Need a solid fully compatible suggestion for an AIO CPU cooler for Z690 Apex

[JBBlack]

I bought an Arctic Freezer II 280 and it just will not work. And I absolutely do not want to get into making my own water cooling.

The brackets for the block hit both the top and bottom heatsinks, and the radiator hits the DIMM.2 card, and I have a HUGE case!! I was thinking about cutting the brackets as I can do that at my shop and make it look clean, BUT, If I mount the radiator in the front of my case the loop doesn't reach my CPU (HUGE case)

So I'm probably going to need a 2 or 3 (120mm) fan radiator with a block that can fit both in the crowded socket area AND is fully compatible with an LGA 1700 CPU.

Thanks, and once this piece is acquired, and my new 1300 PSU gets here this week, I will finally have my Z690 Apex up and running!!

[JBBlack]

Or, has anyone ever used these air coolers? I hear great reviews about this one, and it will allow me to stick a couple more fans in the top for max air flow.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B098XP1Y38/ref=ox_sc_act_title_2?smid=A1Z5H6ZGWCMTNX&psc=1

[Murph_9000]

JBBlack wrote:
Or, has anyone ever used these air coolers? I hear great reviews about this one, and it will allow me to stick a couple more fans in the top for max air flow.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B098XP1Y38/ref=ox_sc_act_title_2?smid=A1Z5H6ZGWCMTNX&psc=1

Noctua are top tier. The U12 heatsink might be limiting on the high end, depending on which CPU you use and how hard you want to push it. They have a CPU compatibility checker which gives recommendations for thermal capacity of their coolers vs specific CPU models. The D15 is the one that competes extremely well against good AIOs when you want to push the OC limits, but it's HUGE and not suitable for all boards/cases.

For ordinary daily use, without pushing CPU power to extremes, the U12 with twin fans is quite sufficient. I.e. if you just need a couple of cores boosting high for excellent gaming performance, it should be fine; but if you want to try to max everything out for benchmark scores, or similar, it will probably limit you.

[Murph_9000]

All of the ROG AIOs should fit around the socket. They all use the standard Asetek mounting ring, which is about as minimal as you can get horizontally. The radiator thickness, tube length, etc is on the tech specs page for them, so you should be able to figure out how they would fit. Mostly, they are 25mm radiator + 25mm fans, which works for top mount on many cases (basically as long as the case doesn't really cram the motherboard hard against the top). You don't need two layers of fans for a 250W CPU, a single layer of good fans is generally quite sufficient (combined with overall good case airflow, i.e. balancing the front intake with top exhaust, erring on the side of a little too much intake).

For front mount, ignore the myth that you have to go tubes-down on the radiator; that's a bad misinterpretation of what Steve from GN said about it. You just need to make sure that the highest point of the CPU/pump block is below the highest point of the radiator, which usually is not a problem with tubes-up front mount where the top of the radiator is approximately level with the top of the motherboard. Tubes-up front mount should be very easy for all of the ROG AIOs. The 400mm tubes on the Ryujin series are long enough to do front mount on the Helios case (which is well up there as HUGE cases go, being an EATX case). Personally, I quite like top mount, it works well for dumping out general heat from the other components while cooling the radiator.

[JBBlack]

Awesome, thanks man.

I took a look at the ROG AIO's and just couldn't settle on one, The one I really wanted to get had the same size radiator as the one I have here,. so I know that won't fit, This case is really long and tall but I customized it to take SATA HDD's that I use for games and storage, so the motherboard is very near the top, if it just wasn't for that DIMM.2 being so high I could use any rad I wanted. BUT I really want that DIMM.2 so it stays.

I have a 12900k and I don't like to overclock too much as I like to run my PC 24/7, so I think I'm going to try the U12 (one with the single rad and dual fans) and see how it works, I have been wanting to try one for a while now. I just hope it fits properly, it says it has 41mm clearance so that should just be enough to clear the heat sinks with the rad and fans, all I need to see is if the taper of the heat pipes clears them just enough. It also says one fan can be "lifted" to accommodate the ram IF needed, but I don't think I will need to worry about that.

I'm excited about going back to air, and all the reviews on this cooler are VERY positive.

I'm going to go ahead and sell this Arctic II 280, I know a guy who just bought a Z590-E so it should fit on there. I really don't want to go cutting on the bracket if I don't have to.

[JBBlack]

Well the Noctua NH-U12A chromax.Black, 120mm Single-Tower CPU Cooler (Black) is here, might have to modify it to fit, but it's pretty cool.

I'm interested to know if in fact ALL of the ASUS ROG AIO's fit properly because I would eventually like to get one of the fancier ones.