I remember when I tinkered around with NH-D14 and Thermalright Silver Arrow. I had both of them with lapped contact plates and lapped the CPU aswell, it was i5 2500k. 5.1GHz ez mode lol
@@morgan3625realistically none. Maybe replace a fan. Some you can add more water back into it as over time it will permeate through the tubes. And that's overall the biggest issue especially on a sealed aio. Lack of water can mean the pump is now running dry which will kill it, the water no longer gets through the loop anymore. You will never need to replace a high end air cooler (especially a noctua as they will even supply mounting brackets for future upgrades so you don't even have to buy a new cooler. I did it for the new cpus. Showed them proof of the new CPU and I owned their product and they sent me the new mounting kit free)
@@donkeysunited I mean what AIO? corsair offer minimum 3 years on there older Hydro series which are pretty much outdated now, there current Pro and Capellex stuff are 5 years minimum and the new iCUE Link stuff is 6 years so maybe stop chatting shit out of your ass, ive had AIOs last 4+ years before I changed them due to permeation which is a natural thing btw. If you have to do maintanence on an AIO other than cleaning the fans (which air coolers have to as well) then you either have a faulty product or user error. but air coolers are not exempt from issues, the copper piping they use can burst, leading to improper cooling trasnfer or improper block mounting to the copper pipes on the cold plate (which i do recall some air coolers a few years back having this issue) both are very much equal to maintanence
@@morgan3625 I've been running AIOs for the last decade and I've had to replace 3 of them over that time due to water pump failures. It's not like it's a horrible failure rate but if I got something like the D15 back then, I'd still be using it today.
after using 3 water coolers, I'm back to air with the new air dual fan with big dissipator ones. Water cooled die faster ( two years ) , they start getting hotter with time and they are messy in the case. Really happy to be back at these huge dual fan dissipators
AIOs, my Corsair H100i has seen an intel 4790k, an AMD 2700x and now an AMD 5950x, and its still going! I'm sure I'm lucky in some ways but the fact all those CPUs stay between 60 and 65°c while rendering and summer gaming, inside my Corsair 750D Airflow, for the past 7 years... AIO all the way for me, and I'd recommend it
The only real question is whether your chip thermal throttles or not. Modern CPU's are made to run hot. Who cares whether it runs 5C hotter than the competition if it is still within acceptable temperature range.
Fantastic video with great data and analysis, definitely looking at Thermalright air cooling for future builds. PS the timer on the sponsor spot is an incredible touch
Hey there.. I love these videos that you all do, which clearly show the reality of things. It's so easy to chase a needle to your detriment and waste time and money on something that doesn't matter. I wish I had known more before jumping into 12th gen with a 12900K. I've spent more trying to cool it (unnecessarily so) than the darn chip itself. I finally landed on a 420mm artic liquid freezer II in a massive Thermaltake case. I could have just tossed on a good air cooler and then stopped running r23 chasing "higher" performance that was just a waste of time as I never run that kind of workload. I just thought that I "had" to get the bigger number better going. Anyway, my dad always said that education costs money, and he was certainly right. Thank you for putting in the effort and delivering a dose of "real world" reality for us all. Cheers Rick
I've recently upgraded from an air cooler to a 420mm Liquid freezer 3 which is absolutely overkill for my 6-core cpu but this way I can play without headphones and not get blasted by the noise.
Noise is not really relevant to Air vs liquid, as it is all about the quality of the fans, and both cooling methods use fans. These days it is pretty easy to get near silent air cooling.
@@tanguy_ The pump is so quiet its the quietest part. Your GPU is always louder than any aircooler or AiO and general consensus is that pretty much all decent AiOs are INCREDIBLY quieter than the best air coolers because the air coolers fan run at around 1400-1800 rpm while the AiOs run at 800. And no this can not be midgigated with better fans on a aircooler because you need more static pressure than on a radiator. Sincerly someone who had 3 AiOs and 5 custom loops and currently a NH-15 Chromax which is way too loud. I did the experiment myself and i will do another custom loop because its just junk for a 12900k in terms of temps and performance. May be sufficient for lower end cpus.
@@DarkSession6208 I really disagree about the noise of the AIO pump. I'm talking about ultra-silent PCs, where you can't tell if the PC is on or off from over 2 meters away. Most Asetek pumps (I don’t have experience with others) make a slight high-pitched buzz. In a typical PC, this buzzing is masked by fan and GPU noise. But in a PC designed to be silent, it becomes the only sound you hear, and it's unpleasant. With an overkill air cooler for the processor, you can easily achieve near silence. I’m obviously talking about non-gaming use here, as it's clear that the GPU becomes the loudest component when gaming. But unless you're gaming at 720p with an RTX 4080, that's inevitable anyway. As for custom water cooling, I admit I’m not an expert in that field, and I trust you on that point. I’m simply comparing AIO to air coolers.
