The Best AIO Coolers for Your PC in 2021

If you want a CPU cooler without the noise, using one of the best AIO coolers is for you. An AIO, or all-in-one, liquid cooler includes all the parts you need to start water cooling your CPU. Over a traditional air cooler, a good AIO liquid cooler may allow you to push your processor further in overclocking while keeping noise to a minimum.

You can pick up an AIO liquid CPU cooler in various sizes, though most builds call for a 240mm AIO. To that end, we recommend the Corsair iCUE H100i RGB Pro XT thanks to its slew of lighting options and excellent included fans. You can jump up or down depending on your PC build size or cooling needs.

Before diving in, you’ll need to take note of your CPU socket before picking up an AIO water cooler. Every CPU cooler is a little different, so you’ll need to know what CPU socket your motherboard has to see if the cooler supports it.

The best AIO coolers at a glance

Corsair iCUE H100i RGB Pro XT

The Corsair iCUE H100i RGB Pro XT is the result of Corsair’s years of making AIO coolers. Now fit with support for the iCUE software, you can sync up all of your various RGB accessories for a unified look inside your build. Additionally, the software allows you to check on your CPU and coolant temperature to make sure everything is running smoothly.

In addition to a 240 mm radiator, the kit comes with two Corsair ML120 fans. They have a massive range that you can control with PWM, from 400 RPM up to 2,400 RPM. In iCUE, you can also configure a profile to the turn the fans off when temperatures are low.

The Corsair iCUE H100i RGB Pro XT is an easy AIO to recommend. Corsair is behind some of the best desktop CPU coolers, and the cooler clocks in at only around $120. Socket support is excellent, too, with mounting options for all recent Intel and AMD processors, including Threadripper.

Arctic Liquid Freezer II

When it comes to raw thermal performance, the Arctic Liquid Freezer II is the best 360mm AIO cooler on the market. It reaches similar performance to competing coolers at NZXT and Corsair while being very inexpensive. The 360 mm option is only $125, while the NZXT Kraken X73 — another 360 mm AIO — clocks in at nearly $200. The price is even more impressive when you consider the cooler’s features. In particular, the pump is controlled by PWM, allowing it to modulate with the workload rather than run at full speed all the time.

The Liquid Freezer II also includes a 40 mm fan next to the pump, set to sit over your motherboard’s VRM chips. In more extreme overclocking sessions, this may improve stability. Otherwise, it includes three Arctic 120 mm fans to keep air flowing.

This cooler is all about performance and price. It gets those two bits right, but not without some concessions. It doesn’t feature any sort of lighting, and the design may not be to everyone’s tastes.

Still, the Arctic Liquid Freezer II hits a sweet spot that other coolers can’t compete with. Socket support is a little limited, but the Liquid Freezer still supports most recent chips. On AMD, it supports AM4 CPUs, and on Intel, it supports all LGA115x sockets, as well as 2011-3 and 2066 with a square Independent Loading Mechanism (ILM).

NZXT Kraken X53

Although significantly more expensive than the Liquid Freezer II, NZXT’s third generation of Kraken X coolers are worth their asking price. This 240 mm model clocks in at around $130, which still isn’t too expensive. The design is much more appealing than Arctic’s offering while achieving similar levels of thermal performance.

For looks, the Kraken X’s infinity mirror pump cap is a showstopper. It bounces light around inside the cap to create the illusion of infinite LED rings. Like nearly all NZXT products, the Kraken X53 is fully integrated with CAM, allowing you to monitor temperatures and tweak your lighting settings. Over the X52, the X53 also includes a NZXT Hue 2 connection on the pump, offering power for up to six Hue 2 accessories. If you want to trick out your rig with synced-up RGB, the NZXT Kraken X53 is for you.

Unsurprisingly, socket support is excellent, with support for TR4 and AM4 on AMD, and LGA115X, 20XX, and 1200 on Intel. NZXT rates the Kraken X53 for six years of continuous use — 60,000 hours, technically — which is around what we’d expect for most AIO coolers. NZXT offers a six-year warranty, though, so you’re covered from any defects for the rated life of the cooler.

Corsair H80i v2

120 mm AIOs usually aren’t very good, but the Corsair H80i v2 is the best 120 mm AIO around. Without proper surface area on the radiator, most 120 mm coolers just aren’t up to snuff when it comes to cooling power. The Corsair H80i v2 solves that problem. The radiator is twice as thick, clocking in at 49 mm compared to the standard 25mm. The H80i v2 doesn’t match the cooling performance of a 240 mm radiator, but it gets a lot closer than a standard 120 mm one. And the Corsair H80i is still relatively cheap at around $100.

To get through the extra thick radiator, Corsair includes two SP120L PWM fans, so it’s easy to set up a push-pull configuration, but you’ll need to factor in the extra thickness of such a configuration when mounting.

As for support, the Corsair H80i v2 comes with Intel mounting hardware for socket 1366 up to LGA1200 (Intel’s redesign of LGA1151, designed for Comet Lake CPUs). Basically, if you have an Intel processor introduced after 2008, you’re fine. AMD support is a little sparser. The cooler technically supports AM2 up to AM4, but the box only ships with mounting hardware for up to AM3. You’ll need a separate AM4 bracket. Thankfully, Corsair sells them for only a few dollars. There’s no RGB on this one, either, though you can control fan speed and monitor temperatures through Corsair’s iCue software.

