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AIO vs Air cooler for 14900K ?

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L3gi0n

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Discussion starter · #1 ·
I am trying to cool a 14900K . Case is very well ventilated.

I don't think that the AIOs are a safe option because the pump could fail at some point whereas Air coolers last a lot longer, I have a few questions:
  • How long does an AIO last until the pump fails ? is it manufacturer dependent ? I am looking at Arctic Freezer III 420mm, The warranty on it is 6 years. Will it last for 10+ years ?
  • Without physical inspection, Is checking the pump's RPM the only way to tell if it has failed ?
  • How often should I inspect the AIO to see if the pump has failed or not ?
  • Is the Arctic Freezer III 420mm the best AIO right now ?
  • How much better is the Arctic Freezer III 420mm when compared to the best CPU air coolers like Phantom Spirit 120 Evo or Frost Spirit 140 V3 ? How many degrees is Arctic Freezer III 420mm better ?
 
#2 ·
L3gi0n said:
I am trying to cool a 14900K . Case is very well ventilated.

I don't think that the AIOs are a safe option because the pump could fail at some point whereas Air coolers last a lot longer, I have a few questions:
  • How long does an AIO last until the pump fails ? is it manufacturer dependent ? I am looking at Arctic Freezer III 420mm, The warranty on it is 6 years. Will it last for 10+ years ?
  • Without physical inspection, Is checking the pump's RPM the only way to tell if it has failed ?
  • How often should I inspect the AIO to see if the pump has failed or not ?
  • Is the Arctic Freezer III 420mm the best AIO right now ?
  • How much better is the Arctic Freezer III 420mm when compared to the best CPU air coolers like Phantom Spirit 120 Evo or Frost Spirit 140 V3 ? How many degrees is Arctic Freezer III 420mm better ?
Click to expand...
Aio will be far better than air cooler. I would say i dont think leaks really are a thing on aio. A pumping failing you will see temps increasing very fast.
but honestly if you arent overclocking and just strictly gaming your air cooler will be fine. Even a stock 14900k shouldnt use more then 200watts when gaming which is extremely high usage.
 
#3 ·
Larger CLCs will significantly outperform high-end air at more extreme thermal loads. Hard to put a figure on it in degrees without knowing the specific loads involved.

Leaks happen, but are quite rare. Pumps will eventually fail, but this will be immediately (within seconds) apparent as the CPU will either throttle heavily or shut off. Most CPUs will survive the loss of cooling without damage, unless thermal protection features are disabled. Even if the pump doesn't fail and no leaks ever develop, CLCs will gradually lose coolant through permeability, but that takes quite a long time to meaningfully impact performance. Predicting when or how a CLC will fail is difficult; I would consider anything after the warranty period a bonus, but I've seen some last well over a decade. I personally have a Nepton 280L that's been in nearly 24/7 use for more than ten years and it still works without apparent issue...I have changed the coolant twice though.
 
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Discussion starter · #5 ·
Blameless said:
Larger CLCs will significantly outperform high-end air at more extreme thermal loads. Hard to put a figure on it in degrees without knowing the specific loads involved.

Leaks happen, but are quite rare. Pumps will eventually fail, but this will be immediately (within seconds) apparent as the CPU will either throttle heavily or shut off. Most CPUs will survive the loss of cooling without damage, unless thermal protection features are disabled. Even if the pump doesn't fail and no leaks ever develop, CLCs will gradually lose coolant through permeability, but that takes quite a long time to meaningfully impact performance. Predicting when or how a CLC will fail is difficult; I would consider anything after the warranty period a bonus, but I've seen some last well over a decade. I personally have a Nepton 280L that's been in nearly 24/7 use for more than ten years and it still works without apparent issue...I have changed the coolant twice though.
Click to expand...
I am not planning to overclock at first. I guess overclocking these CPUs are very difficult anyway.

I guess I will try a very good air cooler and see how my temps are and if I didn't like my temps, I could always upgrade to an AIO ...

My Cooler Master Hyper Evo 212 has been running for 8 years and no problems...Do you think that an AIO like Arctic Freezer III 420mm can last that long ?
 
#6 ·
L3gi0n said:
Do you think that an AIO like Arctic Freezer III 420mm can last that long ?
Click to expand...
Can? Sure. Will? That's far less certain, but the odds are still pretty good.
 
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#8 · (Edited)
Leaks are pretty rare this day and age as AIO's are so mature now. Most of the time you most likely will end up with residue build up inside that will drastically effect temperatures far before a pump failure, but this takes a long time in most cases. I only had one AIO do this which was a Corsair H105, although to be fair it lasted 6+ years of heavy use. When it comes to this happening you'll usually hear a rattling sound and temps will be a big give away.

I hear a lot of ppl recommend the Artic Freezer III around here, but for me it's a bit too cheap for me to be confident about it. It may indeed be a good performer, but what's it's lifespan is my question.

