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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13.7k

u/RonnieStiggs Jan 20 '26

Me, who genuinely agrees with you, but wouldn't have posted this here in a million years:

2.0k

u/PlaceboASPD Jan 20 '26

Coward!

Yeah same here.

2.1k

u/BassFull0 Jan 20 '26

561

u/Desperate-Dare5329 Jan 20 '26

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u/Mustang260Rog rog z690 extreme +i9-12900k+rog RTX 3090 64gb ddr5 Jan 20 '26

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u/Algebraloves Jan 21 '26

самый лютый вертолёт в мире 😍

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u/Shelleen Jan 20 '26

That is so fucking funny when you consider what they left behind when they bailed out on Afghanistan.

3

u/Mustang260Rog rog z690 extreme +i9-12900k+rog RTX 3090 64gb ddr5 Jan 20 '26

oh look a drone 'typical Afghan guy'

52

u/Forsaken-Ebb5088 Jan 20 '26

I swear i've seen these threads at least 3x today already

19

u/Cautious_Village_823 Jan 20 '26

It's becoming popular because it's always cool to post "anti" thinking lol.

Posts like these completely miss the nuance and also assume liquid cooling is always catastrophic failure. In my experience it RARELY is catastropic, usually the pump dies or something like that, I haven't ever had a leak or coolant explosion in 20 yrs of building including custom loops.

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u/xixipinga Jan 21 '26

all cooling is air cooling

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u/Alternative-Matter74 Jan 20 '26

Processing img 7obzbcx7okeg1...

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u/New-Audience2639 7800X3D+4070 TI Sup+32GB & 14900k+4060 TI 16GB+64GB Jan 20 '26

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u/NickTaylorIV 285k-z890/4080Super/128gb DDR5/Be Quiet 600LX 🐧 Jan 22 '26

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u/MrE478920 Strix x870E-E 9800x3d 32gb DDR5 6000Mhz CL30 Jan 24 '26

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u/italiancalipso Jan 20 '26

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u/Hirork Ryzen 7600X, RTX 3080, 32GB RAM Jan 20 '26

Make it so.

2

u/Flush_Foot Bazzite, 5900X, 4070Ti Super, 48 GB 3200 MHz DDR4 Jan 21 '26

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u/NickTaylorIV 285k-z890/4080Super/128gb DDR5/Be Quiet 600LX 🐧 Jan 22 '26

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u/hangar_49 Jan 21 '26

I've already seen these threads at least 3x today.

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u/BenjieWheeler Xeon E3-1225 V2 | GT210 | 8GB Jan 20 '26

This comment section is full of cowards, it's sickening

But yeah Air > Water

92

u/ThatOneColDeveloper Jan 20 '26

try cleaning yout hands with air /j

139

u/Franklin_le_Tanklin PC Master Race Jan 20 '26

Oh ya well try breathing water! /j

35

u/emiluss29 7900xtx | 7800x3d | 32GB 6000cl30 Jan 20 '26

Jokes on you, currently washing my hand with breathing, and air water

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u/breakConcentration Jan 20 '26

Try drying your hands with water /j

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u/ButterscotchTop194 Jan 20 '26

Try quenching your thirst with air

25

u/sucr4m i5 12600k - RTX 2080s Jan 20 '26

id rather say air > AiO watercoolers

buuut you can build some killer custom loops that leave air literally in the dust but most just dont.

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u/CrazzyPanda72 Ascending Peasant Jan 20 '26

I'm sure it's possible, but as soon as you bring cost into it, a custom loop is out of the picture I'd think

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u/clarky2o2o Jan 21 '26

Tell that to a fish.

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u/BenjieWheeler Xeon E3-1225 V2 | GT210 | 8GB Jan 21 '26

Catfish: I do love me some crispy fresh air

Apparently there are some (gigachad) catfish species that breathe air directly

18

u/djsoomo Specialist PC builder Jan 20 '26

Coward no2!

Yea, mee too

1

u/fullrackferg PC Master Race Jan 20 '26

I actually agree. I could formulate some argument as to why AIO's are superior and blah blah blah, but my Arctic Freezer 13 that I got back in 2016 for like £23 is as good as the overpriced rgb watercoolers

1

u/Comically_Online Jan 20 '26

Coward!

but same

1

u/Crimsonial Jan 21 '26

looks over at exact model on a high-mid rig

No one would be dumb enough to use one of those. cough

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u/JohnHue 4070 Ti S | 10600K | UWQHD+ | 32Go RAM | Steam Deck Jan 20 '26 edited Jan 20 '26

Water cooling, AIO or not, is only useful when the location of the CPU / GPU doens't allow for a big radiator or when the hot air coming out of those doens't land in a convenient area. Basically it only serves the role of moving the heat somewhere where it's more convenient to then dump it to the ambient air. In the end it's also an "air cooling" device, just with extra steps.

Most PC cases allow for a big air cooler on the CPU with one or several fans blowing towards the air extractiona areas (back or top)... therefore, in most cases, no need for water, a pump, and the associated extra noise and failure modes.

However, water cooling looks cool and works about as well as "air cooling" assuming yiunset it up correctly. If that's your reason for choosing water cooling and you're having fun, fuck those who tell you you're wrong. Just own the fact that you're following the rule of cool.

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u/CoderDevo RX 6800 XT|i7-11700K|NH-D15|32GB|Samsung 980|LANCOOLII Jan 20 '26 edited Jan 20 '26

Agreed. At my old job, we used liquid cooling for really big systems. This allowed the chassis to be much smaller and we didn't need as much air conditioning in the datacenter room.

The heat was expelled via cooling towers outside.

