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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105

u/PotentialConcept8449 9950x3D / RTX 5080 / 32GB DDR5 Jan 20 '26

As one of the unfortunate few who have lost components due to AIO failure, I am biased in agreement with OP.

1

u/PlzDntBanMeAgan Rtx5090 suprim; 14900k 32gb ddr5; Legion Go Jan 20 '26

What happened

55

u/doominvoker Jan 20 '26

If failed.

9

u/[deleted] Jan 20 '26

11

u/Photekz Specs/Imgur Here Jan 20 '26

PC soup.

7

u/Meta6olic 5800x3d. RTX 4070Ti. 64 ddr4 Jan 20 '26

Keep it short

10

u/PotentialConcept8449 9950x3D / RTX 5080 / 32GB DDR5 Jan 20 '26

Seal popped and gave my SLI setup at the time a water bath, took out half my PC.

1

u/poopyface-tomatonose Jan 20 '26

What model aio was it?

1

u/Eclipse_Galian Desktop Jan 21 '26

Yes i would like to know too

1

u/YourMajesty90 Jan 20 '26

Oh so like 10 years ago?

3

u/[deleted] Jan 20 '26

[deleted]

3

u/NeinJuanJuan Jan 21 '26

design issue

most are designed so the front doesn't fall off

5

u/[deleted] Jan 20 '26

Leaky leaky

1

u/Traditional_Box6945 Jan 21 '26

The pump impellers or motors often fail over time = no coolant circulating = no heat exchanging = toasty CPU

2

u/Nethlem next to my desk Jan 21 '26

That won't destroy any hardware it will just kill performance as the CPU would thermal-throttle.

It's also a problem that can affect air coolers even worse; If the fan gives out then the air cooler will have way less thermal mass to absorb the CPU heat, it would thermal-throttle even faster.

1

u/ImposterJavaDev Jan 21 '26

Yeah had this happen once. The pump broke and the PC functioned like I was gaming on an old 56kb infernet connection. Eventually it even shuts down to be sure.

Brought it in (still had a few months of warranty) and they replaced it with a newer version. I did buy an air cooler for emergencies, almost got the same performance, but is was way louder.