You don't need an AIO

Recently, I have been browsing hardware forums to get in touch with the current state of computer hardware again. I am in the process of upgrading my 6-year-old rig. Up until yesterday, I had a Corsair AIO (All in one) CPU cooler with a 280mm radiator cooling my heavily overclocked CPU. Unfortunately, this AIO is not supported by Liquidctl, and the other legacy software for controlling it no longer works. So I was stuck with a piece of working hardware that I could no longer configure on my operating system of choice. I ended up buying a nice Noctua CPU cooler and ever since my PC is more enjoyable to use in every aspect. Let’s get into the details, of why I think AIOs are (for most people) a bad pick.

(this is not a Noctua-sponsored post)

Reliability

An AIO only lasts 5-7 years. The manufacturers sometimes grant 5 years of warranty, but realistically, people recommend switching them out at some point. The fluid inside might evaporate over time and it’ll reach a point where there is not enough fluid to properly cool your CPU. I did not notice this, but the fact, that my AIO already was 6 years old and marked as EOL by the manufacturer made me jumpy.

In contrast to that, a good air cooler has no expiry date. Good fan manufacturers test their products over years to ensure good reliability. A couple of days ago I sold a 10-year-old Thermalright cooler, the 140mm fan was still spinning like on day 1.

Waste

Replacing a key component like a CPU cooler every 5-7 years leads to a lot of extra waste. Especially considering that parts of an AIO are typically not reusable. The entire device has to be switched out. How many AIOs does planet earth have left?

A good air cooler has no expiry date.

Energy consumption

Only after I removed the AIO and replaced it with 2x 140mm fans and a Noctua D12L I realized how much power the AIO pulled. My idle power consumption dropped by about 15 Watts! At 5hrs / day with 40 €cents per kWh, this is about 10 € extra per year for cooling your CPU. Is that worth it?

Performance

A good air cooler provides performance just as well as an AIO. Countless reviews support this statement.

KISS

Keep it simple, stupid. An AIO consists of a lot of moving parts that can break: there is the pump, fluid, pipes, pipe connectors, radiator, fans, a USB header connection, and power connections. Meanwhile, an air cooler consists of: a fan with a 4-pin PWM-controlled connector and a heatsink without anything flowing through, so nothing that can get clogged up or break.

Why would I voluntarily pick a solution that is so much more complicated to understand, where there are so many more components that can break?

Silence

The fans of my H110i AIO were not particularly silent. They produced a lot of noise even on the “silent” preset. Sure, I could make the AIO silent if I installed good fans on it, but let’s be real: I paid 140€ for this device and then I should drop another 50€ on silent fans? What do I do with the shitty bundled fans? Throw them away? Even more garbage?

Maybe this is a fault with this particular AIO, but regardless: a Noctua CPU cooler will always be quiet. My PC is now so silent, that when I turned it on today I got startled and thought it wasn’t on. So I force-killed my PC and turned it on again until I realized it wasn’t broken, but so silent I didn’t hear it even while sitting right next to it.

Price

Sure, a Noctua fan costs 80-120 €, a decent chunk of money, but an AIO is not much difference in pricing, except that you have all those downsides. I’d rather pay this amount of money for an air cooler, that I can use for years, uses less energy, is more silent, probably won’t break, and provides the same performance.

So, the next time you want to buy an AIO, please think twice.