I was using an ID cooling aio 360mm with stock fans for about 2 years until i upgraded my system to a custom water cooling loop. All i can say is the id cooling is fantastic! It cooled my 5900x oc’ed to 4.6ghz and my cpu never go more than 70c under heavy load like rendering for hours and transcoding videos on handbrake. For $60 the performance is great!
as a matter of fact, I'm currently using the ID-Cooling AIO (the exact one in the video) for about a year now, and it runs totally fine, better cooling than my cpu fan cooler
I have 7600x at 5.5 ghz and i stays around 60c and 76 is the most i have ever seen. I also use it as an out take so i agree that this is an incredible aio
Better as in how? If the air cooler was keeping your CPU's termperature within spec, then you literally just threw your money away because you don't know any better.
For anyone considering this option, I recommend replacing the fans with arctic p12 fans, they make an argb version of the p12s as well and both come very close to noctua in performance while being $10 cheaper per fan
In EU you can get a pack of 5 Arctic P12 fans for 25€ that's the price of 1 Noctua or Be Quiet fan. The Arctic Liquid Freezer II is also a good option if features or aesthetics doesn't matter.
I bought a bunch for my case cooling, but had to switch them out because they had a terrible resonance sound at a couple specific RPMs. They are cheap and do move air though.
With gpus finally making their plunge into affordabilty, itd be cool to see a budget build with some other “off brand” components that will get ppl looking to build started. Noticed many great alternatives from ID cooling Vetroo, Thermalright, making waves
Thing is id cooling and thermalright aren't "off brands" AFAIK they're quite well known in the pc cooler market and have been doing business for long. Just not as popular as the more "premium" brands.
I've had an ID Cooling 240 running since 2015 (they're worth it specially if you're looking for a white one or a cheap rad). It's worked on my 4790K OC'd to the walls and is now running on a 3700X with no issues. Max temps are around 74*C with my GT-AP15 (I have a ton of these lying around for rads) only running at 1100 rpm. It's a great rad for the money, especially if you have a ton of very good radiator fans lying around. I've also had Corsair, EK, and many other brands of radiators that have lasted long and some that died early. Remember, all these radiators come from 1 or 2 OEM's only, so they're basically the same. They're just branded (pumps and rads are all the same) differently and some add ons (like RGB, LCD, better fans etc.) for the more expensive ones. I'm currently running a Be Quiet Pure loop 280 for my 5700X and it's running great.
When I built mine last year I went with a Vetroo lurker 360 aio and have loved it so far. Got it because my previous system had the Vetroo v5 air cooler and it was surprisingly good for $30. Think I paid $90 for the aio but it went up by now I'm sure.
@@loganbates2657 I was looking at the v5 but ended up getting a scythe fuma 3 huge improvement over the stock prism 3700x came with went from 90c to 60-70c on my games (cod, starfield, cyberpunk)
@Tajl3r They fixed that and you'll get a replacement kit if you already purchased one. It won't surprise me if more aio coolers have this problem, but it doesn't get addressed by the manufacturer.
@@haywoodjay385 If you watched the video in the slightest you would know that the video wasn't intended to dunk on people's decisions if they decided on a more expensive cooler. It's to show that you get relatively minimal improvements in cooling for an over 400% price increase. Considering the difference in temperature above ambient, with stock fans in the RDR2 test, the Corsair did 17.9% better at 436.4% of the price. That's not opinion, and it's certainly not being pushed on others. It's the results of testing. And, as is shown in the video, upgrading the fans on the cheaper cooler would give the Corsair only a *7.1% lead* at more than double the price, assuming that your upgraded fans are less than $32.5 each. If the features of included RGB and being able to put gifs on an LCD screen on your pump block are worth the price to you, then go for it. But if you want the best bang for your buck in pure cooling performance, it's definitely not worth it.
Recently I had the pump fail on my 280mm NZXT x63 AIO, I got tired of the hassle & went back to aircooling, I'm now using a Noctua NH-U12A. IMO aircooling is the way to go, my PC is now silent & my CPU temperature is just as good as the AIO!
I would say the reason the avarage temp has been lower, but the max temp is higher is because the way the fans are set up, i believe they are set to ramp up at 69 degrees. In the future you should set them to a constant rpm for more accurate results.
my only issue is that using plug and play settings is what 90% of people are gonna want to do. Id rather focus on acoustics then, instead of strictly RPM.
Fan curves are set by the motherboard bios, not the fans themselves, and the fans should ramp up at the same temperature points because of this. What may be different is the RPM they are ramping up to. Because fan curves work by using PWM percentages, 70% fan speed at 69C may be 1500 RPM for one set of fans but 1000 RPM for another set of fans, which produces different levels of cooling effectiveness at each point in the curve. The fans also probably have different airflow and pressure characteristics at different RPMs.
That is what I did for my air cooler AMD prism and I get these same temps with a 5800x I might just keep it the way it is.I like the way the prism works, I just had to get fan for the cpu to idle at 33c at 60% so when It spike for those few seconds it never made it above 70c and full load remained 58-66c deg.The 7 3700x did not run as hot as the 5800x does,But the average temp was still good overall during load,I just did not like that short throttle from loading screens and whatnot.
I really like the idea to buy a 2 extra fans to improve the temps. By the way you can still use stock fans for improving the airflow in the case if you find place for them.
I don't really think its worth it since that Corsair AIO is really only that expensive because it has an LCD screen Corsair literally has similarly performing AIO's WITH RGB for under $130 and they would easily have a better warranty than IDcooling and also sometimes some retailers have sales on products and I have even seen RGB Corsair AIO's go for under 100. So getting $55 AIO and getting $25 fans for it seems to be a bad idea considering AIO's from more reputable brands with better fans and better and longer lasting warranties can be bought for that price. I would only recommend this cooler for someone looking for a cheap AIO not for someone who wants a cheap AIO and wants to upgrade its fans as the AIO may probably die way before the fans even make a dent in their lifespans. If you want a cheap AIO for $55 go for it but I would not get it to slap $25 fans on it unless I got the fans for free or something
@@zahidshabir4038 Yeah. But are you sure that IDcooling has a worse warranty? Also, the fans, which you slap on the top are not need to be the best of the best you can find a good option as well for 15 to 20 $. I think the whole video was not about - buy a cheapest one, but that there are different ways of doing things.
Lol please don't do this people.... You can get a Arctic Liquid Freezer II 240 for just under $100 on a mazon and it's one of the best performing 240mm AIO liquid coolers on the market. Already comes with better fans and a better pump, better build quality, 6 year warranty, and the peace of mind knowing it's not going randomly leak on your components😂 Comes out to the same price as if you bought this cheap ID-Cooling AIO and bought high end fans for it. Unless you already have a cheap AIO don't waste your money like that. There's plenty of AIO's around $100 that are better and already come with better fans.
I have owned ID brand cooling AIOs before...the 2 I have both died after a year of use. I have also bought and tried few other cheap AIOs. Then I switched to slightly more expensive AIOs. Going to say durability of the more expensive ones is definitely a reason for the price differences from what I see. That durability is a major reason for buying more expensive AIOs for me. When the cheap ones go... they go at once and without warning. Sometimes it damages other parts too. Sure if the cheap ones go it tends to be less expensive to replace, but replacing other more expensive parts in the process sucks worse. For reference, one of the ID coolers that failed was hooked up to my 5950x. It was a 360 rad version. Because of the heat load of the 5950x that I was generating for long periods of time for work, it was running at a fairly hot temp even slightly undervolted. The issue turns out that the tubing didn't stop evaporation well enough for the ID cooler with the temps running at load for long periods of time. So if anyone is reading and following along, the temps got worse over time but I didn't notice until the pump seized from lack of enough water in the system. Seized right when CPU was a 100% and the system didn't shut down fast enough. Dead CPU. Personally, rather spend a little extra on an AIO where that won't happen than the difference of having to spend another $700+ tax on a CPU. Personally using the Artic Freezers now and they've done much better in terms of performance and durability compared to the ID coolers I had.
It's why my 5900x is air-cooled by a Dark Rock Pro4, zero chance of failure. Never seen temps go over 65c but I only game on my PC. My 3080ti is water-cooled by a Alphacool Eiswolf 2 AIO though.
I seen multiple ID cooling and other cheaper aio failing after a year too in my pc group. You basically get flame got getting 1 over here lmao, expecting it to fail within a year.
Kyle's testing methodology leaves a lot to be desire. It's kinda entertaining to see how a cheap AIO stacks again a premium one, but I would not trust the results or conclusions. AIO's need to reach thermal equilibrium, and here we have a test that last less than 40 seconds. Let's say, he's testing under “realistic conditions”. I can see myself or any gamer playing for many hours in a given day. So you should, AT LEAST, test for a decent amount of time on each game, and you need to make sure, the cooler reaches thermal equilibrium. And as you say, durability is a big factor. Even though, I don't think you need to spend $200 on an AIO, you need to make sure that you get a solid one.
@@SpaceLion949 It is but I wanted my computer to last me at least 5 years. My previous computer i7 4790k/980ti lasted around 5 but could really feel it's age it's last two years of use.
Honestly ID Cooling has been killing it at the ultra budget end of the market for both AIO and air coolers, I've used a bunch of their coolers in the past few builds that I've done for friends and it's great value.
