Cheap liquid cooling, is it worth it?

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beesmoko

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Dec 29, 2017
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I recently found one of the cheapest liquid cooling from a reputable brand it's Cooler Master MasterLiquid 120 Lite while it's not even $50 is it worth to upgrade my cooler into that AIO? I just want to do some mild overclocking and explore the boundaries because AMD APU boxed coolers are sh*t.

That's all, cheers!
 
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n0ns3ns3

n0ns3ns3

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May 25, 2016
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it generally looks like that:
In most cases (I have not seen something different) air coolers do same or better cooling at lower noise compared to up to 240 AiOs.
there is practically no limit in performance with air cooler for a "normal" 100-150w desktop CPUs.
even the expensive custom loops don't give meaningful overclocking advantage. Like may be a 100Mhz more at over 500$ price.
 
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beesmoko

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Dec 29, 2017
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I see your point, so that those people that are saying 'use liquid cooling for better performance at overclocking' those are just gimmicks while in the other hand you can get almost exact performance with cheaper air coolers, right?
 
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electro_neanderthal

electro_neanderthal

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Jan 22, 2018
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Not quite. Water cooling has the added benefit of a slower cooldown period, which helps prevent damage from thermal fluctuations. So they can extend the life of a processor or GPU in that capacity. And with large enough radiators, you can cool some extremely high clock speeds.

The other benefit is if you have a very warm case temperature (due to a powerful graphics card), since you can configure the fans to pull (or push, but that's noisy) fresh air directly from outside the case to cool it.

However, for most people, water cooling is a want, not a need.
 
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USAFRet

USAFRet

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Mar 16, 2013
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In addition, the 120mm liquid coolers are almost never better than the good air coolers.
Don't bother with liquid unless you go 240mm or larger.

I have a Cryorig A80 280mm.
Yes, it lowered the max temp under load about 12-15C. But that would only be a "needed solution" if I were at the extreme edge of OC, and the actual temp was the limiting factor in getting a bit more MHz.

For me, it was a hobby/want, rather than a need.

Liquid cooling is not magic. It simply moves the radiator fin area from being directly mounted to the CPU, to a remote area, the big radiator.
 
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n0ns3ns3

n0ns3ns3

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May 25, 2016
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the thing is that AiOs are technically have liquid, but practically are just wannabe liquid coolers.
they have anemic pump and crappy aluminium radiator that requires "insane" fans speed to cool the CPU beyond air coolers.
On the other hand, put a 2000RPM (120-140 usually equipped with ~1300RPM) fan on air cooler and you will get same or better result at the same noise levels.
In real life, here are examples:
I was able to push the GTX 1070 50MHz more than on air and that after power mod.
The CPU is able to do exactly the same at a bit higher temps - anyway VRM overheats first on my MB.
Yes, the temps are lower. especially on GPU. but who cares if it's within the spec.
Yes, my system is gently humming under unrealistic synthetic load.
But that with ~800-1000$ worth of custom loop which is leaps and bound above the best AiO you can find.
 
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