Air Cooling vs Watercooling... Which is right for you?

Watercooling vs Air Cooling will always be a huge debate... but with the efficiency of todays parts and the improvement in air cooling technology, is water cooling even worth it?

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[anonymousgent]

I live in Canada, so no cooling. I use my CPU to keep my heating bills down.

[__murf]

I literally only just noticed that whenever I hear an American talking about PC temps that they talk in Celsius not Fahrenheit.. my little metric mind is blown

[GamersName]

gaming at night when temps drop to 20C is a thing right now

[Sercil]

I like the idea of having an AiO, but ultimately, I have to go with air cooling. The AiO only increases the points of failure. The pump can fail, leaving me with practically no cooling. If the fan on the air cooler fails, the CPU is still passively cooled, which won't be enough for heavy loads but should be ok for the most essential work and for ordering a new fan. The AiO can also leak and destroy the whole system, and it requires more maintenance. The air cooler manages fine even under maximum load, so I won't fix what ain't broke.

[MonoMan]

"Processors used to be very inefficient"

A statement that will hold true in perpetuity.

[wolfcmd]

I had an AIO leak ( from the radiator of all places, pinhole size ), and that firmly put me back on air coolers. Nothing to break, aside from easily replaced fans.

[getchoppa]

as cool and good as watercooling can be, good air cooling is just so much less of a hassle

[HelplessTeno]

Another 2 years after this video, air coolers are still killing it. Even at 200W+ under unrealistic loads, coolers like the NH-D15 and even the $40 TR Assassin keep temps well under 90c. Between that and the reliability/lack of leak potential, I've stuck with air coolers. If you're rocking an overclocked i9-12900KS and a 4090, you might be better off with at least an AIO to keep case temps down for the graphics card. Otherwise, I think air coolers are best for most people.

[Nnamz]

Me: Do we really need another one of these videos?
Also me: *watches entire video*

[albundy]

The real Reason Watercooling is getting more popular lately is simply that Cases with Glas-Windows together with RGB became popular.

[ScoobGruber]

One thing that makes me want to switch to water cooling is access around the cpu. Not that you have to do it much but trying to push the gpu release clamp is really hard if you have a large cpu cooler.

[VictorTorres-iwue]

Thanks Jayz. Living in the tropics, your info considering room temperature is gold.

[sneedsneed]

Ive been into watercooling for a while, but recently went to all air cooling with a Noctua D15 Chromax and I really am enjoying the simplicity. The temps are still amazing and it just works.

[flavio-machado]

Ryzen 3900x; Noctua D-15, Highest temps are 60-64 (rendering). Enviroment temp: 27-32 C

[complete-mayhem-x]

I usually do air cooling for easier maintenance. I can't afford much downtime on my desktop

[C-M-E]

My first watercooled rig I was running a 1090T Black and rendering ALL the time. Absolutely necessary back then as Jay pointed out. Though now that I split my time between engineering modeling, renders and heavy simulations, I'm still an avid watercooling advocate. My work office at home in Texas gets pretty toasty the majority of the year and is mostly detached (outside of a door) from the rest of the house, so maintaining an air temp that makes the PC happy is strategic at the best of times. The office has heat and AC of sorts--the 'modular' kind--but of the three PC's I've built with watercooling, all of them are still 100% functional and in use. One of them has that same watercooler from the 1090T that's going on a decade of use and still perfectly serviceable; I've only replaced the fans on it. It's in use right now, and I wonder from time to time what kind of record for longevity it aims to set between it and my truck. 😁

[thegreatboto]

I've always been in the air cooling camp due to there being fewer thing to break/go wrong, general convenience, less maintenance, and a good air cooler has pretty decent performance overall considering the prior considerations. Though, water setups almost always look super and I appreciate the effort that goes into putting those loops together. Just have never been into putting together a loop myself. Keep it up Jay!

[lacucaracha]

"Power requirements of CPU sorta coming down over time"

GPU: * nervously sweats in 300W *

[ardianmusliji]

"I built it for him, still mine" jay kills me

[TheForce_Productions]

I don't bother with either water or air cooling, just have my system placed inside an old refrigerator in my garage, that way I can also reach my beer faster and easily. 😎