My biggest gripe with AiO (or full custom watercooling) is the - - constant - - noise. It doesn't matter when you're gaming, but when you use your PC for anything else like just browsing the web or simply working in silcence, there's - always- the pump. With air cooling you won't be hearing anything in those situations.
this really depends on the pump Have a frozen edge 240 and the pump is super quiet. Even at full bore the pump generates less noise then the fans at 50% (which are also pretty quiet at the RPM)
@@trulsrohk1Same I can't hear the pump on my Corsair H170i Elite Capellix (420mm) either. I usually only hear the GPU fans kick in, or when I actually start working the Harddrives or that Blu-Ray Drive that I still keep. (I have a combined Simulation Gaming/Photo workstation pc, so that's why there are still HDDs in there. Aside from storage space for drivers, mods, tools etc. I don't really like to needlessly burn write cycles on my SSDs. And for ye olde Spinny bois, the WD Golds aka rebranded HGST Ultrastars have insane performance.) I the cooling overkill, probably, even with my 5800X3D, but it has another advantage, In the summer I can sometimes do very short, low workload runs without using the fans. Essentially using the liquid to store and slowly move out the heat instead immediately releasing it to the room.
Good summary. I loved liquid AIO coolers -- until the tube in one of mine leaked and fried my B350 motherboard. We all know that's a risk, but we never really think it will happen to any of us until it does.This mishap converted me into a permanent air cooler enthusiast. But honestly to each their own. The sight of a large ungangly heatsink through your tempered glass panel may not appeal to you visually. AIOs definitely have more aesthetic appeal, and when there are no mishaps they work beautifully and look even better. Prior to the mishap, my AIO flawlessly and silently cooled my CPU to below 60 degrees Celsius. Do what's right for you, you can't go wrong with either.
@HYDRAdude Very fair point. I just bought a Thermalright Assassin, which is a large double heatsink tower cooler in anticipation of my next build, and that is a valid consideration.
Thanks for the horror story, I'm doing my first build and AIO breaking and frying everything it's all I been able to think for the past 4 days... Fk it I'm going with air, it doesn't matter anymore if it covers everything inside
@@chanod4060 Not really. That never actually happens in real life. I used to work selling computer parts and building PCs and sold thousands of air and liquid coolers. Never did someone have this be an "issue" with air coolers.
The main attraction of AIO's is being able to exhaust the hot air out of your case when running higher core count higher wattage processors. I was on Air and still am on 2 of my systems but my 7950x since it can run quite hot I had to install a 360mm AIO due to the heat being recirculated around my case which made my GPU run at above 84*c which caused it to thermal throttle down to 1750mhz. The Air cooler was doing the same job keeping my temps under the TJMax I set 85*c but it was recirculating the heat around my case, since swapping to an AIO my GPU sits at 80*c and runs at above 1900mhz. If you are running a 7600x, 7700x, 7800x3D etc then you don't need an AIO since the heat they give off wont effect your GPU temp but running a 14900k or 7950x you need an AIO to exhaust all the heat out of the case unless you are happy with your GPU running at 84*c and thermal throttling. As I said the DRP4 was doing the same job as the 360mm AIO its just the heat was being recirculated around my case. If I put my hand on top of my case I can feel the heat coming off the rad but when I touch the side panel glass its only just warm but with the Air cooler the side panel glass was really hot to the touch. Its the only reason moved to an AIO, that and not having to run my case fans at 80% to exhaust the hot air being recirculated around my case.
Lost a (then) 4000 USD system to a hose fitting that leaked in my system around 2010. The only thing that was not fried in that system was two harddrives. I will never water cool anything ever again.
I recently had my Corsair 180 mm AIO fail. My computer basically started crashing with an over temperature warning. I did not know that it was my cooling system so I had to have a repair shop do a diagnostic. Since I use it for both work, and I had to get it up and running as soon as possible, even if having a repair cost of premium. They replace the system a corsair air cooler and my computer is back to functioning. I don’t follow temperatures or micromanage them. For me functioning is good enough. Because the gradual decline in my system, I didn’t notice that performance was going down due to a failing cooler. Once I had it replaced, I noticed that my computer function better, so I’m assuming it was throttling until it could not function without proper cooling. There is something to say about air cooling. If it should ever fail, you just need back up fans and good to go again. on the other hand, if I want to performance CPU for work, like you said, air cooling is not sufficient. The question is how to have redundancy when your computer is your livelihood
I use the NZXT Kraken 240, personally never had any problems with it and runs very silently. I kind of prefer AIOs as they can also function as exhaust case fans and overall they look better aesthetically
I got the Peerless Assassin in the end. I thought of getting the Phantom Spirit, but I couldn't find a white variant of it on Amazon so I went with the Assassin. Now I'm just waiting for some more parts to arrive and we'll start building.
This is perfect. I'm working on a build for a client who's a game dev. Intel based. Definitely going with a good, high end AiO. I'm a huge fan of air cooled, but for his applications (running multiple accounts for testing purposes), he'll need that extra.
Contact frame can out last year, before that everyone was doing just fine. It helps but not night and day. I rock the thermal grizzly. Thats all Micro Center had at the time.
