Are AIO pumps noisy?

AIO CPU coolers have gotten a bad rep over the years due to their pumps being audible, as pumps naturally are. Given the compact design of AIO units, it is not a surprise that regular pumps such as the D5 and DDC commonly found in custom water cooling setups will not easily fit (and also be much too expensive and powerful to put into units like these).

Now, with this being said – if you come from a smaller cooler, it is often that you will only notice this hum from the AIO pumps because the rest of the system is now very quiet.

Annoyingly enough, coolers are the quietest when the system is under no load at all, and AIO coolers will have a constant hum to them despite the load level – it is only when the fans starts kicking in that the pump noise will start being evened out by the rest of the system.

So, is this a problem? For most users, no. If you are super sensitive with noise then you will likely notice it, but the vast majority of people will agree that their AIO coolers are the quietest coolers they have ever had, largely thanks to the large surface area they provide for cooling.

With this being said, we believe there is always room for improvement, which is why we built up a new pump for our AIO units in-house. This pump is used in all CORSAIR TITAN coolers and is, from our own experience, one of, if not the most quiet AIO pump on the market. For more details, you can read our article explaining the FlowDrive pump.

Now, with all iCUE-compatible AIOs from CORSAIR you will also have the option to set it at three different performance levels. "Extreme" if you want to enjoy the best possible cooling potential, "Quiet" if you are OK with sacrificing a small amount of performance, or "Balanced" if you just want something in between.