if you want the best then you should make your own. Granzon GZMN 360/480 + a block or Barrow LTPRP-04I + a radiator.

if you just want an off the shelf AIO then get a LF2. if you're going to be swapping the fans on the 360 and not on the 420 then get the 360. P12/P14s are decent fans but it's not really hard to find better ones.

 

The best Arctic you can get.

 

Do arctic aio's tick at all? I've had 3 different aio and all have ticked.

Maybe it's the way I install them..

 

I have an Arctic LF 420 and I do not hear any tick. In the past have also use a few EK AIO and never noticed a tick.

Pumps on both can be heard if run at full speed when fans are at low rpm but if you have pump ramp up with fan speed or limit it you wont hear them. Same can be said though with custom loop and d5 at full speed you can hear it.

 

Option 1: Arctic Cooling Liquid Freezer II 420 ARGB and use the stock fans, which seem quite good and have some improvements over the non-ARGB P14s. This is the largest and thickest radiator on an AIO you can get.

This is it xD

 

Odd as it may sound, check out the InWin SR36 Pro.

 

What's the typical life span of these AIO's, the good rated ones ? How do the pumps hold up ? For the cost, I'm looking at the NH-D15, but anything that size makes it dangerous for getting at the top GPU slot latch.

Some day I could still try WCing, but it sure gets expensive. I remember Linus doing a review of cheap ebay WCing kits, +yrs ago, I wonder what they are like now, icr.

 

The best I could achieve with NH-D15 with the LGA1700 bracket was 51/48 P-core/Cache on 1.27V load Vcore, with a 12900KF, P-core SP of 99. And that's touching Tjmax of 100C.
That's y-cruncher stable in both the main and the component tests. All-core P-core and no E-cores enabled. Open test bench.

 

have you looked at the EK 360 elite?

It works really well, comes with 6 good fans and a nice fan hub.

I am able to run 5.4/4.3/4.5 at 1.32v vcore at 95’C

 

Arctic 420 is unbeatable for the price. Yes, the block and VRM fan assembly is rather.. ugly. But it works. An EK Elite isn't bad at all either, just overpriced.

 

AC LF II 360 - shop around a bit as the different versions (plain, rgb, argb) are often on sale for under €100
https://www.idealo.de/preisvergleich/MainSearchProductCategory.html?q=ARCTIC+Liquid+Freezer+II+360
check price history, I got one at €80 on amazon...

 

Appreciate all the replies everyone!

After reading through everything I decided on the AC LF II 420 ARGB (that has the new and improved P14s) it's one of the cheapest options (can get it for as low as €125) yet it'll most likely provide me with the best cooling an AIO can offer. I plan on replacing the fans with 3x T30s as soon as Phanteks releases the 140mm version. It'll be going in a Fractal Design Torrent as a front mount with the tubes down and the 180mm fans from the front of the case mounted at the bottom as intake. Hopefully I can get all the parts in a timely manner so I can share some results.

Thanks once again for reading!

 

The best AIO out there is the EK 360 Elite, this has been proven by reviews it even beats the AC LF II 420 unit, that is because the EK Elite is using the 3,300RPM pump out of the EK Black Nickel Classic 360 D-RGB water cooling kit. Next up would be Lian Li's but they decided to reinvent the wheel with their mounting solution affecting contact thus affecting cooling. Artic, CM, Corsair and any other company at this point is hot garbage that has not really innovated the past 5-10 years, unless a company begged Asetek or CoolIt for a pump upgrade fighting tooth and nail. The best cpu cooler/AIO without going with a water cooling kit is the EK Elite 360 D-RGB....Nothing on the market cools as well on both air or aio it's really the second to none. It as close as you can get to water cooling without going water cooling right now.

Next up you will need a Thermalright LGA1700-BCF Lid Correction Bracket, or you can go with Thermal Grizzly's this will fix the bow on intel's flawed design for its LGA 1700 mounting bracket that applies too much pressure on the left and right of the cpu resulting in bowing the 12th gen cpu lids.

Here is my system after 3 days of the correction bracket being installed, my pc has been on in the Core Temp photo for 12hrs, about 6 of those hours were spent playing Guild Wars 2 in DX11, Cyberpunk 2077 fully maxed out, a quick run of Prime95 and 3x Runs of 3DMark Timespy. The Core Temp photo was taken just after the last run of 3DMark Timespy so has not fully cooled down yet. Using IC Diamond 24 on my 12900KF. Ambient temps are kept anywhere from 74-76F in my office. Turbo pretty much stays at a near consistent 5-5.2ghz due to the temps of the EK Elite keeps my cpu at.

Hope this helps and sorry a bit late but saw this post.

83fa7f314d87.jpg (3024×4032) (modsrigs.com)

 

Thanks for the in-depth reply!

I've actually not ordered any parts yet, since I had something else come up, that took away my attention and free time.

In my original post I already wrote that I'm gonna order exactly the same Thermalright BCF so I can avoid any potential bending issues. Can I ask, what kind of force did you apply when installing it, does it have anything specified?

As far as the EK Elite AIO, I also considered that model but wasn't sure if it was worth it compared to my other options. I kinda wish EK offered an Elite Basic version with just a single set of non-RGB fans so I can change them for Phanteks T30s, which should perform much better both in the noise and performance departments, without the need to go for Push/Pull.

