Do you prefer an air cooler or an AIO?

[gwwak]

Air for me. They are cheaper and perhaps the most important, it fits my case. My case is old and it doesn't support an AIO larger than 120mm.

[_I_]

120mm aio is worse than a 120mm tower cooler

[Shaggy]

I prefer a large air cooler over an AIO.

[_I_]

this can beat a 240mm aio, and its still $35
https://pcpartpicker.com/product/hYxRsY/thermalright-peerless-assassin-120-se-6617-cfm-cpu-cooler-pa120-se-d3

[Zef]

Aircoolers.

[A&A]

Passive coolers.

[Alice Liddell]

Noctua air cooling systems.

[Subsonic]

I don't think I prefer either, but I do like a quiet fan, maybe large passive coolers are the future.

[Monk]

They all have their place depending on budget and application.

120mm aios can be great fior small builds and tend to have a notably thicker radiator than their bigger cousins.

Tower coolers are great for your pocket and if they can handle the temps, but I'd only really recommend the thermalright stuff as the price is just so good as is performance, but not really enough for high end or over clocking.

240 aio's kind of sit in an odd space, look better than towers, similar performance on most of them, great where you are using a sff case.

Noctua coolers vary based on model, their more specialised ones are great for sff builds, it's what I use in my htpc, but, they are very expensive.
The big models, nh15 etc, I find are a but if a waste when thermalright exists and if you are looking at them, then a 360 + aio can be had around the same price and will out perform it.

On 360 or larger aio's, it's the only thing I'd sensibly spec with a high end chip or over clocking unless...

Custom loops, king of expense, king of utility and king of performance, the best option if you have cash to burn and don't mind some extra work.

I've got / had / built systems that use all of them depending on application.

[smokerob79]

AIO's are a joke given you have to go to a 360mm radiator to beat the top 5 dual tower coolers......you can over clock on tower coolers as well regardless of what ego's claim other wise.....

as for the future large passive coolers are not really going to be a thing.....we are at the point that die shrink of the CPU its self is no longer really going to happen and real world we are making the largest CPU's in history with the highest power draw ever......gains now will only really come from more cores being added and layout changes in the die structure.....there is less then 10 real passive coolers on the market and most wont work on anything over the 5 series of CPUs ether intel or AMD......(as in I5 or ryzen 5's)


do not spend more then 50 bucks on a tower cooler as the 3rd best 360mm AIO on the market is only 55 bucks and also made by Thermalright......

[Ð₳Ɽ₭★𐌔Ŧ₳Ɽ]

I use a larg aio 360mm with push pull fan config and my overclocked cpu cores under full load stay at and under 68c... I kinda prefer them... the big tower coolers work but some may block certain ram with tall heat syncs

[A&A]

Some comments remind me of this short film.

When it's not quite 144FPS.
https://youtu.be/nyJVbCCiks4?si=v4N08qriZ6HqgLzr

[Monk]

That's awesome.

[Revelene]

I decide at the time of the build.

Currently, both my CPU and GPU are using their own AIO coolers with 360mm radiators.

[Electric Cupcake]

I generally prefer air coolers, but they're getting too big for midtowers.

[_I_]

Electric Cupcake lähetti viestin:

I generally prefer air coolers, but they're getting too big for midtowers.

the newer mid tower cases have bulges on the sides to support taller tower coolers, and taller gpu

it was nice when they all fit within the standard io brackets heights
but newer cpu are over 100w and need more cooling and gpus are 200+w and need more airflow and space