Closed Loop Water Cooling vs. Air Cooling

H

HardOCP News

[H] News
Joined
Dec 31, 1969
Messages
0
The TechSpot gang is taking the age old Water Cooling vs. Air Cooling debate head on by pitting several new all-in-one watercoolng kits against a few high-end heatsinks. The results might not be what you'd expect.

Recently we compared 10 of the best CPU air coolers and we've since wondered how these would fare against a water cooling setup. Closed loop systems simplify the process of diving into water cooling, are safe and easy to work with as air cooling.
Click to expand...
 
Not really impressed with the AIO water coolers so far. IMO you're better off getting a nice HSF like the Macho (I have it and it works great and was cheap) or building your own WC setup. I ran water from the late 90's until just a few years ago and the only reason why I went with the Macho with this last build was because it was cheap and performed better than most AIOs available at the time.

Next build I will likely do WC again but not going to waste time or money on an AIO
 
Title should be Air Cooling vs All In One. I'd pit my custom loops against AIO or air any day.
I don't mind air coolers, but am not impressed with AIO's. I have two different unit's I tried out and took back off.

I either go air or custom loop.
 
Good review. Sticking with air. I like how the price has come down for closed loop cooling but I just don't want the hassle. Besides, I don't really care all that much about CPU's anymore.
 
DogsofJune said:
Title should be Air Cooling vs All In One. I'd pit my custom loops against AIO or air any day.
I don't mind air coolers, but am not impressed with AIO's. I have two different unit's I tried out and took back off.

I either go air or custom loop.
Click to expand...

i messed around with custom loops for about ten years and at some point also water cooled the graphics card and motherboard chipsets. about two years ago one of the hoses ripped (a 90 degree bend, but it was 10 cm in diameter). i always felt it was a pain in the butt to maintain a custom water loop so i tried an all in one solution and never looked back. imo it's windows vs linux. you can tweak and customize the looks and performance to the max, but i value the time more than that little mhz increase i could get out of it. i know, you just set up the custom loop and it requires no maintenance at all just as linux is so easy to use and configure.
 
temujin987 said:
i messed around with custom loops for about ten years and at some point also water cooled the graphics card and motherboard chipsets. about two years ago one of the hoses ripped (a 90 degree bend, but it was 10 cm in diameter). i always felt it was a pain in the butt to maintain a custom water loop so i tried an all in one solution and never looked back. imo it's windows vs linux. you can tweak and customize the looks and performance to the max, but i value the time more than that little mhz increase i could get out of it. i know, you just set up the custom loop and it requires no maintenance at all just as linux is so easy to use and configure.
Click to expand...

Depends if you like messing with it or not. But good luck cooling your video card and motherboard with an AIO haha. You do need to mess with the loop when changing video cards etc for sure, other than that pretty much just topping it off every so often. Custom seems easier to mount up sometimes too because your not working with a fixed length cable. Other than that there's just coolant in crap in the AIO, anyways the difference is you can't top them off...
 
I build SFF these days, water cooling makes the whole thing so much easier.

I don't use out of the box things though, heater cores and reservoirs out perform them enormously. Tupperware, automotive supplies, and fish tank parts for me.
 
I'm all air and will stay all air. My brain can't accept the concept of liquid in my computer, but hey that's just me. You guys can hose your computer down all you want, I'll stick with the blow dryer. My current NH-U14S keeps my cpu happy and my brain happy. I'm good.
 
They make some great air coolers nowadays. I really feel a person can't go wrong with air. I just don't feel that AIO's are really in the same league as a true water cooled system. Lumping an AIO in as a "water cooling" just doesn't seem right. It's more of a hybrid
 
DogsofJune said:
Title should be Air Cooling vs All In One. I'd pit my custom loops against AIO or air any day.
I don't mind air coolers, but am not impressed with AIO's. I have two different unit's I tried out and took back off.
Click to expand...
I just did a minor upgrade to my existing custom loop, and my my AMD FX-4100 overclocked to 4.2 GHZ never gos past 41C. It used to never go past 50C with my old pump and water block.

The new block I have is $25 from China, and some cheap $20 pump from Texas. My old pump was a XSPC reservoir+pump units, and the old water block was a Zalman that had aluminum that started to experience electrolysis.