I’ve had the auraflow 240 before this cooling my ryzen 7 3700x and it was really a solid aio for budget builds. In SEA, ID-Cooling coolers are quite popular as their price-to-performance are pretty good imo
Not to mention their Aircoolers SE-224/226-XT are much better options than the budget coolers like Hyper 212 or deepcool gammaxx in terms of price + performance + ease of installation.
Came back to this review a week ago. When looking for a AIO for my partner's rig. Safe to say your review is 100% spot on. The ID frostflow is very capable AIO. Slapped two 120mm ML's I had kicking around. Even got the other half to install the pump block( she's and even bigger noob than me ).. The one cable coming off the pump made cable management simple. Would highly recommend the frostflow.
@@freen773 well he even said it in the video, the radiator/pump seems similar enough and it's the fans making the biggest difference for cooling performance. So yeah getting some really good fans to improve things even if they cost more
for a budget build like i5 12600k the id cooling will be more than enough i believe. Especially ppl with bigger case and more airflow ,you can run game for hours with stable 60 degree
I think the mid tier AIO's like the DeepCool Castle 240EX or the Artic Liquid Freezer II 240 is a better buy since they are the literal middle ground of both budget and high end being not too pricey but also performs equal if not better than the high end in certain circumstances. And also take note that you don't need to buy an extra set of fans for the mid tier to perform good because the stock fans are good enough in that regard.
@@Harklein because I just watched a bitwit video didnt come for the AIO. Problem with an AIO is that if you use it longer than 1 hour its like having an air cooler it just adds complexity to the system
Still using the original NZXT X62 for years now. Fell in love the first time I saw it just because the infinity mirror design on the pump. I slapped two Noctua's fan on the rad and it working amazing cooling my cpu. Worth the money.
So great to see someone actually talking about this. I have an ID cooling 360 and my PC temperatures are on idle at 35°-40° Celcius (Not because of the cooler itself but because of the horrible PC case with minimal airflow) and my brother had an MSI Water cooler 360 that had the same temperature but with a better PC case with lots of airflow. Also, his cooler broke because of manufacturing issues and changed to a standard Air Cooler from Cooler Master and went back to 35°. It's not always about the brand itself, but also the efficiency of it. You don't need the fanciest cooler to make your computer work, just the right components.
love that you actually show the noise of the tower when it's running.. usually people just show fps and temps with coolers. Adding a decibel meter on screen would be helpful though
Essentially, you can go buy the ARCTIC Liquid Freezer II 240 with P12 fans for about $100 and more than likely have equal/better (thicker radiator) performance to Corsair. The Arctic RGB variant is only $115 USD.
Regardless of the difference, the AIO cooler that presented the warmer temps still provides VERY acceptable temps for a fraction of the price. Impressive.
I legit have the auraflow lol but I am only cooling a R5 3600. Its also just mostly for aesthetics :D I have had zero issues with it though for those who might care. Its almost the same as the frostflow but has RGB on the pump and the fans
My zoomflow 240x's pump died after a year. Bummer. Also know that I probably got unlucky with a bad stock but it still scarred me and I'm back to sticking to Air coolers lol
the build quality on the cheap aios have gotten a lot better. remember the cooler master seidon 240m. that was my first aio, the tubes were plastic and the radiator was thin and the fans loud. i still go with artic for aios. their are cheaper and have the best performance.
What’s a good recommendation of an arctic aio, I’m trying to get my first one and I’m not sure which i should purchase. Are they relatively quiet as well?
because 5-6C is the difference in thermally throttling or not in heavy use applications, as he also showed it helped reduce GPU temp, and it's better for the lifespan of your cpu/gpu, other factors that aren't covered in this video is cooler reliability/life span, is the ID more likely to leak, or pump fail than the other one. There's so many variables that simple "Benchmarks" cannot cover, that people need to research to make an informed decision, sure you might save $150, but at what cost if the AIO suddenly fails
@Clyde Martin a hater? No, i don't have either of these coolers, never used either, i just dislike how people run half assed synthetic benchmarks, and not real world scenario use cases. And while that's great, who knows, maybe the more expensive one is more likely to fail, but also run time and "running for 2 years" is not the same thing, if you run an AIO for 30 mins a day for 2 years, is not the same as running an AIO for 8-24 hours a day for 2 years. There's just so many variables to cover, and none of them were even touched upon here.
@@landmine36 oh no, the aio failed, thank God the computer made it obvious by shutting down die to high temps. guess I'll have to spend another 50 bucks on an aio and still have paid less than a $150 aio. so sad. I must be a hater for not being stupid and overspending on cooling.
I'm here with an ID tower cooler with a push pull setup on my 5800x, it works great. It was a cheap snag since my corsair 120mm died, but i have been happy with it. Though I am definitely grabbing a 240mm soon
great review - thanks for posting, always good to see an expensive product vs a less expensive one. I did notice the corsair warranty being 5yrs vs 2years of the ID cooling unit.
the ID cooling aios I get routinely die around 3 years in. I still think that's better than buying a $120 aio that'll die in the same or a bit more time but it's obvious why the coolers are so damn cheap if you look at the innards
I am glad that ID-Cooling is finally getting some attention. They have some great options from AIOs, to air coolers to fans. I got a 360mm cpu AIO for half the price of something of "name brand" and I have not gone anywhere else for cooling solutions. They also make a GPU AIO so if you have a stock blower card, you can easily upgrade cooling/overclocking performance. They are literally game changing if you're balling on a budget.
To be fair Prime 95 stresses the CPU in a way that no real world application can. So it's just for testing absolute limits, it doesn't reflect real use case scenarios
I bought the ID cooling white 240mm radiator for my kids all white build christmas of 2020. It was my first build and i had zero clue as to whether spending a bunch of money on an AIO meant that I was getting a better product/better performance but didn't have the budget to get a 200 dollar AIO anyways cause I spent a bunch on the GPU and CPU just before all hell broke loose with the chip shortage. I got it for the same price as advertised on Amazon, 50 some bucks. I wear headphones 100% of the time so the noise level has never been an issue to me but being my first build i was CONSTANTLY checking temperatures thru GPU-Z etc and not once did I ever see them anywhere near something that would alarm me. ALWAYS LOW. My only gripe would be that the fans on the white version of the ID AIO are a bit of an off white color, they're not white white. (Un)Fortunately the back case fan in my son's pc is showing signs of kicking the bucket so I bought the three pack of Corsair QL120's and will use one to replace the back fan and use the other to replace the stock ID cooling fans. Haven't had one single issue with the AIO and will purchase another to replace this one when the time comes.
I appreciate this side by side review. The cooling performance is marginal and I would go with upgrading fans on a more affordable aio. However comma, I trust corsair products for longevity. I wouldn't want a customer build to melt down 6 months or longer after purchase because I took some financial shortcuts. Most of my builds include a midrange h100i or h150i.
So for a hobbyist, saving the cash with a potential risk of replacing the AIO is not a bad deal considering it's not a difficult fix and relatively cheap. Agree you wouldn't want to sell a PC with that maintenance required, but for a hobbyist, it's cool to save that cash and add some maintenance.
@@lukethmpsn yeah, I'd go cheap for a test bench or personal computer but the custom computers I sell have either Corsair or NZXT AIOs. I'd rather the customer pay a little more for reliability and longevity. Last thing I want is a email or phone call that the processor is overheating or worse.
from everything i have heard the Corsair customer service is really good and one of the main reasons I opted for them as a brand, I have the corsair h100i elite capellix with the upgrade LCD screen and I have to say it has been faultless, the screen has had me amused for hours at a time, custom Gifs and images on it are awesome and makes my build really pop, my daughter does a lot of art for my screen, so going to buy her the same aio for her build.
Frostflow X240 Snow White user here and my idle temp is around 30 plus deg celcius and average temp while gaming is about 60 plus deg celcius... I have been using it for the past 3 years and no issue whatsoever.
I went with the performance over flash when I bought the AiO I'm using now. I got the Fractal S36 Celsius, plain Jane cooler. No RGB, no frills, just good performance. I upgraded the fans later to RGB fans with high static pressure, but a did that after owning it for over a year. Arctic Cooling seems to offer some pretty reasonably priced AiO's that perform pretty well and have a little bit of flash to them.
I think we also need to see a long term test to see degradation over time as well as how they last in order to get a fully definitive answer on which one is better but right now the idcool did very well compared to the pricy corsair.
I've bought ID Cooling Auraflow X 240 paired with a Ryzen 9 3900x way back 2019, overclocked at 4.5ghz@1.5v. For the first 2 years I was having 32c-37c idle and 60c-72c at max load (rendering, gaming, and 40+ chrome tabs running all at the same time). Overtime my temps did go up now making 40c-50c idle and 73c-80c at max load up to this day. Side note: I've just recently cleaned my pc last month for the first time in the last 5 years.
In my experience you get what you pay for when it comes to pumps. The only AIO I’ve ever bought went out in 6 months the pump just died without warning, and the cheap stand alone pump I bought for my custom loop was so loud it sounded like a jet flying over my house 24/7! It drove me crazy. I will say back then AIO’s were fairly new maybe only a few years old on the market.
so long as you stick with a decent brand and not chinese knock off, every single aio pump is exactly the same per the copywrite deal everyone has with the AIO patent holder. the pump is the only thing that has to stay the same. killing a pump could be done by having the radiator below the pump.
I agree, but, Even at that, With how sockets change, a $125 bundle ($75 AIO and $50 in top tier fans) every year or 2 might still cheaper than a $250 bundle that you may have to replace anyways in 3-4 years (due to new socket compatibility issues) especially since good fans tend to last forever...
