AIO recommendations for 5950x

gsf600y · 14 Nov 2020 at 11:06

So, just bought a 5950x which will hopefully arrive next week.
Need to get myself an AIO cooler for it. Never had one before, so looking for recommendations.

I have no plans to overclock. Don't mind spending money for a decent one.
It'll be going into a Phanteks Enthoo Luxe case, which the specs say:
120mm radiator mounts: up to 240mm front, up to 360mm roof, 120mm rear, up to 240mm bottom
140mm radiator mounts: up to 420mm roof, 140mm rear, 140mm bottom

http://www.kitguru.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/35-300x293.jpg

http://www.kitguru.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/37-300x278.jpg

http://www.kitguru.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/32-300x292.jpg

I'd be interested to know what AIO coolers people recommend, and also, where would be best to position the radiator.

I'm wondering if I'll need to remove the large front fan there, and the tall side panel?
Would a 360mm radiator be needed for a 5950x? If so, I wonder I could modify the front to accept a 360mm somehow by drilling holes, although the grill on the front of the case is only 240mm.

Also, the top is far more open than the front:

http://www.kitguru.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/23-155x300.jpg
So perhaps top mounting would be better?

EDIT: should also mention, I've got an Asus Crosshair VIII Hero, so an AIO that could potentially hook up to/sync with that RGB solution would be good.
Any advice appreciated!!
Thanks

doyll · 14 Nov 2020 at 11:41

Can't open your images for some reason.

Top is best, front with hoses to bottom 2nd best. Both keep air from collecting in pump. Top exhaust with 2 / 3 good high pressure front intakes (block any openings not covered by intake fans so air they push into case cannot loop around and end up going in circles instead of on through case) will supply both CLC and GPU with cool air.

Radiator restriction is probably similar to front grill and filter. I use cheap digital indoor / outdoor wire lead sensor thermometer to monitor airflow temp entering component coolers / radiator and set intake fans to cycle at speeds fast enough to supply air less than 3c warmer than room when gaming. Gaming works GPU hard so is good way to test. You might find link below to basic guilde of how airflow works and how to optimize case airflow of interest.
https://forums.overclockers.co.uk/t...-i-put-my-temp-sensor.18564223/#post-26159770

gsf600y · 14 Nov 2020 at 12:15

Thanks, having a read of that link now.
Not sure why images not displaying...put links there now too.

"block any openings not covered by intake fans so air they push into case cannot loop around "
Do you mean block any openings on the front, not covered by fans, to stop the fans immediately blowing air back out again?

Cenuij · 14 Nov 2020 at 15:56

Would a 360mm radiator be needed for a 5950x?

TBH I'm not sure this is true, I've seen AIO benches where 280 AIO's beat out 360's from the same manufacturer. Additionally the Arctic Liquid Freezer 280 is currently the best AIO for Ryzen in several benches.

I went for the Fractal Celsius+ 280 - but I've taken the fans off and used them as case fans (better than the default Fractal Define 7 case fans).

Now I've got push/pull on the rad with 4x Arctic P14 for a balance of perf/noise - based on this radiator fan shootout

Gee · 14 Nov 2020 at 18:54

Arctic Liquid Freezer 2. All other AIO's are rubbish.

MissChief · 14 Nov 2020 at 19:06

Gee said:
Arctic Liquid Freezer 2. All other AIO's are far worse, and often more expensive by comparison.

No RGB though.

gsf600y · 14 Nov 2020 at 20:05

Thanks for replies all!

Arctic Liquid Freezer 2 looks good.

Surprised to hear some 280's out perform their 360's brothers though - I can't quite understand how that works. Maybe there's some other variation the manufactures are doing on the pump or something. How can more water spread over more radiator surface NOT get cooler?

Going back to the ALF2, this Gamers Nexus review seems to show the 360 out performing the 280:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KPLWlkHPlyo
I'm just wondering, would a 420 be better still than a 360? Is there such a thing as too big a radiator?

Lack of RGB not a real issue....not quite sure if I'm sold on the RGB or not yet, so it might all end up getting turned off

Cenuij · 14 Nov 2020 at 20:42

A 280 rad is only 10% smaller than a 360, but 120mm fans are around 25% less efficient than 140mm fans - so in some cases the increased efficiency of the fan more than makes up for the slightly smaller rad.

That's not the whole story by far, but you can start to see how it can be that way.

gsf600y · 14 Nov 2020 at 20:53

Did you mean 120mm fans are more efficient?

Cenuij · 14 Nov 2020 at 21:00

gsf600y said:
Did you mean 120mm fans are more efficient?

