air or water cooling?

[techbox]

i'v never build a pc before and am wondering if water or air coolers are best to use in a workstation

[spaghet rat]

noctua nh-d15 should be better than most aios if you dont mind a bit of size. the chromax.black version looks better than the brown and silver

[techbox]

1 minute ago, McrP87 said:

noctua nh-d15 should be better than most aios if you dont mind a bit of size. the chromax.black version looks better than the brown and silver

 

yes but is water or air cooling best

[Dukesilver27-]

I assume you want it to run for years without a worry, maybe a bit of cleaning every 6 months or a year, then get air cooling.

You'd have one thing less to worry about, it will run forever because it's all simple mechanical parts.

But, if you're going with 13900K, it won't be cooled with any air cooler, so a good AIO is a must. So the answer to your question is depending on your CPU.

11 minutes ago, McrP87 said:

noctua nh-d15 should be better than most aios if you dont mind a bit of size. the chromax.black version looks better than the brown and silver

And this is wrong, good 360mm AIOs especially 420mm would beat the best air cooler.

No air cooler could tame 13900K, but some AIOs could tame 13900K.

[RONOTHAN##]

10 minutes ago, techbox said:

 

yes but is water or air cooling best

"Best" is subjective. There's pros and cons to each. Reliability? Air cooling all the way. Raw performance? A big AIO will be the winner. It just depends on how much you prioritize one over the other, as well as what CPU you're putting it on. 

[Bob__]

Because most AIO's die within 5-7 years its better to get a NH-D15 for reliability. If the chip constantly thermal throttles then its possible to just underclock it and get almost the same proformance.

[Paul17]

19 hours ago, Dukesilver27- said:

I assume you want it to run for years without a worry, maybe a bit of cleaning every 6 months or a year, then get air cooling.

You'd have one thing less to worry about, it will run forever because it's all simple mechanical parts.

But, if you're going with 13900K, it won't be cooled with any air cooler, so a good AIO is a must. So the answer to your question is depending on your CPU.

And this is wrong, good 360mm AIOs especially 420mm would beat the best air cooler.

No air cooler could tame 13900K, but some AIOs could tame 13900K.

Is a good 280 AIO - as good as the Noctua nh-d15?  

[Agall]

10 minutes ago, Paul17 said:

Is a good 280 AIO - as good as the Noctua nh-d15?  

They're about the same, I have an NH-D15 and EKWB 280mm Elite I've recently tested on my 7950x3D. For the 7950x3D, the AIO was slightly better likely because the lower operating temperature of the loop than a heat pipe.

 

I was testing a theory, which was originally generated with my 5800x3D that the 3D v-cache CCD would benefit from the lower heat soak latency of a heat pipe that operates at saturation over a watercooling loop. Turns out my theory was wrong, and likely because those heat pipes operate at a higher temperature overall compared to the fluid in an AIO. Those heatpipes likely operate at +30C comparably, and with our friend Q= mc|T-T|, it wasn't worth it. I saw lower MAXIMUM temperatures with the AIO for the same boost clocks, but steady state temps were the same.

 

The NH-D15 with dual 140mm fans and its towers is basically the same heatsink capacity as a 280mm radiator with dual 140mm fans. Unless you're talking a 3D v-cache CPU, I'd say its a toss. AIOs will operate at lower RPMs since it can more efficiently dissipate the heat and require less ramp with the higher specific heat capacity of water, where a large air cooler won't dry out or have a pump failure over time, are cheaper, but generally noisier. 

[Paul17]

19 hours ago, RONOTHAN## said:

"Best" is subjective. There's pros and cons to each. Reliability? Air cooling all the way. Raw performance? A big AIO will be the winner. It just depends on how much you prioritize one over the other, as well as what CPU you're putting it on. 

I prefer an AIO - with an air cooler available as a backup but it seems the horror stories with AIO are a lot less common nowadays?  

[RONOTHAN##]

33 minutes ago, Paul17 said:

I prefer an AIO - with an air cooler available as a backup but it seems the horror stories with AIO are a lot less common nowadays?  

They still happen, maybe a little less than super early AIOs but still not unheard of. Plus there's been a ton of recalls with them as of recently, MSI's AIOs for instance had the fluid building up and clogging the blocks, causing them to stop working prematurely. 

[spaghet rat]

2 hours ago, Paul17 said:

I prefer an AIO - with an air cooler available as a backup but it seems the horror stories with AIO are a lot less common nowadays?  

air coolers are still the proven tech but aios are good if you dont mind getting a new one every few years for ~$200

[ApolloX75]

5 hours ago, Bob__ said:

Because most AIO's die within 5-7 years its better to get a NH-D15 for reliability. If the chip constantly thermal throttles then its possible to just underclock it and get almost the same proformance.

I dunno, I've got some old Corsair H units pushing into the decade old territory and they're still working fine. And mine aren't lone examples, I've built a lot of systems over the years with 240 AIOs from various manufacturers and the failure rate is next to none. And this is a span from 2010 to now.

 

Sorry, but that 5-7 year argument doesn't really hold any water () without some hard proof to back it up. A good AIO can be just as reliable as a good air cooler if you're getting a good one. And an air cooler is just as susceptible to manufacturing defects as any AIO.

[Ripred]

On 3/20/2023 at 9:51 PM, techbox said:

i'v never build a pc before and am wondering if water or air coolers are best to use in a workstation

Depends, both are fine but water cooling you'll have to check on once in a while, air is set and forget until it's gets clogged with dust after a couple years

[Paul17]

12 hours ago, RONOTHAN## said:

They still happen, maybe a little less than super early AIOs but still not unheard of. Plus there's been a ton of recalls with them as of recently, MSI's AIOs for instance had the fluid building up and clogging the blocks, causing them to stop working prematurely. 

That's from a design flaw - that's different.   I'm talking about normal operation - if it was manufactured well and has typical/normal operation.   Btw, why is the Arctic LF II /a-rgb 280 AIO in the Tier 2 list?   I object to that.     You can check YT videos and it is extremely close to the 360 AIO version in performance/noise/cooling etc.