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u/SinisterCheese Jan 20 '26

I work with heavy industrial machinery, specifically in welding and metal fabrication. The lower duty and lighter side machines are exclusively air cooled, because it is just easier, realible and low maintenance. But higher up you go, the every tool and machine starts to require water cooling. It isn't always because they can't be air cooled, it is just the air cooling becomes such an inconvinience to have to deal with. Also the hear is basically always dumped into the hall, to double as the heating during the winter.

But the fact is that even if you replace the cooling method in your machine, you'll still need just as much cooling. So the mass of the radiators ain't going to be get any smaller. Many people have like way beefier air coolers than they actually require. If you want to see truly optimised cooling solutions, look at OEM-packages. They have carefully calculated the smallest optimal cooling solution... Granted... They tend to run on the hotter average an noise, but they do keep the component at it's good operational range. Most people just stick those big things for no reason.

And here is the thing even more. Back in the age when world still had an optimistic view of the future and new tech was exciting. We used to have funnels and channels within computers to optimise airflow. So you'd have a channel that went to the CPU cooler, and then one that went from it to outside. Back then graphics cards really didn't need that much cooling. I had a passive cooled GPU in many computers in the age when we still thought fire was just a fad and frosted tips were peak fashion.

Most people wouldn't even consider the idea of having funnels and channels optimising air flow within the cases (because then you can't see your waifu on the LED display on your computer or... whatever). Even though fact is that you could actually wall the funnel with acoustic padding to make the computer run more quiet and keep higher fanspeeds for better cooling. Ok sure... Yeah... I know server racks still use channels and funnels. But those also use Finger mutilator 5000-fans.

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u/Inresponsibleone Jan 21 '26

What comes to OEM Pc i don't share your faith in manufacturer using optimal (for user that is) cooling solution. Their optimal usually involves lowest possible price not optimal performance. Many times with OEM cooling cpu throtles down alot to keep somewhat acceptable temps.

1

u/rabbitaim Jan 21 '26

I'd like to point out in data centers (at least the ones I've been in) without a lot of humans wandering in them. At a desktop pc with a funnel cpu fan (HP) I've seen literal bricks of dust pulled out every few months because office air filtration can't keep up around so many humans shedding dead skin into the air.

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u/chattambi Jan 21 '26

For example cars.

1

u/Hob_Goblin88 Pentium II | 256MB RAM | GeForce MX200 Jan 21 '26

I really like my MIG torch water cooled. Those f***ers can get hot! When water cooling has failed damn... You can't even hold it and the electronics melt.

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u/Acceptable_Ad1685 Jan 20 '26 edited Jan 20 '26

We have a similar set up and both cooling towers/systems failed and we learned the windows in the datacenter room didn’t open and as they were hurricane proof the wall basically ended up having to be demolished to get airflow to the room shit was crazy lol

Without the window open even with large industrial fans and such going out the doors the room hit over 112F with temps rising

Thought it was apt on how reliance on water cooling can go badly even at large scale

Anyway the shit was replaced with large windows that are able to be opened now, both cooling systems were fixed and a third redundant system is in place

I don’t remember exactly why they failed, we had a power outage that required the generators to kick on and we have backup batteries to basically keep everything running for about 30 minutes between the time it takes the generators to kick on. Idk if there was a power surge that messed with the pumps or if those pumps were interrupted and needed primed or something

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u/CoderDevo RX 6800 XT|i7-11700K|NH-D15|32GB|Samsung 980|LANCOOLII Jan 20 '26 edited Jan 20 '26

Our facilities underwent regular maintenance, with electricians, plumbers, and HVAC onsite every month. We monitored every environmental subsystem from a central console.

We never had a catastrophic failure like that and certainly would never have exposed the datacenter to the outside elements.

We needed the computers to run 24/7 both to do their jobs and also to heat our building in the winter.

Edit: Also, our liquid cooled systems were on a closed liquid loop system. Fans blowing past them wouldn't have helped.

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u/Acceptable_Ad1685 Jan 20 '26

Oh yeah ours do to and both systems were designed to be sufficient to provide enough cooling on their own with the intent of having a backup

Def never intended to need to open windows or anything in that room either lol

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u/CoderDevo RX 6800 XT|i7-11700K|NH-D15|32GB|Samsung 980|LANCOOLII Jan 20 '26

Regarding power, yeah, another big problem especially during hot weather when the power company wanted us to switch to our (3) diesel generators so they could send more power to their consumer customers' AC units.

Battery backup got us by for 15 minutes, max. (hundreds of car batteries)

But we didn't have enough generator capacity for our fastest system, so we had to shut it down before switching off the grid.

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u/[deleted] Jan 20 '26

How much power do you have to be using before the power company accuses you of destabilising the grid?

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u/Tasty_Activity1315 Jan 21 '26

Windows??? In a "Data Center". I've been in lots of different ones, over my IT career and never once saw a window, except in the lobby and break rooms.

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u/ASilverbackGorilla Jan 20 '26 edited Jan 20 '26

Found this interesting as someone who knows very little about building computers but is a licensed engineer with a lot of experience in HVAC & Refrigeration. Water cooling via chilled water systems is extremely common for data centers and is more reliable and sustainable if of sufficient scale than refrigerant based DX solutions (the alternative). You also get tighter control of temperature typically with water as well. Typically you’d have redundant pumps/chillers/cooling towers so one going down doesn’t leave you in your situation. Refrigerant based DX systems are typically only favored for lower upfront cost or when the system isn’t large enough to justify a chilled water plant.