I went with a Coolermaster AIO primarily to match my Coolermaster case. I have been happy with it :) I certainly would not install it like this though, I always put my radiators on the top to make sure the pump always has liquid in it, so it doesn't burn out sucking air. Plus I don't have to bend the AIO tubes around a GPU.
In this configuration, the pump still wouldn’t receive air. The top of the radiator is still higher than where the pump is, meaning all the air goes there.
Amazon are selling the Oversteel Zircon AIO ... I just paid £36 for the 120mm. Using it on Ryzen 7 2700x .... it's great. Very well built, the tubes are wrapped, giving it a premium and solid feel. It has RGB lighting, with a fixed rainbow colour scheme. Most importantly, the performance is top notch. At idle my computer sits at 35, while gaming it's 50-52, and it doesn't exceed 65 when stress-testing with Prime 95. I doubt a Corsair H60 (which is the closest equivalent) would offer much better performance...the Zircon is also extremely quiet; my PSU and GPU fans are louder.
Thanks for this. My sneaking suspicion was that there wasn't going to be a huge performance gap between the two. Nice. I've owned my ID Cooling Auraflow Snow 240 RGB AIO exactly a year and it's been rock solid. Picked it up on sale for 59.99 on amazon to match my white build. No complaints at all. The thermals Kyle put up are roughly what I've seen on my 3700x. Totally recommended.
@@nauikunart You also probably got a good deal on it. It's nice looking unit. I was pleasantly surprised. I'm def pulling over to my Ryzen 7000 build next year for sure.
@@DarkMikaruX goodluck on your build , I'm just running r3 with a 1650 right now the only build that I can afford, also planning to upgrade but maybe around 5000 series and 30 series card. indeed the id cooling is good at doing its job for a lower price.
@@nauikunart Nothing wrong with that brotha! Last month I was laid off from my IT job. They laid off 1/3 of the company. Timing was terrible seeing that video card prices had come down so much. Also my desktop motherboard kicked the bucket so I'm kinda forced into an upgrade at some point. Luckily I'll be starting a new gig next week but will have to wait it out a bit before building a new rig. Loving seeing these video card prices finally dropping though. Truly insane prices over the last few years. Insane!
Great info! Saw this 4 days after breaking the bank with a Corsair purchase. Not sure I would have chose differently, but without a doubt I will be much more critical of AIO and other pc parts in the future. This is the second video of yours that I have watched. The 480 starter pack was classic! Color me subscribed.
I had an old NZXT Kraken 240mm AIO that I think I paid ~$120 for and the pump died maybe 2 years ago. After it died, I was in a pinch for something suitable for a 5900X so I went to my local computer shop and found the Deepcool Gammaxx L240 on sale for ~$40. Definitely not as high quality as the Kraken but temperatures were not far off, except the noise the fans made while top mounted was too irritating to withstand for long. I swapped the fans from the Kraken and system temperatures were basically in line with the Kraken, maybe 2-3c higher, which was a lot more expensive and purchased before the recent inflation explosion. One thing I'll note is that the Deepcool has very prominent scratches on the cold plate now from setting it on my desk and the plate coming in contact. I've treated the kraken in much the same way and it's been moved between systems far more than the Deepcool has and the cold plate was still immaculate when it was done. This is also resulting in a notably higher CPU temperature than it had when it was new, but temperatures are still within the acceptable range so I've left it alone for now but if that cooler ever has to come off again, I'll be purchasing a new cooler.
It would have been interesting to see the CPU running under 100% load(like Cinebench R23 on loop for 30 minutes) and check out the temperature difference then.
The Arctic Liquid Freezer II AIOs remain the ones I recommend. Some of the best performance, and the Arctic fans are fantastic and quiet. Arctic really killed it with that line.
I've enjoyed my EK AIO. I got it on a sale so it was like $120 for a 360mm rad and honestly it's whisper quiet and I've never seen my CPU hit over 60 degrees Celsius. Plus the RGB is immaculate. So it gets a S+
I'd be interested to see the cooler master ml240l V2 which is only slightly more expensive than the I'd but may be just as effective as the Corsair and it comes with RGB out of the box too
i actually recommend the DeepCool LS720. it is not an asetek copy and it has a really big copper plate. I have been using it and its pretty damn good. i used to have a fractal design 240mm aio but the price for this 360mm, best investment
I have a Gammax 240... Something like that. The most basic model anyway. And it's so good. For the 45 dollars I paid, it's nothing beyond amazing. I was so impressed by Deepcool that I also got a case from them. Also great price to features/perfomances.
DeepCool is the best! They are totally upsetting the market right now with their air coolers. Their AIOs have always been great too. Can’t go wrong with either
@@henryojeda2890 One of the good DeepCool air coolers are almost as much a s the best Noctuas here in Sweden. The AIOs are still great value though. At least if they still perform as my old Gammax.
@@BigFatCone yeah that’s unfortunate. I got a buddy in Finland who can pick up the AK620 for 77 bucks whereas over here (USA) it’s about 60. It totally depends where you are with the PC market
I currently have an ID Cooling AIO for my primary PC and my fiancé's PC, and will be buying the ID Cooling Pink Flow for my all Pink build I'm working on. I've been happy with them!
ID cooling started as a supplier of cooling stuff for super big companiesThey used to make heatpipes,radiators,fans etc for servers and workstations for the big Chinese brands like Lenovo, Huawei, etc....they know how to make a cooler.
for CPU stress tests following Linus's video for stress testing I'd recommend Linpack Extreme instead of Cinebench or prime 95 if you need your CPU to catch fire. in my experience, for some reason, Linpack extreme runs hotter on my 3700X than prime 95
I recently went and purchased a Kraken z63 ... soley for the LCD and because it was one of the very few 280 in white. Also.. another ludacris purchase was a Silverstone SX1000 for my O11 Mini, simply because there is no other way to future proof in such a small form factor. The most you can find is a 850W and i wanted some OC headroom. However... it was $250 for EACH item. - fun fact, i have two perfectly fine platinum ATX psu's and a ROG RYUO, which was black in 240mm. - So yeah. It is all luxury problems right now, and manufacturers know this, and for some reason the cheap parts are always "out of stock" but the most obscene premium item can be delivered in 24h. When you wanna get it done, you are basically left with very little options still.
@Oz7ki probably talking about the aio being installed on the front of the case instead of the top. This won't hamper performance really but it may lead to some unwanted noise and a shorter lifespan of the aio
In fairness to Corsair, they have another 240mm version without the LCD that is a lot cheaper at $100. They even sell the display by itself for $100, so you can upgrade later on and still only be at $200, VS the $240 for that AIO. Just a fancy little workaround. Great video and content as usual!
@gmu_alum08 Fair, that's not a very hot chip. Haha I scored some of corsairs new AF120 rgb elite fans and they are easily the best Corsair fans to date; and I have owned every model minus the QL. Highly recommend the AF rgb elite series.
Been using id-cooling fans for my builds, not a single one failed as of yet after like 3 years. I also have a 120mm id-cooling aio it's around 5c hotter from my dual fan, 5-copper pipe tower cooler which is quite surprising.
I picked up a MasterLiquid 280AIO a month ago for $80 with a $40 mail in rebate, I grabbed that deal so fast I didn't even care if the thing wouldn't fit in my case Figured if it didn't fit I could sell it for $60 "used". Thankfully it fit, but just barely I wouldn't spend more than $75 on an AIO at this point
I ran with the old H110i GTX for the past 7 years. It’s worked with mine this far perfectly fine. I will throw it out there that, within their warranty period, they will cover damages to your PC if it was caused by their AIO failing. I haven’t noticed other companies doing that.
I think the price in the AIO market probably has a trust element as well, corsair can charge more because it's a name brand you recognize and ID-Cooling probably isn't, and when AIO death sometimes means leaking on to your other parts people are probably more willing to pay for that trust whether or not the actual risk is imaginary. Even the basic H100i with plain grey fans costs more than double what the ID-Cooling one does, so clearly you can't blame all the cost difference on the LCD and fans. Given that the corsair even costs more than an EK AIO which is a brand I'm sure enthusiasts would trust but would be less well known outside the community, I have to assume they're charging more because they can get away with it due to name recognition.
I just recently started working with UE5, and had to upgrade from my 5600X/1660 Super to a 5950X & MSI 6750XT in my Meshilicious case on the Gigabyte B550I Aorus Pro AX and got the ID Cooling 280 for ($60?). I set the fans up to exhaust out of the case front, the GPU essentially pulls in air from the outside, and the EVGA 850 SFX pulls off the cooling plate on the back of the GPU and exhausts: no matter what I'm doing I don't have any issues with heat, and even hitting the RAM & CPU with the OCCT AVX2 load for extended periods never raises the CPU above 60deg. SHOCKED and ecstatic about the cooling potential on this thing! The fans are absurdly loud at 100%, but fans are easy compared to the rad/pump.
I don't know if anyone noticed but but both radiators are put in not the best way(upside down). How it is installed currently air that is present will go up and be pumped through the tubes so the cooling and fan noise can be worse or at max damaging for the pump. Unless the pump is in the radiators but I think that is not the case. In short: make sure that air is not pumped towards the pump. This can be avoided by a top mounted aio where the orientation does not matter.