I have a 'Phanteks EVOLV Shift XT' Mini-ITX case where I only have space for a CPU cooler up to 72mm in height. Because of that limitation, I can only get some OK air coolers with that. So, I went from a 'Noctua NH-L9x65' air cooler (65mm high) and over to the 'EK Waterblocks EK-Nucleus AIO CR240 Lux D-RGB'. My clock speed on my 'AMD Ryzen 7 7700' CPU (CPU Core Ratio: 'AI Enhanced' & OC: 'Curve Optimizer' @ -40 & 'PBO2' @ +200 MHz) went up by like 300 MHz under a Cinebench R23 benchmark by going over to this AIO. So, there is basically no point to go for another new air cooler in my case. My plan was originally to get the 'Phanteks Glacier One T30 V2' AIO (the new one), but that one is barely available now, so didn't want to wait for it to arrive in stores that might take forever.
as someone who was very skeptical of AIOs, i’ve changed my tune and have it in my new build for aesthetic reasons (deepcool ls520 se) that’s cooling my r5 7600, and i’m 100% satisfied with my choice
Okay, but what exactly was rhis video to achieve? A 240 AIO is basically a Dual Tower Cooler (2 120 Fans) just a bit different, so of course the temperature in the end, if we go the best of the best coolers aren't too far apart. But where would be a 280/360 or even 420 AIO sit vs the rest? Unless you have a cramped small case that only supports 240 AIO, You always can use a 280 or 360 in some way, and these perform often times much better than their 240 counterpart.
Running an "expensive" dedicated loop of watercooling, I can say that I greatly prefer it over both my "oversize" Noctua air cooler as well as my AiO Corsair watercoolers from over th years. I run a "analog knob x 4" fan controller that "shoves into" a PCI slot on the back of the case. It works wonders. The AiO coolers (Corsair and the like) are restricted, most likely, by the size of the radiator. I would say that computer design is "boring" with the inclusion of automatic overclocking as well as the lack of "hitting Moore's Law." Any "comprehensive game when weighted against the generation of hardware used inside the PC box" will dial up the fans and the heat on ANY form of cooling used, imo. beQuiet (fans) are one indicator given by a company that "caters" to a certain "narrative" along with their cases that carry the "noise insulation." That's how it stands. Excessive fan noise is indeed "white noise" along with "gamers" always having big, "big' headsets on their heads to be used for audio, instead of 5.1 speakers while blasting the "neighbours away" with subwoofer goodness.
Well for some dense/low profile builds, running at a high overclock sustained, or cases designed a particular way a low-profile AIO does have its place. Otherwise 95% of the time air cooled all the way! 🌬️💨👌
AIO's dump heat into the room, Only as good as the radiator and fans(air cooling) attached to the pump, That's how physics works! Also the biggest problem with both is controlling ambient room temp, Both just dump heat into your room, Air conditioner FTW.
@ShaneMcGrath. Right but water is more efficient at removing heat and air coolers don't have the benefit of not only removing heat but also adding a cooling medium to the CPU at the same time.
One thing I learned is that some AIOs have horrendously egregious pump noise. My friend has a Corsair H150i Capellix Elite mounted to the top of his case and I can hear the bloody hum across his room. Meanwhile, my other friend has a Cooler Master ML240 that can keep his 5600x at 40 degrees gaming load while being silent. My Dark Rock Pro 4 (silent but overated, imo) is silent but keeps a 5700x 20 degrees warmer with the same thermal paste. I'm thinking of getting a Thermalright Phantom Spirit to replace my anemic cooler.
I prefer AIO. I do not like huge chunky air coolers taking up so much space. AIOs can often be pushed out of the way, when it comes to the radiator that is. CPU cooler part is often relatively small in size anyway. What goes for maintenance and simplicity should be worse on AIO compared too air coolers, well I cannot say if that is true for some people, or for cheap crappy AIOs, but my NZXT Kraken X62 RGB V2 has been working flawlessly for almost 7 years so far, and still going strong. In fact my whole X299 based build is all coming up on 7 years in July, and all running perfectly still.
HOW DID YOU NOT TEST WITH DIFFERENT AMBIENT ROOM TEMP!?!?!? Please do this again and test the hypothesis that AIO is better for hotter environments and air cooling is better for colder environments!
What you are missing in this air vs aio is heat dissapation of the entire system, meaning an aio pulling warm air out of the system is keeping the net temp of the entire system lower than an air cooler would. This will keep your GPU and memory cooler, thus more headroom for more performance
Yeah that's why after spending like 2k+ on everything, my cooler is just a measly $20 Deepcool single fan thing. Well I ordered the Thermalright Assassin SE just because it looks cool and I can use that Deepcool on a workstation that I'm building in a few months for somebody that probably won't max out the cpu at all.
It would be nice to have a video that covers some of the most popular Thermalright market coolers. As right now, Thermalright is kinda in a league of their own with their price-performance rate. I'm saying this as in a previous video you've had Frost Spirit 140 doing wonders on the intel platform, but I have no idea where to place it when I compare it to Phantom Spirit (from the current video). And as prices being so close to each other sometimes, it would be great to have a HW Canucks Thermalright coolers tier list. So we'd know for sure where to place our moneys. PS: Amazing work on the coolers reviews. Really appreciate the effort put in for all these numbers.
I have the Ryzen 7 7700x and I went with an AIO cooler because I was sick and tired of feeling pure FEAR from installing an AIr cooler. It felt like I was going to snap my mobo every time I installed that stupid thing. They always have those stupid screws where you have to push down with insane force just to get it to thread properly. The aio was hands down the EASIEST cooler I've ever installed. I would pay the extra price every time for the ease of installation.
Honestly AIOs are really needed on 5% of the cases, air cooling is still king, simplicity, ease of maintenance and taking up less space is always welcome. I'd argue that most people that install AIOs in their system is because of aesthetic purposes instead of need.
The reason i use AIO is to evacuate hot air right away from the case so i don't have to worry about exhaust of my CPU to feed hot air to the GPU. That does not give me better performance, but GPU runs cooler so it is quieter.
