On the other hand, water cooling comes with notable disadvantages: Involved and laborious set-up (unless an all-in-one system is used) Risk of leakage. . But a good air cooler will usually be equal or even better than most AIO (all in one) water coolers. 8. It just changes how the heat leaves the case. Source: Luumi on YouTube. If the fans break on the air cooler, you can just replace the fans, but if the pump breaks on the AIO or it leaks, you'll have to replace the whole thing. Fan cooling is undesirable to the user by being too loud, big, or by using too much power. Safety. When it comes to PC cooling, you can’t get much more simple than a heat sink and fan. This includes a thick 4mm cold surface on the pump itself, combined with a powerful 360mm radiator and ARGB fans. The only con to an air cooler would just be that it's bulky Noise. Potentially quieter than forced-air cooling. Fans take up far more space than the thin tubes of water in your average liquid cooling kit. If you don't want to ever have to replace anything again (Or at least, not for a very long time) other than maybe a fan or two, then an air cooler is probably a better choice. Many are under the illusion that AIO water coolers are the cure all, yielding higher cooling than the air coolers, and lower noise as well, and that is not true. It’s able to outshine some of the better liquid coolers on the market, and is a great example for why people shouldn’t count out air cooling. There’s also the issue of space. All-in-all, liquid coolers can provide better cooling, but the thermal performance of air coolers is nothing to scoff at either. Also, the pump can be louder than fans Air coolers and case fans are also more affordable than water coolers, so it can be a better option to buy a larger air cooler and a few chassis fans than to buy a water cooler. Currently the market is divided into all-in-one solutions, semi-custom, and custom water cooling kits. AIO 1 – 0 Air Cooler. Usually, having two fans (one exhaust fan at the back and one intake fan on the front) is more than enough. One of the top reasons to choose air cooling over water cooling is the peace of mind air coolers offer. AIO cooling includes fans and a pump for moving water. A good high-end CPU Air cooler (e. That said, water-cooling is not always the best option. Liquid cooling has a huge bling factor. Plug the fans in, mount the heat sink on the CPU with a few screws, and you’re done. At standard idle, the larger Intel cooler kept the CPU at a more comfy 27 degrees Celsius. Small- and medium-sized fans will provide efficient cooling in a 4- to 6-foot diameter area, while larger fans are effective up to 10 feet. The fan’s static pressure is basically a measure of the resistant pressure a fan has to oppose to move air in the desired direction. . Some of the cheaper AIO water coolers do not out perform the higher TDP air coolers and even some of the more expensive AIOs cannot best the cooling performance of some of the high. Going air vs liquid doesn't change the amount of heat your components generate. Installing a custom cooling system means users can opt to cool specific components that tend to get hot. hwalsh01 •. Multiple fans work best in rooms longer than 18 feet. If your temps are around 85c+ then thats when you may want to look for a better cooling solution. Helps reduce the number of fans in a PC system. Generally, all CPU cooling fans are designed for high static pressure, rather than high airflow. 5. Water cooling is much quieter than stuffing your case full of fans. Improved in-game performance – because of that massive drop in temperature, the GPU will automatically clock higher. ago. A motorcycle with a liquid-cooled engine runs more smoothly and is less likely to break down than. ” In other words, it’s more efficient, and often quieter. Here are most of them: Substantially better thermal performance – GPUs part of a custom water cooling loop can be up to 50° Celsius cooler (compared to standard air cooler), depending on the SKU. For the average user—and even most gamers—air-cooling is more than enough. Water cooling solves the first case as water has a higher thermal conductivity than air . Best value: ASUS ROG X570 Crosshair VIII Formula. With some GPUs you can take the fan shroud off & cable-tie 12cm fans on there too. When planning to build a powerful gaming PC. When put under load with a CPU benchmark, it reached a stable top core temperature of 72 degrees Celsius in 22. . A traditional air-cooled system relies on a series of fans cooling various components within the gaming PC case. MSI MPG Z590 Carbon EK X. Plus