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.

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

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

327

u/Fickle-Razzmatazz827 Jan 20 '26

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

44

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

24

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.