If you’re after the highest sustained clock speeds with your Core i9-14900K or Ryzen 7 7800X3D, or you just want your modest system to remain silent under load, there are some important things to consider when choosing the best AIO (all-in-one) cooler for your new PC or a CPU upgrade. 

If you aren’t running a flagship CPU with lots of cores and 5-6 GHz speeds and you don’t plan on overclocking, a 120mm AIO (which you can usually mount in the rear exhaust fan area of your PC case) should suffice. That said, Intel’s 12th and 13th Gen CPUs are generally more demanding on coolers. And AMD’s Ryzen 7000 lineup, while less thermally demanding than Intel’s chips, isn’t exactly easy to cool either. So if you want better temperatures and slower-spinning fans, a good 240mm AIO cooler is a better choice, but won’t fit in as many cases.

If money isn’t a major concern and silent operation and low temperatures are important to you, you may want to consider a custom cooling loop. For more on how these tend to perform (and how good they look), check out our Blue Shift build feature. Just know that custom loops are always much more expensive than all other typical cooling alternatives, exponentially more complicated to assemble and install, and they can make future component upgrades much more complicated–especially if you add your GPU into the cooling loop.

In your quest for the best AIO cooler, don’t forget to consider thermal paste or another thermal interface material (TIM) to use with your AIO cooler. Most coolers these days will come with some kind of paste, either in a small syringe or pre-applied to the metal cold plate. But to make sure you’re getting the most efficient thermal transfer between your CPU and cooler plate, check out the many products we thoroughly tested to find the best thermal paste for your CPU. 

Quick List

Best AIO Coolers You Can Buy Today

Best 360mm AIO Liquid Cooler

Lian Li’s Galahad II Trinity Performance raises the bar for AIO Cooling. Every component has been upgraded, resulting in absolute cooling domination. The cooler installation is simple and easy, and it’s reasonably priced at only $169 USD. With results like this, I find it hard to recommend any other liquid cooler, making this the first CPU cooler I have ever awarded a 5-star rating. This is the best liquid cooler on the market right now, without question.

While cooling performance is absolutely amazing, thermals are only one part of the picture. How loudly the cooler runs is very important as well. In its default configuration, Lian Li’s GA II Trinity Performance runs loudly at 55.2 dBA. I’ve only tested a handful of coolers that reach this level of noise. 

Normally I would consider this a mark against the product, but Lian Li wisely included a built-in low-noise/high-performance toggle switch, allowing you to reduce maximum fan speeds and noise levels with the flip of a switch. Most coolers that support low-noise modes have reduced thermal performance when engaged. But I didn’t observe any difference in thermals between the two modes when tested on my i7-13700K. When set to the low noise mode, total noise output is reduced to 49.2 dBA, which is on par with MSI’s and DeepCool’s competing 360mm AIOs. 

Read: Lian Li Galahad II Performance Review

Best 360mm AIO Liquid Cooler Alternative

If you prize quiet operation over absolute cooling ability, Arctic’s Liquid Freezer II 360 ARGB is an excellent option, as it cooled our Core i9-13900K nearly as well as the DeepCool LT720, while staying quieter under our testing scenarios. Arctic’s 360 mm cooler handled over 290W in our long-term testing with the 13900K, making it a solid choice for those who run demanding workloads. 

Just make sure your case has extra room wherever you plan on mounting it, because it achieves its quiet cooling skills by incorporating a thicker radiator than most of the competition. So it won’t fit as well in smaller cases, or those that just aren’t designed with a lot of room up top.

Read: Arctic Liquid Freezer II 360 ARGB review

Best Multipurpose AIO Liquid Cooler

My only complaint is that by default, the IceMyst’s included radiator fans run much louder than needed – but that’s easily fixed by implementing a custom fan curve. If fan noise bothers you, don’t worry too much because when set to run silently the 360mm IcyMyst provides the best noise normalized results I’ve seen from any cooler on the market.  

Read: Silverstone IceMyst 360 and 240mm AIO Review 

Best 420mm AIO Liquid Cooler

Corsair’s iCUE H170i Elite LCD XT AIO offers the best cooling performance we’ve tested yet with Intel’s i9-13900K, handling over 325W in our most intensive thermal tests. And unlike other coolers, the noise level of the H170i Elite is tied to the CPU coolant temp, resulting in quieter operation during most common tasks and the elimination of bursty fan behavior. The tradeoff is that we saw noisier operation under the kinds of sustained loads that we use for testing.

Read: Corsair iCUE H170i Elite LCD XT review 

Best 280mm AIO Cooler

Lian Li’s Galahad II LCD 280 shows that with the right design, you don’t need a 360mm AIO or a loud cooler to keep modern high-end CPUs from throttling. Its performance is amongst the best we’ve seen from any AIO, and its limited 280mm size means that it will fit in many cases where a 360mm model won’t. The included LCD screen is vibrant and adds eye-catching functionality to the cooler’s aesthetics.

At $229, the Galahad II LCD 280 is on the expensive end of the AIO spectrum. But if the LCD display isn’t your thing or you’re on a budget, the non-LCD versions of the Galahad II are available for $159.99 for the 360mm version and $119.99 for the 240mm model.

Read: Lian Li Galahad II LCD 280 Review

Best 240mm AIO Liquid Cooler

If you’re looking for a strong 240mm AIO, you can’t go wrong with Lian Li’s Galahad II Trinity 240mm. Our testing shows it’s the best-cooling AIO of its size on the market. It’s also quiet in most workloads, and it has a very reasonable price of only $119.99.

I never imagined that a 240mm AIO would have this level of cooling domination. Lian Li’s Galahad Trinity II Performance 240mm managed to sidle up to or outperform 360mm AIOs that were previously considered among the best available.

Read: Lian Li Galahad II Trinity Performance 240 Review 

Best 240mm AIO Liquid Cooler Alternative

After installing and testing it, I found Cooler Master’s new MasterLiquid 240 Atmos especially impressive. It’s clear the company has improved its flagship AIO in several key areas. Noise levels are low in most common workloads, and despite its smaller 240mm profile, the 240 Atmos is one of only a handful of AIOs I’ve tested that’s capable of keeping Intel’s i7-13700K under its peak temperature, even in the hottest of workloads. 

Read: Cooler Master MasterLiquid 240 Atmos Review

Best 120mm Closed-Loop Liquid Cooler

The NZXT Kraken M22 is an incredibly compact, high-performance liquid cooler that delivers sleek styling and vibrant RGB lighting options, while offering support for current AMD and Intel processor sockets. Specifically, if you’re building a small home-theater PC or a compact gaming build, the Kraken M22 offers surprising cooling potential in a condensed cooling package.

Just don’t try to strap one to your Threadripper system. The demanding thermals and massive surface of those high-end CPUs aren’t supported by this cooler.

Read: NZXT Kraken M22 Review

Savings on the Best CPU Coolers

Savings on the Best CPU Coolers

Whether you’re shopping for one of the products that made our best CPU coolers list or one that didn’t, you may find some savings by checking out our list of Newegg promo codes or Corsair coupon codes.

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