My only concern is the acrylic top on the new water black, which I've had bad experience with in the past. And the new pump gets warm to the touch, and pumps way too much. Like seriously, you see a torrent of water in the reservoir. I have to order a molex power controller to lower the pumps speed down, cause I really don't need the CPU cooled that well. BTW, the GPU is also cooled with this setup, and maxes out at 37C.
I either go air or custom loop.
Click to expand...
^
 
temujin987 said:
i messed around with custom loops Ioor about ten years and at some point also water cooled the graphics card and motherboard chipsets. about two years ago one of the hoses ripped (a 90 degree bend, but it was 10 cm in diameter). i always felt it was a pain in the butt to maintain a custom water loop so i tried an all in one solution and never looked back. imo it's windows vs linux. you can tweak and customize the looks and performance to the max, but i value the time more than that little mhz increase i could get out of it. i know, you just set up the custom loop and it requires no maintenance at all just as linux is so easy to use and configure.
Click to expand...

Exactly. I only use it for my cpu. And for me, installing my AIO was the easiest heat sink install ever for me. it gave me the best performance as well. And it's quiet. I simply don't have the time or motivation to deal with custom WC. Bravo to those that do custom. I'm always impressed by the stuff I see you guys do. Nowadays I rather spend more of my time using my computer rather than tweaking it. *shrug*
 
XamediX said:
Exactly. I only use it for my cpu. And for me, installing my AIO was the easiest heat sink install ever for me. it gave me the best performance as well. And it's quiet. I simply don't have the time or motivation to deal with custom WC. Bravo to those that do custom. I'm always impressed by the stuff I see you guys do. Nowadays I rather spend more of my time using my computer rather than tweaking it. *shrug*
Click to expand...

The only difference IMO is you have to cut the tubing and prime the system with a custom. Yes you also have to mount the pump and reservoir (Although those can be combined). Customs have advantages too, like simply drain the loop and disconnect the hoses so you can pull out the motherboard without unmounting the waterblock, or topping the system off instead of throwing it away. Or changing just the radiator or lines when you swap cases, etc. AIO can leak too. I think they are a good introduction to water cooling, and they can make you realize how easy it is to watercool. The hard part is just mounting the pump usually, and there are many solutions for that.

I see why people like them though, most of the population like AIO devices, not as many people build their own desktops anymore etc.
 
XamediX said:
. I'm always impressed by the stuff I see you guys do. Nowadays I rather spend more of my time using my computer rather than tweaking it. *shrug*
Click to expand...

I'm just one of those people that enjoy tweaking things. I have two rules.

"If it ain't broke, tweak it!"
"If it broke, great excuse to enhance it!"

But for me it's mostly due to how out of control air coolers have gotten. They work better then ever, but they're bigger then ever. Those things just take over what little space you have in your PC. Still, for the money you spend the cooling isn't so great either.

The worst part is when you upgrade your PC. If Intel/AMD made a new chip, you'd need a new cooler, cause the socket changed. Oh well, time to go buy a new $100 air cooler. With custom water cooling, it's there for life. Worst case scenario, you need to buy a new water block.

But, I can see that it isn't for everyone. Which is why closed loops are great. Most of which come with 5 year warranty, and have some of the benefits of Water cooling. I would never compare it to a custom setup, but it's better then air. It's also a great way to introduce people to real water cooling.

To me, water cooling is a dead art that needs to come back to life. It'll probably have to in the near future.
 
As someone who started building their own WC systems back in the late ninetees when we used car heater cores, pond pumps, and milled our own waterblocks, I can tell you I love the AIO coolers. They're quieter than the ridiculously huge air coolers, they keep your components cooler, they're completely hassle free, and they're almost the same price as a good air cooler and won't warp your motherboard from the weight. Of course the elitist like to stick their nose up at them and brag about their custom loops...they bought as a kit online, or spent a fortune building. You can keep your noisy, oversized, brick air coolers and your overpriced "custom"loops. I'll take a nice AIO any day.
 
B2BigAl said:
As someone who started building their own WC systems back in the late ninetees when we used car heater cores, pond pumps, and milled our own waterblocks, I can tell you I love the AIO coolers. They're quieter than the ridiculously huge air coolers, they keep your components cooler, they're completely hassle free, and they're almost the same price as a good air cooler and won't warp your motherboard from the weight. Of course the elitist like to stick their nose up at them and brag about their custom loops...they bought as a kit online, or spent a fortune building. You can keep your noisy, oversized, brick air coolers and your overpriced "custom"loops. I'll take a nice AIO any day.
Click to expand...

If you know where to shop, you can get a custom loop for the same price or cheaper. This Ebay seller has a great selection of cheap and good water cooling components, that rival the stuff you get at Danger Den or whatever elitist website you know, and it's located in Texas. Water cooling components are extremely over priced, so it pays to shop around.