If the pump is placed below the highest point of the rad, air will not get trapped in the pump due to air density. It's not the best, but will not present problems in the state shown
As someone getting ready to build their first pc, thank you! This kind of content really helps me feel better about picking parts without over spending!
I actually used that ID-Cooling frostflow 240 to cool a 12600k and it did amazing. the Noctua NH-u12s with dual fans worked a bit better though. kept it about 2-5 degrees cooler under gaming loads
I mean thats like saying "why are you buying a new volkswagen golf instead of a 2007 honda civic, the cheaper one drives too." I havent heard of a single person saying they NEED this aio for cooling over another cheap one. Anyone buying this knows that you pay for the extra stuff like the lcd and icue integration. Even searching for this thing on amazon shows you at least 4 other aios for less than 120$ so no one can say they thought this is the normal price. Of course my bmw with heated seats, onboard realtime navigation and high beam assist drives just as well as the same model without those addons, theyre luxury accessories, just as the h100i capellix lcd screen is.
It comes with a tube of thermalpaste... what kind? Not all thermalpaste are created equal, i wouldn't put some no name generic crap that might dry out in a month on my chips. I just installed the corsair h150i elite lcd, the 360 version 2 days ago and though I'm sure it came with good paste I still cleaned it off and applied thermal grizzly hydronaut. Tech specs are on the bottom of the box. Another feature I found on this opposed to my previous mid range aio is liquid temp monitoring, so instead of just monitoring the cpu temp it can monitor the liquid itself to adjust pump and fan if the liquid is getting too hot or is running cold. The cable management is far better then that of my old midrange aio which also had a hub and usb but also required two fan control headers on the motherboard and messy daisy chaining where this only needed to plug into the cpu header from the pump and the rest into the hub and gives full independent control of each one so at low temperatures it can be set to run a single fan which would require 4 headers on the motherboard with the old aio. And you installed the rad with the air pocket at the tubes 🤦♂️, personally I like a completely silent system but if you like the occasional water trickling noise it could be relaxing but maybe won't hear it over the noisier cheap fans, which leads up to the next point, life expectancy. The fans of the cheaper aio started leaking, producing fan whine after less then a year, annoying to the point I unplugged the first to go, then a second went, replaced them all with the tuf gaming fans from the case which held out to this day but they are from a pricy case. They are not made for pressure, still did fine cooling a 2700x 8 core, not so good for 5800x 8 core which had thermal limits almost peaking constantly. Time will tell how well the mag lifts hold up but considering the brand and I used ql120s to replace those case fans with no noise still, I expect a long time. So at the end of the day, can you use a cheap aio? sure. But do you want to? Probably not and only if your budget requires it. And what aio is he running in his personal build? Cheap, mid or high end? I think its important for someone who claims knowing enough to be be testing and advising others to also note what they personaly go with as an expert.
I just brought the 360mm corsair lcd, it was the only option because my aio died and it was the only one Best Buy had, I love it, didn’t care to replace my fans with the corsair fans that came with it because I have corsair fans that I believe are 2 years old so didn’t see a point in doing so and temps are fine. Also it keeps my R9 3900X extremely cool, and it looks awesome with the screen.
The H100 cooler without the LCD screen is roughly $150, and the individual ML120 fans are between $30-40 each depending on retailer on sale. Best consumer bet: get the H100 without the LCD screen, and the price is only a few dollars more than the Frostflow with Corsair fans.
1 year ago I bought the cheapest aio, I had doubts about the difference between a more expensive one, but this video solved all my doubts, I also bought some more expensive Noctua coolers and today it works perfect.
While this comment is a bit late, one thing I'll point out is here in Australia, the prices of coolers like Corsair's watercooling series are almost identical to most other coolers, usually about $20-$50 AUD difference since we only really have 2 or 3 consistent vendors to buy from that don't take over a month to deliver
The radiator is not positioned correctly. As it is, air will accumulate at the top of the radiator and get into the hoses and then into the pump. This may not start happening right away, but over time. You will notice it by the increasing noise. If the radiator is mounted vertically, the fittings should be at the bottom.
I just bought my friends brand new corsair h170i elite lcd aio($350 new retail), evga 1000 gq power supply (couple hundred new retail), corsair icue 7000x rgb case $330 new retail) external 8th HD (200 new retail) , BenQ monitor just for now ($175 new retail).... Over $1000 worth of stuff for $120 total. He said he didn't need it and would sell it to me for 90% off.... so that's exactly what I did, go drive 5hrs to pick it all up.
I was using an ID cooling aio 360mm with stock fans for about 2 years until i upgraded my system to a custom water cooling loop. All i can say is the id cooling is fantastic! It cooled my 5900x oc’ed to 4.6ghz and my cpu never go more than 70c under heavy load like rendering for hours and transcoding videos on handbrake. For $60 the performance is great!
ryzen 9 5900x boost clock is 4.9ghz i think, i have it and get that without oc
@@adamfnn LOL, run a heavy load and then tell me it still sits at 4.9GHz....
Only 7 gen ryzen reaches that under load@@adamfnn
@@bismuth7730 tested it agains a much more expensive kraken elite 2 and both were exactly the same
as a matter of fact, I'm currently using the ID-Cooling AIO (the exact one in the video) for about a year now, and it runs totally fine, better cooling than my cpu fan cooler
same here and i have swapped out the fans with the arctic p12s and i have had 0 problems or noise from my pc
I have 7600x at 5.5 ghz and i stays around 60c and 76 is the most i have ever seen. I also use it as an out take so i agree that this is an incredible aio
@@OHCGAMEZ Idk what i'm doing wrong but whats your temps idl mine ranges from 50 - 70 idl
Better as in how? If the air cooler was keeping your CPU's termperature within spec, then you literally just threw your money away because you don't know any better.
@AvroBellow whatever you say, Mr know it better
For anyone considering this option, I recommend replacing the fans with arctic p12 fans, they make an argb version of the p12s as well and both come very close to noctua in performance while being $10 cheaper per fan
In EU you can get a pack of 5 Arctic P12 fans for 25€ that's the price of 1 Noctua or Be Quiet fan. The Arctic Liquid Freezer II is also a good option if features or aesthetics doesn't matter.
@@lifestorock in the states you can also get 5 packs, they're usually 30-31 USD
I bought a bunch for my case cooling, but had to switch them out because they had a terrible resonance sound at a couple specific RPMs. They are cheap and do move air though.
@@lasmu8700 THIS. The P12 resonance sound is goddamn dreadful
@@lifestorock yep, the arctic p12 argb fans are $16 a piece but the plain black p12s can be found for significantly cheaper and the argb ones
With gpus finally making their plunge into affordabilty, itd be cool to see a budget build with some other “off brand” components that will get ppl looking to build started. Noticed many great alternatives from ID cooling Vetroo, Thermalright, making waves
Thing is id cooling and thermalright aren't "off brands" AFAIK they're quite well known in the pc cooler market and have been doing business for long. Just not as popular as the more "premium" brands.
Trusted my build to an ID and my temps are fantastic! Never have to worry about thermal throttling.
I just bought 2 thermalright CPU coolers and holy moly I didn't expect that great performance per dollar
mine's on the way. can't wait to see the difference 😃@@fansteboy7349
the thermalright peerless assassin makes every other air cooler pretty much obsolete
I've had an ID Cooling 240 running since 2015 (they're worth it specially if you're looking for a white one or a cheap rad). It's worked on my 4790K OC'd to the walls and is now running on a 3700X with no issues. Max temps are around 74*C with my GT-AP15 (I have a ton of these lying around for rads) only running at 1100 rpm. It's a great rad for the money, especially if you have a ton of very good radiator fans lying around.
I've also had Corsair, EK, and many other brands of radiators that have lasted long and some that died early. Remember, all these radiators come from 1 or 2 OEM's only, so they're basically the same. They're just branded (pumps and rads are all the same) differently and some add ons (like RGB, LCD, better fans etc.) for the more expensive ones. I'm currently running a Be Quiet Pure loop 280 for my 5700X and it's running great.
running a 90 dollar id aio on my 3900x for 2yrs no issues.
When I built mine last year I went with a Vetroo lurker 360 aio and have loved it so far. Got it because my previous system had the Vetroo v5 air cooler and it was surprisingly good for $30. Think I paid $90 for the aio but it went up by now I'm sure.
Yes I am very surprised my vetroo v5 air cooler actually cools better than my hyper 212 BE air cooler
Also been running the vetroo 240 for multiple years with zero issues.
@@loganbates2657 I was looking at the v5 but ended up getting a scythe fuma 3 huge improvement over the stock prism 3700x came with went from 90c to 60-70c on my games (cod, starfield, cyberpunk)
Arctic 240 aio has always been affordable and under 100$ and performs just as good sometimes even better then the more expensive ones. 🤷♂️
than*
@Tajl3r They fixed that and you'll get a replacement kit if you already purchased one. It won't surprise me if more aio coolers have this problem, but it doesn't get addressed by the manufacturer.
lf2, clc, ek elite and galahad are all aios that can be found for sub 100 even 360mm and will stop any corsair or rog aio to the ground
@@GentlyUsedFrog Oh jesus... 1 word spelled wrong. end of the world. gesuz dont yu think thatz a bit pathetik. seereoslee....
@Tajl3r send another or call. they deal with more than just you. You need to stay on top of it.
Thanks for this. People never understood why I think most mainstream AIO CLCs are overpriced as hell.
I second this.
You can think what you want, its when you push you opinion on others..... Support people for their decisions, stop questioning them.
