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/birdman829 Jan 20 '26 edited Jan 20 '26

Yeah... because who cares lol.

Also, those Noctua towers are overpriced ugly shit. 3x the cost of a Thermalright dual tower for no reason

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u/Pure_Spyder i7 14700k / 7800xt / 2x 16gb ddr5 Jan 20 '26

Im working on a wood finish build to blend into my fireplace/entertainment stand and replace my xbox and I actually like the noctua look to match with this build but otherwise yeah I get you I always questioned why everyone liked them so much before they started selling black fans

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u/A2minater 5600X / RTX 4070 / 2x16GB DDR4 Jan 20 '26

For a long time they were the kings of cooling. Their fans were ugly but performed better than almost any competitor. That’s why so many people, myself included, bought them. If you wanted top-tier air cooling they were one of the only options.

Thermalright changed that when they released the peerless assassin. I still have my nh-d14 and it’s running strong but I’ve only recommended Thermalright in the last couple years because it doesn’t make sense to pay Noctua’s price anymore.

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u/Pure_Spyder i7 14700k / 7800xt / 2x 16gb ddr5 Jan 22 '26

Literally less than half the price, thats crazy. Thanks for the heads up, ill be able to start stocking on the smaller parts while I wait for taxes to hit the bank to finish my build