Personally, I did the whole water cooling thing in the early 2000's and failed. I bought an Evercool kit that worked for a year, and then stopped. The company was cool about it and sent me a whole new kit, that also failed another year later. At that point, I abandoned water cooling and just went back to air cooling.

Couple of years ago I found the old kit, and tried resurrecting it. Yea I kept it for that long. Turns out the water block was blocked up by algae, so it was a matter of cleaning it. Over time I totally rebuilt my water cooling setup, and learned a few things. At first I bought stuff from Danger Den and Frozen CPU, but that stuff didn't fair better. Like literally a year later and the cpu block was clogged with algae again.

For whatever reason, the industry has water cooling wrong. They shouldn't be selling aluminum parts in water cooling. Anyone who's seen parts of their water block missing will know what I mean. The whole anode and cathode thing doesn't seem to sit well with them. Then there's the coolant, which I never understood why none of coolants work. I literally bought $20+ PC coolant that I poor straight into my PC, multiple times. Corrosion still happened, and so did algae. But car coolant works great, and totally stops both corrosion and algae. I've heard great things about Swiftech Hydrx , and might wanna try it one day, but for now 60% distilled water + 40% car coolant works great. Also, don't use water wetter with plexiglass tanks or water blocks. Just sharing some experience with that.

Point is, it's easy to make mistakes when it comes to custom water cooling, and very expensive if you don't shop around. Lots of bad advice, but good advice is out there. Just do some research and shopping, and custom water loop is easy and cheap. Otherwise a water cooling setup can cost $200, and will oxidize and clog with algae within a year.
 
As an eBay Associate, HardForum may earn from qualifying purchases.
This will be an interesting read for me. Because i bought an AIO to delve into the water relm about 10 months ago and i've been very underwhelmed. Now i've not been able to pinpoint the reason why its worse then the stock Intel HSF that it replaced, i expected it to be at least the same but quieter (which was my minimum goal). But it seems worse. And i've not been able to pinpoint why. Poor contact... not good TIM... a possible air lock causing inefficiency (i thought perhaps i had the pump or radiator orientations in an unauthorized mounting orientation or something), but i just can't pin point it.

I've just bought some NT-H1 to give a try to see if that helps. But i'm thinking its a long shot. I've seen guys run my exact system (i7-950 with a KUHLER H2O 920) and OC'd to the hill and it keeps their CPU's well within temps. But mine... 25% load and it hits 96°c within seconds. Gives me the sh!ts! Admittedly i'm in AUS and my ambients aren't like a lot of you guys (21°c.. mine is probably more like 28-32). But the stock Intel HSF operated in these exact boundaries so if i can't figure out whats wrong without to much more hassle... here i come NH-UxxS!

/goes onto reading article to hopefully get some more insight...
 
@hoffy: you definitely have a conductivity issue. Either it isnt mounted right, or your coolant is filled with air bubbles impeding flow, or the pump isnt pumping properly, definitely something. Might be worth it to just scrap the AIO and buy another.
 
HoffY said:
I've just bought some NT-H1 to give a try to see if that helps. But i'm thinking its a long shot. I've seen guys run my exact system (i7-950 with a KUHLER H2O 920) and OC'd to the hill and it keeps their CPU's well within temps. But mine... 25% load and it hits 96°c within seconds. Gives me the sh!ts! Admittedly i'm in AUS and my ambients aren't like a lot of you guys (21°c.. mine is probably more like 28-32). But the stock Intel HSF operated in these exact boundaries so if i can't figure out whats wrong without to much more hassle... here i come NH-UxxS!
Click to expand...

Don't be afraid to open it up and take a look inside. Those pumps are certainly servicable, and for the price those things cost I would certainly try to fix it. Don't be afraid to dump the coolant, as these closed systems just run a mixture of water and glycol. Essentially car coolant.

I'd open it up and check to see if the propeler blade turns to pump. Disconnect the motherboard and other accesories from the power supply and get a paper clip to turn it on with the pump connected to it. Just short the green wire to any of the black grounds. Hopefully you have a 3 pin to molex adapter somewhere to do this.

image32133.gif
 
thanks for the info guys i'll weigh up my options! might pull my system down tomorrow and give it a clean and have a fiddle (i bought some Noctua fans to put on it if the stock fans ended up being to loud... but i haven't tried them yet).
 
number 1 reason to not use air cooling any more
with closed loop water you dont have 5 lbs of heat sink hanging off your motherboard any more
 
Phoenix333 said:
Radiators are for cars. I'll stick with air, thanks.
Click to expand...

There are some car engines that are air cooled. For example, this Porsche engine is cooled with air, and has no coolant. They've been doing this for decades.

