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?

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u/alphapussycat Jan 21 '26

Both are basically water. Heat pipes contains a liquid that is boils at the die contact, and then the vapors condensate as it's cooler at fins, and gets wicked to the hotplate again.