We are lucky that today’s computing has evolved a lot and that there are solutions for all tastes and all budgets. But now it’s not enough to have a good team, now you also have to be aesthetic, impactful. A component that has become very fashionable are the liquid cooling and, more specifically, the All in onebut, Are they better than an air freshener?
Liquid cooling itself can bring interesting aspects, such as better temperatures. Above all, this type of cooling is interesting for very high-end processors, such as the Intel Core i9 and the AMD Ryzen 9. Although, in most cases, they are a worse option than the type heatsink typical round.
They don’t lower the temperature so much, nor are they quieter
Several myths have been generated around these processor (and also graphics card) heat dissipation systems. Usually, it is highlighted that they are more efficient in heat dissipation and that they generate less noise. The truth is that an RL won’t always give us better results than a block-style heatsink, and there are reasons.
The first reason lies in the fans, more precisely, in its typology. Even if you don’t know it, there are two types of fans for computer: pressure and flow. Usually, flow ones are more used for RL and pressure ones for block heatsinks. The reason for this is the amount of surface the air has to cover. Block-style heatsinks are thicker than a liquid-cooled radiator.
What’s remarkable is that both systems use fans, which ultimately provide cooling. The problem, so to speak, is that a one-fan heatsink is equivalent to a two-fan RL (more or less). fans of pressure is louder than flow, compared one by one. But, by having more fans, the noise increases.
Additionally, pressure fans are generally more efficient at dissipating heat. They generate more amount of air, so the temperature is reduced faster. Of course, there’s also more area to cover than an RL heater.
In fact, the problem is elsewhere.
We have to say that the biggest problem with RL is its simplicity. Custom liquid cooling is complex and has different elements, such as a separate pump and reservoir. AIO systems do not have a reservoir, so there is no “excess” of liquid to compensate for the micro evaporation that occurs through the pores of the tube.
Any plastic tube has pores and when the liquid evaporates, very slowly and in small quantities, it is lost. In the long run (and depending on use) the quantity of liquid decreases and the circulation of the system deteriorates. This forces the pump to run at a higher power and eventually it will either burn out or not do its job well.
There is a design flaw in all RL AIOs that generates a durability of 2-4 years (depending on usage). The vast majority do not have a filler cap to compensate for fluid loss. This simple item could make our liquid cooling last forever and it doesn’t matter. In the end, this is the source of all the problems you will have in the not so distant future.
Personally, I find AIO RLs interesting and useful. It’s a good product, but they have a design and manufacturing flaw that, to me, makes them an awful product. Curiously, the first models of this cooling system had this filler cap, which has been lost over time.