@@haywoodjay385 weirdass comment
@@haywoodjay385 tf u on about?
@@haywoodjay385 If you watched the video in the slightest you would know that the video wasn't intended to dunk on people's decisions if they decided on a more expensive cooler. It's to show that you get relatively minimal improvements in cooling for an over 400% price increase.
Considering the difference in temperature above ambient, with stock fans in the RDR2 test, the Corsair did 17.9% better at 436.4% of the price. That's not opinion, and it's certainly not being pushed on others. It's the results of testing. And, as is shown in the video, upgrading the fans on the cheaper cooler would give the Corsair only a *7.1% lead* at more than double the price, assuming that your upgraded fans are less than $32.5 each.
If the features of included RGB and being able to put gifs on an LCD screen on your pump block are worth the price to you, then go for it. But if you want the best bang for your buck in pure cooling performance, it's definitely not worth it.
Recently I had the pump fail on my 280mm NZXT x63 AIO, I got tired of the hassle & went back to aircooling, I'm now using a Noctua NH-U12A. IMO aircooling is the way to go, my PC is now silent & my CPU temperature is just as good as the AIO!
Die exactly the same. And the weird part is. Also from a x63 to the U12a. (Chromax) Very happy with the switch… and no water in the system. ;)
I would say the reason the avarage temp has been lower, but the max temp is higher is because the way the fans are set up, i believe they are set to ramp up at 69 degrees.
In the future you should set them to a constant rpm for more accurate results.
Yeah that's what I thought they programmed differently. This is deeper than it's seems
my only issue is that using plug and play settings is what 90% of people are gonna want to do. Id rather focus on acoustics then, instead of strictly RPM.
Fan curves are set by the motherboard bios, not the fans themselves, and the fans should ramp up at the same temperature points because of this. What may be different is the RPM they are ramping up to. Because fan curves work by using PWM percentages, 70% fan speed at 69C may be 1500 RPM for one set of fans but 1000 RPM for another set of fans, which produces different levels of cooling effectiveness at each point in the curve. The fans also probably have different airflow and pressure characteristics at different RPMs.
That is what I did for my air cooler AMD prism and I get these same temps with a 5800x I might just keep it the way it is.I like the way the prism works, I just had to get fan for the cpu to idle at 33c at 60% so when It spike for those few seconds it never made it above 70c and full load remained 58-66c deg.The 7 3700x did not run as hot as the 5800x does,But the average temp was still good overall during load,I just did not like that short throttle from loading screens and whatnot.
I really like the idea to buy a 2 extra fans to improve the temps. By the way you can still use stock fans for improving the airflow in the case if you find place for them.
yes me too
I don't really think its worth it since that Corsair AIO is really only that expensive because it has an LCD screen Corsair literally has similarly performing AIO's WITH RGB for under $130 and they would easily have a better warranty than IDcooling and also sometimes some retailers have sales on products and I have even seen RGB Corsair AIO's go for under 100. So getting $55 AIO and getting $25 fans for it seems to be a bad idea considering AIO's from more reputable brands with better fans and better and longer lasting warranties can be bought for that price. I would only recommend this cooler for someone looking for a cheap AIO not for someone who wants a cheap AIO and wants to upgrade its fans as the AIO may probably die way before the fans even make a dent in their lifespans. If you want a cheap AIO for $55 go for it but I would not get it to slap $25 fans on it unless I got the fans for free or something
@@zahidshabir4038 Yeah. But are you sure that IDcooling has a worse warranty? Also, the fans, which you slap on the top are not need to be the best of the best you can find a good option as well for 15 to 20 $.
I think the whole video was not about - buy a cheapest one, but that there are different ways of doing things.
Lol please don't do this people.... You can get a Arctic Liquid Freezer II 240 for just under $100 on a mazon and it's one of the best performing 240mm AIO liquid coolers on the market. Already comes with better fans and a better pump, better build quality, 6 year warranty, and the peace of mind knowing it's not going randomly leak on your components😂 Comes out to the same price as if you bought this cheap ID-Cooling AIO and bought high end fans for it. Unless you already have a cheap AIO don't waste your money like that. There's plenty of AIO's around $100 that are better and already come with better fans.
or u can just get a better aio to begin with for around the same price🤦♂ which will have a better pump, better quality, better fans already, etc.
I have owned ID brand cooling AIOs before...the 2 I have both died after a year of use. I have also bought and tried few other cheap AIOs. Then I switched to slightly more expensive AIOs. Going to say durability of the more expensive ones is definitely a reason for the price differences from what I see. That durability is a major reason for buying more expensive AIOs for me. When the cheap ones go... they go at once and without warning. Sometimes it damages other parts too. Sure if the cheap ones go it tends to be less expensive to replace, but replacing other more expensive parts in the process sucks worse.
For reference, one of the ID coolers that failed was hooked up to my 5950x. It was a 360 rad version. Because of the heat load of the 5950x that I was generating for long periods of time for work, it was running at a fairly hot temp even slightly undervolted. The issue turns out that the tubing didn't stop evaporation well enough for the ID cooler with the temps running at load for long periods of time. So if anyone is reading and following along, the temps got worse over time but I didn't notice until the pump seized from lack of enough water in the system. Seized right when CPU was a 100% and the system didn't shut down fast enough. Dead CPU. Personally, rather spend a little extra on an AIO where that won't happen than the difference of having to spend another $700+ tax on a CPU.
Personally using the Artic Freezers now and they've done much better in terms of performance and durability compared to the ID coolers I had.
It's why my 5900x is air-cooled by a Dark Rock Pro4, zero chance of failure. Never seen temps go over 65c but I only game on my PC. My 3080ti is water-cooled by a Alphacool Eiswolf 2 AIO though.
I seen multiple ID cooling and other cheaper aio failing after a year too in my pc group. You basically get flame got getting 1 over here lmao, expecting it to fail within a year.
@@ascap2854 5900X just for gaming, seems so unnecessary haha
Kyle's testing methodology leaves a lot to be desire. It's kinda entertaining to see how a cheap AIO stacks again a premium one, but I would not trust the results or conclusions. AIO's need to reach thermal equilibrium, and here we have a test that last less than 40 seconds. Let's say, he's testing under “realistic conditions”. I can see myself or any gamer playing for many hours in a given day. So you should, AT LEAST, test for a decent amount of time on each game, and you need to make sure, the cooler reaches thermal equilibrium. And as you say, durability is a big factor. Even though, I don't think you need to spend $200 on an AIO, you need to make sure that you get a solid one.
@@SpaceLion949 It is but I wanted my computer to last me at least 5 years. My previous computer i7 4790k/980ti lasted around 5 but could really feel it's age it's last two years of use.
Honestly ID Cooling has been killing it at the ultra budget end of the market for both AIO and air coolers, I've used a bunch of their coolers in the past few builds that I've done for friends and it's great value.
Cheap price, Looks Great/Neat, Performs decent
I’ve had the auraflow 240 before this cooling my ryzen 7 3700x and it was really a solid aio for budget builds. In SEA, ID-Cooling coolers are quite popular as their price-to-performance are pretty good imo
Not to mention their Aircoolers SE-224/226-XT are much better options than the budget coolers like Hyper 212 or deepcool gammaxx in terms of price + performance + ease of installation.
What temps were you getting
Have Ryzen 3700x and stock box air cooler, never hit 70C lol usually 55-60C under load.
I live in NA, and I also have and ID Cooling 240 AIO cooling a 3700x in white! Been running everyday for over a year and no complaints!
@@LukCPL what are you referring to as load? Gaming or rendering?
Came back to this review a week ago. When looking for a AIO for my partner's rig. Safe to say your review is 100% spot on. The ID frostflow is very capable AIO. Slapped two 120mm ML's I had kicking around. Even got the other half to install the pump block( she's and even bigger noob than me ).. The one cable coming off the pump made cable management simple. Would highly recommend the frostflow.
I personally much prefer the stealthy esthetics of the ID cooler, so that paired up with noctua chroma fans could be epic 👍
Spending more on the fans than the cooler haha
@@freen773 well he even said it in the video, the radiator/pump seems similar enough and it's the fans making the biggest difference for cooling performance. So yeah getting some really good fans to improve things even if they cost more
for a budget build like i5 12600k the id cooling will be more than enough i believe. Especially ppl with bigger case and more airflow ,you can run game for hours with stable 60 degree
"i dont like it"
- has a gloriously aesthetic computer behind him.
I think the mid tier AIO's like the DeepCool Castle 240EX or the Artic Liquid Freezer II 240 is a better buy since they are the literal middle ground of both budget and high end being not too pricey but also performs equal if not better than the high end in certain circumstances. And also take note that you don't need to buy an extra set of fans for the mid tier to perform good because the stock fans are good enough in that regard.
Or, you know, the h100i. The base model is 120 often on sale for 100. The price of the one tested intuit comes from the LCD
Can't go wrong with the Arctic liquid freezer
Just buy a noctua air cooler and be done with it.
@@Chris-hw4mq Why are you even commenting an air cooler on a video about AIO??? This isn't about what CPU Cooler is the best one...
@@Harklein because I just watched a bitwit video didnt come for the AIO. Problem with an AIO is that if you use it longer than 1 hour its like having an air cooler it just adds complexity to the system
Still using the original NZXT X62 for years now. Fell in love the first time I saw it just because the infinity mirror design on the pump. I slapped two Noctua's fan on the rad and it working amazing cooling my cpu. Worth the money.