Thermalright is the only manufacturer I've been buying coolers from. They all perform really well and at a really good price VS all the bigger named brands. My Thermalright Frozen Prism 360 AIO with Antec 30MM fans in push pull, Thermalright TFX thermal paste, and Thermalright contact frame can dissipate 330W+ on my OC'd 14700K without throttling. I paid about $120 for all 4 things on Amazon back in June '23. Insane price to performance!
The 7950x will run to 90+ no matter what cooler you use. I have a 480mm x 60mm rad with push/pull config and temps are 90C. But I can boost higher for longer and my fans are running alot slower and quieter than air cooling. Water cooling is better for noise, air cooling is on par with water with higher noise
Anyone using a 240mm AIO is doing it for aesthetic reasons. Testing coolers with a CPU and OS isn't really a testing methodology that will provide fine granular details, there are too many variables such as background processes that will vary run to run. That said there are few CPU's that necessitate water cooling for thermal reasons, although there are other reasons to use them. For sheer reliability a twin tower is King, with the better manufacturers selling mounting kits when new sockets are released. One disadvantage to a large twin tower is higher component temps. The large physical structure preventing airflow from the case fans reaching components. Not usually a huge difference but present in many cases. I recently stopped using the NH-D15 Chromax in favour of Arctic's Liquid Freezer ii 280mm, it's cooler and quieter than the Noctua and my GPU runs cooler, as do the VRM's, RAM & M.2's. It's the quieter operation that is my favourite thing about it though.
Noctua doesn't even sell it but send it to you for free (the new bracket set) when you send them a picture of your cooler and the receipt of your new motherboard/processor combo. Noctua are some serious great guys!
Air cooling is the way to go for most mainstream gaming builds getting almost equal results as AIO. I feel really nervous putting water in my build inside something where failures are expected.
water cooler is just an alternative heatsink. Both water and trad heatsink relies on air to transfer the energy out of the case. The only real way for you to increase cooling performance is to increase the amount of energy a fan moves out of the case per rotation.
Keep in mind that's only the 240mm Arctic Liquid Freezer III. The 280mm and 360mm ones are still cheaper than the Noctua NH-D15 and will blow it out of the water (pun intended).
I began with an Intel build in 2018, equipped with the Noctua D15, which was amazing then. In 2020, I switched to AMD and, although I lacked the bracket for the motherboard, Noctua provided one at no cost. I have no intention of retiring it and it will be part of my next build. They're a fantastic company with an excellent product.
Honestly the biggest issue is heatspreader size. Take Threadripper, you'd think with all those extra cores that you'd require an AIO right? But instead, because of the massively increased heatspreader you can get great temps with a Noctua U14-TR4. Conversely, it really doesn't matter AIO or Tower all that much, with my 7950X3D hitting temps within 5c of each other with a 360mm AIO and a Thermalright Silver Soul 135 Lower Height Dual Tower.
during last year's black friday, I got a 12600k in sale to finally replace my 3770 system. I didn't know that unlocked processors don't come with cooler so when the parts arrived i snag a cheap PA 120 SE as a temporary cooler. until now I'm still using it because I don't find the need to replace it. in games it keeps the 12600k well below 60c.
I have a 13700k, air-cooled by an AK620. With a few tweaks to the BIOS and a decent undervolt, I keep it under control at 75-80C during gaming, even the CPU-intensive ones. If I wanted it cooler, I can nerf it to 5Ghz and 4Ghz on the E and P-Core respectively, and only lose about 5% performance for even way less temps at the high 60s. The point really is to keep the CPU from reaching TJmax
When a AIO is warrantied for 5 years or more then I'll do it. I have air coolers in 8 year old PCs still running just fine. PLus I don't ever overclock. Just XMP1 with w 1.50v on the ram.
The data is very interesting, but I feel the conclusion is a bit misguided. Sure they're comparable at 240mm, but anything bigger than the difference will be greater. If you don't need the higher performance, you can save money with air coolers, but if you're running a high end system, bigger AIO's will make a difference.
I don't know. I used a Dark Rock Pro 4 for a year or so. I get better temps from the 360 Ryujin 3 I bought. The Asetek branded Asus AIO I bought really isn't that loud. The Dark Rock Pro was whisper quiet and about 10c hotter.
Im using a Deepcool 360 mm AIO on my i7 13700KF, but since i do not overclock, im switching to the deepcool assassin 4 Air cooler. The assassin 4 air cooler has a TDP of 280w, and my i7 13700KF has a TDP of 125w. If i do overclock the cpu, the TDP is 253W, and the assassin 4 air cooler can still handle it.
Modern air coolers have gotten so incredibly good that it's hard to justify going with an AIO for twice or thrice the price, IMO. Not to mention the simplicity and reliability of an air cooler. While AIOs will pull ahead as far as pure performance is concerned, for me the small performance boost (likely indistinguishable in actual use) is not worth the trade offs compared to air cooling.
11:22 ...Me watching with my 10yo Corsair H105 240mm AIO still kicking. ok bro I about to move on AM5 and I already bought a Thermalright AIO 240mm....nobody can beat them right now.
I want to see one that is not based on price just best of the best which will be 360mm, I just would never try to put a real high end cpu on a 240mm AIO unless it's a small form case or something. It is nice to know the best 240mm AIO still tho
Still hoping to see these results once the new Core Ultra processors come to gaming towers. The chip is so much larger there is a lot more surface area for cooling.