So by your logic, air cooling is for cars too.
icon_facepalm.gif


0000-porsche-eng-9.jpg
 
can't help but laugh at the people saying "water cooling isn't for computers". Such a silly attitude, why not use what works best? I've got a custom WC loop that is miles better than my previous air-cooled solution from a noise and temperature perspective. If I wanted an easy off-the-shelf system for my CPU only I'd go to an AIO first over air. Sure, performance can be a bit underwhelming compared to a high-end air cooler, but they're also price competitive with high-end air coolers and you never have to worry about CPU socket clearance.
 
AIO coolers performance is all about placement. I got a NZXT X40, and moving it from the rear panel to the front panel reduced idle temps from 6 to 7 degrees F. I idle at 91~93F and under normal use it never exceeds 113F. Air coolers are nice because you can get decent performance for cheap, but if you got a pair of hot video cards dumping waste heat into your case you are not going to get the performance you could with an AIO by being able to move it where it only gets fresh cool air from outside the case. My humble 2 cents.
 
I'm fine with air cooling. I don't bother tinkering with overclocking anymore, as I don't really have anything pushing my PC's performance these days. Air cooling is probably the easiest to use still. Plug, play, forget.
 
I'll stick with the Thermalright True Spirit 140 I have in both my PCs. Its big, but not terribly hard to install (I can have my mobo in and out for the installation in less than an hour). Air works well enough for me and the moderate overclocking I do.
 
I've used many of the AIO as well as water and high end air, I prefer the AIO units personally unless I feel a little froggy and want to make a full loop. I just don't like big air coolers, I think they look stupid and almost always block the RAM or other things on the motherboard like the first PCI-E slot. I picked up a refurb H80 for $34 for my 3930k after I sold my loop last week and *surprise* I get the same temps as I did with two UT60's, mid 60's under load with two AP15's on it at 4700mhz daily clocks. Sure, if I let it run P95 for 78 hours straight the temps will be much higher, but last I checked P95 and IBT weren't very good web browsers or game engines so I tend not to use them much.

If I go air, I use the smaller coolers like the Megahalems or the Zalman CNPS Flex, with the right fans I can get temps comparable to the giant brick NDH-14 and phanteks with no problems and 90% of my case isn't filled with fins.
 
Went with AIO for my latest build. The air coolers were just getting too big and too heavy.
 
Okay... i put some time into cleaning my desk and re-doing my CPU/TIM. It has deff made a difference for the better. Idling at 50/47/50/46 now in 30°C ambient. 10-12 degrees cooler then before. with a small load of 25% the temps don't shoot to 95°C... instead sit at about 60 steady. So that's a bonus. The thermal paste was deff an issue there. When i get the patience.... full load test. :) So still not as cool as i'd have liked but at least in the range of acceptable (especially given the noise footprint is zero with 25% load).
 
I understand people who like water cooling because they need it or because they dislike the size of air coolers. But i don't envy them.

The air cooler, for normal users like me, that keep the TDP as low as possible, is pretty much "set and forget" and 100% safe. It has happened to me that the fan of the heatsink failed while the 1090T was encoding video and the heatsinked managed to keep it going without fan, simply by passive cooling.

I 've read too many stories of "pump stopped", "pump noise", "leakage destroyed my PC", "louder than i thought" and my conclusion is it's not worth it.

This said, the air cooler industry has failed miserably to follow the demands of modern PCs in cooling, as there is much heat being produced not just by CPU, but also GPUs, HDDs, etc.
The "solutions" with monster-like 1.5 Kg coolers are ridiculous to say the least and the same goes for the "backplates" and stuff.

One of the reasons i undervolt and prefer lower TDP CPUs, is exactly because i don't want loud PCs and i like coolers that use the stock AMD retention clips. On and Off in 3 seconds, no backplates, no nothing. Depending on CPU to cool i have Xigmatek Balder, Scythe Rasetsu, 2x Scythe Katana 3 AMD, Scythe Shuriken and about 4 stock AMD coolers to spare.

Air cooling industry must wake up and smell the coffee. I don't care if they can keep up with lower closed loops, the SIZE and trouble to install/uninstall these monstrous coolers, should have made the comunity rise up in revolt by now. I don't know how many reviews i 've read with the Noctua ND-14H or whatever it's name is, used as "benchmark". But please, it's an abomination only to look at it! It occupies half the case on its own! This isn't how it used to be! Heatpipe technology is obviously not cuting it anymore, time to find something else. I 've seen motherboard bent under the weight of the cooler.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top