Personally i went with the Galahad II LCD-SL INF and added a Thermal Grizzly contact frame for good measure. I have only seen 100c on a few cores once in Cinebench R23. Although it was on some dumb Asus power limit that was pushing 400+ watts. The fact it took extremes like that to ever hit 100c is saying something about the Galahad II, it's a beast.

With 253watts set i do not see passed 75c in R23. Gaming 55-60c most of the time, and i've still not done any undervolting yet.
 
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#9 · (Edited)
Since you didn´t have an AIO until now the only one you may deem silent enough in idle is the AFII and not AFIII.
Anything else will be too loud for an air-cooler type of user for his first AIO.

And please don´t think in 10 year increments.
In 5 years software consumption and TV consumption will differ vastly.
More so than even the nerds here are willing to acknowledge today.

And so will you pc setup.
 
#11 ·
Martin v r said:
aio an pro water sys
AIO VS Custom Water Loop - Honest Comparison + Give-away (youtube.com)
Click to expand...
I don't understand the point of this comparison. The tester does not even describe in the video what the "high performance loop" used as a benchmark is and how it is tuned. Following a link in the description suggests he is comparing a $100 AIO to to a loop with at least three rads (?) that probably costs close to a grand once you factor in the rads, block, fittings and fans...
 
#13 · (Edited)
L3gi0n said:
So the bigger the fans on the radiator the slower they have to spin...they'll ne quieter … I am considering the LFIII 420mm in push/pull config. it beats everything else...
Click to expand...
There is a big difference between fans,you have to look for pressure,at low rpm and noise
solutions for there connection
and the price

i love the ones ,where you can hook the fans same and only had one plug for power
I have changed from BioniX P120 to PHANTEKS D30-120

BioniX P120 can start humming when they get above 800/1000 rpm, not all of them, but not fun to listen to

both models require an extra long screws, they are included whit PHANTEKS D30-120
since they are thicker than other fans,minus is that they have American screws, not so fun for us in the EU
 
#16 · (Edited)
L3gi0n said:
I am trying to cool a 14900K . Case is very well ventilated.

I don't think that the AIOs are a safe option because the pump could fail at some point whereas Air coolers last a lot longer, I have a few questions:
  • How long does an AIO last until the pump fails ? is it manufacturer dependent ? I am looking at Arctic Freezer III 420mm, The warranty on it is 6 years. Will it last for 10+ years ?
  • Without physical inspection, Is checking the pump's RPM the only way to tell if it has failed ?
  • How often should I inspect the AIO to see if the pump has failed or not ?
  • Is the Arctic Freezer III 420mm the best AIO right now ?
  • How much better is the Arctic Freezer III 420mm when compared to the best CPU air coolers like Phantom Spirit 120 Evo or Frost Spirit 140 V3 ? How many degrees is Arctic Freezer III 420mm better ?
Click to expand...
I am a fan of air myself though for really extreme stuff with max quietness custom loop remains the best solution. AIOs last a very variable amount of time. Very rarely less than a few years though. Look at the warranty. A 420 AIO has a much larger thermal envelope. If you don’t use it though there’s no point. I would say the best air coolers top out at a bit under a 360 equivelant, though they do tend to be quieter. Especially at lower levels. So a 420 is going to be bigger. Need a big case to fit a 420 rad though. Situations where an AIO system is better than an air system are rare though Overclocking can be one of them. Overclocking can double or triple thermal output. My system for example is a 12700 (no k) and a 3800 and is used for movies, the odd VM, and amateur non-competitive gaming. It runs on air. I did replace the thermal compound on the GPU with more efficient stuff when I pulled the shroud and replaced the fans with pwm high static pressure case fans for noise reduction. So air but higher end air. When stats are unknown tons of slop can compensate. It turned out quite quiet, though the innards aren’t especially pretty. I’m not an RGB enthusiast and I didn’t want it as a showpiece so I’m fine. If I had a k chip I might have used an AIO or custom loop (I like quiet machines) though. It’s just a gaming and internet box. I’m not aiming for top end. The lower maintainance of air appealed to me. My GPU kicks out something like 3-5 times as much heat as my cpu. If I was watercooling I would have a watercooled GPU before a cpu these days. I was an inch from doing it to that one, but the biphasic heat transfer material came through so I didn't have to. With a bigger gpu I would though. The thermal envelope of air just isn’t big enough. Got to move the heat to something big enough to dump it. This is what water really does: it moves heat to radiators that would normally be too big to fit. An air-air cooler can only be so big because of the way motherboards are laid out. Saw a trick motherboard once that had the cpu socket on the back. All kinds of room then.
 
#17 ·
Krustydodo said:
Hello, I opted for a NH-U12A instead of my EK360 on 14900k, limiting the PL2 to 253 watts, I have no heating concerns (OCCT, CinebenchR23 at 85/86 degrees without trotthle).
Click to expand...
Sounds right. If you got a big girl gpu too you may want to watercool that with that 420 (assuming it fits) CPUs have gone down in heat production (though they developed other problems) but GPUs just keep going up. They eclipsed CPUs around the 1080 period and just kept going.
 
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