This AIO Doesn’t Have A Pump, But It’s Got Decent Thermal Performance

This AIO Doesn’t Have A Pump, But It’s Got Decent Thermal Performance

Image: Der8auer (YouTube)

Roman Hartung a.k.a. ‘Der8auer‘ is back at testing another unique hardware, this time taking a closer look at a prototype AIO cooler from a German manufacturer Wieland. At first glance, it doesn’t look too different than your run-of-the-mill AIO coolers, but upon closer look, you may find that there is no pump present.

Image: Der8auer (YouTube)

So how does it work if there’s no pump to push the water along the loop? Enter ‘thermosyphon’ technology: this is a method of passive heat exchange mechanism that relies on natural convection, the same kind of technique used in passively cooled PC components. The benefits of this are two-fold – one, there is less noise since the pump is no longer present; and two, better reliability as there are fewer moving parts.

Image: Der8auer (YouTube)

According to Der8auer’s testing – which compares the Wieland AIO against the Corsair H150i 360mm (since he couldn’t get a 240mm AIO on hand, he taped off a section of it to simulate a 240mm equivalent) – the Wieland cooler largely kept up with the Corsair, while in the worst-case scenario that is Cinebench R23, the Corsair AIO won. However, the pump-less Wieland isn’t far behind, achieving only 8°C higher temps.

There are other tradeoffs, too. The pump-less design requires additional spaces to fit a cylindrical element on either end of the radiator, meaning some cases today will have difficulty installing this AIO. As a result of slightly worse thermals, the Ryzen 9 7950X used in this test also pulls slightly less power as a result – though given Ryzen’s power scaling characteristics, this only accounted for 1% of the performance difference, which is largely negligible.

Source: Tom’s Hardware | Der8auer (YouTube)

Pokdepinion: I can see some people wanting this kind of AIO if reliability is what they’re looking for.