Whether you’re building a new PC from scratch, replacing your PC’s air cooler with a liquid all-in-one, or replacing your current AIO with a new one, there are five key factors when choosing of the best device for your PC, and we’ll tell you below.
The 5 keys to choosing the best liquid cooling
Remember when liquid coolers were just for PC enthusiasts? Today this is no longer the case, they have become a mid-range device and even a necessity for many high-powered AMD and Intel processors. Still, they offer many benefits like a much cleaner and more presentable PC interior, so they remain the choice even for inexperienced users. Whatever type of user you are, be sure to follow the 5 keys so that you don’t go wrong with your choice.
Radiator size
Certainly, the most important key to not making a mistake when buying an AIO liquid cooling system is the size of the radiator. Our advice is that you do not get carried away by the dimensions announced by the manufacturer, neither of the box nor of the refrigeration itself.
As much as a manufacturer tells you that its radiator is 240 mm, the reality is that it is much longer than that, since it is necessary to add at least the tank or the hooks of the tubes. Make sure of this before buying a liquid cooling system, and also make sure of its width, as in many cases the width of the heatsink plus the width of the fan will make them physically unsuitable as they collide with the board mother. Pay attention to this.
Fan speed
Many liquid coolers are designed for the best performance, but sometimes this means that they include fans that run extremely fast and are therefore very noisy, which can end up being a real annoyance.
For this reason, we recommend that you pay close attention to the speed of the fans included in the AIO kit you intend to buy, or failing that, to have third-party fans ready to replace those that come from the factory. factory (because, in fact, few manufacturers include very good fans in their AIO).
The position of the liquid cooling pump
Generally, when we talk about AIO kits, the water pump is located in the CPU block, and that means that we can find two types: those whose tubes come out from the side, and those whose tubes come out above the CPU hang.
Be very careful with the CPU blocks in which the tubes exit from the side, because on some motherboards they could collide with the RAM memory on one side or with the heatsinks of the motherboard itself on the contrary or by the top. We’ve always preferred the blocks with the tubes coming out the top, but it’s true that these are harder to find today.
Softwares
Sometimes the software is just as important to a liquid cooling system as the hardware itself. Being able to create a custom curve for the fans or control the speed of the pump is always a great advantage that will give you more control over your PC’s hardware and operation.
Obviously not all of them have software integration, but there are manufacturers that do, and of course for us that’s a plus.
RGB lighting
Today, almost every manufacturer has some form of RGB lighting implemented in their hardware. There are likes and there are dislikes, but the real issue is integrating this lighting with the rest of your PC lighting, because if you can’t use the same range of colors or the effects can be synchronized, your PC can go from an impressive gaming PC to a nightclub.
In this regard, our recommendation is that you make sure that if the liquid cooling you want to buy is RGB, that it is configurable from the same software as the rest of the devices that you have on your PC, or that it can at least be disabled.
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