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Replacing air cooler with AIO

Onizuka0701

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Not looking to start a war here but would like some advice.

Want to replace my coolermaster v6gt with an aio, currently looking at this Lian li galahad 240.

This is mostly for aesthetic reasons but I also need it to perform at least as well as my air cooler, just want to know if anyone has experience going from a large air cooler to an aio and what their experience was.

Running an 8700k not delidded that gets quite toasty at 4.7 all core at 1.275 V, hits 80 C on rare occasions but ambient also isn't great so that definitely contributes.

Case only supports 240 rads, coolermaster cm690 iii white.
 
Before you do anything, I would recommend giving your case a good clean with a can of air or a blower, and a clean paintbrush. Get as much dust out of it as possible. Also consider getting some proper thermal paste from @Thermal Grizzly ZA and cleaning + repasting your cooler. Even if you get a new cooler I'd still recommend using Thermal Grizzly instead of the stock stuff.

Now to answer your question. The short answer is: Yes, in theory, the 240mm AIO would outperform the 120mm air cooler.

However, since your case is quite limited in terms of rad/fan mounts, I think you may have other issues. E.g. if you put the radiator in front, your CPU will be cooled nicely, but your other components (especially GPU) will suffer from a lot of hot air being dumped into the case. If you put the rad on top, the CPU will be cooled less effectively than it would at the front, since it's now getting hot air being pulled into the rad as opposed to at the front when it was getting cool air.

That said - I still think a top-mounted 240mm AIO will outperform the 120mm air cooler, as long as you have good fans in front and rear. So I would say go for it if you are keen (y)

Other options -
1. Get a dual tower 140mm cooler like the Phanteks TC14PE. This will perform much better than the V6GT and around the same as the 240mm AIO. Case clearance might be an issue though because your case supports up to 171mm coolers and the TC14PE is... 171mm :LOL:
2. Get a new case. For around the same cost of that AIO you can get a new case with better thermals, which will also decrease your temps. Look at the Cooler Master H500, the Corsair 4000D (@Senshi do you still have any in stock?) and the Phanteks P400A.
 
I am of the opinion that a high end air cooler is very much on par with most 240 AiO if not better ( Noctua's of the world) but in both cases we may not get the most out of our investment if we do not give the cooler a fair operating environment. It is clearly very important to ensure that your case can get the cool air it needs in and the hot air it doesn't, out. With an air cooler you could very well end up recycling the hot air that could not be removed from your case quick enough whereas with an AiO the hot air generated is usually at the top or edge of case to find an easy way out.

An AiO in your case may just work better given the layout options and the inherent air sourcing of an air cooler. Also, I like the Galahad and was seriously considering ditching my H150i for it, just because of the way it looks :)

Also, if you are not emotionally bound to that case I would consider something that can give you more airflow and more cooling mounted options. But I may just be flaming or trolling here now :)
 
Before you do anything, I would recommend giving your case a good clean with a can of air or a blower, and a clean paintbrush. Get as much dust out of it as possible. Also consider getting some proper thermal paste from @Thermal Grizzly ZA and cleaning + repasting your cooler. Even if you get a new cooler I'd still recommend using Thermal Grizzly instead of the stock stuff.

Now to answer your question. The short answer is: Yes, in theory, the 240mm AIO would outperform the 120mm air cooler.

However, since your case is quite limited in terms of rad/fan mounts, I think you may have other issues. E.g. if you put the radiator in front, your CPU will be cooled nicely, but your other components (especially GPU) will suffer from a lot of hot air being dumped into the case. If you put the rad on top, the CPU will be cooled less effectively than it would at the front, since it's now getting hot air being pulled into the rad as opposed to at the front when it was getting cool air.

That said - I still think a top-mounted 240mm AIO will outperform the 120mm air cooler, as long as you have good fans in front and rear. So I would say go for it if you are keen (y)

Other options -
1. Get a dual tower 140mm cooler like the Phanteks TC14PE. This will perform much better than the V6GT and around the same as the 240mm AIO. Case clearance might be an issue though because your case supports up to 171mm coolers and the TC14PE is... 171mm :LOL:
2. Get a new case. For around the same cost of that AIO you can get a new case with better thermals, which will also decrease your temps. Look at the Cooler Master H500, the Corsair 4000D (@Senshi do you still have any in stock?) and the Phanteks P400A.
Case gets cleaned regularly so thats not a problem, trying to move away from a big block of metal in the middle of my mobo. Cpu cooler fans have been replaced with corsair ml120's and other case fans are also decent.