draining and replacing the fluid is a thing in custom water cooling so there's those additional steps plus it is hard to replace stuff in your PC due to many tubes in the way (worse if you are on custom hard tubing). Noise. How much can a motherboard flex? The thermal compound pre-applied to the cooler is also different, being much more runny and spreadable than the type on the smaller cooler. Get the liquid freezer 240 or 280. It's true that you can get better performance from an AIO than air, but that will require spending significantly more money. There are cases with a 20cm fan on. The Alphacool Eisbaer Pro Aurora 360 is our number one pick for the best CPU cooler for Intel Core i9-13900K. This brings amazing additional benefits such as higher overclocking potentials and improved performance, lifespan, and reliability of PC components. ) can perform as well as a mainstream 240mm AIO. 9. You will still be "limited" by the temperature of the air inside and outside the case. ASUS ROG Maximus Z690 Formula. Basic air coolers. 80/10 5. Planning to build your first computer? Have you already decided which cooling mechanism is the best for your CPU? Whether it's air or water cooling, we'll he. SPONSOR: Check out Ridge Wallets at 💳 Use code 'SALAZAR' to save 10%!At time of filming, both the Deepcool Castle 120R and Scythe. This is because of its expansive nature, premium build quality, and wide array of features that make it a leading option. If your going all out, something like a extreme i7 and 27th do your own custom loop. Liquid cooling takes up less space than fans. Fan Static Pressure. Risk of damage to the computer. Options include the hard drives, the CPU, the GPU, and power supplies. A crazy expensive custom loop can also be very good temps wise. 0 Extreme S comes second place with 66 Celsius. Other elements are similar to air cooling: heat plate to collect the heat from CPU. Liquid cooling offers cooling specific components. Slightly better cooling than AIOs but higher chance of leaking due to improper fitment etc. Modern air-cooling solutions have narrowed the gap in performance between water and air. The water, pump, and fans all have noise decibels. No. We’ll dive deeper into the performance differences later, but the same wisdom applies here. g. Is water cooling better than fans? According to Mark Gallina, liquid cooling more “efficiently distributes heat over more convection surface area (radiator) than pure conduction, allowing for reduced fan speeds (better acoustics) or higher total power. As far as the question of two fans is concerned, well, it all depends on the configuration of the case and the hardware. In this case, longer is better. Coming in at last place, the Cooler Master Nepton 240M with 73 Celsius. Larger fans have more static pressure, which gives better cooling as a result. . Another benefit of liquid cooling is its ability to cool specific components more easily than a fan. Most of the time the all-in-one watercoolers (which include a radiator, fans, and a pump in one pre-assembled package) don't perform much better than cheaper air coolers while usually being quite a bit more expensive. There is controversy about whether air cooling makes more noise than AIO coolers. 99 or less. Even a liquid cooler with a 6 year warranty is going to have very slow evaporation, and are prone to slow deaths from manufacturing errors that are not immediately apparent. 5. Water cooling is better for over clocking because it has better heat dissipation. The 280 supposedly outperforms a d15 whilst being abit quieter. Cpu water coolers definitely win when it comes to real estate. Without the fear of leaking, pump failing, etc. Another factor that could be even more important for many PC enthusiasts is noise. It looks janky but it's quiet & effective. A 36- or 44-inch diameter fan will cool rooms up to 225 square feet, while fans that are 52 inches or more should be used in larger rooms. We have already mentioned that liquid cooling is more efficient than air cooling due to the cooling medium’s higher thermal conductivity. The average temp was a cool 66C – more than 13-degrees lower than our OC’d setup with continuous 85% fan speed. This means that water is better at moving heat than air, enabling a water-cooled GPU to use more electricity without reaching critical temperatures. Liquid coolers also have many points of failure, from the pump to the hose attachments to the. It needs to be cooled because its temperature has a direct impact on performance and overall stability. On a low/medium end system a heatsink is enough, but they are still dust magnets and need to be periodically cleaned. I'm a pretty die hard air cooling fan, personally, I've just never felt the need to go liquid, especially with its downsides. To add to this, the reason liquid cooling is considered better is due to radiator size. The Thermaltake Water 3. AIO coolers are much better at chilling CPUs than air, just as a swimming pool cools you down more quickly than a fan. A processor generates more heat than any other part of your computer, as it operates at around 100 degrees Celsius. 