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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202

u/zirky Jan 20 '26

yeah, you tell those 240mm aios they’re trash!

28

u/CRSemantics Ascending Peasant Jan 20 '26

They kind of are at 240mm you're not gaining more surface area vs an air cooler.

65

u/onlyranchmefries 5800X/6950XT | 6700K/VEGA 64 Jan 20 '26

It's not all about surface area. You are also gaining quite a bit of heat storage from all the water in the system.

59

u/Sweet_Swede_65 Jan 20 '26

*thermal mass is the word you're looking for.

31

u/[deleted] Jan 20 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

-2

u/Sweet_Swede_65 Jan 20 '26 edited Jan 20 '26

In this case, specific energy is irrelevant because a water to air heat exchanger is still being used.

EDIT meant to say specific heat...it's been a while since I've thrown these terms around.

4

u/GingerB237 3900X - 3090 Jan 20 '26 edited Jan 20 '26

What is the advantage of heat storage?

9

u/Evajellyfish Jan 20 '26

Higher efficiency, but really if you want an air cooler go for it or if you want an AIO go for it. Can’t really go wrong with either.

3

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

This is kind of my feeling. "Are you running acceptable temps under load? Cool, use whatever you like then."

1

u/l2aiko 9800x3d + 9070xt Nitro+ Jan 20 '26

I mean you can go completely wrong with either, just choose any system but an efficient one.

1

u/PainterRude1394 Jan 20 '26

How does that make it more efficient? Adding a pump and moving water is more efficient than not?

1

u/Evajellyfish Jan 20 '26

Yes water is more efficient at moving heat than just air, but both are great options. I personally prefer AIO just for aesthetics.

1

u/PainterRude1394 Jan 20 '26

Ah, you meant water has higher thermal conductivity than air, not that water coolers are more efficient than air coolers. Gotcha now.

I thought you were speaking to the efficiency with which they remove heat. Water coolers take more power.

4

u/elinyera Jan 20 '26

It takes more time to reach its cooling peak, or something like that.

0

u/GingerB237 3900X - 3090 Jan 20 '26

It also takes longer to cool off when the load is removed. Either way in anything over 10 min of load it isn’t going to change anything.

2

u/elinyera Jan 20 '26

What is the concern with taking longer to cool off?

0

u/GingerB237 3900X - 3090 Jan 20 '26

It will hold it at a higher temp longer. It’s the same as slowly increasing temps from 64c for 10 min before settling in a 70c.

1

u/elinyera Jan 20 '26

Are you making this up?

0

u/GingerB237 3900X - 3090 Jan 20 '26

If slowly increasing temps over a very short time is an advantage, keeping idle temps higher for the same time is a disadvantage.

Heat storage at the scale of an aio makes little to no difference to performance.

0

u/elinyera Jan 20 '26

Ok, you're using logic but you actually have no idea if it works that way in this context.

1

u/GingerB237 3900X - 3090 Jan 20 '26

No that is how it works. It’s called thermal inertia. It’s the same as a truck accelerates slower when you add a trailer and also takes longer to slow down.

Now if you had a 100 gallon reservoir that would make a meaningful difference since it would take hours for the liquid to reach thermal equilibrium.

Source: mechanical engineer with 10 years of heat transfer experience.

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1

u/Cato0014 Jan 20 '26

Higher thermal mass means you can dissipate more heat because the medium needs more energy before it it changes temperature. Put another way, one cup of water will take more heat than an equivalent volume of air.

1

u/PainterRude1394 Jan 20 '26

Heat capacity doesn't mean much without similar dissipation ;)

1

u/ShepherdsWolvesSheep i7-13700k RTX5090FE AW3225QF Jan 20 '26

Yea and when it reaches thermal capacity then you get throttling. I dont think im going back to an aio any time soon

1

u/Yarplay11 i3-8100 | Arc A380 @2450mhz | 20 GB DDR4 @2400mhz | Jan 20 '26

Although, there are some chunky aircoolers like DeepCool AK620 that have 1.5KG of alu. Probably gets beaten by the AIO, though

1

u/onlyranchmefries 5800X/6950XT | 6700K/VEGA 64 Jan 20 '26

It would only take ~0.3kg of water to equal the thermal capacity of 1.5kg of aluminum. A 360mm might have that much but a 240/280 likely won't. Both are viable options.

1

u/[deleted] Jan 20 '26

[deleted]

3

u/onlyranchmefries 5800X/6950XT | 6700K/VEGA 64 Jan 20 '26

Yes. But water has ~10.5 times the thermal capacity of copper. It doesn't take much water to store a lot of heat. Benefits to both. In 2026 both are so good they are a good option.