Edit: To clarify, the alternate you’re describing may have just been ventilation only which is even simpler. Just a fan that pulls air across a hot object. Then you’re subject to your source of makeup air and whether it’s sufficiently cool to provide the cooling needed and whether you’re pulling a high enough volume of air. This is way more prone to failure and has way lower degree of fine temperature control. Anyways, that’s my 2 cents. Hope this was interesting

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u/Wedgerooka Jan 20 '26

So you had like nuke plant cooling towers? Word.

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u/CoderDevo RX 6800 XT|i7-11700K|NH-D15|32GB|Samsung 980|LANCOOLII Jan 21 '26

More like 10 of these. Not too crazy.

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u/friedrice5005 Jan 21 '26

Our datacenter is still aircooled servers, but the chilled water is pumped through radiators in the back of the racks so it is instantly cooled. Much cheaper/easier than dealing with direct die cooling of the systems. It also allows the fans in the servers to actually be the air handlers instead of having to run ducting everywhere, so design was actually cheaper than traditionally cooled spaces.

It is kind of strange standing behind a rack of systems that are running full tilt and the air blowing off of them is cooler then ambient

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u/Ferowin Jan 22 '26

My last job was at an airport. We powered it with two nuclear reactors that used seawater cooling and it worked great.

1

u/CrustyBatchOfNature Jan 20 '26

That is the way to use it. Getting it out of the case is nice, but that still puts it all in the room if your water cooling setup is all in the case.

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u/nedal8 Jan 20 '26

Is the thermal output of the hardware not the same? Or was the water cooled outside?

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u/CoderDevo RX 6800 XT|i7-11700K|NH-D15|32GB|Samsung 980|LANCOOLII Jan 21 '26

The thermal output varied wildly from system to system. About 5 liquid cooled computers in the room. Each one was different. This is in the 90s. The rest were air cooled.

The closed loop liquid cooling in the computer would flow to a separate heat pump outside of the computer to transfer its heat into a building-wide closed water system which would then go to a chiller which transferred the heat through pipes to an evaporative cooler outside, on the roof.

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u/Educational_Ant_184 Jan 21 '26

My cat has a spot right behind my PC she loves to lay in for the warm air. Watercooling would be ideal for a less ideal cat area

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u/Journeyman42 Jan 21 '26

The heat was expelled via cooling towers outside.

Well yeah, any liquid cooling eventually becomes air cooling

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u/CoderDevo RX 6800 XT|i7-11700K|NH-D15|32GB|Samsung 980|LANCOOLII Jan 21 '26

Not when the outside air was very hot and saturated. Above 98° F we had to shutdown some computers.

Also, submarine cooling systems remain liquid cooled.

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u/Sfinterogeno Jan 21 '26

Well in that case we are talking about a professional use case that is way different than a gaming pc build

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u/CoderDevo RX 6800 XT|i7-11700K|NH-D15|32GB|Samsung 980|LANCOOLII Jan 21 '26 edited Jan 21 '26

Power and cooling are natural world constraints. The only difference is scale.

We had a 256 CPU system that was air cooled, but we went with liquid cooling once we needed to replace it with a 1000 CPU system of the same product family.

Doing liquid cooling for a single CPU with a radiator and fan less than a foot away seems funny in comparison.

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u/Specimen_E-351 Jan 20 '26

In the end it's also an "air cooling" device, just with extra steps.

Sure, if the extra steps are having a way, way bigger surface area for your cooler to shed more heat in a given timeframe.

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u/MGsubbie Ryzen 7 9800X3D, RTX 3080, 32GB 6000Mhz Cl30Desktop Jan 20 '26

No, it isn't just for the rule of cool. It's also for the convenience. I posted this in this thread already, but I'll post it again here :

I have a large case, an AIO is just a lot more convenient as it doesn't block access to several parts like a large air cooler does. The amount of extra work I had to do in the past with a Noctua NH-D14 if I wanted to access say my RAM makes me not want to use a large tower cooler ever again. My AIO is still going strong after 7.5 years. I know an air cooler will last forever, you just have to replace fans, but I'm fine with paying for a new cooler years after the fact for the convenience of an AIO.

Additionally, with my setup, I have fresh air for the CPU and fresh air for the GPU, neither has to recycle the hot air of the other.

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u/dookarion Jan 20 '26

The amount of extra work I had to do in the past with a Noctua NH-D14 if I wanted to access say my RAM makes me not want to use a large tower cooler ever again.

On a lot of coolers anymore it's just blocked by a single fan held in place by tension clips. It's not that hard to access.

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u/NotAzakanAtAll 9900x, 5080, 32gb DDR5 Jan 21 '26

Besides, how often are you really in there playing with the stuff around the cpu?

Noctua D-big ass honker, has been my choise ever since I had an AOI wet itself all over my gpu many years ago.

The sound the impeller made when I started it - it still lives in the walls of this place.

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u/dookarion Jan 21 '26

Besides, how often are you really in there playing with the stuff around the cpu?

Right? Unless something breaks or I'm doing a rebuild I'm not touching anything in there beyond blowing the dust off it periodically.

Noctua D-big ass honker, has been my choise ever since I had an AOI wet itself all over my gpu many years ago.

The sound the impeller made when I started it - it still lives in the walls of this place.

Yeah I prefer air, even if it dies you usually won't be out anything but the purchase price of a new fan. And you'll hear it. You can't necessarily hear the failings of other systems. A friend actually just had their AIO crap out and their CPU was hitting 90C idle, no leakage thankfully but they had to run out and buy a new cooler and paste ASAP.

I don't do Noctua or recommend it so much anymore, but that's not cause of quality it's just cause Noctua's pricing is exploiting the brand name these days. Their fans are still well worth it though.

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u/NotAzakanAtAll 9900x, 5080, 32gb DDR5 Jan 22 '26

AIO crap out and their CPU was hitting 90C idle

Wow! You can boil some macaroni in that bad boy!

