Here's my issue. If an air cooler's fans fail (Which is easy to notice in most cases), the main cooler still runs and can at least cool enough to let you thermally throttle and not cook. If an AIO fails, and there's several potential fail points, you can end up with one or more failed parts. Air might not be quite as cool overall, but it's close enough that the added security is worth it to me.
I get that, with how I have it installed and the software with it I will know if it fails and my system stops cooling. I won't cook my system but I will be really damn annoyed to have to order a new one basically overnight if I want to use my main rig again anytime soon which might not be possible or I would need to switch to a phase-change+fan setup.
I've been running nothing but AIOs in all my systems for going on 10-12 years without a failure of any kind. Buy a decent brand and/or upgrade the fans and you should be fine.
Only thing you have to be aware of is that they're really only good for 5ish years I less you can refill them. You do lose some of the liquid to evaporation over time and if you can't top it off the thing is toast.
Ah good to know. I had not taken that into account. Maybe I'll just buy a better non-AIO cooler for my storage server rather than repurposing this one. I do think I need a larger one though. It could work for my VR system probably if I was not a moron and didn't throw out the other mounting plates. Its a older i7 system that does not get a ton of use.
That or maybe ill just give it away if someone wants it. Should have plenty of life in it from what you said.
(post is archived)