My next pc, as of now, will be a RTX 4080 and maybe a Intel i9. Might go with a i7. That being said, I prefer air cooled. I'll be keeping my current 2070 Super i7, from, 2015, for streaming with a two pc stream setup, IF I go that route.
Let's be real - for gaming, not even a tower cooler is necessary - a downdraft box cooler that comes with the cheaper chips does the job - it has been tested and proven but RGB AIO gamers aren't ready for this talk. Edit: if you're curious where I took that claim from, check out the HEATSINK VS i9 14900k on the WHAT with PC? channel.
Will a few degrees hotter cpu affect the lifespan of my pc? If the answer is no, then there is no reason to use an AIO over air cooling for my gaming PC running a 7800X3D.
I don't want to give you a headache, but what about dem GPUs? Air or AIO for GPU cooling? I mean, if things continue the way they are now we're gonna have to look at AIOs to cool successors to products like the 4090 and 14900K, unless, as you say, they find a miracle cure.
call me crazy.. I run a 7800x3d with an d15, I only use one fan, 1 fan makes less noise and also saving the other fan for years down the road, the only thing that will fail is the fan. I only had a 2 degree difference with 1 vs 2 fans on the cooler.
one has only 1 part that probably breaks, and when it does, it doesn't break others with it. the other i can't say the same. air cooler all day everyday!
and if you get a new motherboard with a new socket. they will sell you new mounting hardware! this thing is build to last, unlike the water coolers 1-3 years most need maintenance.
noctua is just nuts bought a d15 when i built my pc back in 2019 still have it they offer free mounting kits for new mobos and cpus not changing it till the new gen comes out
I am glad you touched on CPU variation. Like there is an overclock silicon lottery, the same happens with temps on some of these CPU within the same generation and model number.
@@HardwareCanucks no issues, the amount of data required is staggering. On a second note, do you think a contact frame would change these results for intel?
But we could also implement price in that argument as you could buy three new air coolers at the price of one liquid cooler. I know of air coolers that have been running for 8-10 years. If you're buy a new air cooler every 5 years, your longevity to money spent is much better with air coolers
@@dustinthomlinson3859 The Liquid Freezer III tested in this video is currently 62€ in Germany, since months!. You get a quieter and cooler running cooler for less money than the highest end aircooler. If you still buy a Noctua you are fucking dumb, sorry.
I've been using D15 for about 8 years. It has been used in many different builds, possibly the best investment I've ever made for my PC. All I had to do was to buy an AMD kit for the new Ryzen. If you can afford one, it wont disappoint, and it has zero percent chance to leak.
I have a NHC14 and noctua sent me a free mounting kit when I swapped to lga17000, 8 years into ownership. I didn't even buy the cooler, got it from a friend.
@@alisioardiona727 Arctic Cooling does the same for you if you ask them to send u a mounting kit. When I did that some years ago, they even sent me a new fan without me asking for it. That was for a Arctic Freezer 13CO - look up that price and just awe at THAT customer service. I'd bet, Thermalright would do the same for you. I used a TR Macho for many years, until I had to switch it for size reasons when changing to another case. In the meantime, TR almost vanished from the market despite having top performance coolers all the time. That AC Freezer 13CO was my cooler BEFORE the Macho btw. And this Freezer is still in use today. After switching the Macho, I used a Scythe Mugen 5 for some years which never disappointed me and would still work today, if used. Now I am using TR again (Phantom Spirit), and since they will be forward compatible, I am confident I can stay on that one "forever". I give it to Noctua for being top of the charts or at least close with their coolers for long, but just as long they were so expensive, that any other air cooler with decent performance would have been a better buy, price/performance wise. So, you guys using yours for 8-10 years should be standard and is nothing to brag about, imho ;)
The problem with this is it is not air coolers vs AIOs, it is air coolers vs 240mm AIOs. The biggest advantage of AIO over air coolers is in the temp soak. They can keep a lower temp for much longer than an air cooler does. I'd love to see you compare the Arctic Freezer III 360mm and other 360 or even 420mm AIOs along with this. I'd wager to guess they would be a good amount better at the full load situations. That said for general use on the vast majority of systems I don't think you can beat the price performance of the TR Phantom Spirit and Peerless Assassin. And while I currently have a 420mm I might move back to air on the next build, we will see.
I've run a noctua air cooler for a couple years now and never hit anything over 60c while running games like cyberpunk and star citizen, so I don't agree with your claim that they can't keep lower temps for as long. It's all gonna boil down to proper airflow regardless of cooler type.
I feel most people do not realize just how nice a quiet pc is. I replaced all the fans, inclduing my aio fans, in my case even adding some with just dirt cheap arctic p12 fans. Not hearing a mini turbine while enjoying content is crucial and highly underrated.
^ this. In the video they only tested 240mm AIOs. Put a 280 or 360 in there and it would blow the doors off everything in the chart. You likely don't need that thermal headroom, but what it buys you is silence.
I run an air cooler and I can't hear my PC fans ever as is. Especially if you have AC, your PC won't run the fans that high if you're in a climate controlled room.
Easy decision for me. Bought TR Peerless Assassin ARGB and used the money I saved to buy a better GPU. It was $42 Canadian. Used Arctic MX-6. Ryzen 5600X. Shout out for Spring weather being here! So tired of the cold.
