Air Cooled vs Water Cooled.

  • Air Cooler
  • Water Cooled
0 voters

So I built my computer going on 2 years ago. . . I went Asus AIO. . .

I’ve been contemplating air cooling. I like the simplicity, I also really want this to be a very long term computer for me and feel like air cooling makes more sense. It lasts forever basically. Even if the fans work you’ll have passive cooling until they get replaced.

This Noctua nh-u12a bundle (I’m still waiting on the white cover to go with the rest of my build, it’s back ordered) was on sale . . . .

I’m still undecided if I’m returning it or not. Where are you all at? Water vs air . . . vote

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voting personally on this one, as for a klutz like me electricity and water in one box would be disastrous.

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In a case like that, I would go AIO. You really want top exhaust in that configuration.

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Those AIO’s are fully sealed. They come assembled and you just install them and forget.

It is like a custom water setup that needs care and feeding.

Oddly enough, I’ve been on the fence about getting a smaller case. I actually thought the bigger case would be better for air cooling, not the otherway around.

New case I’m eyeing gets released next month.

Looking to go from Lian Li O11D Evo > possibly Lian Li O11D Mini V2

It isn’t really the size, it is the configuration. You are pulling lots of air in from the side and the bottom.

To get good airflow, you need push it out the top in that setup.

I would still have 3 fans on top and 1 in back pushing out. backside/bottom into case

The AIO also looks way better in those mostly glass cases.

But the reality is that either will work fine.

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You know. . that’s where I find myself on the fence. I LIKE the air cooler look. And I kinda feel the AIO, especially now with the lcd’s and mini screens and all the non-sense on them just kinda look . . . I don’t even know the word. It’s not dumb, it’s jsut . . . like unnecessary? Overdone?

This is what mine will look like in the end (theoretically)

I used the Noctua NH-D15S on my build with dual fan 140 mm. I have two case fans on the motherboard side and one front and one rear. Corsair 5000D AirFlow case.

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Well…I have a large case…Phanteks Enthoo 719 (the Gray/Black case that they no longer make) & I’m running an Arctic Liquid Freezer 3 420… My temps at full load never go over 60c.

AIO all the way for me— I’ve made several custom loops & used several different air coolers over the years & the Arctic just works without any fuss. I mounted the GPU vertically & custom-made an air deflector for it. The radiator blows out the front & I have 3 140mm fans blowing down + the 2 120mm blowing up to the GPU. The Arctic has 3 140mm blowing out the front with 10mm spacers between the fans & the radiator to reduce the fan “dead spot” problem. The fans are in suction.

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I can go both ways on these, but I like AIO for the ease of getting around the system. With the big air coolers and large GPUs, it can be a pain. Plus, I like the cleaner look. I am not big in to RGB or anything, so I got an AIO without it.

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I kind of echo @Clintre’s thoughts on this. I could go either way, depending on the setup and system’s needs.

The reason I voted Air Cooler in this case, was this requirement @fbodymechanic:

Air coolers will typically outlast AIO liquid coolers by a sizeable margin, with the pump in the liquid cooler generally being the first to go.

These are my rough criteria for deciding one or the other. The assumption here is top options from either air or liquid cooler are chosen.

Air Cooler if:

  • Less interested in overclocking.
  • Chassis has decent airflow.
  • Don’t want the hassle of replacing AIO in 5 or so years.
  • Not needing to transport the system a lot (air coolers are a bigger strain on the motherboard).
  • Want to save some money.

Liquid cooler if:

  • More interested in overclocking.
  • Chassis is too small to fit a reasonable sized air-cooler (eg: some ITX cases).
  • System is going to be transported quite a bit (chassis takes brunt of AIO, not the motherboard).
  • Don’t mind replacing AIO in 5 or so years.
  • Don’t mind spending more.

Noctua (my fav air-cooler brand) have apparently been working on a pumpless “thermosiphon” liquid cooler. If they manage to pull it off, and bring it to market, that may change up the AIO pump lifespan issue.

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I have always used air coolers so far because you have fewer problems/worries than with some (not all) AIOs. Either way, the pump will eventually fail or the cooling channels (CPU block) will eventually become blocked if something is wrong with the composition of the coolant. In the rarest of cases, it can also leak.

In the case of an air cooler, the most you can do is replace the thermal paste/fan(s). If possible, depending on the size and weight, it is better to dismantle the cooler during transportation, which is not necessary with an AIO. (The same applies to many of today’s graphic cards as they could otherwise be damaged due to their weight.)

