Don't buy an AIO during a winter storm
I have spent the last five hours trying to install an AIO in my I7-6700 build and it has been quite and experience. I found a sweet deal on Newegg a few weeks ago on a Masterliquid pro 140. It was 55 bucks with a 30 buck rebate. You can't beat that deal a 140mm for 25 bucks after rebate, that is cheaper than the beloved Hyper 212 evo. I was in transit during that massive cold spell we had and terrible blizzard, so it was even delayed in shipped. It was left on my doorstep with a temperature of 8 degrees outside. Well about a week ago I began to install it in my system. As it worked out even though it was sold in a push pull config my system wouldn't allow anything but a push config in the front of the case (NZXT S340 Razer). I put everything in I am good to go. Boot the computer up and put the cpu under load and I hear a terrible sound, it has throw 3 blades. Thinking that they may have hit something and I have another fan I put the other fan in and check carefully that nothing is touching. Start it up and the same sound only one blade this time.
Thinking that again that the fan may have hit something I double checked again. The next step I need another 140mm fan and over course I don't have one. To the rescue good old Amazon. I get on there and order a 140mm SP fan for my radiator and while I am doing that I went ahead and ordered it in green to match the case theme. A Thermaltake Riing 140mm in green. Of course I had to order a few other green led fans since I was there. Well the fans arrive and I am stoked to get my system up and running.
I install the fan and double check then triple check to make sure the blades can not hit anything and I boot it up. I started Aida64 to check how the AIO is doing and the idle temp is around 36c (to warm for idle). I start the stress test and the darn thing jumps up to over 90c on all cores and keeps climbing. I quickly stop the test and make sure everything is connected and everything is. I restart the computer into bios and set all the fans to 100% then test the computer again, this time only jumps to around 85c but after 3 minutes I start thermal throttling. Recheck all connections reseat the pump and apply new thermal paste and no help. I think the AIO was frozen and the fan blades became brittle and the AIO has failed.
Fortunately I still had my Masterliquid 120 lite. I install it and put it in a push pull configuration but had to put it in the back of the case as an exhaust. Once I get it installed and everything hooked up the idle temp is 28c. I am in tall cotton now. I run Aida64 and after 20 minutes my temps are running in the mid 60's. Which is what they were running before and is why I bought the Masterliquid pro 140 hoping that I could get them in the 50's but OH well lesson learned and four hours and a week trouble shooting to decide that it must have been the subfreezing temperatures that the AIO was exposed to in shipping.
As you can see the little Masterliquid 120 lite is in now and doing the job. I should have never changed in the first place. The moral of the story is don't order an AIO in subfreezing temperatures. All is good though Newegg issued and RMA and says they will give me a full refund. Thanks for reading if you made it this far and please upvote if you found it interesting or educational.