That's why I originally was interested in the new Alphacool Eisbaer Aurora HPE 360 - it has their DC-LT pump (2600rpm vs. 3300rpm on EK, which doesn't seem too far off) a 30mm full copper radiator vs. 27mm aluminum radiator on the EK (and pretty much everything else on the market, apart from the Liquid Freezers) and just a single set of fans, which I replace for T30s. There are some reviews of it and it performs pretty much with the best, but none of them is on Alder Lake, the closest (consumption-wise) is an OC'd 10900K in TPU's review.

Decisions, decisions...

 

Thanks for the in-depth reply!

I've actually not ordered any parts yet, since I had something else come up, that took away my attention and free time.

In my original post I already wrote that I'm gonna order exactly the same Thermalright BCF so I can avoid any potential bending issues. Can I ask, what kind of force did you apply when installing it, does it have anything specified?

As far as the EK Elite AIO, I also considered that model but wasn't sure if it was worth it compared to my other options. I kinda wish EK offered an Elite Basic version with just a single set of non-RGB fans so I can change them for Phanteks T30s, which should perform much better both in the noise and performance departments, without the need to go for Push/Pull.

That's why I originally was interested in the new Alphacool Eisbaer Aurora HPE 360 - it has their DC-LT pump (2600rpm vs. 3300rpm on EK, which doesn't seem too far off) a 30mm full copper radiator vs. 27mm aluminum radiator on the EK (and pretty much everything else on the market, apart from the Liquid Freezers) and just a single set of fans, which I replace for T30s. There are some reviews of it and it performs pretty much with the best, but none of them is on Alder Lake, the closest (consumption-wise) is an OC'd 10900K in TPU's review.

Decisions, decisions...

The pump size and its RPM's does matter on AIO's believe it or not. You go with another AIO you will lose potential cooling, next you have to ask yourself this. Do you want silence or the best cooling on an AIO you really cannot have it both ways, pick one or the other. To get maximum cooling you will need it loud for it to be the best cooler. Almost all other AIO's on the market do not compare, the only one that gets close is Lian Li's.

I own a 10900KF and a 12900KF, even overclocked the 10900kf cannot even keep up with performance I also would not even want it at the voltages it would take to really crank up the speed on an AIO trying to do an insane overclock comparison in performance and wattage...No AIO can keep up with that that is due to the insane power that is needed to push a 10900kf past its 5.3ghz max turbo on all cores the 5ghz+ arena is when power needed gets a little insane. The 12900kf also have a larger lid more area to cover so it is not an apples to apples comparison.

Now if noise is that important to you with the best cooling you are not going to get that in an air cooler or any AIO. You would need actual water cooling and some very large radiators without going with something crazy like a deep sea chiller pump. This is one of those pick your battles.

As for 50-60c max, I have only seen that when the silicon is a lottery chip, the lid has not been bowed, and even in benches it goes into the 70c range like Prime95 or 3DMark Timespy during the cpu portion of the bench, or they have a really really nice water cooling setup with water.

It's not about cost performance when you want the best cooling, you want the one that cools the best. Not what cost less to give you the best cooling unless I missed something. Nothing minus the Lian Li AIO comes close to the EK Elite. So you can spend less, save some money, and lose cooling at the same time you will in fact not have the best cooler in the air/aio market. If the LF II was so good it would had won the best cooling and best design award last year. It did not it is in fact an inferior product when it comes to straight thermals as the best cooler it does not hold a candle to the EK Elite. It's a bang for the buck but it stops there.

So if you want the best go with the EK Elite if you want to change the fans out that is on you, just be sure they are actually better than the ones in the EK Elite that actually go up to 2,700 or 2,800 RPM's from their advertised 2,200RPM's when you do not use a curve in the bios and tell them to go full speed. As you brought up you are getting the bracket as for tightness imagine if the screw driver was on top and you could flick it with your finger to tighten. The second it hit resistance it would stop spinning right? That is about as tight as you want it to be. pay attention when you take the screws out on the Intel LGA 1700 mounting bracket you will notice those screws barely in there without any real tightening at all.

Up to you though, I have seen many people go though oh 3-6 AIO's on their 5900x's, 59050x's, i9 10900kf/k, i9 11900kf/k and the 12900kf/k/ks. Who got inferior products didn't like the temps, eventually listening to me and they are quite happy at this point.

At the end of the day you have to ask yourself do you really want the best cooling solution without going water or are you willing to make some compromise. I personally would not having gone though a few AIO's since 2020 not being happy then finally doing my homework before the Gamers Nexus Review on the EK Elite and people have been wondering why my temps have been so low on both my i9 cpu's while they have had other AIO's. They eventually listened and are now happy. EK does make none ARGB Vardar fans, but yeah I get it. That is on you, just hope they are way better than what the AIO comes with.

 

I have used the regular EK 360 and the fans sound like a jet engine. I can only imgine what 6 of them sound like. Look at the noise levels is hits compared to Arctic You can adjust the fans via bios so they dont crank up but at full speed the are very loud.

All the top AIO are so close it doesnt really matter. Not like a 2 or 3c difference will make or break your OC. It depends more on your CPU bin. Get a good 12900k it will do 53 to 54 all core. Get a dud it might do 51 to 52 at best.

In the noise normalize the Arctic beats the EK Elite and is half the price roughly. I think the EK looks better but unless you are going for looks I wouldnt get the EK over the Arctic. Also cable mess with all the fan cables and rgb wires on the EK.

 

The iCUE H150i Elite LCD does surprisingly well - it tops the charts - in a few videos I've watched (it smoked my Aorus WF X 360 which previously smoked my NH-D15 as well), and from my testing, the SR36 Pro smokes the Elite LCD. I'm just saying... They're not using an Asetek, the fans push 101 CFM... It's cheap as chips too.