I have the same AIO. Is replacing the fans that came with it worth it?
@@mantid83 yes if you replace it with a better one. Mine is replaced with Noctua NF A-14 fans. The cooling is great but it is a bit loud.
So great to see someone actually talking about this. I have an ID cooling 360 and my PC temperatures are on idle at 35°-40° Celcius (Not because of the cooler itself but because of the horrible PC case with minimal airflow) and my brother had an MSI Water cooler 360 that had the same temperature but with a better PC case with lots of airflow. Also, his cooler broke because of manufacturing issues and changed to a standard Air Cooler from Cooler Master and went back to 35°.
It's not always about the brand itself, but also the efficiency of it. You don't need the fanciest cooler to make your computer work, just the right components.
love that you actually show the noise of the tower when it's running.. usually people just show fps and temps with coolers. Adding a decibel meter on screen would be helpful though
I've run ID-cooling AIOs several times now, they've been really good bang for buck coolers.
Wym by several times? Did it die and you have to replace it?
@@leexu2073 No, I've used them on several PC builds over the last 8 or so years. Haven't had one fail yet, they're still all going strong.
@@AF29007 nice, I might go back to aios then
I have the id auraflow 240 evo would you think it would run fine either the ryzen 7 5800x? I still haven’t built it yet
Essentially, you can go buy the ARCTIC Liquid Freezer II 240 with P12 fans for about $100 and more than likely have equal/better (thicker radiator) performance to Corsair. The Arctic RGB variant is only $115 USD.
Bought the id cooling one just last week and so happy with it for the price(also my first non air cooler) glad to see this video backing it up
Regardless of the difference, the AIO cooler that presented the warmer temps still provides VERY acceptable temps for a fraction of the price. Impressive.
I legit have the auraflow lol but I am only cooling a R5 3600. Its also just mostly for aesthetics :D I have had zero issues with it though for those who might care. Its almost the same as the frostflow but has RGB on the pump and the fans
I got the white Frostflow for my white build and it works great. R5 5800X.
My zoomflow 240x's pump died after a year. Bummer. Also know that I probably got unlucky with a bad stock but it still scarred me and I'm back to sticking to Air coolers lol
I use the auraflow on my 5800x and have no complaints at all either
@@HennesTobias my frostflow 240 is still alive today, bought it back in 2020 September
the build quality on the cheap aios have gotten a lot better. remember the cooler master seidon 240m. that was my first aio, the tubes were plastic and the radiator was thin and the fans loud. i still go with artic for aios. their are cheaper and have the best performance.
What’s a good recommendation of an arctic aio, I’m trying to get my first one and I’m not sure which i should purchase. Are they relatively quiet as well?
@@lyte07 all of their liquid freezer II line is great
@@lyte07 I'd recommend the 240
Thank you for this video! I have the ID cooling and honestly, I can’t imagine why anyone buys the more expensive short of the LCD screen.
because 5-6C is the difference in thermally throttling or not in heavy use applications, as he also showed it helped reduce GPU temp, and it's better for the lifespan of your cpu/gpu, other factors that aren't covered in this video is cooler reliability/life span, is the ID more likely to leak, or pump fail than the other one.
There's so many variables that simple "Benchmarks" cannot cover, that people need to research to make an informed decision, sure you might save $150, but at what cost if the AIO suddenly fails
@Clyde Martin a hater? No, i don't have either of these coolers, never used either, i just dislike how people run half assed synthetic benchmarks, and not real world scenario use cases.
And while that's great, who knows, maybe the more expensive one is more likely to fail, but also run time and "running for 2 years" is not the same thing, if you run an AIO for 30 mins a day for 2 years, is not the same as running an AIO for 8-24 hours a day for 2 years.
There's just so many variables to cover, and none of them were even touched upon here.
@@landmine36 oh no, the aio failed, thank God the computer made it obvious by shutting down die to high temps. guess I'll have to spend another 50 bucks on an aio and still have paid less than a $150 aio. so sad.
I must be a hater for not being stupid and overspending on cooling.
The ID cpu air coolers are also really good for the price for those who are on a budget as well. Great informative video my dude.
I'm here with an ID tower cooler with a push pull setup on my 5800x, it works great. It was a cheap snag since my corsair 120mm died, but i have been happy with it. Though I am definitely grabbing a 240mm soon
@@AatroxSuppMain I bought ID Cooling SE 225 XT to replace my H100 (2013) that died 2 years ago, during lockdown. Thermals matches H100 if not better.
great review - thanks for posting, always good to see an expensive product vs a less expensive one. I did notice the corsair warranty being 5yrs vs 2years of the ID cooling unit.
Can't be as bad as msi warranty....I'll never buy an aio from msi again.
the ID cooling aios I get routinely die around 3 years in. I still think that's better than buying a $120 aio that'll die in the same or a bit more time but it's obvious why the coolers are so damn cheap if you look at the innards
@@joemarais7683 how do you know if the rad die? My id cooling is 2 years old now
I am glad that ID-Cooling is finally getting some attention. They have some great options from AIOs, to air coolers to fans. I got a 360mm cpu AIO for half the price of something of "name brand" and I have not gone anywhere else for cooling solutions. They also make a GPU AIO so if you have a stock blower card, you can easily upgrade cooling/overclocking performance. They are literally game changing if you're balling on a budget.
I would use Prime 95 to test the cpu to the limit. Can run it as long as you need to get the highest temps between the 2 coolers. Love the videos man.
Prime95 is good, and you can also add a testing time for cinebench so it loops the test untill the time runs out.
To be fair Prime 95 stresses the CPU in a way that no real world application can. So it's just for testing absolute limits, it doesn't reflect real use case scenarios
what's the point when nothing actually useful will fuck a cpu like prime 95 does? it's just a power virus
Best review on AIO's on RUclips. Bitwit is the realest reviewer out there.
I bought the ID cooling white 240mm radiator for my kids all white build christmas of 2020. It was my first build and i had zero clue as to whether spending a bunch of money on an AIO meant that I was getting a better product/better performance but didn't have the budget to get a 200 dollar AIO anyways cause I spent a bunch on the GPU and CPU just before all hell broke loose with the chip shortage. I got it for the same price as advertised on Amazon, 50 some bucks. I wear headphones 100% of the time so the noise level has never been an issue to me but being my first build i was CONSTANTLY checking temperatures thru GPU-Z etc and not once did I ever see them anywhere near something that would alarm me. ALWAYS LOW. My only gripe would be that the fans on the white version of the ID AIO are a bit of an off white color, they're not white white. (Un)Fortunately the back case fan in my son's pc is showing signs of kicking the bucket so I bought the three pack of Corsair QL120's and will use one to replace the back fan and use the other to replace the stock ID cooling fans. Haven't had one single issue with the AIO and will purchase another to replace this one when the time comes.
Good video Kyle! Love to see you coming back into more sensible content, I could tell you were truly engaged with the subject! Keep it up!
I appreciate this side by side review. The cooling performance is marginal and I would go with upgrading fans on a more affordable aio. However comma, I trust corsair products for longevity. I wouldn't want a customer build to melt down 6 months or longer after purchase because I took some financial shortcuts. Most of my builds include a midrange h100i or h150i.
So for a hobbyist, saving the cash with a potential risk of replacing the AIO is not a bad deal considering it's not a difficult fix and relatively cheap. Agree you wouldn't want to sell a PC with that maintenance required, but for a hobbyist, it's cool to save that cash and add some maintenance.
@@lukethmpsn yeah, I'd go cheap for a test bench or personal computer but the custom computers I sell have either Corsair or NZXT AIOs. I'd rather the customer pay a little more for reliability and longevity. Last thing I want is a email or phone call that the processor is overheating or worse.
from everything i have heard the Corsair customer service is really good and one of the main reasons I opted for them as a brand, I have the corsair h100i elite capellix with the upgrade LCD screen and I have to say it has been faultless, the screen has had me amused for hours at a time, custom Gifs and images on it are awesome and makes my build really pop, my daughter does a lot of art for my screen, so going to buy her the same aio for her build.
@sinnermac6338 that's awesome, I run the h100i elite capellix as well. Minus the fancy led screen, I love mine as well.
My H100 Corsair AIO lasted from 2013 to 2021, so that was great for me.
8YRS WOW THAT'S A GOOD RUN👏👏
wow wtf my AIO lasted about 2 years and i got a replacement under warranty (just) im defo going for an air cooler next time
Frostflow X240 Snow White user here and my idle temp is around 30 plus deg celcius and average temp while gaming is about 60 plus deg celcius... I have been using it for the past 3 years and no issue whatsoever.
Call me crazy but I've bought ID Cooling multiple times for builds, great quality for the price.
Any breakdowns?
@@davidg2731 not a one, I find them incredible for the price.
Been using ID COOLING FROSTFLOW 240 for almost 2 years now and still going strong
Bitwit you continue to not only create great video content, but you always put a smile on all our faces all because you are sincerely yourself.
I went with the performance over flash when I bought the AiO I'm using now. I got the Fractal S36 Celsius, plain Jane cooler. No RGB, no frills, just good performance. I upgraded the fans later to RGB fans with high static pressure, but a did that after owning it for over a year. Arctic Cooling seems to offer some pretty reasonably priced AiO's that perform pretty well and have a little bit of flash to them.