8. I wouldn't let the. But in some ways, you're correct. , dual tower, etc. Air coolers are objectively more reliable, too. The core clock is highest here as well. reservoir for the coolant water. This enables you to get the most out of more powerful components because you can overclock your processor without it overheating. Water cooling has fans on the radiator and also a noisy pump motor, so quiet water cooling has comparable noise to midrange air cooling. While there are more noise makers in AIO coolers, most AIO cooling systems come with software for controlling fan speed and overall noise. The NH-D15 shocked us by providing the same temp under load as the H100i GTX. Or, to be more specific, the lack of it. A CPU cooler is a heatsink and fan that dissipates heat from your computer’s central processing unit (CPU) to the air. The noise generated by the fan can sometimes. The heatsink fan combo offers the best cost friendly solution. Since the Kraken X61 is a 280mm AIO, we expected it to overtake all other coolers with little effort. Fans allow the heatsink to be much smaller, and you can usually find a replacement for $9. View All. Still, we give this point to AIOs. AIR COOLER PROS: Air coolers are more reliable by virtue of simplicity. 20/10 3. If your temps are below 80c then dont bother, you are just gonna waste money. However, if you want to play some GPU and CPU. Any form of liquid cooling will be more expensive than air cooling, but this is where the price disparity starts. Water cooling has a better advantage of heat capacity, meaning for a given workload, the water cooler will keep the system cooler than something else. AIOs generally are going to be more expensive, louder, have less performance than an air cooling counterpart and last shorter. Liquid cooling is one of the best ways to remove heat and eliminate the chances of heat related issues from a computer. If you are looking for a CPU cooler for overclocking or a flagship processor, then it is always better to go for a good 280mm or 360mm AIO. In an isolated radiator + fan setup, the difference is very small and probably won't be more than 1C; with push/pull besting both at expense of price, space and a couple dB more of noise. It looks cool. The answer is a properly-configured custom loop. Water Cooling is a Desktop PC cooling System that relies on mostly the same elements as air cooling, but has some additions such as: the pipes that house the coolant water. 8. Pound-for-pound or stock setting vs. However, this doesn’t necessarily mean that AIOs are slouching in the department of cooling, either. 60/10 4. A huge heat-sink/fan combination might perform well enough, but the best CPU coolers eat up a. Liquid cooling can cool a larger surface area with its more effective coolants and the radiator fan. Liquid cooling, especially when using an All-in-One (AIO), tends to be quieter than the fan on a CPU heatsink. stock setting…the Hybrid Liquid Cooled kit was 17-degrees cooler on average than the stock air setup. Custom loops have more coolant to work with, which gives them more headroom for dispersing heat than an AIO does. Water Cooling vs Air Cooling. Again, this can vary, in that there are air coolers with fans specifically designed to reduce noise, and fan settings or fan selection can impact the amount of noise generated. 2. Tbh no need for aio unless you are ocing. the pump that drives the coolant water around the system. Any difference will be dependent on the fan used (blade design, RPM, etc) and the radiator (fin density, fitment of the fan to radiator, etc); as a google. Especially for low-end gaming, you should only install 2 fans. The more surface area (liquid and radiator) and fan strength, the better the overall cooling performance will be. The cooling performance of a good 120mm AIO can be compared to a good mainstream or budget CPU Cooler. If not get something like a corsair h100i and if you don't want water cooling pick up a Noctua heat sink. Holiday-Point-2226 • 1 yr. Liquid cooling is most suitable for long-duration cooling and does not cause any noise pollution since it operates silently.