Are AIO coolers worth it?

So I've got a desktop built and it's pretty great, but I've noticed that maybe it needs some better cooling.

I'm thinking maybe my AIO is not working well; it's at least two years old at this point and I hear a little "gurgle" every time I boot it up (I should probably check the temps before making that assumption).

Just doing some browsing and wondering if I should get a nice fan+heatsink combo instead. I don't plan on overclocking any time soon.

TL;DR: should I replace for AIO cpu cooler with another AIO, or get a nice fan+heatsink cooler?

Recommendations welcome!

*Oh yeah and what is the verdict for best set up: positive pressure or negative pressure (for cooling and dust control). Was thinking of getting some nice fans for the case.

Depends on the CPU, 280mm upwards is recommended. My current 240mm is cooling my 13700KF, it has a contact frame installed. About to run some benchmarks to see if it is adequate.

Always wanted to try an icegiant.

What CPU are you currently using? Check your temps too. But a decent fairly cheap aircooler that just released is Deepcool's AK500, performs as well as Noctua U12 offerings.

I've got an AMD Ryzen 9 3900X 12-Core @3800 MHz

Woh! That thing is HUGE!

Is it any good? It's actually more or less in the price-range I was thinking of spending.

Thanks for the recommendation.

What are good programs to check your temp? I used to use the NZXT software but I never reinstalled it on my newer build as I heard it slowed down performance? That might have just been rumors.

@mrbojangles25: You can check temps with Afterburner/RTSS or something like CPUID HWMonitor.

You should not be hearing bubbles or gurgle sounds from the pump. Make sure that the highest spot of your radiator is positioned higher than the CPU to prevent air bubbles.

Cool, thanks.

According to MSI Afterburner, my GPU is about 61 C and my CPU is 55 C. Those are pretty good, right?

I'm playing Satisfactory at the moment as well, so it's under some decent load I reckon.

@mrbojangles25: Yeah, those are good temps.

It is the HEDT/Threadripper at least.

Although, probably best to go for the NH-U12A, comes with the best fans.

Just get a good air heatsink and forget about AIO. Air will be half the price, or even less, and will be only 5C hotter (unless you have a 360mm giant for over $200), with lower noise as a bonus, as most AIO have loud/fast fans + you get the pump noises on top.

Been using Dark Rock Pro 2 on my 4770K and am using Pro 4 on 3900X. No issues.

Yeah this is what I was leaning towards from the start, think I will get it.

Any opinion on positive vs negative pressure? Or is it just a bunch of nonsense in the end lol

More intake fans (positive) is supposed to prevent dust buildup. As for cooling performance, it also depends on the case itself.

If you got dustfilters infront of the fans.

Yes, it's worth it. Got it for my CPU. Make sure it's oriented right, check for dust.

Overall it may depend on your tower and air flow.

Too many fans or too few or poor air flow can choke an air cooler. A good example:

I had a Cooler Master Cosmos 1000 years ago. I loved the look of the case, but overall the airflow in it was just awful, even after doing some mod work on it to add in two front intake fans. At the time I had a Phenom II x4 940 and I was working on OCing it. I was seeing lots of posts of people hitting 3.7-3.8 on a good chip before hitting thermal limit, but I was stuck at 3.6. I had tried three different air coolers, but I only remember what 2 of them were:

1. Cooler Master Hyper 212
2. Cooler Master V8
3. ???? I can't remember what it was for the life of me

They all gave the same temps when OCing, I was hitting the thermal limit once I got up to 3.6 and voltage I was using was around 1.475 to hit that OC. I could push my OC further, but I had to crank the voltage to 1.5250 to keep the OC stable, but any sort of stress on the CPU pushed it past the thermal limit and she throttled hard. So I had to keep it at 1.475V to maintain 3.6GHz.

For the hell of it, I picked up a small radiator AIO (Corsair H50, if I remember correctly that was on sale at Best Buy for $30). That small AIO cooled better for my setup over any air cooler I tried. My overall temps dropped by almost 10C and I could drop the voltage down to 1.45 to maintain the 3.6 OC. I started messing with voltages and FSB and so on again and I was able to hit 3.71 with 1.5 voltage and still keep my CPU about 5 degrees under the thermal limit.

This was when I learned that air flow makes a big impact on your builds and how air cooler and AIO coolers can greatly impact your temps and performance.

Eventually I moved away from that tower to a Fractal Design Arc XL, it had much better cooling over the Cosmos 1000. I found that a Hyper 212+ worked great for my i5-4670k that I eventually picked up.

I ended up running into bad GPU sag (Zotac 980Ti AMP! Omega) eventually so I moved to my Cooler Master HAF XB Evo so the MB mounts parallel to the ground, instead of perpendicular like it does in most tower cases. This eliminated the GPU sag issue, but I was now limited to how tall of a cooler I could use so I transitioned back to an AIO (Corsair H110i) and I only have a total of 4 fans in my case now (had a total of 6 in my last tower, 8 if you count the two on the air cooler). Two on the radiator (pushing cool outside air through the radiator), the top 200mm exhaust and 1 - 120mm rear exhaust. Things stay cooler in this tower than they did in my Fractal Design case and now any computer I build I use this case (currently 3 different builds at home, all using the XB Evo).

AIO's are mostly for aesthetics. Air coolers nowadays can perform just as good if not better than AIOs. I have a Thermalright FC 140 and my cpu never goes above 50c while gaming or under load. It also helps to have positive air flow.