AIO cooler owners - where did you put yours?

[mikef]

Since my first car was a VW Beetle, I've always leaned towards air cooling. I've been building PCs for 20 years with decent air cooling, so this is a new experience for me

I've been so impressed by the Ryzen 7 5800X I stuck in my gaming PC that I decided it was time to update the 12-year old i7-870 in my office machine to a Ryzen 5 5600X and a PCIe4 7 Gb/s SSD. The cheapest and easiest way to do this was as a pre-assembled and pre-tested bundle with a cooler, so as I own a bunch of air coolers already I ordered the bundle with the cheapest AIO closed loop cooler to give liquid cooling a shot - a Corsair H60 base model.

Never having done this before, I followed the Corsair installation instructions and added to my Micro-ATX case (CM Silencio S400) as a rear intake fan, pulling air through the rad, as below:



Looking online, I've learned several things

• there are multiple ways to install the thing - front or top or back x intake or exhaust x push or pull or push+pull fans = 18 combinations
• there's no consensus - everyone seems to have a different recommendation
• those recommendations are not generally backed up by actual data
• everyone is convinced that every other way of installing, except their own, is completely wrong
• practically no-one recommends rear intake except for the Corsair installation instructions

So I wondered which way those of you who actually own AIO coolers have installed them (preferably without links to the internet, unless to actual measurements)

ps: cooling performance so far seems OK at 32℃ idle, 44℃ gaming, 65℃ flat out on Prime95

[Jinx]

Gamers Nexus - Since being told off by Tech Jesus I think we all have them mounted correctly.....

[mikef]

And the first answer breaks the "no internet links" request. Most of what's posted online is rubbish. Pretty much everything on YouTube is self-promoting nonsense.

How/where did you mount your radiator and fans?

[130R]

I have mine (280mm H115i PRO) top mounted with fans running intake. If you have a GPU that kicks out a lot of heat then I would definitely run the fans intake rather than exhaust.

[mikef]

Thanks - also intake for me at the moment, although I'm open to changing the config depending on what you folks find works

[Trustmeimadoctor]

mikef said:

And the first answer breaks the "no internet links" request. Most of what's posted online is rubbish. Pretty much everything on YouTube is self-promoting nonsense.

How/where did you mount your radiator and fans?

Except he is more qualified than 99% of people on here to comment since he actually tests them

[mikef]

Well, I can use google too

But my question was for owners on here and how they set stuff up

[Jinx]

mikef said:

And the first answer breaks the "no internet links" request. Most of what's posted online is rubbish. Pretty much everything on YouTube is self-promoting nonsense.

How/where did you mount your radiator and fans?

Steve at Gamers Nexus is pretty well regarded - provides detailed explanations of testing methodology and death by graphs. In my machine - AIO is mounted at the top with the fan extracting (front fans intake - top and rear exhaust). Simple keeping with convection flow. GPU is blower type hence the airflow design.

[mikef]

Jinx said:

AIO is mounted at the top with the fan extracting (front fans intake - top and rear exhaust)

Cheers - that was my initial thought as I have always followed a front-to-back and bottom-to-top approach to cooling fans. I was a bit surprised at the Corsair instructions (recommending intake and rear position), but it seems to work

[jingars]

Another "AIO mounted at the top with the fans extracting (front fans intake - top and rear exhaust)" advocate here:

[mmm-five]

Corsair AIO on the top of the case, mainly because the front was already full of Corsair intakes.

[deckster]

The rule of thumb is that running intake over the radiator will result in lower CPU temps, and higher GPU temps. Exhausting over the radiator will result in the opposite.

You should also consider airflow (air doesn't go round corners very well) and positive/negative pressure.

I used to run a minimalist 240mm radiator which exhausted out of the top, and had no intake fans. So airflow very much left to sort itself out and negative pressure.

I've now rebuilt into a different case with a 360mm side radiator configured for side intake, a further three 120mm fans intake at the bottom, and finally three more 120mm fans exhausting at the top. More complex airflow and distinctly positive pressure.

And guess what? My GPU runs maybe 5 degrees hotter, and my CPU maybe 5 degrees cooler. So no huge surprises or life-changing differences noticed really.

[mikef]

jingars said:

Another "AIO mounted at the top with the fans extracting (front fans intake - top and rear exhaust)" advocate here

Which software is that?

I've been measuring using the free HWInfo64 app, this is starting up Prime95 at maximum:

[mikef]

Thanks mmm-five and deckster, good to see what's working for you

[jingars]

mikef said:

jingars said:

Another "AIO mounted at the top with the fans extracting (front fans intake - top and rear exhaust)" advocate here

Which software is that?

I've been measuring using the free HWInfo64 app, this is starting up Prime95 at maximum:

I have a Corsair AIO and that image is the Corsair iCUE "desktop"

[mikef]

Ah, I’m strictly bottom of the Corsair Hydro range...