CPU AIO COOLERS - REALLY? Are none of them any good?

[Jahmen]

Out of frustration and time, I decided to Post for HELP with this topic and problem.

ASUS, CORSAIR, COOLERMASTER, DEEPCOOL, ENERMAX, EVA and the list goes on!
Reading the reviews and some articles. The only consensus I could come up with was that basically, none of them have a good software program for monitoring and controlling the fans and pump speeds.

My DEEPCOOL Castle 360EX, well as far as I can tell, it stopped working. The CPU pump head light stops a few days after install and then a couple weeks later I get a Check CPU on POST message and feel the pump head is really hotter than usual. Yeah, that's right, I touched it! UH HuH, I felt it with my hand.
Because it couldn't boot to the BIOS, so I had know other way to check the heat. Yes, I had felt it before when I was checking temps.

I really liked the DEEPCOOL! It looked good and once I figured out the graphic picture instructions and a little support, very little, I was able to verify I had everything installed right. I think maybe the Armoury Crate program didn't do anything or did. I looked at Program to control everything. But most seemed overly involved.

I had everything set to standard. I haven't gotten that far in my build yet for over clocking. Still trying to get past BIOS problems and VROC RAID setup problems.

QUESTION, it seemed to me most thought the ASUS something suite worked better than the newer one. Does it?

Can we get posts from community members about their COOLERS and the pro's & Con's they have.

Oh and any good work arounds. to share feel free! PLEASE if this topic is covered in another thread, point me to it.

[davemon50]

Software incompatibility has definitely been a hot issue. There's been progress but I'm not sure it's enough.

I still use my Corsair H80 original AIO (I owned two, this was my second one), and still use it on my RVE10. The original version H80 has a manual 3-speed switch (button actually) for the fans, which I typically keep on low speed. And the pump runs continuous. It's very quiet on low speed, and reliable, and does a sufficient job at cooling but not super. I don't use any software at all to control it though because speed is manual, that's the advantage. I actually bought the H80i-V2 but the box is still sitting in my office (if the original dies I will install it). In the Version 2 they abandoned the manual speed so you can control it via software. But due to all the problems with compatibiliy I just keep the old manual one installed for now. I did replace the two fans with better hi-static fans than the stock.

That model Corsair AIO has been terrific and reliable. It's loud on medium and high speeds, so if you overclock or drive your system hard I wouldn't recommend it for that reason. The V2 is similar in style but the fan speeds are variable speed and software-controllable so maybe there's a sweet spot to compromise noise and cooling. Bottom line, my experience has been good with the Corsair hardware, but I have not used Corsair Link. I use Asus AI Suite to control and monitor since I don't need to also use Corsair Link, and there are no compatibility issues. If I install the new cooler I have, I will enable Corsair Link for the cooler and also my PSU which is Corsair.

I have heard only good things (or mostly by far, anyway) about the NZXT and the Coolermaster AIO hardware.

[EddieZ]

Just installed the all new NZXT X63 Kraken....took my temps from idle 50 degrees C to 30... And no more jet propulsion when gaming, went from 80 to 40-45 degrees in a room with ambient 21 degrees C.

So ...they work fine 🙂

[cekeu]

Even with all-in-one cooling, the fans must be connected on the motherboard cpu-fan. as we are safe from software failure

[BigJohnny]

Depends on what you use them for. Stocks clocks they are OK. Was watching a comparison vid the other day by gamers nexus that ranked them and the Kraken was at or near the bottom of the list. I keep one for a spare and use it for testing new builds before I put them in a case, Corsair H115i witrh a 280 rad. A lot more quiet than anything with 120s. Dont be afraid to change out fans on them as pretty much all of them come with crappy fans. Put pump to wide open and run the fans off of a MOBO header.

If you want good cooling with OC head room none of them are capable with those little baby pumps. Takes a well configured and executed custom loop but they get a bit pricey.

Like I said its about what you want out of it. The 5GHz club with an HEDT isnt happening on an AIO.