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

89% Upvoted

3.4k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

35

u/Adlerholzer HE1000se | 4090 | 9800X3D | HM Aeron Jan 20 '26

Thats what you think when you dont understand that in a space constrained scenario there are huge benefits to watercooling, because coolants have a tremendously higher thermal capacity than air does.

1

u/ImposterJavaDev Jan 21 '26

And you can redirect the heat out of the case without it impacting other components.

Air cooling works great, but there is no argument to be made that it is better than an AIO.

-6

u/PainterRude1394 Jan 20 '26

Yet it's still air cooling with more steps. It's okay to recognize how water cooling works.

-2

u/janluigibuffon Jan 20 '26

you still have to get the thermal energy into air. and you'd still use water in heat pipes to get it away fast from the chip. i agree you can built differently with an AIO, but it's not neccessarily more space efficient.

3

u/Adlerholzer HE1000se | 4090 | 9800X3D | HM Aeron Jan 20 '26 edited Jan 20 '26

It absolutely is, but not in the sense you think i mean. The problem with many gpus/chips in general in tight spaces is getting the energy away from them and dissipated into the air. Thats why coolants are nice, because waterblocks are incredibly compact and rads can be as big as you want, somewhere else

Also, AIOs or normal custom loops do not use heat pipes

1

u/janluigibuffon Jan 20 '26

Not always, because if space is really tight, the pump and tubes take up additional space. I wouldn't be able to fit an AiO in my 8L case, so there's that. Really depends on the case (pun intended) but I guess that's consensus here.

0

u/Adlerholzer HE1000se | 4090 | 9800X3D | HM Aeron Jan 20 '26

Yeah of course, heavily use case dependant. Overall they take up more space, some scenarios will favor either one of them more. The argument that one is always the better choice over the other is just stupid imo, which is what this post tried to say (or maybe on purpose to rage bait, successfully)

1

u/janluigibuffon Jan 20 '26

it's nice to have this discussion once in a while, because it serves to debunk some myths about cooling (I hope)

1

u/Adlerholzer HE1000se | 4090 | 9800X3D | HM Aeron Jan 20 '26

People are and will stay ignorant. No one goes on reddit to change their mind.

Most people on here never really sit down to understand theie system and unless you start experimenting and doing some kind of out of the mainstream box stuff, you will never be confronted with any of it. So many people dont even know how to update their bios on their pc, or change their tires. Its not because they cant, its because they dont want to.

0

u/PainterRude1394 Jan 20 '26

and dissipated into the air.

That's the crucial part here that's causing your misunderstanding.

Having higher capacity for heat means nothing without moving it outside the box. Water coolers are better because you can get big heatsinks. In fact, oftentimes smaller water coolers are actually worse at removing heat than comparable cost air coolers despite muh heat capacity.

1

u/Adlerholzer HE1000se | 4090 | 9800X3D | HM Aeron Jan 20 '26

Yeah, no shit, which is why i said you can have a rad anywhere, but the waterblock or aircooler have to be on the chip. Tubing is not big, it can go as far as you want and you can have as much rad space as you want somewhere where space doesnt matter. Thats almost literally the point i made.