Cooler Master MasterLiquid ML240L v2

Cooler Master offers a range of “lite” AIOs, which are basically previous iterations of Cooler Master’s MasterLiquid line with increased socket support and double FEP tubing. At around $80, the Cooler Master ML240L v2 is the best budget AIO available. It comes with a 240 mm radiator, two RGB fans, and a small RGB controller. Thermal performance isn’t great, and the noise level is higher than some more costly options. However, the ML240L clocks in around $50 cheaper than most competing 240 mm AIOs. Plus, you can always swap the fans out later for more lighting options and slightly better noise levels.

The Cooler Master ML240L comes with nearly universal socket support, too. On Intel, it supports LGA1200, LGA20xx, LGA115x, and LGA1366, and on AMD, it supports AM2 to AM4, as well as FM2 and FM1. For the price, it’s hard to beat the ML240L.

EK-AIO 240 D-RGB

If you want the best RGB AIO cooler, the EK-AIO 240 D-RGB goes off the deep end. Short of a small black strip where the tubes connect, the mounting block has a translucent, slightly diffused surface, washing out the lights inside into a beautiful display of color. EK is the place for custom water cooling, and the EK-AIO 240 shows why.

When it comes to raw thermal performance, EK beats the Corsairs and NZXTs of the world. It includes two EK-Vardar S fans that run from 550RPM to 2,200RPM, and includes support for other RGB PC components through Asus Aura Sync, Gigabyte RGB Fusion, MSI Mystic Light, and ASRock RGB Sync for the fans and pump.

The EK-AIO 240 is a better option due to the fact that it’s inexpensive. At around $120, it’s cheaper than the 240 mm counterpart at NZXT, and the same price as Corsair’s ever-popular H100i. Like a lot of the other options on this list, it’s available in 120 mm and 360 mm variants, too. On Intel, the EK-AIO 240 supports LGA115x and LGA20xx, as well as LGA1200. On AMD, it just includes an AM4 bracket. You can control the fans directly through your motherboard, but if you’re short on spots, you can pick up an EK-Loop Connect controller for another six PWM connections.

NZXT Kraken Z63

The NZXT Kraken Z63 is unnecessary at $250, but that’s the point. It’s basically the Kraken X53, just with a larger radiator and a useful LCD display on the pump. It may seem a little gimmicky, but the display allows you to quickly see critical metrics from NZXT’s CAM software, including your fan speed and temperature. If you don’t want to monitor anything, you can throw a GIF on the display for the 2021 equivalent of putting an action figure in your gaming computer.

The Z63 comes with a 280 mm radiator, but NZXT offers 240 mm and 360 mm variations, too. Like the Kraken X53, the Z63 comes with two 140 mm Aer P fans, and it supports most modern sockets. That includes TR4 for Threadripper, though you’ll need to pick up a separate Threadripper mounting bracket from NZXT for that.

A big part of the NZXT Kraken Z63‘s high price is the LCD display, but if you’re in the market for a premium cooler with flare to match, there isn’t a better option.

Alphacool Eisbaer Aurora

The Alphacool Eisbaer Aurora is a CPU cooler that you can refill. Unlike other AIO liquid coolers, you can swap out the fluid, upgrade the hoses and fittings, and even expand the loop. The most recent model supports digital RGB on the fans and CPU block, too, allowing you to trick out your lighting however you want.

The looks are right, but Alphacool didn’t sacrifice thermals with the Eisbaer Aurora. The radiator is made out of copper for a little extra cooling potential, and the nickel-plated copper CPU block has been slightly enlarged compared to previous versions. For CPU support, the Eisbaer Aurora supports most modern processors, though it doesn’t officially support Threadripper chips.

Frequently asked questions

What should you look for in an AIO cooler?

The most important part of an AIO CPU cooler is the radiator size. A larger radiator offers better cooling performance, but you need to make sure it can fit inside your case. Otherwise, look at the socket support to make sure you can use the cooler with your motherboard and buy from a reputable brand.

How reliable are RGB AIO coolers?

Most AIO coolers have a lifespan of six years, regardless of if they have RGB or not. You can expect an AIO cooler from a reputable brand to run for six years without issues, but every cooler is a little different. We recommend looking up individual AIO cooler reviews to see if others have had issues with reliability.

What should you know before you buy an AIO cooler?

Before buying an AIO cooler, you need to know about the risks it may pose to your PC. Although failures are few and far between, every AIO cooler is still putting water dangerously close to your precious PC components, so there’s always a risk that the cooler could leak or fail and damage your parts. The fact that AIO coolers are closed makes matters worse because you can’t open the loop to see if there are any problems.

The best way to mitigate risk is to keep an eye on your cooler to see if there are any signs of leaking, and to monitor your CPU temperature to see if the pump is failing. As long as you keep an eye on both, you can find most problems before they do any catastrophic damage.

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