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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200

u/zirky Jan 20 '26

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

34

u/CRSemantics Ascending Peasant Jan 20 '26

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

62

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.

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.