Watercooling or aircooling?

[Letharas]

What is better air cooling or water cooling? ( temperature )

 

And what air cooling is the best for socket 1151 i7 6700k

[xgn]

Watercooling. There is a reason it costs way more. AIO is usually twice the cost of air but not twice the performance. There are a lot of great air coolers out there.

But proper watercooling is pretty expensive and tedious to set up. For a reason

[ARikozuM]

3 minutes ago, Letharas said:

What is better air cooling or water cooling? ( temperature )

 

And what air cooling is the best for socket 1151 i7 6700k

Do you want a sauna now or later?

[Oshino Shinobu]

It depends on how much you spend, really. There are plenty of air coolers that will outperform 120mm radiator watercooling and a few that will equal a normal 240mm radiator. If you go for a thicker 240mm or 360mm+ watercooling, then aircooling gets left behind. At that point, watercooling is also a lot more expensive, though. 

 

The best right now is probably the Noctua NH-D15 and bequiet! Dark Rock Pro 3.

[scubaskot]

Aircooling all day long. you cant go wrong with noctua d15 or thermalright silver arrow extreme. AIO is okey but it is louder and it can fail. like mine did when the warranty is over

 

[kosamchetoo]

A good air coolers like the Noctua NH-D15 have very similar performance to some good AIO watercoolers like the H110i, but are cheaper. When buying a AIO water cooler you are mostly paying for the looks and a little bit more performance.

[porina]

Depends on the setup. A high end air cooler can be better than a low end water cooling system, but a high end watercooling system will beat air cooling. Depends on space available and cost. While I haven't done an exact price comparison, I'd say for a given price level, go air cooling. once you get beyond available air coolers, look at water.

 

I'd rate something like the Coolermaster Hyper 212 as adequate for a 6700k at 4.2 GHz, but you will want something better if you want to push must higher. I don't have the Noctua D15, but I do have the smaller sibling S15 in another system, and it is a bit nicer.