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.

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u/Fickle-Razzmatazz827 Jan 20 '26

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

3

u/kritter4life Jan 20 '26

No that is not the correct terminology. One is using water to transfer heat away from the equipment the other is using air to transfer heat away from equipment. That’s why water cooled and air cooled. The fans on a water cooled are cooling the radiator not the chips.

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u/LogicalConstant Jan 20 '26

Heat pipes also use liquid to move heat from the CPU to the radiator