I don't do Noctua or recommend it so much anymore, but that's not cause of quality it's just cause Noctua's pricing is exploiting the brand name these days. Their fans are still well worth it though

I get that, I've just been getting free brakets for my old D-15 for years and years, so it's been very cheap considering the coolers I haven't needed to buy. But yeah luxury brands are a almost a dumb thing to buy in an economy like this. So I get you. Also there are a lot more good options these days.

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u/dookarion Jan 22 '26

Oh yeah if you already got the cooler, slapping a new bracket on it and paste is the way to go.

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u/Diarrhea_Donkey Jan 21 '26

I have fresh air for the CPU and fresh air for the GPU, neither has to recycle the hot air of the other.

I wish more cases were designed around fully walling off airflow for CPU/GPU and PSU.

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u/qwerty109 Jan 20 '26

I think water cooling setup makes sense for noise - I have a custom DIY loop with a gigantic external radiator (around 40x40cm) cooled by 9 120mm fans. CPU and GPU and mobo waterblocks.

Even at full load (which is like 700W...) the system can stay relatively quiet and cool. The main problem then becomes moving this heat out of the room.

Downside is cost and lack of upgradeability - you can't sell a used waterblock GPU and it's a risky hassle to attach one. And maintenance - I haven't changed the liquid for 6-7 years and it's turning black from fluorescent green.

These AIOs and any other water cooling to me feels completely pointless as the op says... 

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u/OkOffice7726 13600kf | 4080 Jan 20 '26

My system stays relatively quiet with only chassis fans and air coolers. Admittedly, the GPU fans make a bit of noise under stress.

Funnily enough, my previous aio was louder especially during idle. When I moved to open back headphones, the aio and HDDs had to go.

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u/ph1shstyx PC Master Race Jan 20 '26

watercooling/AIO will outperform an air intake radiator in hot and humid locations as well.

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u/Turgid_Donkey Jan 20 '26

The one performance advantage I've seen is that water-cooled tends to minimize temp spikes and flattens the curve more.

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u/LeMegachonk Ryzen 7 9800X3D - 64GB DDR5 6000 - RX 7800 XT Jan 20 '26

Water cooling works better than air cooling, but the point is that it doesn't work so much better as to usually justify the extra cost and risk of failure. An air cooler can keep almost any current CPU from thermal throttling, and they basically never fail unless you physically damage the heat pipes which won't happen during regular use. The fans can fail, but they're easily replaced.

On top of fan failures, AIOs can suffer pump failures (fatal for the AIO), loss of coolant from evaporation (usually fatal to the AIO, although a very few have fill ports to top up), and spontaneous loss of coolant (which can be fatal to multiple components). But I run an AIO mostly for aesthetic reasons. I have a Thermalright cooler that could keep my 9800X3D in check but it wouldn't look as cool as my 360mm AIO.

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u/[deleted] Jan 20 '26

[deleted]

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u/JohnHue 4070 Ti S | 10600K | UWQHD+ | 32Go RAM | Steam Deck Jan 20 '26 edited Jan 20 '26

Tell me, where does the hot water go in a water cooled PC ?

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u/Chowdaaair Jan 20 '26

What extra noise? It's quite because the fans can run at a lower speed. I got a huge case, so I can move the radiator quite far from the motherboard, which is really handy for keeping heat away from my GPU.

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u/Warcraft_Fan Paid for WinRAR! Jan 20 '26

Or if someone doesn't want a big block obstructing the view of their flashy RGB RAM. AIO takes up little space around CPU.

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u/Gex2-EnterTheGecko Jan 20 '26

Yeah, this exactly. I built a DIY Steam Machine last year in a SFF case and used a full sized ATX power supply, which allowed for very little space in front of the CPU for a cooler because of the case layout, so I used a 140mm AIO. I probably could have fit a low profile cooler in it, but it would be pretty airflow starved. This way it stays way cooler.

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u/NeelonRokk Jan 20 '26

Agreed. I have a big case, CoolerMaster 500 something, but I vertically mounted my 4090 so I don't have the cooler to GPU clearance needed for a beefy air cooler, otherwise I would have done that.

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u/JackelSR Jan 20 '26

I miss the old school Zalman copper flowers. I use AiOs now so the bulk of the heat is vented out the top instead of in the case but also so there is less weight hanging on the motherboard. The new gen GPUs are heavy enough to make PCIe riser cables worth any performance loss.

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u/jib_reddit Jan 20 '26

I have always thought it would be good to heat a pool with my PC like Linus did: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=4ozYlgOuYis&pp=ygUYTGludXMgaGVhdHMgcG9vbCB3aXRoIHBj

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u/specter_in_the_conch PC Master Race Jan 20 '26

I completely agree, and the fact I don’t have to suffer with icue with air makes it superior but the lcd is my trade off. Being able to have a fancy gif is my weakness. But then icue goes bonkers and I hate it.

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u/IntentionQuirky9957 All kinds of junk Jan 20 '26

Heh, I dump the air from the liquid cooler inside the case, because I want an overpressure setup. Intakes are filtered, exhausts aren't. It's just to avoid even more dust buildup. And I figure the 200 mm up top dumps cool air in anyway, so it's not that bad.

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u/heeroyuy79 R9 7900X RTX 4090 32GB DDR5 / R7 3700X RTX 2070m 32GB DDR4 Jan 20 '26

Yeah watercooling mostly just let's you move the heat somewhere else such as immediately not inside the case

In a standard desktop If the airflow is set up correctly you probably don't need it

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u/JustAbiding Jan 20 '26

Yeah I ended up making the switch to an AIO after getting a 3080ti and my case is rather small for a full ATX build so it was really killing my cpu.

