs dual tower when you start pulling 200w-250w+.
Most newer dual tower cooler will probably still handle a high load as that but not as nicely.
IMO if you aren’t OC’ing then air coolers are the move, usually a fraction of the price for majority of the performance
god i want to use an air cooler so badly but i like the aesthetics of an aio so much
AIO’s are so easy lol it’s a good thing you didnt go custom water
Love the aesthetics of air coolers / passives.
Nice block of metal you got there!
I’m using nd15s with a i9-14900kf and aren’t thermal throttling but with the correct bios settings of course. Gaming is between 50s to low 70s. Cinabench 81 degrees at 253w. 58 degrees when PL1 kicks in.
Do what you must, looks great man.
AIOs are not worth it. If you’re going to do water cooling it’s for overclocking and it would be a custom loop.
A good air cooler will give you the same performance and it will be quieter.
I gave up on AIOs in 2016, never looked back…
I just much more prefer the look of AIO to go to air but for practicality reason of course its a better option for most people lol
I keep thinking about going back to air since I do get scared of an aio leak. Never had it happen, but the fear is still there.
I’m glad to see air cooling making a comeback in popularity. But it’s hard to blame newer builders who go liquid automatically since everything they see in YouTube instructionals make it sound like you need six intake fans and liquid coolers or else your system will throttle.
I have a Corsair H150 RGB Elite. It easily tames my Ryzen 9900X. I did have one of the cheaper Corsair AIO’s on my 5900X and it was pretty bad.
Those cheaper AIO’s have dogshit cold plates.
So, do you have to remove the heatsink to get to the SSD and change / upgrade ram?
Air cool gang ✊ AIOs are awesome too, but with air cooling it’s nice to know that heatsink isn’t going anywhere for as long as you live, bar replacing thermal paste every few years. Those who went AIO and then back to air understand.
Maybe a desk?
I prefer AIO for easier access to components around CPU.
If working on cars has taught me anything is that hoses can fail for no reason at all.
I have always preferred air cooling.
You should also look into your ambient room temperature. If your room is 80 degrees, not even water cooling will help you unless you have it piped into an AC unit.
Bout to do the same. Got the Noctua HD 15 G2 for my i7 13700k. I had a 280 AIO before that.
Really happy for you. Now for your next case you need go no side glass and you’ll be sane finally.
Was in the same boat. Had an older corsair aio. Used it for 6 years and great temps on my i7 8700k oc. Switched to a 9900x and temps were thru the roof. Got a newer corsair aio and temps down 30-35c on average. Quiet as a mouse again.
I switch to an Arctic AIO cooler about 5 years ago, seems to still work fine
https://preview.redd.it/9wnp5bd1ibye1.jpeg?width=4096&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=788275309404b7024bf8c43274bb456afaf9b5a1
Same, brother same. Using a phantom spirit 120se now.
did you ever dust out the aio radiator ? 🙂
man I really feel like aios messed with pc building, custom loops work better and look much better