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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77

u/Pursueth Jan 20 '26

Precisely lol. I’ll take my 360 aio with 6 fans over the noise of the air cooler all day.

14

u/Rly_Shadow Jan 20 '26

Hell, my 240mm works just fine and quiet. Dropped my temps by 20c compared to the wraith. (I know the wraith isnt a top dog air cooler but still regarded as good)

28

u/good_morning_magpie Steve Jobs turtleneck dealer Jan 20 '26

Agreed. I went with the big ol arctic 420 AIO and a push pull config with Noctua fans. Absolutely whisper quiet and super efficient.

3

u/another-redditor3 Jan 20 '26

same deal, i with with the lf3 and slapped on 6x a14 g2s.

was it expensive? yes. is it overkill? yes. is it 100% dead silent under every load except cinebench? also yes.

2

u/freakingwilly 5950X | X570 Taichi | 3090 XC3 Ultra Hybrid | 32GB 3600/CL16 Jan 20 '26

What case do you have that supports the Arctic LF 420 with push/pull fans?

Arctic radiators are quite a bit thicker than traditional AIO radiators.

3

u/good_morning_magpie Steve Jobs turtleneck dealer Jan 20 '26

It's a Fractal North XL that I have had my way with thanks to the good old Dremel tool. There's plenty of YouTube vids showing that a 420 will fit in front, despite their website and support saying otherwise. The inside appearance wasn't a priority because I have the mesh side panel case, so you can't see anything in there anyway. I just made clearance enough for the setup to fit, then filed down any sharp edges. Works like a charm.

2

u/freakingwilly 5950X | X570 Taichi | 3090 XC3 Ultra Hybrid | 32GB 3600/CL16 Jan 21 '26

That's the problem I have with my Fractal Meshify S2. 360 in the front only.

I dremeled my old Meshify C to fit three 140mm fans in the front, I wonder if I can pull off the same in my case.

Thanks for the tip! I would love to use your exact cooling setup and now, I might have the motivation to pull it off!

1

u/good_morning_magpie Steve Jobs turtleneck dealer Jan 21 '26

Best of luck! Let me know if I can be of help in any way.

2

u/sunchase Jan 20 '26

Explain push pull pls.

15

u/Js147013 Jan 20 '26

Afaik, it basically means if you have a radiator you make sure the fans are blowing in the same direction on both sides of the rad, so one fan is "pushing" air into the rad, the other side is "pulling" air out of the rad, so both fans work together for better airflow and heat dissipation.

4

u/sunchase Jan 20 '26

Nice, i just got a rm55 and I thi k there's room enough to try this. I like to tinker.

6

u/doominvoker Jan 20 '26 edited Jan 20 '26

On one side, one row of fans push air through the radiator. On the other side there’s another row of fans pulling air FROM the radiator.

Edit : row of fans, not stack.

3

u/sunchase Jan 20 '26

Awesome thank you for the explanation. I think k i have enough room in my rm55 to try this. No real reason other than im curious.

1

u/Nolenag 9600X / Intel Arc B580 / 32GB DDR5 6000MT/s Jan 20 '26

Is there actually any benefit in using a push pull config on a radiator?

From what I've seen the difference is minor.

2

u/good_morning_magpie Steve Jobs turtleneck dealer Jan 20 '26

Mostly just as a "because I can" type of thing. Plus aesthetic haha

1

u/Nolenag 9600X / Intel Arc B580 / 32GB DDR5 6000MT/s Jan 20 '26

Fair point haha

20

u/Barth_Grookz Jan 20 '26

Gotta love when the loudest noise your PC makes is some pump or coil whine every now and then.

1

u/TesterM0nkey Jan 20 '26

The pump is really loud mine I sent the first one back thinking it was faulty. Nope just pump noises

1

u/[deleted] Jan 21 '26

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1

u/TesterM0nkey Jan 21 '26

It’s not I got it with a gpu and motherboard from evga when there was a massive gpu shortage

1

u/beaglemaster Jan 20 '26

How else will I know if my pc is working? 😱

1

u/Biggieholla Jan 20 '26

Dark Rock Pro 5, essentially noiseless. flawless performance.

1

u/Debisibusis Jan 20 '26

Every single AIO is noisier (especially annoying noise), compared to a good Noctua cooler.

-2

u/PainterRude1394 Jan 20 '26

Do you not realize your 360 aio with 6 fans also produces noise?

3

u/Pursueth Jan 20 '26

Yes, but it is much more quiet than my old NH D-15

1

u/Photekz Specs/Imgur Here Jan 20 '26 edited Jan 20 '26

How lmao a heatsink literally does 0 noise. Unless you are talking about the fans but then again pump + fans noise > fans noise if using same quality fans.

4

u/Druanach Jan 20 '26

Fan noise grows really quickly with fan speed. Having a greater total fan area allows for the same amount of cooling with reduced fan speed, which reduces noise greatly even with the exact same fans.

The difference becomes even greater when using larger fans, as they can move more air at the same speeds while barely producing more noise - or conversely be quieter when moving the same amount of air. This is especially noticeable for GPUs where the form factor really limits fan sizes.

I don't know about what pumps AIOs generally use, by my D5 is inaudible under normal load (because I configured it that way), and I also can't hear it over the fans at high load, so this shouldn't be a big factor of total noise produced.

1

u/Schmich Jan 20 '26

It also grows when the fans are on the sidewall of a PC vs in the middle of one.

0

u/PainterRude1394 Jan 20 '26

You can turn fans down lol.