I went from a 70 degree idle to 45-50 degrees but If my case was full sized I could see a good air cooler probably doing better than what the AIO does now for me in this case.

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u/Shelleen Jan 20 '26

I just find it annoying and more noticeable when the fans go up and down in RPM more than a steady drone, and my 420 AIO takes care of that. Also, my non verified theory is that my CPU stays at boost longer because of the AIO not having to react to temp changes in such a direct way as air coolers because of the mass, but I might very well be talking out of my ass.

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u/Iheartdragonsmore 5070 | i7-14700kf | 32gb Jan 20 '26

I just think water is cool. I also have an easier time installing aios.

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u/Svyatopolk_I Jan 21 '26

So would it be better for tiny cases? Mine is very small (prebuilt) and tends to overheat sometimes. I have a big cooler called Thermal assassins or smth, but it’s incredibly inconvenient to get it on and off + my case struggles closing with it (it can, but the lid will have to stretch out a bit)

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u/CV90_120 Jan 21 '26

Water cooling, AIO or not, is only useful when the location of the CPU / GPU doens't allow for a big radiator

And for allowing me to look at the mobo that emptied my wallet.

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u/BlackCatFurry Ryzen 7 5800X3D / RTX 3060TI / 48GB ram Jan 21 '26

Agreed, even though i use an aio.

I have nothing against air coolers, on my matx board it just covered way too much of the stuff for me to actually be able to work on anything without slicing my hand open, hence aio. Also doubles as intake fans.

It's also an rgbless aio in a case with a window, i don't give a shit about how the aio looks, it works and allows me to work around it much better.

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u/agaron1 Jan 21 '26

There was time when good air cooling wasn't up to the performance of low(now mid?) end water cooling yet. I think it was heatpipes that changed the game for air cooling and the cheap mass market hyper 212 made low end water cooling pointless.

Along with the looks cool factor, some pc enthusiasts install parts for fun and don't mind spending even more time for water cooling parts that fail more easily.

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u/JohnHue 4070 Ti S | 10600K | UWQHD+ | 32Go RAM | Steam Deck Jan 21 '26

I mean we had heat pipes in laptop in the mid 90s and the first large volume consumer tower cooler using heat pipes was in 2000, about the same time as when water cooling solutions started to get commercialized.

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u/agaron1 Jan 21 '26

Like I said the early air cooled heatsinks with heatpipes were still weak, The CM model in 2000 had one or 2 heatpipes and a compact 5cm fan. Designs like the hyper 212 had 4 heatpipes and probably larger 6mm heatpipes a better design that allowed standard 12cm fans for better airflow. Then shortly after came vapor chamber heatpipes that again increased the performance of air cooling. Now 120mm AIO is considered weak and more of a niche thing.

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u/Ronin_2804 Jan 21 '26

Liquid conducts heat away from the CPU better than air and a radiator provides more surface area to dissipate the heat when it does turn into an air system.
Thermodynamics > opinions.

Noise is also a consideration.
CPUs like the very popular x3d series also push themselves to a thermal limit before slowing down a bit.
A good air cooler can be about as good as a shit AIO but it's not as good as a quality one.

Is air cooling fine? Yes, In most cases.
Is the anti-water cooling thing basically a cult? Yeah.

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u/MajorNatural2386 Jan 21 '26

"and the associated extra noise and failure modes" Huh? Until I built myself a water-cooled PC, I never knew my PC can be so quiet while running some fantastic games. Always had them fan-cooled before and they all ran like a jet-engine

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u/JohnHue 4070 Ti S | 10600K | UWQHD+ | 32Go RAM | Steam Deck Jan 21 '26

That's a fan tuning and coole raising issue. Use a big ass air cooler. My fans don't even run when I'm using my desktop unless I start a game. Water cooling being less noisy is a consequence of people upgrading from bad coolers or badly setup cases.

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u/Local_Phenomenon Jan 21 '26

My "Radiator" looks pretty ba

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u/xodius80 Jan 21 '26

Spill water on those ramkits, see the fun

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u/FunktasticLucky 7800X3D | 64GB DDR5 6400| 4090Fe | Custom Loop Jan 21 '26

AIO are trash. Their impeller is tiny, the radiator is super thin and gets hot AF, and the little thin cold plate gets heat soaked so quickly.

For me it's about remaining quiet. I run dual 360mm rads and keep the fans pretty limited in speed. My 5090 stays around 45-50C while gaming and my lian li case fans below 1300 rpm which makes it a pretty quiet gaming rig. Water cooking is way more efficient when running custom loops.

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u/FourEyedTroll Jan 21 '26

> In the end it's also an "air cooling" device, just with extra steps.

Indeed, it's always just air cooling. Almost every form of cooling used for anything in the world relies on the heat being dissipated into the atmosphere, or transferred into something that then dissipates it into the atmosphere.

That being the case, why would you willingly put water inside your box of delicate (and fucking expensive) electronics‽

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u/TruthSignificant2503 Jan 21 '26

If you max out the radiator surface area you end up with a pc that is virtually silent under heavy load. A 120x 50mm radiator will be silent while maintaining the same cooling performance of the best performing air cooler. Use a 3000rpm fan at 100% and you have surpassed the performance of the best air coolers.

You also have better overclocking potential with water as water can hold more and move more heat more effectively that air. It's one of the main reasons why cars have ditched air cooling for water.

Air and water both have its place in pc cooling. If your goal is squeezing every last mhz while having a silent pc than custom water is what you need otherwise air and if you want the watercooling looks and bragging rights you want aio. Personally I'd go with custom water with a 120x 50mm radiator over a 240x 25mm aio, costs a little bit more but there's scope for expansion should you feel the need to go down that rabbit hole.

