What does the fan on this AIO cooler do?

It says in the product description in the newegg link:
An additional 40 mm fan next to pump helps cool the motherboard's VRM chips. This prevents overheating, especially when overclocking, and allows continuous heavy loads.
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Wow, that's one gimmick I'd actually be interested in.
If it doesn't add to the price, and the reliability of the pump itself is the same, I'll probably get that one for my next build.

Think of it this way: With normal air cooling, there's at least some side draft that occurs that will blow a small amount of air across the nearby motherboard components.
But with watercooling, the air is stagnant everywhere except the radiator. Well, now it's not stagnant anymore.

However, if that tiny fan makes ANY noise, I'd probably laugh and keep walking. So I'll read more reviews on it first to see if it's as interesting as it appears.
 
Aegir said:
Wow, that's one gimmick I'd actually be interested in.
If it doesn't add to the price, and the reliability of the pump itself is the same, I'll probably get that one for my next build.

Think of it this way: With normal air cooling, there's at least some side draft that occurs that will blow a small amount of air across the nearby motherboard components.
But with watercooling, the air is stagnant everywhere except the radiator. Well, now it's not stagnant anymore.

However, if that tiny fan makes ANY noise, I'd probably laugh and keep walking. So I'll read more reviews on it first to see if it's as interesting as it appears.
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The Arctic Cooling AIOs tend to be some of the cheapest especially when you consider how well they cool for the money. Also the little fan can be unplugged if memory serves.
 
SmokeRngs said:
The Arctic Cooling AIOs tend to be some of the cheapest especially when you consider how well they cool for the money. Also the little fan can be unplugged if memory serves.
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I would expect a small surge in their quality, as I recently saw some benchmarks that compare one of Arctic's fans very competitively against Noctua.

I doubt they'd want to miss their chance to shine if the spotlight is on them.
 
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This thread reminds me that I was going to pick one of these up. If it's good enough for Steve of Gamer's Nexus, it's good enough for me.
 
NobleX13 said:
This thread reminds me that I was going to pick one of these up. If it's good enough for Steve of Gamer's Nexus, it's good enough for me.
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They aren't easy to come by currently at MSRP. Couple 3rd party scalpers on Amazon have them.
 
Spartacus09 said:
It says in the product description in the newegg link:
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Ooops. :censored: Shame on me for not reading the full product description. :wideyed:

As the OP, I found this thread lvery, very helpful. I was going to get that high-end Noctua air cooler, but now I'm leaning to to Arctic Cooler II 360.
 
I’d rather just put a fan bracket over top of the socket area and run a large, quiet fan. But again, mostly not necessary if you have good case airflow.
 
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Revenant_Knight said:
I’d rather just put a fan bracket over top of the socket area and run a large, quiet fan. But again, mostly not necessary if you have good case airflow.
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Speaking of that, I've wanted to get one of these:
https://www.in-win.com/en/cooling/mars
20171227013412_83289.jpg

Just mount it to a top or rear case fan (you can double it up on a regular fan) and aim it at the VRM/chipset/SSD/whatever...

But man, they're expensive.

EDIT: Just looked, seems you can't even buy this thing anymore.
I guess $80 for one fan was asking a little too much... not enough RGB?
 
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Nside said:
Speaking of that, I've wanted to get one of these:
https://www.in-win.com/en/cooling/mars
View attachment 265876

Just mount it to a top or rear case fan (you can double it up on a regular fan) and aim it at the VRM/chipset/SSD/whatever...

But man, they're expensive.

EDIT: Just looked, seems you can't even buy this thing anymore.
I guess $80 for one fan was asking a little too much... not enough RGB?
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Could probably make something similar to just mount standard fan to. Maybe 3d print it or something.
 
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Ready4Dis said:
Could probably make something similar to just mount standard fan to. Maybe 3d print it or something.
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True, but my desire was more out of curiosity than anything, I don't really have a personal benefit. Maybe if I get a board with a really horrible VRM or heatsink.
Aegir said:
Time to build one yourself? https://www.amazon.com/Soldering-Flexible-Alligator-Electronics-Assembly/

Check out that sort of thing.

The glorious infinity of technology awaits you. It's time to stop being a consumer- Enter the world of supreme engineering.
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Link is broken, but I know what it is. I like the articulating arm idea though, maybe with a GPU fan attached so you wouldn't have to deal with a big clunky frame.
 
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I have this Cryorig AIO with a fan:

https://www.newegg.com/p/2SA-0005-00003?Item=9SIA4UF3GA3246

It does seem to work, and I was able to get to 5.0GHz with it.

Only problem is that the fan and pump can become annoyingly loud to the point where I wonder if something is going to break.

If I run everything on stock or with a light overclock, it is fine, I have it back on stock now so I don't overwork the machine.
 
Meh gimmicky af

If your board cant cool the VR mosfets without added 3rd party cooling you have a shit board.
 
tangoseal said:
Meh gimmicky af

If your board cant cool the VR mosfets without added 3rd party cooling you have a shit board.
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it's a gimmick but it does work though.. at least it's not a gimmick used to justify a higher price.. cough rgb cough..
 
sirmonkey1985 said:
it's a gimmick but it does work though.. at least it's not a gimmick used to justify a higher price.. cough rgb cough..
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Haha I agree rgb is gimmicky as hell. However, I knowing this, still purchased the piss out of it haha I love RGB but just wished it wasnt such a premo price.
 