No, sorry - confusing wording.

Take the Arctic P14 vs P12, the P14 pushes 25% more air (73 CFM) than the P12 (56 CFM)

gsf600y · 14 Nov 2020 at 22:32

So, if the radiator is at the top of the case, do the fans sit above the radiator, pulling air up and through the radiator, or do they sit below?
Just looking in my case, I think the fans above the radiator would fit better than below.

Minstadave · 14 Nov 2020 at 22:34

gsf600y said:
So, if the radiator is at the top of the case, do the fans sit above the radiator, pulling air up and through the radiator, or do they sit below?
Just looking in my case, I think the fans above the radiator would fit better than below.

Usually below pushing through and out.

gsf600y · 14 Nov 2020 at 23:19

Cenuij said:
Take the Arctic P14 vs P12, the P14 pushes 25% more air (73 CFM) than the P12 (56 CFM)

Interesting. So I guess comparing...
2x73=146 (280)
3x56=168 (360)
...the 360 had 15% more CFM, which isn't a massive amount more. Although, I can fit a 360 in the case OK.

3x73=219 (420)
...the 420 has 50% more CFM compared to the 280 (wait, that's obvious as it's 1 more fan than the 280

), although I don't think I can fit a 420 in the case with 3 fans underneath the rad, but I could with 3 on top pulling air up and out.

Cenuij · 14 Nov 2020 at 23:53

gsf600y said:
Interesting. So I guess comparing...
2x73=146 (280)
3x56=168 (360)
...the 360 had 15% more CFM, which isn't a massive amount more. Although, I can fit a 360 in the case OK.

3x73=219 (420)
...the 420 has 50% more CFM compared to the 280 (wait, that's obvious as it's 1 more fan than the 280 ), although I don't think I can fit a 420 in the case with 3 fans underneath the rad, but I could with 3 on top pulling air up and out.

I would tend to think of it as the volume of air moved through an area of radiator, so we can roughly work out the volume of air moved through a square centimeter of rad:

(73 × 2) ÷ (28 × 14) = 0.372 CFM
(56 × 3) ÷ (36 × 12) = 0.388 CFM

So you can see it's very close really.

I don't know to what extent the different size/length of channels in the rad may affect things or how the different rad affects the pump, or the different airflow characteristics in the plenum with 3x120 vs 2x140

hyperseven · 14 Nov 2020 at 23:55

Isn't the Arctic liquid freezer II 420 due out soon?

Doug2507 · 14 Nov 2020 at 23:57

Yoi can use the biggest rad you can fit, as many of them as you want, all that does is slow down the time to get to ambient temp...

GloriousMess · 15 Nov 2020 at 01:03

I've got an Arctic Liquid Freezer II 240 on my Ryzen 5900X, and at full whack using CPU-Z's stress feature, it doesn't exceed 75C. This is with a currently 'moderately' ventilated mini-ITX case, which I'm updating shortly to have better air intake. In an open case I've seen the cooler keep it under 70C easily. Great AIO.

gsf600y · 15 Nov 2020 at 07:28

hyperseven said:
Isn't the Arctic liquid freezer II 420 due out soon?

It's available now ** No Competitors **, and £110 pre order here.
But I think I can only fit a 420 with 3 fans above, pulling. Could possibly fit 2 below pushing as well. Basically the void where the fans go in the case can just fit 3 140 fans, but not the slightly longer radiator.

Doug2507 said:
Yoi can use the biggest rad you can fit, as many of them as you want, all that does is slow down the time to get to ambient temp...

Not sure I follow this. The AIO testing videos I've watched seem to show bigger radiators keep the CPU at a lower temperature. Surely the more radiator that the water passes through the lower the water temperature drops before returning to the CPU?

Gee · 15 Nov 2020 at 10:10

hyperseven said:
Isn't the Arctic liquid freezer II 420 due out soon?

It's already out. I had one but returned it as it'd mean I'd have to remove the rear 140 and the top most front fan from my Meshify S2. Didn't want to end up removing too many fans as to starve my GPU.

Picked up the 360 instead.

gsf600y · 15 Nov 2020 at 11:48

I stripped out some panels inside this morning.
I think a 420 rad would actually fit. A little tight up against the cables on the right, but will probably go.

The fans may fit underneath too, although it would be tight depending on how the motherboard is (wont know until it arrives).
The heatsink at the top looks like it might collide with fans underneath the rad.
The thickness of rad+fans definitely overlaps the top of the motherboard by about 5mm (current motherboard). If the motherboard was 5mm lower in the case, it would fit.