What is the Best Looking CPU Air Cooler?

[HerEscutcheon]

I've always preferred air cooling to water cooling for noise, reliability, and just the personality and feel of them; but in terms of looks, water coolers always seem to have the edge. So my question for you is this: What are the best looking air coolers out there? Which air coolers make water coolers wet themselves?

 

I have a few that stick out in my mind, but I'd like to see if anybody can list something I've never heard of. Feel free to include anything not yet released, like from CES 2014 or something. Anyway, here are mine...

 

Prolimatech Megahalems (black edition)

 

Be Quiet! Shadow Rock 2

 

and Cooler Master's V8 (which is probably my current favorite, especially when paired with an 8-core CPU )

[Flyguygamer]

Dark rock 2

[Tmh85]

DArk rock 2 <3

[X1XNobleX1X]

Dark rock 2

I second this!

 

[_ASSASSIN_]

I've always preferred air cooling to water cooling for noise, reliability, and just the personality and feel of them; but in terms of looks, water coolers always seem to have the edge. So my question for you is this: What are the best looking air coolers out there? Which air coolers make water coolers wet themselves?

 

I have a few that stick out in my mind, but I'd like to see if anybody can list something I've never heard of. Feel free to include anything not yet released, like from CES 2014 or something. Anyway, here are mine...

u wot m8

watercooling is quiet

[AlwaysFSX]

Tickles your pickles, eh?

[Jogostar]

Coolermaster V8 GTS. It's a BEAST!

[needmorewood]

dark rock 3!

[Cwazywazy]

I had this baby on my old computer:

 

 

Kept my 3GHz HT P4 ice cold. Was fairly extremely fucking loud though. (Especially since the motherboard I had didn't have any sort of fan control.)

 

It was like a turbine. It moved a LOT of air and it blew up into the PSU intake so it kept that nice and cool too.

[shirokado]

Notua NH-U14s. It looks better than the NH-D14 (i just don't like dual towers) and no other fan compares to noctuas.

[shirokado]

u wot m8

watercooling is quiet

water cooling is quiet, but not as quiet as air cooling. if you compare a water cooling setup with noctua fans vs an air cooler with noctua fans, the air cooling will be much quieter than the custom loop(but with worse temps), the pump is the extra noise source that make it loduer.

[_ASSASSIN_]

water cooling is quiet, but not as quiet as air cooling. if you compare a water cooling setup with noctua fans vs an air cooler with noctua fans, the air cooling will be much quieter than the custom loop(but with worse temps), the pump is the extra noise source that make it loduer.

WAT

WHERE IS THIS RESEARCH COMING FROM

[Lord Pantaloons]

water cooling is quiet, but not as quiet as air cooling. if you compare a water cooling setup with noctua fans vs an air cooler with noctua fans, the air cooling will be much quieter than the custom loop(but with worse temps), the pump is the extra noise source that make it loduer.

uwotm8?

[nsyedhasan]

water cooling is quiet, but not as quiet as air cooling. if you compare a water cooling setup with noctua fans vs an air cooler with noctua fans, the air cooling will be much quieter than the custom loop(but with worse temps), the pump is the extra noise source that make it loduer.

360MM 45MM thick radiator will beat out a NH-D14.

[shirokado]

360MM 45MM thick radiator will beat out a NH-D14.

I never said air cooling gets better temperatures, I just said its quieter with worse temps.

[nsyedhasan]

I never said air cooling gets better temperatures, I just said its quieter with worse temps.

Nope, if you get 2x 360mm 60mm rads for a CPU and GPU you will be able to run it basically fanless. Also depends on the fans and rads.

[shirokado]

Congrats on being the wrongest person on all of the entire forum ever!

--snip--

And how was I wrong?

2 Fans= 2 noise sources,

watercooling setup includes a pump and how manyever fans you decide to add to it = pump + x fans = more noise sources

[shirokado]

Nope, if you get 2x 360mm 60mm rads for a CPU and GPU you will be able to run it basically fanless. Also depends on the fans and rads.

You can go Fanless with air cooling to, so if both setups are fanless, air cooling is still quieter since watercooling requires a pump.

 

 

and the OP was talking about CPU cooler, so I was talking about CPU cooling, never mentioned GPU cooling anywhere.

[kizoku_95]

I never said air cooling gets better temperatures, I just said its quieter with worse temps.

Water cooling has significantly better temps at any loads......

They are very quiet also....quieter than aircooled heatsink fans!!!

[IVIeLt]

And how was I wrong?

2 Fans= 2 noise sources,

watercooling setup includes a pump and how manyever fans you decide to add to it = pump + x fans = more noise sources

 

more surface area means lower rpm on each fan, means lower noise. No air cooler can keep as silent or cool anywhere near as well as a custom loop, unless your running like a single 120mm rad, then it might be on par

[nsyedhasan]

You can go Fanless with air cooling to, so if both setups are fanless, air cooling is still quieter since watercooling requires a pump.

 

 

and the OP was talking about CPU cooler, so I was talking about CPU cooling, never mentioned GPU cooling anywhere.

Please stop. You can't compare a 360MM rad to a air cooler.

[shirokado]

Please stop. You can't compare a 360MM rad to a air cooler.

Can you stop picking out just the parts you like from my posts? Air cooling is quieter than watercooling, but it gets worse temps. Is that hard to understand? Of course watercooling loops get better temps, but you still have more noises sources, you can't compare a pump with moving parts to a chunk of aluminium. last time i checked, aluminium doesn't make noise.

[shirokado]

more surface area means lower rpm on each fan, means lower noise. No air cooler can keep as silent or cool anywhere near as well as a custom loop, unless your running like a single 120mm rad, then it might be on par

Yes, air cooling will never beat a custom loop in temperatures, but they can beat AIO coolers(if those even count) and air coolers are still more silent than water cooling, you just get worse temps. Pretty sure you can get a NH-D14 or something and keep the fans running at around 600rpm and your CPU temps will be fine, but it will be significantly higher than a large watercooling loop(talking almost 20 degree differences between a dual tower vs quad rads with 600rpm noctua fans).

[nsyedhasan]

Can you stop picking out just the parts you like from my posts? Air cooling is quieter than watercooling, but it gets worse temps. Is that hard to understand? Of course watercooling loops get better temps, but you still have more noises sources, you can't compare a pump with moving parts to a chunk of aluminium. last time i checked, aluminium doesn't make noise.

Prolimatech Megahalems or Be Quiet Dark Rock 2 Pro.

[shirokado]

--snip--

Why not add an explanation then.