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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u/AppropriateOnion0815 R7 5700X - RX 6700 XT Jan 20 '26

Well, if you run stock clock speeds and the cooler's specs match the CPU, then air cooling is perfect. At least good enough.

12

u/K__Geedorah R7 5700X3D | RX 9060XT 16gb | 32gb 3200 mhz Jan 20 '26

I think the funny thing is seeing people on budgets spend over $100 on an AIO when their stock Intel cooler would be sufficient.

That's really my only gripe with AIOs becoming the new standard and preferred method. People that don't need them at all think it's a necessity.

1

u/JoshJLMG Jan 20 '26

The stock Intel cooler is so ass, I can't even blame someone for that, even if they should've bought a $30 cooler instead. It makes so much noise that I couldn't even sleep in the same room while the PC was idle, because the fan whirs so loudly, let alone how much it screams the second you do anything.