AIOs vs Custom Cooling: Which is better?

When it comes to cooling your computer, and more specifically the CPU, you have three options:

• Air cooling, such as our A115.
• AIO (All-In-One) cooling, such as the TITAN 360mm.
• Custom Cooling, such as our Hydro X Series lineup.

Out of these three, all have their advantages, so lets run through them one by one.

Air coolers are fine for the vast majority of systems that do not utilize mid-high end CPUs. They are reliable and the only thing that can realistically fail are the fans, which can be easily replaced or even upgraded.

The downside is that they can be limited in how much they can cool, and you will often see your CPU throttle, especially if it is a high-wattage chip. Noise can also be a downside since you will be controlling the fans based on the CPU temperatures which can vary quite a bit (see our article on why you should prioritize using coolant temp for fan control).

Air coolers also have the disadvantage of dumping all the heat inside the case, relying on a good case fan setup and airflow to evacuate the heat out of your system.

Lastly, air coolers are heavy, and put substantial weight on your motherboard, so if you're moving your PC around a lot or shipping it, we recommend using proper packaging material to make sure nothing shifts during transport.

AIOs, or All-In-One coolers (named because they have everything built in, with zero assembly or maintenance on the water cooling parts) are a fantastic upgrade from an air cooler.

When broken down, the inner workings of an AIO are pretty simple. The pump head (that sits on top of the CPU) draws heat from the CPU into the coolant, and then pumps it through the radiator. The fans on the radiator then push air through the radiator, dissipating heat from the coolant and out of the case.

AIOs offer multiple advantages over an air cooler – the biggest one being thermal surface. The size of your AIO is only limited to your case, and most cases will comfortably fit a 360mm AIO which is plenty to cool even the most demanding consumer chips out there. If you want to go crazy we even have 420mm AIOs.

The size of the radiator directly correlates to how silent you can make your system. More radiator capacity means that your fans can run quieter since there is more area to dissipate the heat from.

For example, a 240mm (two 120mm fans) AIO and a 360mm (three 120mm fans) can in theory perform very similarly, but the 240mm would have to run its fans at higher speeds than the 360mm.

Basically, the more fans you have, the slower they can run.

Another advantage is that you can mount the radiator (which will dissipate the heat from the coolant) in a spot where all the heat will be pushed out of your case. A good example is that if you mount your AIO in the front of your case, and have fans push air through the AIO and into the case, you are essentially dumping hundreds of watts directly into your case, and in turn graphics card, memory, ssd etc. It is much better to mount it in the top, or even side (if you have a case that supports it like our FRAME 4000D or 3500X) so that all the warm air gets dumped outside of your case.

All iCUE enabled AIOs also use coolant temps to control the fans which creates a much more pleasant user experience as the fans will not dramatically ramp up and down as much as they would if they were directly tied to CPU temps.

The only real disadvantage to an AIO is that the pump can be audible depending on what model you get. We are particularly proud of our Titan lineup as it uses our own in-house designed 3 phase motor which is the quietest pump we have made to date.

So if AIOs are so great, why should you bother with custom cooling then?

The answer is surface area, and graphics card noise. Yes, it is possible to get a graphics card with an AIO attached which can largely solve the issue of loud stock coolers on graphics cards, but if you are not able to get one of these unique models you can include your graphics card into a custom cooling setup. This is not possible with an AIO.

Custom cooling is also incredibly expandable, so if you have a case that supports multiple radiators you can fill up all of these spots, and enjoy even lower fan speeds needed to cool your components.

If we compare apples to apples, lets say a 360mm AIO to a 360mm custom cooled setup just with the CPU you will actually not see a significant performance benefit as you are still limited by the radiator surface. Where custom cooling shines is that you have the ability to add a second radiator, essentially doubling your thermal capacity. This means that you can run your fans at a much lower speed while still getting the same performance.

Oh, and it looks pretty cool as well. There is no doubt that going custom cooling is much more work than just having an AIO, and if you're only going to cool your CPU with a single radiator it might not be for you. If you on the other hand like the thought of having a unique looking system with the ability to make it super quiet, then custom cooling is the next step up after an AIO.