I would look at other cases but none of these newer cases support 3 × 3.5" and 3 × 2.5" hdd's.

Still looking around, for cases and coolers, best upgrade for cooling though would probably be a delid
 
I am of the opinion that a high end air cooler is very much on par with most 240 AiO if not better ( Noctua's of the world) but in both cases we may not get the most out of our investment if we do not give the cooler a fair operating environment. It is clearly very important to ensure that your case can get the cool air it needs in and the hot air it doesn't, out. With an air cooler you could very well end up recycling the hot air that could not be removed from your case quick enough whereas with an AiO the hot air generated is usually at the top or edge of case to find an easy way out.

An AiO in your case may just work better given the layout options and the inherent air sourcing of an air cooler. Also, I like the Galahad and was seriously considering ditching my H150i for it, just because of the way it looks :)

Also, if you are not emotionally bound to that case I would consider something that can give you more airflow and more cooling mounted options. But I may just be flaming or trolling here now :)
Wouldn't mind replacing my case if I could find something white, decently priced and that supports my abundance of hdd's.
 
Case gets cleaned regularly so thats not a problem, trying to move away from a big block of metal in the middle of my mobo. Cpu cooler fans have been replaced with corsair ml120's and other case fans are also decent.

I would look at other cases but none of these newer cases support 3 × 3.5" and 3 × 2.5" hdd's.

Still looking around, for cases and coolers, best upgrade for cooling though would probably be a delid
Great, so your fans seem good.

If you want lots of drive mounts you may want to consider a full-tower case? I'm currently eyeing the Phanteks Pro 2. 4 x 3.5" and 11 x 2.5" mounts, and even though it doesn't come with any fans, it still somehow outperforms many cases on the market that come with fans. You can obviously just transfer your existing fans over. It also has lots of rad/fan mounts, 15 x 120mm or 8 x 140mm. It is quite a bit taller and wider than your current case though.

EDIT: I see now you want a white case, I don't think the Pro 2 comes in white unfortunately :(
 
I do have stock of the 4000D Airflow but it doesn't appear to suit the OP's needs hdd wise.
 
Case gets cleaned regularly so thats not a problem, trying to move away from a big block of metal in the middle of my mobo. Cpu cooler fans have been replaced with corsair ml120's and other case fans are also decent.

I would look at other cases but none of these newer cases support 3 × 3.5" and 3 × 2.5" hdd's.

Still looking around, for cases and coolers, best upgrade for cooling though would probably be a delid
If you use the site on desktop (not mobile) you'll see a long string of filters that can be applied to narrow down your selection to products that meet your requirements.

Here is a link to standard ATX cases supporting at least 2x 2.5" and 3x 3.5" as well as a 240mm radiator, and arranged from cheapest to most expensive. There are nine options of which six are currently available.


Oh, and if you want to consider 360mm radiators, here's a link with a filter applied for 360mm radiators. It brings the options down to seven, of which four are currently available.

 
If you use the site on desktop (not mobile) you'll see a long string of filters that can be applied to narrow down your selection to products that meet your requirements.

Here is a link to standard ATX cases supporting at least 2x 2.5" and 3x 3.5" as well as a 240mm radiator, and arranged from cheapest to most expensive. There are nine options of which six are currently available.


Oh, and if you want to consider 360mm radiators, here's a link with a filter applied for 360mm radiators. It brings the options down to seven, of which four are currently available.

I have say, of all the tech sites out there, Progenix has the most useful filter system. Must have taken you ages to set up :LOL:
 
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If you use the site on desktop (not mobile) you'll see a long string of filters that can be applied to narrow down your selection to products that meet your requirements.

Here is a link to standard ATX cases supporting at least 2x 2.5" and 3x 3.5" as well as a 240mm radiator, and arranged from cheapest to most expensive. There are nine options of which six are currently available.


Oh, and if you want to consider 360mm radiators, here's a link with a filter applied for 360mm radiators. It brings the options down to seven, of which four are currently available.

Thanks will have a look, just trying to get everything perfect before my 3080 arrives 😀
 

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