The only thing I would build into my PC that comes closest to an AIO would be Thermosiphon from Noctua when it is finished. It is expected to run for at least 10 years.

Edit:

I have forgotten another negative point about larger air coolers. They usually leave very little space to access the PCI-E slot release. This is not quite such a problem with smaller graphics cards, but unfortunately it is with larger/large graphics cards. In this case, I use a wooden chopstick, which works very well.

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I like AIO Water coolers because I find them easier to install than air-coolers and because I still can access my ram because of air-coolers take up so much space.

Definitely one of my top reasons. I also think they look pretty awesome, and if there’s no real world benefit (if it’s within 1-2*C, that’s pretty much nothing honestly) then why risk a leak? Even if the risk is small?

Oddly enough the Noctua cooler is more expensive than my AIO, especially if I also include the 3 case fans on top I’m losing. I’ll have to buy at least one more AIO to outprice the air cooler.

While I almost never really move my computer, if/when I move, I have aheavy 6950xt anyways that needs to come out. I kept the box for it as I would the cooler. I wouldn’t transport the computer any great distance without removing them.

I prefer air cooling and like some of us the plumbing in water cooling could be suspect to problems. . . i.e. leaks, air bubbles, kinks in flow lines what ever. I also run a processor that tops out with 65 watts power. I’m not one for high powered overheated processors that run 125 watts or higher. That’s the real kicker. Heat dissipation is a big issue. Just add more fans in a bigger box to get the air flowing properly. Fluids and electricity don’t mix. Just my opinion.

Rich :wink:

When case modding got a thing back around 2000, I loved to tinker around with watercooling. At this time, one utilized garden pumps, PVC hoses and adapters, to build custom watercooling solutions.

When I’m looking back that was quite a mess. Clogged cooling blocks, leaky radiators and vent tanks, algae in the water, and the obligatory use of chemicals to prevent it, not to mention the unsafe transport to the LAN parties that were so popular back then.

These days, I’m happy if my computer just runs. Therefore, I don’t really bother with water cooling anymore. But from what I’ve seen, these are now closed, maintenance-free systems. I think it just depends on you personal preference.

In terms of noise, I don’t think it makes much difference, since we now have such large air coolers with heat pipes that the fans used don’t make much more noise than the radiator fans used back then.

In addition, today’s processors are no longer as heat-sensitive as they were back then and often require much less power, so such large heat spikes occur less frequently.

For me, I personally chose Air cooler as I like to have very quiet to inaudible systems, so air cooler, three front fans, one rear and one back top fan directly above cooler to help with exhaust with all fans running at low speeds and only go up if CPU reaches above 50 degrees C or so (I also wanted to avoid pump noise). The case I am using is Fractal North mesh so layout is more traditional compared to yours. My cooler is the same as the Noctua you picked, but the silver and brown (I like the brown/beige) as it before the chromax version existed.

For me performance has been fine, but I have a low 65 watt 5700X so it doesn’t produce as much heat as many. While playing games at 4K sometimes raytracing with max settings I have never had it reach far above 62 degrees, this is UK weather and climate though, and I have no air conditioner so these elements will affect the temperature.


I have never owned an water cooler but have installed one and seen many times in someone else’s build and was running for 8 years fine until it got swapped. So I may not have all AIO knowledge to someone who actually uses one.

At least for your setup, water cooler could be better, as Air coolers can benefit from direct flow through the front of the case. A benefit of Water coolers also isolate the heat from the CPU more from the rest of the case as it is carried through the water in the pipes and then instantly removed from the case via radiator, while heat from air coolers end up in the case environment and requiring case fans to remove it fully. But objectively in most test cases Water coolers generally always perform better and top charts, how much this matters depends on the hardware it’s cooling, environment, country, air conditioning, and case setup though and sometimes differences are smaller.

Water coolers can look nicer in a case too and easier to reach parts if this is needed. But in terms of aesthetics air coolers can look nicer as well but this isn’t really a performance metric.

I watch Jay Two Cents on Youtube regularly & he ran an interesting video on AIO pumps…He challenged the “common” thought of running the pump at 100% all the time…according to his testing, running the pump on a curve results in better cooling & likely better lifespan.

I did some testing on my system & did just that…saw a 2~3°C decrease in temps by running the pump slower. I encourage anyone interested in this to look up Jay’s video & do their own testing.

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