I think we also need to see a long term test to see degradation over time as well as how they last in order to get a fully definitive answer on which one is better but right now the idcool did very well compared to the pricy corsair.
agree, the long term review would be the ultimate point on this case.
I've bought ID Cooling Auraflow X 240 paired with a Ryzen 9 3900x way back 2019, overclocked at 4.5ghz@1.5v. For the first 2 years I was having 32c-37c idle and 60c-72c at max load (rendering, gaming, and 40+ chrome tabs running all at the same time). Overtime my temps did go up now making 40c-50c idle and 73c-80c at max load up to this day.
Side note: I've just recently cleaned my pc last month for the first time in the last 5 years.
In my experience you get what you pay for when it comes to pumps. The only AIO I’ve ever bought went out in 6 months the pump just died without warning, and the cheap stand alone pump I bought for my custom loop was so loud it sounded like a jet flying over my house 24/7! It drove me crazy. I will say back then AIO’s were fairly new maybe only a few years old on the market.
so long as you stick with a decent brand and not chinese knock off, every single aio pump is exactly the same per the copywrite deal everyone has with the AIO patent holder. the pump is the only thing that has to stay the same. killing a pump could be done by having the radiator below the pump.
I agree, but, Even at that, With how sockets change, a $125 bundle ($75 AIO and $50 in top tier fans) every year or 2 might still cheaper than a $250 bundle that you may have to replace anyways in 3-4 years (due to new socket compatibility issues) especially since good fans tend to last forever...
I went with a Coolermaster AIO primarily to match my Coolermaster case. I have been happy with it :)
I certainly would not install it like this though, I always put my radiators on the top to make sure the pump always has liquid in it, so it doesn't burn out sucking air. Plus I don't have to bend the AIO tubes around a GPU.
In this configuration, the pump still wouldn’t receive air. The top of the radiator is still higher than where the pump is, meaning all the air goes there.
the only time that would take place is if the top of the rad was lower than the pump - thats misinformation
Amazon are selling the Oversteel Zircon AIO ... I just paid £36 for the 120mm. Using it on Ryzen 7 2700x .... it's great. Very well built, the tubes are wrapped, giving it a premium and solid feel. It has RGB lighting, with a fixed rainbow colour scheme. Most importantly, the performance is top notch. At idle my computer sits at 35, while gaming it's 50-52, and it doesn't exceed 65 when stress-testing with Prime 95. I doubt a Corsair H60 (which is the closest equivalent) would offer much better performance...the Zircon is also extremely quiet; my PSU and GPU fans are louder.
Thanks for this. My sneaking suspicion was that there wasn't going to be a huge performance gap between the two. Nice.
I've owned my ID Cooling Auraflow Snow 240 RGB AIO exactly a year and it's been rock solid. Picked it up on sale for 59.99 on amazon to match my white build. No complaints at all. The thermals Kyle put up are roughly what I've seen on my 3700x. Totally recommended.
Got mine last july as well exact unit as you.
@@nauikunart You also probably got a good deal on it. It's nice looking unit. I was pleasantly surprised. I'm def pulling over to my Ryzen 7000 build next year for sure.
@@DarkMikaruX goodluck on your build , I'm just running r3 with a 1650 right now the only build that I can afford, also planning to upgrade but maybe around 5000 series and 30 series card. indeed the id cooling is good at doing its job for a lower price.
@@nauikunart Nothing wrong with that brotha! Last month I was laid off from my IT job. They laid off 1/3 of the company. Timing was terrible seeing that video card prices had come down so much. Also my desktop motherboard kicked the bucket so I'm kinda forced into an upgrade at some point. Luckily I'll be starting a new gig next week but will have to wait it out a bit before building a new rig.
Loving seeing these video card prices finally dropping though. Truly insane prices over the last few years. Insane!
Got mine 2 weeks ago. No issues other than the sloshing noises. I wish there was a way you could top these off with distilled water.
Great info! Saw this 4 days after breaking the bank with a Corsair purchase. Not sure I would have chose differently, but without a doubt I will be much more critical of AIO and other pc parts in the future. This is the second video of yours that I have watched. The 480 starter pack was classic! Color me subscribed.
What about life expectancy warranty, support quality of life I think all those things need to go into consideration as well
I had an old NZXT Kraken 240mm AIO that I think I paid ~$120 for and the pump died maybe 2 years ago. After it died, I was in a pinch for something suitable for a 5900X so I went to my local computer shop and found the Deepcool Gammaxx L240 on sale for ~$40. Definitely not as high quality as the Kraken but temperatures were not far off, except the noise the fans made while top mounted was too irritating to withstand for long. I swapped the fans from the Kraken and system temperatures were basically in line with the Kraken, maybe 2-3c higher, which was a lot more expensive and purchased before the recent inflation explosion.
One thing I'll note is that the Deepcool has very prominent scratches on the cold plate now from setting it on my desk and the plate coming in contact. I've treated the kraken in much the same way and it's been moved between systems far more than the Deepcool has and the cold plate was still immaculate when it was done. This is also resulting in a notably higher CPU temperature than it had when it was new, but temperatures are still within the acceptable range so I've left it alone for now but if that cooler ever has to come off again, I'll be purchasing a new cooler.
It would have been interesting to see the CPU running under 100% load(like Cinebench R23 on loop for 30 minutes) and check out the temperature difference then.
😂 that absolutely makes no sense. No one does that in the real world. Unless it gets you off
Ive used the Arctic Liquid Freezer II 280 for nearly three years now, it still kicks everythings ass and it cost me £100, its amazing!
Would be nice to see the difference between front mounting and top mounting the radiator like this.
IIRC top or front mounting doesn't make a huge difference on CPU temps.
@@filippoorologio6777 Yeah, although top mounted AIO’s generally tend to last longer.
I have the white rgb ID Cooling 240 and it's great, 6 months in, no issues.
The Arctic Liquid Freezer II AIOs remain the ones I recommend. Some of the best performance, and the Arctic fans are fantastic and quiet. Arctic really killed it with that line.
Love my LF2 360, no sense paying extra when you don't want it.
I wish they made an rgb version xD.
@@gizengar111 they did
@@ZeroFudgeGiven it does cost significantly more than the ID-Cooling one, isnt it? 240mm vs 240mm of course.
@@TaLBLIzZaRd Yeah the Arctic one is $120 vs $60 for the ID cooling, but the rad is twice the thickness of the ID-Cooling and Corsair.
been running the IID cooling aio in all my rigs, great piece of kit for the price, as are the fans
You should have ran the Cinebench test on loop
I've enjoyed my EK AIO. I got it on a sale so it was like $120 for a 360mm rad and honestly it's whisper quiet and I've never seen my CPU hit over 60 degrees Celsius. Plus the RGB is immaculate. So it gets a S+
I'd be interested to see the cooler master ml240l V2 which is only slightly more expensive than the I'd but may be just as effective as the Corsair and it comes with RGB out of the box too
i have that cooling my 5800x. Love the ML240L. My cpu temps are great both at idle and load.
bought the $33 ID cooling frost flow 120 for my gpu and its been amazing for over 4 years now.
i actually recommend the DeepCool LS720. it is not an asetek copy and it has a really big copper plate. I have been using it and its pretty damn good. i used to have a fractal design 240mm aio but the price for this 360mm, best investment
I have a Gammax 240... Something like that. The most basic model anyway. And it's so good. For the 45 dollars I paid, it's nothing beyond amazing. I was so impressed by Deepcool that I also got a case from them. Also great price to features/perfomances.
DeepCool is the best! They are totally upsetting the market right now with their air coolers. Their AIOs have always been great too. Can’t go wrong with either
@@henryojeda2890 One of the good DeepCool air coolers are almost as much a s the best Noctuas here in Sweden. The AIOs are still great value though. At least if they still perform as my old Gammax.
@@BigFatCone yeah that’s unfortunate. I got a buddy in Finland who can pick up the AK620 for 77 bucks whereas over here (USA) it’s about 60. It totally depends where you are with the PC market
I currently have an ID Cooling AIO for my primary PC and my fiancé's PC, and will be buying the ID Cooling Pink Flow for my all Pink build I'm working on. I've been happy with them!
a 240mm aio is like $150, $200 shows a 360mm 💀
ID cooling started as a supplier of cooling stuff for super big companiesThey used to make heatpipes,radiators,fans etc for servers and workstations for the big Chinese brands like Lenovo, Huawei, etc....they know how to make a cooler.
for CPU stress tests
following Linus's video for stress testing
I'd recommend Linpack Extreme instead of Cinebench
or prime 95 if you need your CPU to catch fire.
in my experience, for some reason, Linpack extreme runs hotter on my 3700X than prime 95
I recently went and purchased a Kraken z63 ... soley for the LCD and because it was one of the very few 280 in white. Also.. another ludacris purchase was a Silverstone SX1000 for my O11 Mini, simply because there is no other way to future proof in such a small form factor. The most you can find is a 850W and i wanted some OC headroom. However... it was $250 for EACH item. - fun fact, i have two perfectly fine platinum ATX psu's and a ROG RYUO, which was black in 240mm. - So yeah. It is all luxury problems right now, and manufacturers know this, and for some reason the cheap parts are always "out of stock" but the most obscene premium item can be delivered in 24h. When you wanna get it done, you are basically left with very little options still.
Did you consider putting in better thermal paste and see if that changes anything? But an informative review, thanks.
The AIO is not mounted correctly, and this vid it not relevant.
