How Do You Fit an Oversized AIO Into an Unsupported Case?
There are many additional ways to keep your CPU cool, but without a good CPU cooler, all of your efforts are in vain. While air coolers are still quite effective and very reliable, with certain CPUs (mostly Intel) you simply need to go with an AIO if you want to push any decent overclock.
A common problem with AIOs however is that you need to be able to mount the radiator in your case in a correct position where the pump is not pulling air. If your case is too small or if your PC parts are oversized (motherboard VRM heatsinks, GPU) fitting a solid 280-360mm radiator into your case becomes a problem.
Facing the Conundrum
I paired my previous CPU (5800X3D) with an AK620 air cooler and everything was fine with the fans barely needing to spin. With me swapping to the 13600KF and overclocking it however the AK620 fans needed to work a lot harder since now even in games instead of having to deal with 60w of power, it had to cool 120w of power.
I looked into getting an AIO and found a good deal on a 360mm Be Quiet AIO that could keep my CPU cool. While a 280mm radiator performs the same as a 360mm the advantage of a bigger radiator is the simple fact it can dissipate more heat at lower fan RPMs meaning no more vacuum cleaner sounds coming from my PC.
As mentioned before there are correct/optimal ways to mount your AIO for the best cooling performance and that option is to mount it at the top of your case. My Lian Li Lancool 215 is a very decent airflow case, however, it can only support a 280mm radiator at the top and the only way to fit a 360mm was at the front of the case.
If you want to mount a radiator at the front of your case you need to make sure you run it tubes down to once again optimize performance – you can run it tubes up and it will do fine but you will make the pump work harder. I did try to mount the 360mm radiator tubes down in my case but the GPU size and the length of the tubes made it impossible for me to mount the pump onto the CPU.
With all of my standard options exhausted I had to resort to the usual scrappy, DIY ways of figuring things out – I do not care about aesthetics, I care about performance.
The Scrappy Solution
With the idea of somehow using a traditional mounting method out the window, I started measuring and figuring out how to mount the unsupported 360mm radiator so I can still achieve good temperatures while overclocking the crap out of my CPU.
The optimal way of doing this for me ended up being mounting the AIO radiator ON TOP of the case – this way I achieve optimal performance and in essence have to make no sacrifices to the cooling or performance of my build.
I measured and made sure the AIO tubes reached the CPU, mounted the bracket in the correct orientation, and assembled the entire thing. The only issue with this solution is that I had to offset one of the front intake fans to accommodate the AIO tubes, but 4 zip ties after you can barely even tell anything is wrong with the fan from the front view.
Most importantly the fan delivers cool air efficiently inside of the case cooling down my components so I do not care about the slight visual inconsistency.
I most definitely could have spent another 100+$ to buy a bigger case that supports a 360mm radiator being mounted to the top of the case, but I did not see the point of spending extra money when I could solve this issue with a bit of creative work.
I have no issues with how the build looks, I have extensively tested the CPU OCs I am running and achieved good results in terms of cooling, and honestly, this was a lot more fun building and figuring out than just getting a new case to make it look like every other metal box people use.
I have done my research, worked with what I had, and honestly think the end result looks quite good for what it is.
TL;DR
Sometimes mounting a 360mm radiator in the most DIY way possible is quite fun and as long as you are like me and only care about the performance, this kind of look for the build is absolutely acceptable!