A real 60mm fan or other tiny fan placed where your actual vrms is better than this and that would only cost ya 5 bucks. And then you can control its speed and not be annoyed by the noise.
 
tangoseal said:
Meh gimmicky af

If your board cant cool the VR mosfets without added 3rd party cooling you have a shit board.
Click to expand...
tangoseal said:
Haha I agree rgb is gimmicky as hell. However, I knowing this, still purchased the piss out of it haha I love RGB but just wished it wasnt such a premo price.
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lol...

Gimmick that actually does something potentially useful on a product that costs less:
"How Lame"

Gimmick that adds nothing to functionality on a product that costs more:
"OOOOOOoooo Gimme THAT one!"
 
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thesmokingman said:
A real 60mm fan or other tiny fan placed where your actual vrms is better than this and that would only cost ya 5 bucks. And then you can control its speed and not be annoyed by the noise.
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If you saw the review I posted above, or any other review of this thing, you'll see it doesn't create any noise, very low RPM. But yeah, you could pay more money for a fan you likely don't need anyway.
Also you would see in any respectable review that the VRM fan is not the main reason to buy the cooler.
The main reason to buy it is CPU cooling performance that beats Asetek designs while being $20-$40 cheaper.
 
tangoseal said:
Meh gimmicky af

If your board cant cool the VR mosfets without added 3rd party cooling you have a shit board.
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The problem is that virtually all motherboard VRM heat sinks are designed with air cooling in mind. They are designed to be cooled with the air that comes off a typical CPU air cooler. Water coolers, including AIO's don't provide this airflow and as a result, motherboard cooling is less than ideal. Even if your fancy X570 or whatever motherboard can handle not having any active air flow over it's VRM heat sinks, this still isn't how they were designed, nor will it produce the best results.
 
Dan_D said:
The problem is that virtually all motherboard VRM heat sinks are designed with air cooling in mind. They are designed to be cooled with the air that comes off a typical CPU air cooler. Water coolers, including AIO's don't provide this airflow and as a result, motherboard cooling is less than ideal. Even if your fancy X570 or whatever motherboard can handle not having any active air flow over it's VRM heat sinks, this still isn't how they were designed, nor will it produce the best results.
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Case fans.... that is what VRM setups need.

But youre right AIOs dont have downward airflow like a cpu fan oh but wait.... what about big ass tower coolers that 90% (arbitrary claim but probably close to reality) of air cooling people end up getting.

Hence case fans moving a vol of air around the components is priority for any build.

anyways from GN written review:


The Arctic Liquid Freezer’s VRM fan is both a gimmick and not a gimmick. It’s not a gimmick because it actually works: The top result is with the VRM fan on, measuring at 34.7, 38.3, and 28.4 degrees over ambient for our three measurement points. The Liquid Freezer with the VRM fan off loses a few ranks, consistent across all 12 total test passes for this one chart (and we have about 24 test passes for the other 3 configurations we ran). The result falls from 28.4 for VRM2 to 33.6, a change of about 5 degrees Celsius, and from 38.3 to about 42.6 on VRM1. So yes, it works and is therefore not a complete gimmick.

At the same time, it’s not really relevant. It doesn’t hurt to be cooler, but this one feature shouldn’t be the tipping point between you buying the product and not. If it’s between this and another cooler, and you mostly have your heart set on the other one for visual or compatibility or warranty reasons, don’t let the VRM fan sway the decision. If your board is going to run so hot that you need an extra 5-degree reduction, it’s probably time to find another board or case solution altogether. That said, this does reduce temperature and it does work, and in cases that are really hot and closed-off, with a 3950X or higher-power chip, with overclocking, and with a VRM which is undercooled and overheated, this would be a value add. We just don’t think that’s going to be very common, and while it gets praise for doing a good job and chart-topping, we don’t think it should be the deciding factor in the purchase.

So the actual CLC is an absolute winner in as far as other CLCs are compared. But to claim this things tiny little itty bitty cutie pie deluxe fan is supposed to be some kind of game changer. Well as we just read.
 
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I was gonna get one of these but its constant out of stock-ness made me change to an air cooler. Shame, cause I was curious to actually try it.

tangoseal said:
But youre right AIOs dont have downward airflow like a cpu fan oh but wait.... what about big ass tower coolers that 90% (arbitrary claim but probably close to reality) of air cooling people end up getting.
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All I'm gonna say is that those tower air coolers have create enough air movement that they DO airflow over components nearby, even if its not perfectly directed. Likewise, you're more likely to have a top or rear exhaust fan if you're going pure air.

If you place your rads correctly you'll likely have enough airflow over VRMS, but due to the wildly different cases and radiator positioning, its not always a guarantee. Especially in a situation where someone puts the rad in front of the case, has a rear exhaust but no top exhaust, starving the north vrm heatsink of any airflow... etc.
 
TheSlySyl said:
I was gonna get one of these but its constant out of stock-ness made me change to an air cooler. Shame, cause I was curious to actually try it.
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Build your own AIC with the Swiftech Apogee Drive II, lol that's a long name. Then you can mate it with the best rad you can get versus the junk rads in AIOs.
 
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