Is water cooling better than air cooling?

[Belle Delphine Targaryen!]

Like the AIOs that are seen everywhere these days?

[Electric Cupcake]

As always, there are pros and cons.

[GGcake]

ye the water keeps your computer cleaner

[KalGimpa]

like electric said, pros and cons

the problem with the aio's is that they can fail

when the one i used did, it leaked onto the gpu and that was that

i have since gone to air just to be safe

i have had no problems with it, except size

it can take a good size case to fit some of the better air coolers

[Electric Cupcake]

I really don't like modern cases where the entire front panel is a stack of RGB radiators with no space for half a dozen USB ports or 5.25 bays or toolless sliding SATA caddies for easy disk swapping.

[A&A]

I don't see them having that big of a difference, but let's talk about them anyway. With air cooling, even if you have good air flow, the heat has to move from the CPU to space inside of the case in a direction outside, always a small amount of heat stays in the case, while with liquid it is much more effectively, but at the expense of it consumes more electricity, the pump will stop working after a while which is bad and there is always the possibility of something leaking out of it which is even worse.

[Painkilleruk]

liquid all the way for me but also depends on the airflow you have created in your case. If the hot air is trapped then no point. With liquid cooled AIO are ok for a simple solution however as a solid unit bad to repair. Custom loops are the best since you choose the components and LPH rate. Very costly in comparison but the best way to cool, risky though. Liquid loops are more for overclocking than standard use.

[AbedsBrother]

Air only for me, but as a result I'm picky about the cases I choose (looking for good airflow). Usually wind up with either Cooler Master or Fractal Design. I prefer having a side vent on the case as well (even if I don't mount a fan there), so cases with acrylic or tempered glass panels are a no-go.

[r.linder]

Liquid is better for higher end machines because water has a higher heat capacity than just metals like copper and aluminium, an air cooler will build and dissipate heat much faster because of the low heat capacity but it'll depend a lot more on surface area to keep temperatures low. The best air coolers aren't really recommended for the most power hungry of processors like the i9-14900K, Threadripper, 7950X3D, etc. because they build up a lot of heat very quickly under load, liquid cooling is recommended for that reason.

Liquid coolers take awhile longer to build heat because it takes more energy for liquid to raise in temperature by just a single degree, and the effectiveness of the loop depends heavily on the speed of the pump rather than the surface area of the radiator, though a larger radiator will help with cooling efficiency. With short bursty loads, the CPU can get the workload done before it heats up as much as it would under an air cooler, resulting in overall better boost temperatures.

Air coolers only have one real point of failure though; the fans, whereas liquid coolers have several points of failure; the fans, the radiator if it gets punctured, the hoses, the pump, and the coolant mixture. It's much more apparent in custom loops than AIOs because they're not sealed like AIOs are and can very easily leak, whereas leaking AIOs are more of a rarity.

[_I_]

no, it depends on the rad size
a 120 clc is complete garbage
a decent air cooler is better than a 120clc
high end air coolers can keep up with 240clc

oem and prebuilds like to put in 120clc, just for liquid, and maybe rgb buzzwords

[Bad 💀 Motha]

Цитата допису GGcake:

ye the water keeps your computer cleaner

It's still cooled by fan based airflow.
Dirty OCs are due to lazy users who don't clean their rooms or home

[Win2000Fan]

Way back when the dinosaurs were still alive and I was in middle school we were taught basic electricity and the first thing that came out of our teacher’s mouth was, electricity and water do not mix. I remember this very clearly today years later. How many horror movies have you watched where the bad guy throws something plugged in into wall into the tub full of water to kill the victim? I rest my case. With some clever research you can find a good air cooler. The stock air coolers just don’t do it. Pay the money and get a good air cooler. My newest air cooler cut my CPU temps 30 degrees centigrade. So no in my opinion you do not need water in a box full of electricity.

[Bad 💀 Motha]

It's not water FFS

[Win2000Fan]

Цитата допису Bad 💀 Motha:

It's not water FFS

What ever it exactly is, it still leaks and I don’t want anything leaking in my box of electronics. My opinion only.

[r.linder]

Цитата допису 10Transistor:

Цитата допису Bad 💀 Motha:

It's not water FFS

What ever it exactly is, it still leaks and I don’t want anything leaking in my box of electronics. My opinion only.

Whatever you doomsayers preach, it's nothing but fearmongering. It's rare for closed loop coolers to leak, and if you stick to trusted brands and highly reputed models, it's literally fine. I've had over half a dozen AIOs and not a single one sprung a leak and all but one lasted years, the only one that didn't was because of a defect in the coolant itself, MSI's Coreliquid 360R.

[Dutchgamer1982]

I went custom water loop.... and never so much headaches...
-> first there is the upfront cost.. like 1000+ euro for a pomp+reservoir, a block for your gpu, a block for your cpu, a plate for your specific moderboard model, 3 radiators, 12 140mm fans, fittings and more...

than there is the ^%&%%&^pumps that keep breaking... believe me the pumps last like 1 year... where an aircooler will last like forever...
and ofcourse after that year the specific model of pump you had is no longer made.. so now you have to redesign your entire loop..with another pump.. and ofcourse pump placement for your case limits you to like 1 model thats always sold out..

and thats not all.. for even if you had a store build your system, their "expert" left and now they aint doing watercooling no more.. and trying to find a store that does rma's on watercooled systems is IMPOSSIBLE.. even if an unrealated part like your motherboard is the issue.. they will not do any testing on your system.. if it's custom loop..
***
so now you are forced to pay 150 euro an hour to have the one speciality shop do your waterloop.. even if their knowledge of other parts is quite limited... making any repair easely 1000 euro more in labour than a normal aircooled sytem.


as for AIO.. also don't.. this system originally WAS AIO.. but it sprung a leak.. killing the gpu.. which was insured.. but good luck getting a new gpu in the middle of the scalping cryptograze.. caused you 11 month old 6000+ euro pc to collect dust in the stores warehouse for 15 months.. imagine the horror to own such a pc and not able to use it for that long..
oh and ofcourse the prices of gpu's were doubled.. so even with a full refund you would have to add another 2000 euro just to get a gpu similair to the one you had.. and OFCOURSE it was of a brand and couloursceme that completely f-d up the white build you had going..

aircooled will be infinitely cheaper.. and is a much much better idea


I leared my lesson.. stay far far away from watercooled crap.