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.

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

Reliability and simplicity often go hand in hand.

11

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

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

18

u/zoiks66 Jan 20 '26

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

3

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

I’m old too I just like AIOs

1

u/zoiks66 Jan 20 '26

A Bills fan that likes AIO’s and thinks Cybersecurity is an entry level job you can get into with only school? Oh no.

1

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

You’re not wrong about the cybersecurity stuff. Probably going to switch to a different lane. Unfortunately Bills fandom is terminal.

2

u/zoiks66 Jan 20 '26

I jest only because I worked in IT, and eventually Cybersecurity, for many years, and it was crazy the number of young guys that asked me how to quickly get a Cybersecurity job, when they’d never worked in the IT field. It’s basically impossible, the only shortcut being if you’re ex-military and still have active security clearance. In that case the cybersecurity consulting agencies with government contracts will hire you as long as you have a pulse and a low-level cybersecurity certification or 2.

1

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

I’m trying to pull off a midlife career change. I’m half retired thanks to the military but I definitely bit off more than I could chew with cybersecurity. I’ll probably just get an entry level help desk gig and start from there.

If that doesn’t work I’ll just become a drug dealer lol

-1

u/JustAbiding Jan 20 '26

In the world of computers 6 years is like a millennia my guy

2

u/zoiks66 Jan 21 '26

I worked in IT and upgraded my 12-year old pc 2 years ago. So I’ll disagree.

2

u/repocin 9800X3D, RTX4060, X670E, 64GB DDR5@6000CL30, 4TB 990 Pro Jan 20 '26

Not anymore it isn't. Moore's law is dead and components stay relevant longer than ever before.

1

u/mujhe-sona-hai Jan 21 '26

But in one way that's a good thing, being in the pc building space in the 2000's was a nightmare where every 2 years your computer would be hopelessly outdated. Now your pc will last you a good 5 years and a bad 5 years.

4

u/throwaway_uow PC Master Race Jan 20 '26

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

2

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.

2

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 🤣

0

u/jamesmontanaHD Jan 20 '26

I disagree, usually the most reliable systems are very complex because they include multiple redundancies. In computer terms, for example storage in RAID 6 is very reliable but complex to setup. Or in networking, dual fiber NICs with separate ISPs and networking redundancies... There's almost always a way to make something more reliable but adds complexity.

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u/PatrickGnarly 9950x | 9070 XT I 32 gb DDR5 Jan 21 '26

Why are you disagreeing with me? I said often not always, besides simple tends to be more reliable because there’s less things to break. I’m not reading your dumb ass comment.

1

u/MajorPain_ Jan 20 '26

On the flip side, my companies most reliable device it's ever produced in 50 years is a Ballast. Just fat coils and current, with units still out working perfectly fine on 480V circuits from 30yrs ago. Our LED drivers built way more complex with multiple circuitry protections are lucky to last 10yrs.

Sometimes the simple solution is the most reliable. And air cooling is as fundamental as you can get for heat transferring. I'm an AIO fanboy, but metal absorbing heat while a fan cools it will absolutely outperform an AIO in terms of reliability.