@@BlazeBullet My temps will not be your temps unless you have identical hardware. My case is a Mastercase H500 with two 200mm front intake fans. Arctic MX-6 shaves about 3C off as well. Gamers nexus did a great video on this cooler.
I wish more videos focused on testing in different ambient temperatures. I wonder in a scenario where its 34C outside on a summer day if the results are different
The temperature delta from ambient is purely additive. If a CPU is running at 80C in 24C ambient, it will run at 90C in 34C ambient. So in that environment basically everything will thermal throttle on all core loads. I suppose testing would be needed to find how much throttling.
@@rightwingsafetysquad9872 Well, not quite, if humidity wouldn't be temperature dependent, yes, you could summarize that. Environmental conditions make all the difference in cooling systems and testing.
AIOs are more about the coolness factor in terms of the aesthetics. It's not for a bang for buck. I have a number of air coolers, but still considering an AIO, possibly thermalright or Arctic in the future.
I bought my Noctua D15 10 years ago and still use the same one. Don't think a single AIO-cooler could do that, hence why I will probably be getting the D16 when I'm upgrading next time.
Your previous reviews on coolers helped me choose the TR Phantom Spirit for my AMD build. The PS is so consistent on all your tests. Biggest bang for my buck from my experience so far!
Will you guys be able to test at lower noise levels soon? I primarily value lower noise levels as I play with open-back headphones so lower noise levels are what I shop for
this is exactly why watercooling is so stupid. you should honestly never buy an AOI unless you cant fit an air cooler. they are higher risk, harder to install, more likely to have defects, and significantly more expensive. in all seriousness they are the inferior technology.
Air: quieter, smaller, more convenient, easier to clean, less potential for catestrophic failure. AIO: better potential cooling? Eh. Feels like LARPing at the cutting edge. For most people this is putting a spoiler on their Honda Civic.
Bro what about the TR Frost Spirit and DC Assassin III? I thought those outperformed the Noctua and other Thermalright coolers before in your previous videos?
Thermalright’s price to performance is insane.
Probably why Noctua keeps delaying the D15 v2 😂
It is. Doesn’t make sense to buy D16 coming out.
But I’m buying it, omg I’m hype for it!!!
yeah it is. thats why i went with one. its half the price of noctua and its pretty close to its performance.
What thermalright you talking about?
Pearless assassin @@Bullinthehouse
The real optimal cool method was the friends we made along the way
youre god damn right
Based
Cringe 😬
Wait, so if I get a friend I will drop my cpu temps from 79 to 69? I've never had one, I'll see if this works. Cheers.
Nah, my temps get high when my friends btch in-game when they can't see their own faults when we're losing!!!!!!
I love how a decade old noctua stil here in a cooler debate lol. Waiting for the 2nd gen
U gonna keep waiting 😂 but me too bro
It has a horrible fan, and it is rather amazing that even with that fan, it hangs in there.
I remember when I tinkered around with NH-D14 and Thermalright Silver Arrow. I had both of them with lapped contact plates and lapped the CPU aswell, it was i5 2500k. 5.1GHz ez mode lol
@@FrodeBergetonNilsenDoesn't Noctua have some of the best performing low noise fans?
I ordered my D15 in March 2016, and I'm still using it today eight years later after ~3 CPU upgrades. Very worthwhile investment if you ask me.
air coolers have a huge advantage when we talk about maintenance and simplicity
@@morgan3625An AIO is only expected to last 2-3 years and should be replaced after that.
@@morgan3625realistically none. Maybe replace a fan. Some you can add more water back into it as over time it will permeate through the tubes. And that's overall the biggest issue especially on a sealed aio. Lack of water can mean the pump is now running dry which will kill it, the water no longer gets through the loop anymore. You will never need to replace a high end air cooler (especially a noctua as they will even supply mounting brackets for future upgrades so you don't even have to buy a new cooler. I did it for the new cpus. Showed them proof of the new CPU and I owned their product and they sent me the new mounting kit free)
@@donkeysunited I mean what AIO? corsair offer minimum 3 years on there older Hydro series which are pretty much outdated now, there current Pro and Capellex stuff are 5 years minimum and the new iCUE Link stuff is 6 years so maybe stop chatting shit out of your ass, ive had AIOs last 4+ years before I changed them due to permeation which is a natural thing btw.
If you have to do maintanence on an AIO other than cleaning the fans (which air coolers have to as well) then you either have a faulty product or user error. but air coolers are not exempt from issues, the copper piping they use can burst, leading to improper cooling trasnfer or improper block mounting to the copper pipes on the cold plate (which i do recall some air coolers a few years back having this issue) both are very much equal to maintanence
@@morgan3625 I've been running AIOs for the last decade and I've had to replace 3 of them over that time due to water pump failures. It's not like it's a horrible failure rate but if I got something like the D15 back then, I'd still be using it today.
@@morgan3625 Algae
after using 3 water coolers, I'm back to air with the new air dual fan with big dissipator ones. Water cooled die faster ( two years ) , they start getting hotter with time and they are messy in the case. Really happy to be back at these huge dual fan dissipators
Nobody talks about that. I bet the positive comments on AIO are new systems.