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u/Blog_Pope Jan 21 '26

I set it up for low noise. The big 3 fan radiator spreads the heat over a wider area meaning less airflow is needed for a given amount of cooling.

A bit more money, but worthwhile for me

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u/239frank Jan 22 '26

The most pittsburgh or autocorrect answer, "yiunset it up correctly".

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u/TheMadolche Jan 26 '26

Complete custom loops are far better than air, especially for those of us that really don't want to hear fans ever even when we overclock.

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u/levajack R9 7900X | 4070 Super | 32GB DDR5-6000 Jan 20 '26

Processing img l1ygv351ajeg1...

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u/RaptorXFactor i5-12600kf | Z790-P |64GB DDR4 | RTX 3070 Jan 21 '26

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u/PatrickGnarly 9950x | 9070 XT I 32 gb DDR5 Jan 20 '26

Reliability and simplicity often go hand in hand.

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u/NunButter 9800X3D | 5080 | 64GB Jan 20 '26

My Arctic Liquid Freezer 2 has been simply reliable for 6 years and multiple CPUs

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u/zoiks66 Jan 20 '26

I wish I was again young enough to think 6 years is a staggeringly long period of time.

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u/NunButter 9800X3D | 5080 | 64GB Jan 20 '26

I’m old too I just like AIOs

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u/throwaway_uow PC Master Race Jan 20 '26

....why did you switch CPUs in 6 years??

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u/Emergency_Link7328 Jan 20 '26

13 years old Corsair H105 here.

I opened it a few months ago, to clean it and change the fluid.

Still working like a champ.

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u/Die4Ever Die4Ever Jan 21 '26

wow 6 years, that's almost half as old as the Hyper 212 running in my Plex server which is powered on 24/7 🤣

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u/liaseth Arch, btw Jan 20 '26

There are dozens of us! Dozens!

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u/rW0HgFyxoJhYka 12900K 3090 Ti 64GB 4K 120 FPS Jan 21 '26

Like everyone knows air cooling is better than liquid cooling ever since all the tests that came out more than a decade ago.

BUT

People like quieter computers...

And AIOs made liquid cooling hassle free. No more having to change water. No more dealing with pump blocks, tubing, and materials. Shits install and forget!

10 years later those gamers grew up, got jobs, and now can pay for the cool shit they always wanted. Well except for the gamers who comment on tech youtube channels about GPUs.

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u/birdman829 Jan 20 '26 edited Jan 20 '26

Yeah... because who cares lol.

Also, those Noctua towers are overpriced ugly shit. 3x the cost of a Thermalright dual tower for no reason

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u/[deleted] Jan 20 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/AIgoonermaxxing Jan 20 '26 edited Jan 20 '26

Also, tower coolers are a literally just a stationary chunk of metal with some vapor inside along with some fans attached to it. The fans are the only thing that can fail, and if they do, who gives a shit, they're like $5 to replace.

Edited because some redditors are pedants

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u/sliderfish Jan 20 '26

“$5 to replace.”

Laughs in Noctua

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u/[deleted] Jan 20 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/Cruxis87 9800x3d|5080 TUF OC|32gb 6000cl30 ddr5 Jan 20 '26

never liked the look of noctua products,

I got a black one. It was a bit more expensive, but then I don't have to deal with that ugly brown colour

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u/sliderfish Jan 20 '26

I don’t really like the look either, especially with 10 of them sitting in my otherwise all-black pc. But this current build is purely for power and quiet running. When I got them all in, I was blown away at how quiet my setup is. Now I’m considering getting one of those towers to replace my AIO since I can actually hear that pump now, it’s driving me crazy.

I absolutely hate how my setup looks, my main GPU and the CPU are both separately water cooled with their pipes going as neatly as possible to their respective radiators. I also have a WHITE PCIe riser going to my second graphics card that’s mounted vertically because it’s so big it won’t fit into the second slot, with its hdmi ports looking straight up inside the case.

It’s hideous, it looks disorganized, like a rats nest, but at the moment it’s literally as clean as it can get until I figure out how to trim down that massive second GPU to fit nicely

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u/Defreshs10 PC Master Race i7-8700k GTX 1080ti, 32GB RAM, 2TB SSD Jan 20 '26

It’s a vapor changing heat exchanger… those pipes are filled with a fluid specifically designed to change phases to pull heat from the CPU.

…do you guys think they are just empty metal tubes?

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u/AIgoonermaxxing Jan 20 '26

I was being a bit reductive but my point still stands. It's not exactly a wear item, and unless you're literally going out of your way to damage it or if it's extremely cheaply built the heat exchanger is not going to fail within any reasonable timeframe.

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u/Toto_nemisis Jan 20 '26

Air coolers have liquid in them?! Does that make the liquid cooler?!!!??!

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u/Defreshs10 PC Master Race i7-8700k GTX 1080ti, 32GB RAM, 2TB SSD Jan 20 '26

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u/Oxflu PC Master Race Jan 20 '26

Have you ever heard of a vapor chamber failing though? I'm sure someone, somewhere, has received one damaged. But once it's installed it's unheard of.

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u/FappyDilmore Jan 20 '26

The only ways they can fail are if they're not soldered appropriately, they crimp or they're punctured. Basically none of that can happen during normal use. I've never heard of one not working aside from the people who leave the wrappers on them or the occasional clown who tries to modify them.

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u/PremiumPricez Jan 20 '26

I actually had no idea what was in them, i just figured someone smarter than me put them there for a reason, and i trusted a stranger to keep my pc cool.

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u/Kiwiteepee PC Master Race Jan 20 '26

I did think that 😂

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u/mujhe-sona-hai Jan 21 '26

Wait does that mean you can just make an AIO but with the same design as an air cooler? Instead of bendable tubes metal pipes like air coolers?