@@ProgamersPC do you mind elaborating? I just purchased a $200 aio for my Ryzen 7 5800x3d and want to install it correctly.
@Oz7ki probably talking about the aio being installed on the front of the case instead of the top. This won't hamper performance really but it may lead to some unwanted noise and a shorter lifespan of the aio
In fairness to Corsair, they have another 240mm version without the LCD that is a lot cheaper at $100.
They even sell the display by itself for $100, so you can upgrade later on and still only be at $200, VS the $240 for that AIO.
Just a fancy little workaround.
Great video and content as usual!
He needs content. Thus why he chose something that's obviously only that price for the screen.
@gmu_alum08 Fair, that's not a very hot chip. Haha
I scored some of corsairs new AF120 rgb elite fans and they are easily the best Corsair fans to date; and I have owned every model minus the QL.
Highly recommend the AF rgb elite series.
Been using id-cooling fans for my builds, not a single one failed as of yet after like 3 years.
I also have a 120mm id-cooling aio it's around 5c hotter from my dual fan, 5-copper pipe tower cooler which is quite surprising.
I have ran a 360 ID cooling AIO for 3 years and it still works! Very heavy use as well 24 hour run times all the time
Me who just bought a nzxt 360mm kraken elite for 300 bucks:
oof
arctic liquid freezer 360 enjoyer , no rgb , no fancy things , just pure performance beast for cheap
I picked up a MasterLiquid 280AIO a month ago for $80 with a $40 mail in rebate, I grabbed that deal so fast I didn't even care if the thing wouldn't fit in my case
Figured if it didn't fit I could sell it for $60 "used".
Thankfully it fit, but just barely
I wouldn't spend more than $75 on an AIO at this point
Grabbed the same deal, it's been working great with my Ryzen 9 5950X! I almost did buy the ID AIO talked about in this video.
I ran with the old H110i GTX for the past 7 years. It’s worked with mine this far perfectly fine.
I will throw it out there that, within their warranty period, they will cover damages to your PC if it was caused by their AIO failing. I haven’t noticed other companies doing that.
You legit pay a dollar per mm
I think the price in the AIO market probably has a trust element as well, corsair can charge more because it's a name brand you recognize and ID-Cooling probably isn't, and when AIO death sometimes means leaking on to your other parts people are probably more willing to pay for that trust whether or not the actual risk is imaginary. Even the basic H100i with plain grey fans costs more than double what the ID-Cooling one does, so clearly you can't blame all the cost difference on the LCD and fans. Given that the corsair even costs more than an EK AIO which is a brand I'm sure enthusiasts would trust but would be less well known outside the community, I have to assume they're charging more because they can get away with it due to name recognition.
"240" *proceeds to show a 360*
I can't believe literally no one is talking about how satisfying Nice tutorials voice softs.
I bought a Z73 strictly cos I wanted the lcd gifs. I think it looks cool above my 4090
I just recently started working with UE5, and had to upgrade from my 5600X/1660 Super to a 5950X & MSI 6750XT in my Meshilicious case on the Gigabyte B550I Aorus Pro AX and got the ID Cooling 280 for ($60?). I set the fans up to exhaust out of the case front, the GPU essentially pulls in air from the outside, and the EVGA 850 SFX pulls off the cooling plate on the back of the GPU and exhausts: no matter what I'm doing I don't have any issues with heat, and even hitting the RAM & CPU with the OCCT AVX2 load for extended periods never raises the CPU above 60deg. SHOCKED and ecstatic about the cooling potential on this thing! The fans are absurdly loud at 100%, but fans are easy compared to the rad/pump.
I don't know if anyone noticed but but both radiators are put in not the best way(upside down). How it is installed currently air that is present will go up and be pumped through the tubes so the cooling and fan noise can be worse or at max damaging for the pump. Unless the pump is in the radiators but I think that is not the case. In short: make sure that air is not pumped towards the pump. This can be avoided by a top mounted aio where the orientation does not matter.
If the pump is placed below the highest point of the rad, air will not get trapped in the pump due to air density. It's not the best, but will not present problems in the state shown
As someone getting ready to build their first pc, thank you! This kind of content really helps me feel better about picking parts without over spending!
Been running the ID-COOLING FrostFlow X 240 for almost 2 years now, first on a 2600 and now on a 5600 and it has performed fantastically for £80.
I personally have this ID-cooling frost flow 240 cooler.. I love it. It’s been great under pretty hot and heavy conditions!
You installed the AIO as intake, instead of outflow. You’re literally helping warm the air inside the case.
I actually used that ID-Cooling frostflow 240 to cool a 12600k and it did amazing. the Noctua NH-u12s with dual fans worked a bit better though. kept it about 2-5 degrees cooler under gaming loads
I mean thats like saying "why are you buying a new volkswagen golf instead of a 2007 honda civic, the cheaper one drives too."
I havent heard of a single person saying they NEED this aio for cooling over another cheap one. Anyone buying this knows that you pay for the extra stuff like the lcd and icue integration. Even searching for this thing on amazon shows you at least 4 other aios for less than 120$ so no one can say they thought this is the normal price.
Of course my bmw with heated seats, onboard realtime navigation and high beam assist drives just as well as the same model without those addons, theyre luxury accessories, just as the h100i capellix lcd screen is.
It comes with a tube of thermalpaste... what kind? Not all thermalpaste are created equal, i wouldn't put some no name generic crap that might dry out in a month on my chips. I just installed the corsair h150i elite lcd, the 360 version 2 days ago and though I'm sure it came with good paste I still cleaned it off and applied thermal grizzly hydronaut.
Tech specs are on the bottom of the box.
Another feature I found on this opposed to my previous mid range aio is liquid temp monitoring, so instead of just monitoring the cpu temp it can monitor the liquid itself to adjust pump and fan if the liquid is getting too hot or is running cold.
The cable management is far better then that of my old midrange aio which also had a hub and usb but also required two fan control headers on the motherboard and messy daisy chaining where this only needed to plug into the cpu header from the pump and the rest into the hub and gives full independent control of each one so at low temperatures it can be set to run a single fan which would require 4 headers on the motherboard with the old aio.
And you installed the rad with the air pocket at the tubes 🤦♂️, personally I like a completely silent system but if you like the occasional water trickling noise it could be relaxing but maybe won't hear it over the noisier cheap fans, which leads up to the next point, life expectancy. The fans of the cheaper aio started leaking, producing fan whine after less then a year, annoying to the point I unplugged the first to go, then a second went, replaced them all with the tuf gaming fans from the case which held out to this day but they are from a pricy case. They are not made for pressure, still did fine cooling a 2700x 8 core, not so good for 5800x 8 core which had thermal limits almost peaking constantly. Time will tell how well the mag lifts hold up but considering the brand and I used ql120s to replace those case fans with no noise still, I expect a long time.
So at the end of the day, can you use a cheap aio? sure. But do you want to? Probably not and only if your budget requires it.
And what aio is he running in his personal build? Cheap, mid or high end?
I think its important for someone who claims knowing enough to be be testing and advising others to also note what they personaly go with as an expert.
I just brought the 360mm corsair lcd, it was the only option because my aio died and it was the only one Best Buy had, I love it, didn’t care to replace my fans with the corsair fans that came with it because I have corsair fans that I believe are 2 years old so didn’t see a point in doing so and temps are fine. Also it keeps my R9 3900X extremely cool, and it looks awesome with the screen.
The H100 cooler without the LCD screen is roughly $150, and the individual ML120 fans are between $30-40 each depending on retailer on sale. Best consumer bet: get the H100 without the LCD screen, and the price is only a few dollars more than the Frostflow with Corsair fans.
I.D. Cooling/Cooler are OGs going back to Athlon days when water cooling was mostly DIY or buying parts from modders/manufaturers.
1 year ago I bought the cheapest aio, I had doubts about the difference between a more expensive one, but this video solved all my doubts, I also bought some more expensive Noctua coolers and today it works perfect.
While this comment is a bit late, one thing I'll point out is here in Australia, the prices of coolers like Corsair's watercooling series are almost identical to most other coolers, usually about $20-$50 AUD difference since we only really have 2 or 3 consistent vendors to buy from that don't take over a month to deliver
I went back to Air Cooling years ago and couldn't be happier. Some of the best Air Coolers won't run upwards of $50.
I been on air for ages. Fx9590 chilling on air. Tr4 2950x on air to.
Loved this video and tbh I really like you as a creator straight to the point no BS just facts presented well with research and proof to back it up
Deepcool Casle 360EX is 100 bucks 360 AIO and it rivals the Arctic Freezer. It's all about brand name and RGB fluff
I have the frost play on my r7 5800x, works perfectly fine, 60-70 max. Replace the fans with Arctic p12s and youre set
The radiator is not positioned correctly. As it is, air will accumulate at the top of the radiator and get into the hoses and then into the pump. This may not start happening right away, but over time. You will notice it by the increasing noise.
If the radiator is mounted vertically, the fittings should be at the bottom.
I’ve had a frostflow in my 3090 build for 4 years and it’s never ever failed me
I just bought my friends brand new corsair h170i elite lcd aio($350 new retail), evga 1000 gq power supply (couple hundred new retail), corsair icue 7000x rgb case $330 new retail) external 8th HD (200 new retail) , BenQ monitor just for now ($175 new retail)....
Over $1000 worth of stuff for $120 total. He said he didn't need it and would sell it to me for 90% off.... so that's exactly what I did, go drive 5hrs to pick it all up.