Any AIO Coolers with silent pumps?

philo-sofa · 26 Dec 2020 at 04:45

I’ve put together a 5800X, 3070 based system in an NZXT 710i and its beautifully silent at idle... except for the darn Corsair 115i Pro XT, whose water pump I can hear the entire time, possibly as it bottoms out at 1900rpm.

Are there any go-to water coolers with silent pumps (at least when idling)? Or any ideas about silencing my existing AIO further?

ver01@ · 26 Dec 2020 at 09:53

Coolermaster has dual dissipation pumps which are supposedly not as noisy.

Ross Thomson · 26 Dec 2020 at 10:30

have you tried turning the pump down slightly?

no pump is silent

Drumroll · 26 Dec 2020 at 11:32

Arctic Freezer II, unless running at 100%, very, very quiet. The fans also pretty good. Would need fans costing at least 2 or 3 times more to give quieter operation.

philo-sofa · 26 Dec 2020 at 15:26

Ross Thomson said:
have you tried turning the pump down slightly?

no pump is silent

Yeah it's as low as it'll go in software. Only other way I could see is if I could somehow reduce the voltage that comes in via SATA connectors and the pump works on voltage.

philo-sofa · 26 Dec 2020 at 15:28

ver01@ said:
Coolermaster has dual dissipation pumps which are supposedly not as noisy.

MrPotato said:
Arctic Freezer II, unless running at 100%, very, very quiet. The fans also pretty good. Would need fans costing at least 2 or 3 times more to give quieter operation.

Interesting, cheers guys. I'll keep those two in mind, maybe somehow find a way to hear them under operation and compare to the 115i

MartinPrince · 27 Dec 2020 at 10:53

MrPotato said:
Arctic Freezer II, unless running at 100%, very, very quiet. The fans also pretty good. Would need fans costing at least 2 or 3 times more to give quieter operation.

Definitely. I've tested several Arctic Freezer II's and they are really quiet. Much better units than the H1XX's.

viru555 · 4 Jan 2021 at 11:29

can u control Arctic with afterburner or speedfan?
i have kraken x61 and pump is ridiculously loud, it always had issues with rattling but after 4y passed it got lot louder.

ver01@ · 4 Jan 2021 at 12:32

The Coolermaster is probably the best noise wise

Ross Thomson · 4 Jan 2021 at 13:10

viru555 said:
can u control Arctic with afterburner or speedfan?
i have kraken x61 and pump is ridiculously loud, it always had issues with rattling but after 4y passed it got lot louder.

afterburner is for GPUs - I control mine via bios

foster grant · 4 Jan 2021 at 13:49

I have a H100 the RGB one and I cant hear any noise from the pump at all and I have the pump set to extreme.

prjwebb · 4 Jan 2021 at 14:39

How do you have it mounted? That can make a pretty big difference for pump noise.

freddie64 · 4 Jan 2021 at 16:53

Adrianr · 4 Jan 2021 at 17:49

Sometimes you're just very susceptible to pump noise. I have an Arctic Freezer ii 360, mentioned above as 'very, very quiet', which in the main it is, but I can notice the pump vs my Noctua in a split second, idle and load.

SaTrOx · 13 Jan 2021 at 00:07

Ive got Kraken Z63 and cannot hear the pump im running it in performance mode, but i may not be as susceptible to pump noise so take with grain of salt.

Grim5 · 13 Jan 2021 at 08:16

yeah, every single AIO I've tried has a dead silent pump

try making a list of which ones have noisey pumps

Kelt · 13 Jan 2021 at 12:04

I have a Cooler Master AIO, been running just a few days shy of four years now, never heard the pump at all.

doyll · 13 Jan 2021 at 12:12

I think almost if not all water cooling has a little pump and water movement noise.

I'm run air cooling except for my be quiet! Silent Loop 280 in one system with almost no noise. Have to take side cover has to get ear close to pump to hear it. It's only AIO in home with 4 other air cooled systems. I used custom loops for many years. From before turn of century when we had to have our own waterblocks machined and radiators were from cars.

about 2009 when good heatpipe tower coolers came out I began changing to air. When Thermalright Silver Arrow and Noctua NH-D14 came out I changed to air cooling, and except for my Silent Loop everything is air cooled. When Silent loop dies I will replace it with air cooler. I like their silence and the fact seem to last forever (at least 20 years).

Silent Loop was test & review sample I got late 2016. It is not a CLC. CLCs are sealed systems with no way to service / repair them. AIOs that are not CLC have threaded fittings, copper radiators (I added 2nd one)and fill port for servicing and repairing as needed. Silent Loop gets topped up every 6-9 months and flushed / serviced about every 18 months

Meddling-Monk · 13 Jan 2021 at 13:23

The only AIOs I tried were the first gen Corsairs, the H100 and H100i (2011/2012) and they were noisy, even back when I first got them (with the fans turned off). The H100i was particularly vexing because it wasn't until I found a youtube video online and found that ALL the H100i units made that humming/buzzing noise (and that I was replacing gear) that I permanently removed it from my setups, as I just didn't like hearing that type of sound as the case magnified the sound, making it annoying (I kept looking around for the cause of the sound, as it's within audible range even inside the case, so a bit like a mosquito sound that's fairly far off, but still audible, you just keep looking around, and that's what this was doing).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CV1BT5nMkhg

At the 1 minute 5 second mark when its turned on. It's that noise. I haven't tried other AIO's since these two, so I don't know if they make similar noises, or whether advancements have eliminated this noise. But if they do, I wouldn't call them silent. Quiet sure, but not silent. Anyone who's got a modern AIO CLC or otherwise, take a listen to that and comapre to their own ones? Do your AIO's still make similar noises?

Pablosammy · 13 Jan 2021 at 13:44

My NZXT 280mm had no pump noise whatsoever. If it got warm, I could hear the fans but never the pump with the case closed. If I had my ear to it, sure, but that's not how I run my pc

I'm now on a custom loop - I can hear my D5 above 3000rpm, so I run it at 2800rpm and it's effectively silent.

In both systems, pump noise was generally a sign that there was air circulating. AIOs have some air in them by design (to allow for thermal expansion) - which way up is your rad mounted? I found it worked best with the ports at the bottom, allowing the air bubble to sit happily in the plenum at the top of the rad.