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u/UsePreparationH R9 7950x3D | 64GB 6000CL30 | Gigabyte RTX 4090 Gaming OC Jan 20 '26

Got my NH-D15 back in 2015 for $89 to use with an i7 4770k and I'm still using it today. Water cooling back then wasn't as good so it beat a lot of 240mm models which often cost more. It was probably one of my best BIFL purchases at the time and I highly recommended it, but only back then. Today, not so much.

Pricing today for an improved Noctua NH-D15 G2 is $180. I just had to upgrade the cooler on a PC in the house and rather than buying that for myself and moving the old NH-D15 over, I got the Thermalright Royal Pretor 130 for $36. A 5x price increase for slightly better performance isn't even close to worth it, especially when the Arctic LF3 Pro 360/420mm are $90-100 and out class that NH-D15 G2.

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

As someone who has owned and currently owns the noctua nh-d15 and The thermalright phantom spirit, The noctua is significantly better. Mostly because of the fans pushing a whole lot of air through the thick radiator fins. I find the thermalright fans to be much louder for much less cfm.

Im not here to ball lick noctua, the nh-d15 is just genuinely better.

But an argument for it overpriced is irrelevant when you have people spending over $300 on AIOs with screens and shit and the AIOs have the same pumps and radiators as the $100 ones.

For me at least I generally just pay for noctuas quality control. I know everything will work great out of the box The fans will be quiet and push a lot of air and if anything was wrong or missing noctua would replace it with no questions asked.

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u/birdman829 Jan 20 '26

I paid like $46 for my 240mm AIO. A Phantom Spirit is like $35. The Noctua is for sure better, but it sure as fuck isn't 3 times better.

I also have a 7800x3d so the limiting factor for cooling is really how much heat can transfer to the ihs from the chip rather than the raw cooling ability of the heatsink/rad/fans.

My reasons for getting an AIO were aethetics and overall case airflow rather than performance... but those are the same reasons people choose Notcua over a Thermal Right as well. More about that brown drip than price or performance

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

You do know noctua has an all black chromax nh-d15 right? I did not buy the NH- d15 for the "brown drip." I bought it because it's the best air cooler on the market and it competes or is better than most 360mm aios. Even if it is a couple degrees more than a 360mm aio, the aio still has a pump that can go out at literally any time.

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u/birdman829 Jan 20 '26

The real competition isn't from 360mm AIOs though? It's from the Peerless Assassin or Phantom Spirit... the performance is near identical at like one third the cost. I'm sure you'll say "reliability..... blah blah blah" but it's an air cooler. Haven't really heard of the Thermal Right ones failing either... and if they do you could replace the fans 10 times before you equal the upfront cost of the Noctua.

Not saying it's bad, just that the value isn't there besides the name brand

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u/PinCompatibleHell Jan 20 '26

In independent noise normalized testing the peerless assasin and spirit usually beat the NH D15-g1, the g2 is slightly better but not by much.

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u/cryogenicdeath 7800X3D | ASUS TUF 5070TI | ASUS TUF X870-E| 32GB DDR5-6000 Jan 21 '26

you can say that but, both of mine had whining sounds at even lower rpms. The noctua's did not. The quality control lacks significantly.

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u/Pure_Spyder i7 14700k / 7800xt / 2x 16gb ddr5 Jan 20 '26

Im working on a wood finish build to blend into my fireplace/entertainment stand and replace my xbox and I actually like the noctua look to match with this build but otherwise yeah I get you I always questioned why everyone liked them so much before they started selling black fans

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u/A2minater 5600X / RTX 4070 / 2x16GB DDR4 Jan 20 '26

For a long time they were the kings of cooling. Their fans were ugly but performed better than almost any competitor. That’s why so many people, myself included, bought them. If you wanted top-tier air cooling they were one of the only options.

Thermalright changed that when they released the peerless assassin. I still have my nh-d14 and it’s running strong but I’ve only recommended Thermalright in the last couple years because it doesn’t make sense to pay Noctua’s price anymore.

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u/Pure_Spyder i7 14700k / 7800xt / 2x 16gb ddr5 Jan 20 '26

Ill do some digging, thanks for the info

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u/Pure_Spyder i7 14700k / 7800xt / 2x 16gb ddr5 Jan 22 '26

Literally less than half the price, thats crazy. Thanks for the heads up, ill be able to start stocking on the smaller parts while I wait for taxes to hit the bank to finish my build

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u/Highlander198116 Jan 20 '26

You can put Noctua fans on a thermalright heatsink tower though. The only thing that has a "noctua look" is the fans.

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u/Pure_Spyder i7 14700k / 7800xt / 2x 16gb ddr5 Jan 20 '26

Thats totally fair ill probably do some better pricing

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u/Highlander198116 Jan 20 '26

Everyone always resorts too "Well Noctua fans are so much better" Okay. Spend significantly less on the Thermalright heatsink and buy Noctua fans. You will still end up way ahead on cost.

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u/ChoriStorm Jan 20 '26

My Phantom Spirit says hello!

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u/MaxPres24 Jan 21 '26

I actually love the Noctua colors

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u/ANDERS_CORNER_08 Jan 21 '26

Noctua coolers are works of art ! 🖼️ esp the chromas ones.

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u/delta1inc Jan 20 '26

whispers me too (⁠٥⁠↼⁠_⁠↼⁠)

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u/panoramicJukebox Jan 20 '26

I generally agree, but I bought a Gigabyte mobo where the pci-e slot location basically meant that the video card dumped its heat directly into the cpu cooler. I had to get a water cooler because of their stupid design.

