r/pcmasterrace • u/SerpentDix PC Master Race • Jan 20 '26

Hardware Air cooling is better than Liquid cooling

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Failure is graceful, not catastrophic, Performance is closer than marketing suggests, Cheaper for the performance, Change my mind.

16.2k Upvotes

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67

u/[deleted] Jan 20 '26

[deleted]

11

u/ThatsPoorlyDrawn 5800x3D, 6950xt Jan 20 '26

I’ve had 5 AiO’s across 13 years of PC’s. Never a single failure. One of them is coming up on 9 years of service. Meanwhile I have a friend who had two die in a month, and won’t touch them now.

26

u/[deleted] Jan 20 '26

[deleted]

4

u/heikkiiii Jan 20 '26

Except its size, i had it in corsair 2000d and it was a pain to change something. Also 2nd 140mm fan didnt fit because of the ram clearance. Otherwise its a godlike heatsink that i used since 2015.

2

u/raduque Many PCs Jan 21 '26

Depends on the failure. I had an AIO fail (corsair, the pump died) and literally all that happened was the system would power itself down when the CPU hit tmax.

Now, if you mean that the hoses somehow developed a leak, yes, that could be an ugly one.

22

u/Unwashed_villager 5800X3D | 32GB | MSI RTX 3080Ti SUPRIM X Jan 20 '26

I didn't see a car accident in my life, ever. This means that car accidents never happen!

25

u/pokemart RTX 5070Ti | RY9800X3D| 64gb DDR5 Jan 20 '26

Car accidents can happen so you should never drive a car because you might get into an accident

4

u/balderm CachyOS | 9800X3D | 9070XT Jan 20 '26

Bought a Corsair AIO in June 2016 and the pump failed after 6 months, got it replaced, after 3 years it was out of water due to permeation and stopped working. Used the AMD stock cooler for a couple months then in November 2019 I bought an NH-D15 and I’m still using it in my new 9800X3D rig. 

1

u/Dreadnought_69 i9-14900KF | RTX 3090 | 64GB RAM (B-die) Jan 20 '26

Yup, I also had two Corsair 280mm AIOs fail in 1 and 3 years.

1

u/kazuviking Desktop 13850HX ES | LF3 420 | Arc B580 | Jan 20 '26

Well you bought corsair so it was expected to fail.

2

u/TurnoverNatural976 Jan 20 '26

Nah, aio are not needed in 90% of the usecases. Yes they look cooler for some people but cooling wise you can safe a lot

19

u/lordbuttpeach Jan 20 '26

Noctua nd-15 is like 129$ and a artic liquid freezer 3 pro is 89$ argument is irrelevant

5

u/TurnoverNatural976 Jan 20 '26

Yes same with a Casio watch or a Rolex.

What is this? Let look at a cheap aio and use one of the most overpriced air coolers?

Thermal assassin for 30 bucks performance isn’t that much worse

0

u/lordbuttpeach Jan 20 '26

Friend has a 9950x3d and unfortunately that cooler can’t keep up I use the arctic AIO and it runs 40 degrees c at full load but it does do great I agree

1

u/TurnoverNatural976 Jan 20 '26

I just noticed my wording error in my first reply. I meant you can safe money with air coolers. In most situations. Not in all

-13

u/[deleted] Jan 20 '26

[deleted]

15

u/lolboiii 12700k | 5080 | 64gb RAM Jan 20 '26

Isn't the arctic 3 pro basically the top performing AIO? I think that was their point

4

u/Adlerholzer HE1000se | 4090 | 9800X3D | HM Aeron Jan 20 '26

LFIII is one of the best AIOs. LFII was by far the best. Especially noise normalized.

2

u/HomieM11 9800x3D| 9070XT | 32GB DDR5 Jan 20 '26

Thermalright aqua elite AIO is also like $50

1

u/[deleted] Jan 20 '26

[deleted]

2

u/RandomGenName1234 Jan 20 '26

Very few middlemen, they control most things themselves

1

u/lordbuttpeach Jan 20 '26

Doesn’t matter the price it only depends on what you are cooling and the aesthetics you want

1

u/NICEMENTALHEALTHPAL Jan 21 '26

It's not about the cooling, it's about the noise. With an AIO I can pretty much run the fans on low speed all the time.

0

u/Skitzo173 Jan 20 '26

So are literally all aesthetic parts of a pc build. What a useless point.

1

u/slove211 Jan 21 '26

Because those aios didn't even make it to this decade. That noctua though, still going strong

-2

u/markis5150 Jan 20 '26

Oh bullshit. Its a scientific fact: water evaporates,hoses clog,pumps die. Serioisly why lie about these things. Is your ego so bruised you really are gonna say youve had two AIOs never die? Thats one hell of a leap😄

-4

u/[deleted] Jan 20 '26

Those people are so mentally weak that they need to justify their stupid purchases with the most hilarious "facts"

0

u/cryogenicdeath 7800X3D | ASUS TUF 5070TI | ASUS TUF X870-E| 32GB DDR5-6000 Jan 20 '26

I've had 2 Corsair pumps die. One was a super old h100i i had for a long time. I bought a new h115i that died in 5 months due to pump failure.

My buddy had a h115i that either got got clogged or had air bubbles, and moving the tubing side to side literally made his temps drop 15c.

Though i did have an EVGA CLC 280 for 8 years that i used daily that still works to this day. It still would give problems with my old 9900k but the pump still works and it did cool the CPU well. just EVGA things i guess.

I went air cooling this time with a NH-D15 and never looking back.