Why you shouldn't water cool your PC

AIO water coolers seem to be all the rage, but we're here to tell you that big air coolers are where it's at. Probably.

Buy a NH-U12A

Intro Screen Music Credit:
Title: Laszlo - Supernova

[vitaelamorte]

Getting rid of my car's water pump and installing a Noctua fan now.

[wolfi]

"Alex has been working on this in isolation." Alex is clearly ahead of his time

[USAmericaFuckYeah]

AIO watercoolers are great for small form factor builds: they are space saving and they are less prone to heat buildup which occurs in cases with small volume. That's definitely a worthy factor omitted in the testing that's done in the video showing a big tower with a huge case volume.

[robertweekes]

This video made me think AIO's were crap. But seeing a new benchmark from Gamers Nexus indicates AIO's have improved greatly in 3 years... and the 2 fan 240/260 models are pretty quiet.

[khitjuan]

“Alex has been testing in isolation”

that tissue roll saw hell

[wongelfski]

Obviously leaving the computer turned off is the best way to cool your PC

[gizmoguyar]

The point you said about heat pipes fundamentally being liquid is spot on. You can absorb much much more heat through phase change than you can through direct convection only. Those little heat pipes can conduct hundreds of watts of heat with only a few degrees drop across their length. And there's probably as much fin surface area as the radiators.

[RK-ejto]

I’d like to see tests done with mid and small tower set ups. I’ve always figured water cooling would only provide superior cooling in tight spaces with higher ambient temps.

[pixpix]

Linus: "why you shouldn't water cool a pc"
Also linus: "we water cooled a gaming chair!"

[yourtub]

Wtf I just pour water over my pc every few minutes

[PlayinWithGhosts]

My last build was AIO and the one I'm building now will also be AIO. I had previously rocked air using nothing but Noctua. Honestly, both applications work for me. I prefer AIO for the noise levels being pretty much ambient to non-existent. Sure it's pricier, but honestly the AIO cooling solutions we have now are pretty nice for the price.

[magicmulder]

Also don't forget modern AIO has come a long way. Alphacool's newer models are basically custom watercooling for everyone as you can easily expand the system, add a second pump (also good in case the first fails), additional radiators etc. And all pretty much plug and play.

[KematianGaming]

me: buys a watercooler and builds it into my rig

Youtube, literally the same day: recommends this Video

[larrylentini]

I aspire to reach the point in life where I can build a bean bag quiet room and call it work.

[Tomcatntbird]

A friend of mine mounted his desktop components on the wall of his bedroom since he didn't like the fact of heat generating components being in a small contained space isn't a good idea. So he had a window unit that kept the room at around 60 degrees and mounted the computer hardware on the wall with L brackets. Worked very well and was also a secondary lighting for the room.

[athomenotavailable]

I think in the past liquid cooling in its infancy was better only because air cooling wasn't using heatpipes or not using heatpipes effectively. But now the use of heatpipes for cpu cooling has matured. Liquid cooling has the advantage of high heat capacity, but heat pipes has the advantage of latent heat of vaporization (of water inside the heatpipes) and conducts heat incredibly fast.

[vitordinis]

Should I use water coolers?

Linus: Yesn’t

[CountArtha]

**takes off headphones**
Wait . . . . My PC makes _noise?_

[gaddeath]

I have one PC with an AIO and one without.

Getting my hands around parts that are near the CPU such as the m.2 SSD or RAM is so much easier with the AIO since it doesn’t take up space near the CPU socket.

Trying to get your hands around anything with the CPU with an air cooler is pretty annoying.

[sasca]

I used to liquid cool... AIOs, then moved on to custom loops with soft tubing, then on to doing builds with rigid PETG tubing, etc... Now I just stick with a Noctua NH-D15. Got sick of permeation on AIOs rendering them useless after a while, doing maintenance on custom loops (disassembling a PETG run is a pain in the ass), etc. A good air cooler with a graphite thermal pad gets you 90% of the way there and you don't have to do a damn thing to maintain it. No repasting, no nothing. Blast it with some compressed air once in a while if you're feeling generous. That's it.