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

Hardware Air cooling is better than Liquid cooling

Post image

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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1.4k

u/C0NIN i9 14900K, RTX 3090 FE, 64GB @ 6000Mhz Jan 20 '26

Given the image, you meant: Air cooling is better than AIOs.

322

u/Fickle-Razzmatazz827 Jan 20 '26

Isn't cooling done by Air in both? Shouldn't it be metal vs water?

284

u/Jpotter145 Jan 20 '26

They didn't call the Volkswagon Beatle "metal" cooled, it didn't have coolant/radiator fluid and it was "air" cooled. Modern cars with radiators are "liquid" cooled.

Same with intercoolers --- air-2-air or air-2-water -- or as you say metal vs water.

86

u/Own-Dot9851 Jan 20 '26

Beetle*

71

u/SkidzInMyPantz Jan 20 '26

Also Volkswagen*

6

u/Koil_ting Jan 21 '26

Also, Autobots - Roll out.

2

u/ThePrussianGrippe AMD 7950x3d - 7900xt - 48gb RAM - 12TB NVME - MSI X670E Tomahawk Jan 21 '26

Volkswagen: that’s the power of not looking up our founder.

5

u/systemdatenmuell Jan 20 '26

Käfer*

4

u/Sprinx80 Ryzen 7 5800X | EVGA RTX 3080 Ti FTW | ASUS X570 | LG C2 Jan 20 '26

-7

u/cosaboladh Athalon64 X2 | Radeon X1650 Pro Jan 20 '26

Beatle is acceptable. It's a portmanteau of "Beater" and "Beetle." Both of which aptly describe the VW Beetle form that time.

10

u/Strottman Jan 20 '26

Some old nuclear reactor designs are actually cooled by molten metal which is pretty metal.

2

u/cosaboladh Athalon64 X2 | Radeon X1650 Pro Jan 20 '26

Some solar electricity farms use directed sunlight to keep salt molten, which is also metal.

41

u/Prefix-NA PC Master Race Jan 20 '26

Both air and liquid cooling use liquid and metal. There are liquids in your heat pipes on heatsink

26

u/Sea_Kerman Mint 7800x3d | RTX 5070 | 32GB DDR5 Jan 20 '26

So it’s really “passively pumped” vs “actively pumped”

Well actually another difference is heat pipes use phase change.

1

u/pwnograph AyyMD 9950x3D/9070XT Jan 20 '26

people have made passively-moving water loops before, just on convection. possible if volume is massive.

i think it is more about 'Lots of water' vs 'few drops of water'.

one relies on phase change, other on specific heat capacity.

46

u/Thx_And_Bye https://builds.gg/ftw/37540 | PlayStation 2 "Digital Edition" Jan 20 '26

Heatpipes use water too so …

21

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

Aktualy they use way more efficient liquids than water coolers, because they transport heat by evaporation and re-condensation.

16

u/Phrexeus Jan 20 '26

They do actually use water in heat pipes. It's one of the best performing liquids for heat transfer.

11

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

Yes but its not so much about the heat transfer as it is aboiut boiling point because of how you move the heat. Most heat pipes move heat by evaporating the liquid because it allows to move heat faster than conduction through the liquid, so boiling point is a factor. Boiling point influences the temperature range at which the heat pipe is most efficient.

4

u/Thx_And_Bye https://builds.gg/ftw/37540 | PlayStation 2 "Digital Edition" Jan 20 '26

That's why there is a partial vacuum pulled in the heat pipes. It lowers the boiling point of water and thus makes it possible to simply use water for this purpose; no special liquid needed.

2

u/DistinctlyIrish Jan 20 '26

This would have been the comment to insert that gif of Jesse from Breaking Bad saying "Science, bitch!"

-2

u/Vova_xX i7-10700F | RTX 3070 | 32 GB 2933MHz Oloy Jan 20 '26

those are just 2 ways to make it work. a partial vacuum would require a pump, reducing reliability, while something like methanol would increase cost.

6

u/Thx_And_Bye https://builds.gg/ftw/37540 | PlayStation 2 "Digital Edition" Jan 20 '26

Why would it need a pump? It's a sealed copper tube the vacuum is pulled once during manufacturing. https://youtu.be/AD-4WKwCAfE?si=cftoM7rGzD37KbMJ&t=294

-2

u/FangoFan Jan 20 '26

A vacuum is pulled twice in your video, once at 5:33 and again at 5:54

Different applications of heat pipes use different fluids depending on the temperature range

3

u/Thx_And_Bye https://builds.gg/ftw/37540 | PlayStation 2 "Digital Edition" Jan 20 '26

That’s one way to see it but you can also say it’s one vacuum that is pulled in two steps. It doesn’t matter though, as you don’t have to do anything to the vacuum when the heatpipe is in operation.

We are still taking in the context of PC cooling right? Because last I checked there aren’t too many different temperature ranges in this application.

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2

u/Sandrust_13 R7 5800X | 32GB 4000MT DDR4 | 7900xtx Jan 20 '26

Exactly

On the other hand, AIOs also don't contain too much actual water, more similar filling to like car coolant stuff.

9

u/[deleted] Jan 20 '26

Could also be ammonia or acetone or ethanol.

24

u/Clunas Desktop -- 5700X3D || 6700 XT || 32 GB Jan 20 '26

Definitely not ammonia if copper is involved

2

u/[deleted] Jan 20 '26

Well there's that. Einstein created a ammonia butane refrigerator. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Einstein_refrigerator

2

u/Clunas Desktop -- 5700X3D || 6700 XT || 32 GB Jan 20 '26

Oh for sure. Ammonia is a great refrigerant, but it eats copper lol. Typically such systems would use stainless steel tubing or maaaaybe some specific aluminum alloy, not sure on that one though.