AIOs, my Corsair H100i has seen an intel 4790k, an AMD 2700x and now an AMD 5950x, and its still going! I'm sure I'm lucky in some ways but the fact all those CPUs stay between 60 and 65°c while rendering and summer gaming, inside my Corsair 750D Airflow, for the past 7 years... AIO all the way for me, and I'd recommend it
The only real question is whether your chip thermal throttles or not. Modern CPU's are made to run hot. Who cares whether it runs 5C hotter than the competition if it is still within acceptable temperature range.
@@morgan5941 I've it set to throttle at 85°c 👌
Yea, I have a corsair H115 on my 8600k that started on a 4760k, both heavily overclocked and always ran cool.
Fantastic video with great data and analysis, definitely looking at Thermalright air cooling for future builds.
PS the timer on the sponsor spot is an incredible touch
Hey there.. I love these videos that you all do, which clearly show the reality of things. It's so easy to chase a needle to your detriment and waste time and money on something that doesn't matter. I wish I had known more before jumping into 12th gen with a 12900K. I've spent more trying to cool it (unnecessarily so) than the darn chip itself. I finally landed on a 420mm artic liquid freezer II in a massive Thermaltake case. I could have just tossed on a good air cooler and then stopped running r23 chasing "higher" performance that was just a waste of time as I never run that kind of workload. I just thought that I "had" to get the bigger number better going. Anyway, my dad always said that education costs money, and he was certainly right. Thank you for putting in the effort and delivering a dose of "real world" reality for us all.
Cheers
Rick
I've recently upgraded from an air cooler to a 420mm Liquid freezer 3 which is absolutely overkill for my 6-core cpu but this way I can play without headphones and not get blasted by the noise.
Noise is not really relevant to Air vs liquid, as it is all about the quality of the fans, and both cooling methods use fans. These days it is pretty easy to get near silent air cooling.
What are u talking abou bruh even cheap arctic fans are quiet..
@@CC-gu3ze You forgot the pump noise. Air cooling is generally preferred over liquid cooling for ultra-quiet PCs.
@@tanguy_ The pump is so quiet its the quietest part. Your GPU is always louder than any aircooler or AiO and general consensus is that pretty much all decent AiOs are INCREDIBLY quieter than the best air coolers because the air coolers fan run at around 1400-1800 rpm while the AiOs run at 800. And no this can not be midgigated with better fans on a aircooler because you need more static pressure than on a radiator. Sincerly someone who had 3 AiOs and 5 custom loops and currently a NH-15 Chromax which is way too loud. I did the experiment myself and i will do another custom loop because its just junk for a 12900k in terms of temps and performance. May be sufficient for lower end cpus.
@@DarkSession6208 I really disagree about the noise of the AIO pump. I'm talking about ultra-silent PCs, where you can't tell if the PC is on or off from over 2 meters away. Most Asetek pumps (I don’t have experience with others) make a slight high-pitched buzz. In a typical PC, this buzzing is masked by fan and GPU noise. But in a PC designed to be silent, it becomes the only sound you hear, and it's unpleasant. With an overkill air cooler for the processor, you can easily achieve near silence.
I’m obviously talking about non-gaming use here, as it's clear that the GPU becomes the loudest component when gaming. But unless you're gaming at 720p with an RTX 4080, that's inevitable anyway.
As for custom water cooling, I admit I’m not an expert in that field, and I trust you on that point. I’m simply comparing AIO to air coolers.
My biggest gripe with AiO (or full custom watercooling) is the - - constant - - noise. It doesn't matter when you're gaming, but when you use your PC for anything else like just browsing the web or simply working in silcence, there's - always- the pump. With air cooling you won't be hearing anything in those situations.
Yeah thats why i hate my own AIO, wish i'd rather had went with air cooling. Will do so the next time around.
this really depends on the pump
Have a frozen edge 240 and the pump is super quiet. Even at full bore the pump generates less noise then the fans at 50% (which are also pretty quiet at the RPM)
@@trulsrohk1Same I can't hear the pump on my Corsair H170i Elite Capellix (420mm) either. I usually only hear the GPU fans kick in, or when I actually start working the Harddrives or that Blu-Ray Drive that I still keep. (I have a combined Simulation Gaming/Photo workstation pc, so that's why there are still HDDs in there. Aside from storage space for drivers, mods, tools etc. I don't really like to needlessly burn write cycles on my SSDs. And for ye olde Spinny bois, the WD Golds aka rebranded HGST Ultrastars have insane performance.)
I the cooling overkill, probably, even with my 5800X3D, but it has another advantage, In the summer I can sometimes do very short, low workload runs without using the fans. Essentially using the liquid to store and slowly move out the heat instead immediately releasing it to the room.
I have a lian li galahad 360 and the pump is drowned out by the fans which are themselves very quiet.
like you're next to an aquarium
Good summary. I loved liquid AIO coolers -- until the tube in one of mine leaked and fried my B350 motherboard. We all know that's a risk, but we never really think it will happen to any of us until it does.This mishap converted me into a permanent air cooler enthusiast.
But honestly to each their own. The sight of a large ungangly heatsink through your tempered glass panel may not appeal to you visually. AIOs definitely have more aesthetic appeal, and when there are no mishaps they work beautifully and look even better. Prior to the mishap, my AIO flawlessly and silently cooled my CPU to below 60 degrees Celsius. Do what's right for you, you can't go wrong with either.
Let's not act like tower coolers don't come with their own risks involved, such as warping the motherboard.
@HYDRAdude Very fair point. I just bought a Thermalright Assassin, which is a large double heatsink tower cooler in anticipation of my next build, and that is a valid consideration.
