aggiebq03+ said:
Anyone have opinion on air cooling vs AIO water cooler? Building a computer soon and seems over locking is much simpler/safer than in the past. Is one va the other really better in any way?
Overclocking is stupid simple these days as long as you have a half decent motherboard and decent RAM. You can get pretty close to equivalent cooling between high-end air cooling and decent AIO watercooling.
The big difference from a performance standpoint between the two is that it takes longer for the heat to saturate the water in the closed AIO watercooling loop than it does to saturate the metal in a high end air cooler (which happens in a few seconds). What that means is that given enough time (usually about 30 minutes) of sustained load, the temps will even out between the two. Another difference between a high end air cooler and a good AIO watercooler is that you can usually run the fans a bit slower (and therefor quieter) on the AIO, though that's not always true when comparing against oms of the newer air coolers like the Noctua NH-U12S DX-3647 that uses a brand new fan design (though you can buy those fans separately.
Functionally, if you have a modern case (like the NZXT H500 or the Fractal Design Meshify C) that can easily support a 240mm or 280mm radiator, current AIOs are easier to install than high end air coolers as they will have fewer issues with height clearance with other components on the motherboard (like RAM and VRM cooling).
Corsair and NZXT tend to make the better AIO watercoolers on the market right now. Most performance differences across the board though are due to the fans the various manufacturers include since the AIO systems themselves are really only made by a handful of companies (Asetek makes the vast majority with CoolIt, Apaltek, Swiftech and a few others here and there). Right now the cream of the AIO watercooler crop include the NZXT Kraken x62 and the Corsair Hydro H115i RGB Platinum, which are both 280mm radiator units. There are some units out there with 360mm radiators like the Corsair H150i Pro (which is what I currently have in my system) and the NZXT Kraken x72, but the performance and sound differences don't really justify the increased cost and increased issues with radiator compatibility that come along with the larger rads for most people.
If you're looking at high end air cooling, the best options are the Noctua NH-D15 SSO2, the Noctua NH-U12S DX-3647 (which uses their brand new NF-A12x25 120mm fans that outperform most 140mm fans), and the be quiet! 250W TDP Dark Rock Pro 4 . There are a few other options out there, but all three of those will perform on par with a good AIO watercooler under sustained loads. If you look at the pictures of these coolers, they are BIG and can cause compatibility issues with some cases (though no problems with either of the two cases I mentioned above) and especially issues with height of other components around the CPU socket like the previously mentioned RAM and VRM cooling. Just be sure to research the specific cooler, RAM and motherboard you're looking at to double check for issues prior to buying. The air coolers do provide a little piece of mind in terms of long term maintainance/reliability as you don't have to worry about pump or tubing failure (rare in modern, well-regarded AIOs, but possible) or liquid permeation (slow evaporation of coolant through the tubing, not a big leak that can damage components) that can reduce efficiency after a few years of use. Personally I'm not worried about the issues with AIOs that I mentioned, but it's something worth considering.