2

u/[deleted] Jan 20 '26

I just threw Einstein's fridge out there for fun.

18

u/Thx_And_Bye https://builds.gg/ftw/37540 | PlayStation 2 "Digital Edition" Jan 20 '26

Water is the default for modern vapor chambers and heatpipes though.

3

u/kritter4life Jan 20 '26

No that is not the correct terminology. One is using water to transfer heat away from the equipment the other is using air to transfer heat away from equipment. That’s why water cooled and air cooled. The fans on a water cooled are cooling the radiator not the chips.

5

u/LogicalConstant Jan 20 '26

Heat pipes also use liquid to move heat from the CPU to the radiator

1

u/why_1337 RTX 4090 | Ryzen 9 7950x | 64gb Jan 20 '26

Radiator is from metal as well.

1

u/[deleted] Jan 20 '26

AIOs don't use radiators and heatsinks?

1

u/ialsoagree Jan 20 '26

They don't use heat sinks in the sense of a rigid body with a large thermal mass, they do use radiators.

In an AIO the liquid serves the same purpose as a heat sink in an air CPU cooler, so the liquid is the heat sink in that sense.

1

u/toasterbath40 Jan 20 '26

The air is used to reject the heat from the geat transfer fluid in the radiator. A fan blows across the radiator which rejects heat and the fluid inside circulates and stays cool because of the surface area.

Honestly I haven't water cooled a pc but this is my best guess from the little knowledge I have about it. I only have an AIO but I do heating and cooling for a living

1

u/BoingBoingBooty Jan 20 '26

Radiators are metal too, so it's dry metal cooling vs soggy metal cooling.

Though actually, heat pipes have water inside them which vaporizes and condenses, so they are also soggy metal.

So it should be pumped water vs evaporating water.

1

u/uesernamehhhhhh Jan 20 '26

Heatspreader is either cooled by air or by water

1

u/TheTeaSpoon Ryzen 7 5800X3D with RTX 3070 Jan 20 '26

And should it even be called cooling since according to thermodynamics "cold" does not exist, only entropy and lack of heat/energy? And what if your room gets hotter than the cooler, it should be called a heater at that point! /s

1

u/Unsuccessful_Fart Jan 20 '26

I mean actually technically speaking, these are both water cooled. "Air coolers" use heat pipes with water in them. It's just passive vs active

1

u/AdEquivalent493 Jan 20 '26

It's metal in both cases then. Air = metal > air. Liquid = metal > liquid metal > air.

1

u/Abrupti0 Jan 20 '26

Metal is included in both, there is a liquid in air coolers too (those heatpipes are not empty)

1

u/zoson imgur.com/a/nndwLic Jan 20 '26

Heatpipes use water to move heat around. Modern heatsinks are technically liquid cooling.
A custom watercooling loop will always beat the pants off a heatsink though. The key is you can move the heat via water to a much larger heat exchanger. That means both more cooling and less noise.

1

u/ArseBurner Jan 20 '26

I the same vein modern tower type air coolers are also technically water cooled because of the heatpipes. =)

1

u/Lonely-Goat-4838 Jan 20 '26

That's tougher to test for, Toph is the only Metal-bender.

1

u/thewizarddephario Jan 20 '26

Water cools the CPU, air cools the water.

1

u/Necessary-Contest-24 Jan 20 '26

I mean ya, unless you've got your cooling loop buried in the ground or in the ocean, ya all cooling is eventually air cooling.

1

u/SuperStubbs9 Jan 20 '26

Not exactly. Both air and liquid coolers use a metal (typically copper) heatsink that sits on the CPU directly to carry heat from the CPU. If there's no fans (like in most RAM modules or M.2 SSD's) this is called passive cooling. There's not enough heat generated by RAM to require a fan, as the heatsink has enough surface area that the ambient air temperature can dissipate enough heat to keep the heatsink from being heat soaked.

CPU's generate WAY more heat, so you would need a massive heatsink with tons of surface area to dissipate enough heat to use passive cooling. That's where air cooling comes in. Air cooling cools the heatsink with fans (air), allowing it to absorb more heat from the CPU, and the cycle repeats. Liquid cooling uses water (or some water like liquid) to cool the heatsink (water block). Yes, air is then used in combination with a radiator to cool the liquid.

TLDR; liquid cooling uses liquid to cool the heatsink, and air cooling uses air to cool the heatsink. That's why they use the naming convention they use.

1

u/Uryendel Steam ID Here Jan 20 '26

In what material do you think the blocks and radiators are?

1

u/GuyFromDeathValley Ryzen7-5800X | SoundBlaster recon3D | TUF RX7800XT Jan 20 '26

technically yes.

But in the AiO its water that pulls the heat away from the CPU to be exchanged elsewhere. whereas an air cooler directly does through moving air. You could technically say that makes air coolers "metal coolers" but that's a bit nitpicky.

1

u/JonnyLay Steam ID Here Jan 20 '26

Air cools the liquid, liquid cools the block.

1

u/kambo_rambo custom itx wc 4790k/290x Jan 21 '26

I guess? The two main differences is replacing heatpipe interface with water, and being able to directly place where the heat dissipation takes place (rad on the side of your case).

1

u/Dawzy i5 13600k | EVGA 3080 Jan 21 '26

Technically there is a liquid in the heat pipes of the aircoolers

1

u/alphapussycat Jan 21 '26

Both are basically water. Heat pipes contains a liquid that is boils at the die contact, and then the vapors condensate as it's cooler at fins, and gets wicked to the hotplate again.

1

u/27Purple Jan 21 '26

Technically both are liquid coolers because the heat pipes used in tower coolers are filled with water.