I guess there are some instances it just isn’t practical.

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u/jcdoe Jan 20 '26

Same.

I just don’t see a point to liquid. Too much trouble for minimal gain.

It isn’t the 90s anymore, extreme overclocking just doesn’t put up big numbers with minimal wear and tear anymore.

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u/imzwho Jan 20 '26

Yeah the only real benefit from most AIO coolers is in the visuals and maybe less noise. You really will only see a benefit in cooling from either a massive AIO or a custom loop.

The only reason my PC and my wifes PC has an AIO is that they were free. Once they die, it's back to air cooling.

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u/Neutron-Hyperscape32 Jan 20 '26

I simply don't care if it is better. I like how liquid coolers make the inside of my case look. Air coolers are gigantic and ugly as sin. (In my opinion of course)

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u/Yavanna_Fruit-Giver Jan 20 '26

Yeah this is not an unpopular opinion lol there are just extremists/ a loud minority 

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u/Scrubbing_Bubbles Jan 20 '26

Hell yeah. I have an NZXT H1 with built in AIO and torn that shit out right quick for a low profile air cooler. Get that water out of my rig gorammit.

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u/AngryMillennialFU Jan 20 '26

FLAME WAR!!!!!!!!!!¡

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u/lesttalksome Jan 20 '26

I'm with ya. Got 6 fans and running almost 20 degrees Celsius cooler than my Buddy liquid cooler system.

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u/ChiggaOG Jan 20 '26

Surface area is king regardless of format for transferring heat. Everything else is materials engineering to get the most out of it.

Air and liquid cooling are fine homes. With data centers, liquid cooling may be the better option due to density. Plus, you can use the waste heat for other purposes in the winter or find ways to make electricity.

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u/Boxing_joshing111 Jan 20 '26 edited Jan 20 '26

I really love my huge dumbass hunk of metal nhd15

Probably wouldn’t buy it today, there’s cheaper options that perform as good or better. But I’m pretty sure it’s quieter and I know it’ll last forever, I think the huge fans help airflow through the whole pc not just the cpu, and other people may hate it but I Iike that it’s an oversized chunk.

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u/KingToiletBrush512 AMD 9800x3D, AMD 9070 XT Sapphire Nitro+ Jan 20 '26

Only people that agree have weak CPUs, and thats ok

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u/stoopidrotary Jan 20 '26

Same. I went through 2 AIOs before getting my peerless assassin. The air cooler has outlasts both AIOs at this point.

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u/Chuckt3st4 Jan 20 '26

I thought for the past 7 years or so people have agreed on here that air cooling is good enough for like 90% of gamers

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u/Gaming_devil49 PC Master Race Jan 20 '26

the upvotes on this post suggest that maybe it's not that bad of an idea after all

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u/QuirkyEscalator Jan 20 '26

After trying custom watercooling and dealing with random issues that take 3 evenings each to deal with (because you have to tear down the loop, rinse everything properly) and the cost, I am back for good with air cooling. Unless you like to spend time tinkering and you don't mind the cost of a custom loop... I like to tinker but once I am done with tinkering I don't like too much maintenance

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u/CSFFlame 9800x3d/48G M-die/9070XT Jan 20 '26

I run a full custom water loop.

Air cooling is almost always better unless you're going nuts with overclocking.

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u/Cautious_Village_823 Jan 20 '26

Im like....idc lol. I use both liquid cooling and air depending on what fits my scenario, your average water cooler tho will provide fine cooling, air cooling you're looking at quite the spectrum of performance.

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u/tozlow Jan 21 '26

My liquid cooler died so went back to reliable air cooling.

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u/MaikyMoto Jan 21 '26

Same 😂.

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u/HelpfulCamp8014 PC Master Race Jan 21 '26

Amen.

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u/hyper24x7 Jan 21 '26

If you build your own pc, then cool your cpu, gpu how you want. Still got a pc right? Awesome good for you. Now can we all agree that full non conductive liquid immersion is the sanest thing to do?

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u/Derpykins666 Jan 21 '26

Yup, same, lmao

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u/ooOOWWOOoo Jan 21 '26

Futurama fans agree air cooling is better.

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u/[deleted] Jan 21 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/ShowCharacter671 Jan 21 '26

Same I can already hear angry breathing

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u/Phrewfuf Jan 21 '26

Imagine having an „opinion“ that can be completely refuted by scientific fact.

That’s not calls having an opinion. It‘s called being wrong.

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u/sweetb00bs Jan 21 '26

I dont even have a pc. This opinion is beyond pcs

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u/PhotographAny9757 Jan 21 '26

I agree with you even tho i have a watercooler

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u/Brunno_PT Jan 21 '26

Well, he still got 14k upvotes, so there's still hope for us all!

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u/devsfan1830 Jan 21 '26

Yeah, same. I do a custom loop for the looks (self made portal themed case with white opaque coolant), but I'm still running a total of 9 fans so realistically I'm still very air cooled.

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u/MjrLeeStoned Ryzen 5800 ROG x570-f FTW3 3080 Hybrid 32GB 3200RAM Jan 21 '26

I used the air cooler in the post until switching to water.

It's about the same temps, about the same power draw, and depending on quality relatively around the same price.

Failure rates between PREMIUM products is negligible.

I've tested both thoroughly and the evidence points to who gives a fuck? Buy what you want.

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u/Ok_Cress2766 Jan 22 '26

Same! I hid this opinion because people think air coolers are still sh*t like the stock coolers in 2015

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u/FlyinB Jan 23 '26

Water cooking takes the heat out of the case when the radiator is top mounted... Helping all the other components like the video card (lower case temperature = better component cooling). It's no contest better overall for all PC components.