Which is quieter? Air cooling or water cooling

[MScifiwriter]

I'm getting ready to build a new computer with an i9-7900X 10 core CPU, not overclocking at all, I've always used air cooling as I've been concerned with issues such as possible leaks and things. I've had to buy some quieter fans in the past, but otherwise I've always been fine with air cooling. However colleagues at work have been adamantly telling me that with the CPU I've decided to go with, that water cooling is the best option especially if I want to have a quiet computer that performs well.

 

I've looked on the net for more information or even discussions about this, but most of the information I've found is several years old. So I wanted to ask and see if air cooling would be just as quiet as water cooling, or if the people at work are right and I need to go with water cooling.

[General Winter]

almost always Water cooling no doubt unless your pump uses turbines (hint: no one has done that yet)

 

it is however more expensive and complicated to make yourself; however if quietness is your biggest concern, watercooling is the way to go (it also has the added benefit of generally being better for cooling since it goes through the components directly)

 

linus has done two of these and they are both interesting if that's your thing

 

 

[themctipers]

air cooling is going to be quieter (pump noise is a thing), but water cooling can cool down your CPU more than air cooling

you don't need to go water cooling with your i9, but it helps with thermals if you are overclocking, which you're not so..

 

any reason why you are going with i9 and not threadripper?

[General Winter]

Just now, themctipers said:

air cooling is going to be quieter (pump noise is a thing), but water cooling can cool down your CPU more than air cooling

you don't need to go water cooling with your i9, but it helps with thermals if you are overclocking, which you're not so..

 

any reason why you are going with i9 and not threadripper?

air cooling is going to be much louder than any pump for an i9, especially underload

[themctipers]

Just now, General Winter said:

air cooling is going to be much louder than any pump for an i9, especially underload

I guess under load, yes

 

I usually am more concerned with idle noise instead of load noise, because under load either way it is going to be loud (fans are needed for both unless you are going passive), and I assumed that for OP.

 

[Mira Yurizaki]

Ultimately it depends on how much air needs to move through the system and how much of that air current is allowed to escape unaffected to you. Water coolers are quieter by virtue of not needing as much air flow. But air cooled systems can be made really quiet if you have a large enough heat sink. And with some sound dampening and other things in the mix, you can have a virtually "silent" computer (as in, it doesn't generate appreciably higher noise than the room's noise floor)

Even then, noise can be affected by where the computer is. I had a computer under my desk and I could barely hear it even when it was working until I poked my head under my desk.

 

[MScifiwriter]

 

6 hours ago, themctipers said:

I guess under load, yes

 

I usually am more concerned with idle noise instead of load noise, because under load either way it is going to be loud (fans are needed for both unless you are going passive), and I assumed that for OP.

 

I didn't realize that even water cooling uses fans...shows just how little I know about water cooling. lol

So to keep the system as quiet as possible, whether idle or running programs. Which it will rarely ever be idle. It sounds like you're saying that water cooling is needed?

 

6 hours ago, M.Yurizaki said:

Ultimately it depends on how much air needs to move through the system and how much of that air current is allowed to escape unaffected to you. Water coolers are quieter by virtue of not needing as much air flow. But air cooled systems can be made really quiet if you have a large enough heat sink. And with some sound dampening and other things in the mix, you can have a virtually "silent" computer (as in, it doesn't generate appreciably higher noise than the room's noise floor)

Even then, noise can be affected by where the computer is. I had a computer under my desk and I could barely hear it even when it was working until I poked my head under my desk.

 I didn't realize having a larger heat sink could improve how quiet the computer was, with an air cooled system.

[themctipers]

1 minute ago, MScifiwriter said:

 

I didn't realize that even water cooling uses fans...shows just how little I know about water cooling. lol

So to keep the system as quiet as possible, whether idle or running programs. Which it will rarely ever be idle. It sounds like you're saying that water cooling is needed?

idle for me is not having the cpu fans ramp up when doing something ,which does means that browsing with chrome, playing youtube videos, posting things on discord, that is all 'idle' for me, and it is pretty much the same noise level compared to idle (idling on desktop), which is still MUCH quieter than folding @ home, which is much louder than gaming

 

so basically, when the CPU isn't used much and it can still be low RPM fanspeed, is idle

 

 

you are going to get better cooling with liquid while having the same or slightly louder noise level, but at the expense of under load being slightly louder because of pump noise (very small with most pumps)

you can also go with air, which is probably going to get better noise level under idle, but louder under load as it is not as efficient as water cooling, but you get no pump noise

water cooling isn't needed for i9 but is recommended if you are overclocking, but since you are not, air cooling can do 

 

 

the more I type about it the more silly it sounds that water cooling is louder than air cooling. I never have heard or used water cooling, just seen people complain that their pump makes too much noise, do with that as you will with that information.

[WoodenMarker]

3 hours ago, themctipers said:

the more I type about it the more silly it sounds that water cooling is louder than air cooling. I never have heard or used water cooling, just seen people complain that their pump makes too much noise, do with that as you will with that information.

It's just a matter of noise fans + pump vs. fans for noise. The same fans can be used so air cooling has a lower noise floor as long as the amount of cooling needed isn't too high for a heatsink to handle with reasonable fan speeds. 

 

The 7900x is pretty easy to cool at stock speeds with air cooling. A cooler like the NH-U12S should be plenty but a larger cooler may be more appropriate if lower noise is desired.

https://lanoc.org/review/cpus/7566-intel-core-x-series-i9-7900x-and-i7-7740x?showall=&start=3

https://www.kitguru.net/components/cpu/luke-hill/intel-core-i9-7900x-skylake-x-10c20t-cpu-indepth-analysis/9/