I'd beg to differ. Noctua's NH-D14 (I have one of those) and D15 will perform as well as if not better than most AIOs if setup with optimal airflow. It's simpler, tidier (no stiff ugly fixed-length pipes), will last practically forever with zero maintenance and let's admit it, hefty coolers look badass.
Water Cooling vs fan cooling
- Thread starter cascaderailroad
- Start date
I'd beg to differ. Noctua's NH-D14 (I have one of those) and D15 will perform as well as if not better than most AIOs if setup with optimal airflow. It's simpler, tidier (no stiff ugly fixed-length pipes), will last practically forever with zero maintenance and let's admit it, hefty coolers look badass.
@BuilderBob, technically you are absolutely correct, but can we also then say that F1 cars are really air cooled because the heat from the engine is transported to the radiators?
@nicky9499, can a air cooler really be set up for optimal flow, you are still moving hot air around in the box, optimal just meaning you are choosing the shortest way for the hot air to exit, usually passing over chipset and mosfet heatsinks, and on some Intel mobos over the RAM itself. Hefty coolers look badass, but plumbing looks badasser.
Air coolers will go the same way as the floppy.
@nicky9499, can a air cooler really be set up for optimal flow, you are still moving hot air around in the box, optimal just meaning you are choosing the shortest way for the hot air to exit, usually passing over chipset and mosfet heatsinks, and on some Intel mobos over the RAM itself. Hefty coolers look badass, but plumbing looks badasser.
Air coolers will go the same way as the floppy.
All air coolers do is disperse the CPU heat inside the case and you need case fan(s) to draw it out of the case (often one in the front sucking air in and another or several either on the rear or top blowing it out). Heating up the air inside the case can add to unnecessary heating of the memory, hard drive(s), GPU and other components. Yes water cooling temp does vary on the conditions it is in, mine is often a few degrees warmer in summer due to the warmer temp in the office, but overall inside-case and component temps are much lower than with a standard CPU heat sink and fan because the water contains the heat and transfers it away from any other components and disperses it directly outside of the case.
@robogo. Im not so sure air coolers will go the same way as a floppy. With the big drive they have on at the moment to make CPUs more energy efficient, CPU temps are coming down as the wattage decreases resulting in maybe less need for water coolers unless you're an over-clocker. The heat sinks now for example is only about half the depth of the older P4 heat sinks, CPU temps have dropped from about 70C. - 90C. to about 40C. - 60C. under load (depending on CPU of course). Maybe the future is some sort of cooling chemical that reacts to heat enclosed around the CPU and there will be no need for fans at all.
They have been bringing out fanless laptops and netbooks in recent years, I had an ASUS 10.1inch netbook that was fanless, it was hopeless and often overheated and shutdown lol.
Currently, my PC has been on for a few hours and has done nothing yet apart from play music, emails and browsing, and the CPU temp is sitting at 20C. - 25C. The GPU is at 26C. All the fans are just ticking over keeping the air moving and it runs with a quiet hum. Under load, its still quiet with no increase in noise level, not like an air cooler that starts roaring to try cooling the CPU down when it heats up. With TANE running mine heats up to the low to mid 40s C.
@robogo. Im not so sure air coolers will go the same way as a floppy. With the big drive they have on at the moment to make CPUs more energy efficient, CPU temps are coming down as the wattage decreases resulting in maybe less need for water coolers unless you're an over-clocker. The heat sinks now for example is only about half the depth of the older P4 heat sinks, CPU temps have dropped from about 70C. - 90C. to about 40C. - 60C. under load (depending on CPU of course). Maybe the future is some sort of cooling chemical that reacts to heat enclosed around the CPU and there will be no need for fans at all.
They have been bringing out fanless laptops and netbooks in recent years, I had an ASUS 10.1inch netbook that was fanless, it was hopeless and often overheated and shutdown lol.
Currently, my PC has been on for a few hours and has done nothing yet apart from play music, emails and browsing, and the CPU temp is sitting at 20C. - 25C. The GPU is at 26C. All the fans are just ticking over keeping the air moving and it runs with a quiet hum. Under load, its still quiet with no increase in noise level, not like an air cooler that starts roaring to try cooling the CPU down when it heats up. With TANE running mine heats up to the low to mid 40s C.
johnwhelan
Well-known member
Air coolers do the job very cost effectively. Probably the most important part is the layout of the components and the case. Keep things that run hot away from each other. Modern power supplies for example have both an air intake to draw in cool air and an exhaust fan to push the warm air out. Google did some research on their server farms and found the temperature of the hard drives was irrelevant to the failure rate.
Personally I dislike water cooling, a leak is catastrophic. Closed loop liquid cooling is now used on many high end GPUs though and seems to work nicely. As the power used by CPUs drops so heat becomes less of a problem and even on GPUs ones such as the GTX980 basically sip power when compared to earlier models.
Even memory is using less power, as the design voltage drops less power is needed so you get less heat.
Cheerio John
BuilderBob
New member
Indeed we can - a critically important point to remember if the starter is slow in getting them off the line, or if they get stuck in the pits. But the PC setup has the advantage of a fan attached to the radiator, and that warm air has to be dispersed correctly for the water cooling to work.
Why not? Flipped it around, used the rear fan as a direct intake since it was so close to the heatsink and another 2 up top to exhaust it efficiently since hot air rises. 29*C ambient, 31 idle, 55 max - 3770K at 4.2GHz. Cost me $35. Can your AIO do that for the same price? And have fun when the pump eventually fails or it starts leaking onto your prized graphics card.
What kind of plumbing are you talking about? All AIOs have permanent, boring, ugly plastic tubing. I'm not saying AC beats (proper) WC, because of course a custom loops is going to run circles around AC. The point was for their price, AIOs are not much better than a good heatsink provided with good airflow.
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They don't leak, they are a sealed unit, but they can stop pumping, or at least "wear" and decrease their volume or flow that could cause the CPU to overheat. They are just as reliable as a standard fan that can run its bearings. At least a pump is not prone to block up with dust like a heatsink and fans do - at least a conventional heatsink and fan, not so sure about your setup due to the design, they might be quiet good and not build up much dust. Additionally a water pump takes the heat right away from the system, it just doesn't blow it around the memory, motherboard heat sinks etc.
Not sure I like the idea of having an inlet fan on the back, there is no airflow passing the hard drive(s) and other components, personally I would have an intake fan at the front low down on the case and exhausting at the top.
I have 1 fan (120mm) at front sucking (and blowing cooler air on the hard drives) and one at the top (200mm) drawing air through the cooler and venting any heat buildup in the case (not that there is much as most of the heat is produced by the CPU).
Your temps are somewhat inline with my own although ambient is a few degrees lower. Mine is also a 3770k clocked to 4.2. What you have is no doubt an excellent cooler, there are some great reviews on it and it is the master of all air coolers to date. And yes, cheaper than an efficient water cooler unit although now the closed loop coolers are becoming more popular, they are coming down in price and the gap between a water cooler and custom air cooler is closing. Personally, I don't like a big heatsink and fans cluttering up my case, I like having it roomy so the air can circulate and the heat sinks on the motherboard and memory are not getting spent warm air around them from the CPU and remain cooler.
And having permanent, boring, ugly plastic tubing still looks nicer than a permanent big ugly heat sink and not one, but 2 ugly fans
But it is a personal preference and a practical solution for me.
I would actually be quite interested in seeing a picture or 2 of your cooler if you have any. Cheers.
