Can somebody tell me the difference?

[JEW UNIT NY]

Hey everybody! I am currently building my first PC and right now I'm in the planning phase of the build.

 

Just out of curiosity, what is the difference between air cooling and liquid cooling? 

 

Is there a benefit of having one over the other?
 

Is it just a preference thing?

 

I am thinking about getting this - http://pcpartpicker.com/part/corsair-cpu-cooler-h100i

 

I want to make the right choice.  

 

Thank you for reading and hope to hear from you soon.  I don't know which board to post this (water/air cooling are separate boards).

[PokémonTrainerFour]

Liquid cooling is better if you want a higher overclock, but a good air cooler is generally better.

 

Liquid is for people who want the absolute most out of their system.

[Vacsol]

for the most part water cooling is more expensive, but gives better temps.

[Jodomcfrodo]

CPU only I'm assuming. I would get a NHD15 for CPU or a custom loop for the whole system,

[TheSLSAMG]

dat name doe

 

The difference?

Air cooling is better for silent operation and reliability, since there is no pump or liquid to make noise, leak or die, but the noise is usually not easy to notice. Liquid cooling is better when you compare the highest end CLC (closed loop cooler, Swiftech H320/ThermalTake Water 3.0 Ultimate) to the highest end air cooler (Noctua NH-D15, Cryorig R1 Ultimate), but it comes at a price.

 

I would suggest something like an H105, Kraken X61 or Seidon 240M (H100i has backplate issues on LGA 115x sockets) if water or the Noctua NH-D15/Cryorig R1 Ultimate/be quiet! Dark Rock Pro 3 if going air.

[Raudi_]

-snip-

Liquid Cooling = Quite and a cheap AIO can perform far greater then a cheap Air cooler

Air= Noise but less points of failure and can be generally warmer

[JEW UNIT NY]

Thanx guys! I appreciate it!

[SMURG]

The basic difference is that liquids are far better at removing heat from an area because they have a higher temperature coefficient and specific heat capacity. It takes a lot of energy to heat water by 1 degree, despite it conducting heat better than air. This means you can load a reasonably small volume of water with more heat energy than you could with a much greater volume of air, allowing you to get lower temperatures and better heat dissipation from liquid cooling.

BUT

 

Liquid cooling still relies on air to dissipate the heat from a radiator over which air is blown by fans. Ultimately therefore it comes down to surface area - liquid cooling allows you to blow air over a much larger surface area because you can pump the hot water somewhere where there's more space available for heat transfer. This also helps because you can position the radiator such that it blows hot air out of your case rather than into it, where it can impede cooling of other components.

At heart therefore, liquid cooling is still air cooling. It's just better and more expensive.
 

[helping]

Liquid Cooling = Quite and a cheap AIO can perform far greater then a cheap Air cooler

Air= Noise but less points of failure and can be generally warmer

No, not really.

 

A cheap AIO can perform barely better than a cheap Hyper 212, this is ignoring all the obvious downfalls of an AIO.

 

Air is less points of failure and less noise. AIO vs air cooled is a moot comparison under system wide loads or gaming, because the GPU nullifies the noise of both.

Under lower load and at idle, air will always be quieter.

 

High end air coolers are only a few degrees warmer than nearly any given AIO.

[loccilucas]

Liquid Cooling = Quite and a cheap AIO can perform far greater then a cheap Air cooler

Air= Noise but less points of failure and can be generally warmer

not true,

-cheap air coolers like the 212 out perform cheap AIO's.

-High end aircooler's directly compete with 240/280mm rad AIO's in terms of performance.

-9 out of 10 times aircooling will be alot quieter than an AIO.

[LogicalDrm]

In my opinion.

 

Water cooling/AIO is better when you want to overclock much or are going for better looking system. They tend to be bit louder because of pump noise. Custom WC can counter that by using better performing pumps.

 

Air cooling is when you want cheap and silence. Higher end air coolers pair with most AIOs in performance. Air cooler is better option if you want 247 action without risks.

[SMURG]

the GPU nullifies the noise of both.

Not if the GPU is also liquid cooled tbf. Cooling the GPU with a single 120mm fan makes a huge difference and imo is a perfect example of how liquid cooling can reduce noise levels. Granted, it isn't applicable to OP necessarily but the point is watercooling allows you to use bigger fans running at lower RPMs, because you can move the heat to somewhere where there's more space available. It's also not like liquid cooling GPUs is even very hard anymore, just use one of those NZXT brackets and stick an AIO on it - way quieter than the stock cooler.

[helping]

Not if the GPU is also liquid cooled tbf. Cooling the GPU with a single 120mm fan makes a huge difference and imo is a perfect example of how liquid cooling can reduce noise levels. Granted, it isn't applicable to OP necessarily but the point is watercooling allows you to use bigger fans running at lower RPMs, because you can move the heat to somewhere where there's more space available. It's also not like liquid cooling GPUs is even very hard anymore, just use one of those NZXT brackets and stick an AIO on it - way quieter than the stock cooler.

this assumes a G10 will fit on a GPU, and if you mean bigger fans being applicable to GPUs only, then yes.

 

Under load it will be quieter, at idle, I would argue.

[BaSkA]

Hey everybody! I am currently building my first PC and right now I'm in the planning phase of the build.

 

Just out of curiosity, what is the difference between air cooling and liquid cooling? 

 

Is there a benefit of having one over the other?

 

Is it just a preference thing?

 

I am thinking about getting this - http://pcpartpicker.com/part/corsair-cpu-cooler-h100i

 

I want to make the right choice.  

 

Thank you for reading and hope to hear from you soon.  I don't know which board to post this (water/air cooling are separate boards).

 

Have in mind what you want to do with the CPU (assuming you do not consider liquid cooling your GPU). If you are going with stock settings, no overclock or anything like that, you don't have to buy a good CPU cooler as you have linked.

 

Also, remember that an air cooler for your CPU might have some restrictions to the RAM Memory you are going to buy and the maximum height your case supports. For liquid cooling, you have a restriction that your case must be able to fit the radiator (if you get an AIO liquid cooler).

 

Last but not least, even if the chance is almost zero, liquid coolers can leak and, if not detected quickly, might ruin your system.

 

Good luck.