Thanks for the horror story, I'm doing my first build and AIO breaking and frying everything it's all I been able to think for the past 4 days... Fk it I'm going with air, it doesn't matter anymore if it covers everything inside
@@HYDRAdude new fear unlocked
@@chanod4060
Not really. That never actually happens in real life. I used to work selling computer parts and building PCs and sold thousands of air and liquid coolers. Never did someone have this be an "issue" with air coolers.
The main attraction of AIO's is being able to exhaust the hot air out of your case when running higher core count higher wattage processors. I was on Air and still am on 2 of my systems but my 7950x since it can run quite hot I had to install a 360mm AIO due to the heat being recirculated around my case which made my GPU run at above 84*c which caused it to thermal throttle down to 1750mhz. The Air cooler was doing the same job keeping my temps under the TJMax I set 85*c but it was recirculating the heat around my case, since swapping to an AIO my GPU sits at 80*c and runs at above 1900mhz.
If you are running a 7600x, 7700x, 7800x3D etc then you don't need an AIO since the heat they give off wont effect your GPU temp but running a 14900k or 7950x you need an AIO to exhaust all the heat out of the case unless you are happy with your GPU running at 84*c and thermal throttling. As I said the DRP4 was doing the same job as the 360mm AIO its just the heat was being recirculated around my case.
If I put my hand on top of my case I can feel the heat coming off the rad but when I touch the side panel glass its only just warm but with the Air cooler the side panel glass was really hot to the touch. Its the only reason moved to an AIO, that and not having to run my case fans at 80% to exhaust the hot air being recirculated around my case.
Lost a (then) 4000 USD system to a hose fitting that leaked in my system around 2010. The only thing that was not fried in that system was two harddrives. I will never water cool anything ever again.
If it was a custom loop that is entirely user error lol
@@zakkeith1508 Doesn't matter. His PC was destroyed because of water cooling. It's a factor that needs to be considered in deciding which way to go.
@@zakkeith1508Not necessarily.
@@zakkeith1508 It was an AIO unit that was top mounted in the case. It had been running without issue for 15ish months. No idea how it failed.
@@donkeysunited Thats losers mentality. You dont stop doing something just because you had a single bad experience. No one does that.
I recently had my Corsair 180 mm AIO fail. My computer basically started crashing with an over temperature warning. I did not know that it was my cooling system so I had to have a repair shop do a diagnostic. Since I use it for both work, and I had to get it up and running as soon as possible, even if having a repair cost of premium. They replace the system a corsair air cooler and my computer is back to functioning.
I don’t follow temperatures or micromanage them. For me functioning is good enough. Because the gradual decline in my system, I didn’t notice that performance was going down due to a failing cooler. Once I had it replaced, I noticed that my computer function better, so I’m assuming it was throttling until it could not function without proper cooling.
There is something to say about air cooling. If it should ever fail, you just need back up fans and good to go again. on the other hand, if I want to performance CPU for work, like you said, air cooling is not sufficient. The question is how to have redundancy when your computer is your livelihood
I use the NZXT Kraken 240, personally never had any problems with it and runs very silently. I kind of prefer AIOs as they can also function as exhaust case fans and overall they look better aesthetically
I got the Peerless Assassin in the end. I thought of getting the Phantom Spirit, but I couldn't find a white variant of it on Amazon so I went with the Assassin. Now I'm just waiting for some more parts to arrive and we'll start building.
This is perfect. I'm working on a build for a client who's a game dev. Intel based. Definitely going with a good, high end AiO. I'm a huge fan of air cooled, but for his applications (running multiple accounts for testing purposes), he'll need that extra.
Now same test but with a cpu contact frame. See if theres any significant moves everywhere
Contact frame can out last year, before that everyone was doing just fine. It helps but not night and day. I rock the thermal grizzly. Thats all Micro Center had at the time.
I have a 'Phanteks EVOLV Shift XT' Mini-ITX case where I only have space for a CPU cooler up to 72mm in height. Because of that limitation, I can only get some OK air coolers with that. So, I went from a 'Noctua NH-L9x65' air cooler (65mm high) and over to the 'EK Waterblocks EK-Nucleus AIO CR240 Lux D-RGB'.
My clock speed on my 'AMD Ryzen 7 7700' CPU (CPU Core Ratio: 'AI Enhanced' & OC: 'Curve Optimizer' @ -40 & 'PBO2' @ +200 MHz) went up by like 300 MHz under a Cinebench R23 benchmark by going over to this AIO. So, there is basically no point to go for another new air cooler in my case.
My plan was originally to get the 'Phanteks Glacier One T30 V2' AIO (the new one), but that one is barely available now, so didn't want to wait for it to arrive in stores that might take forever.
as someone who was very skeptical of AIOs, i’ve changed my tune and have it in my new build for aesthetic reasons (deepcool ls520 se) that’s cooling my r5 7600, and i’m 100% satisfied with my choice
Okay, but what exactly was rhis video to achieve?
A 240 AIO is basically a Dual Tower Cooler (2 120 Fans) just a bit different, so of course the temperature in the end, if we go the best of the best coolers aren't too far apart.
But where would be a 280/360 or even 420 AIO sit vs the rest? Unless you have a cramped small case that only supports 240 AIO, You always can use a 280 or 360 in some way, and these perform often times much better than their 240 counterpart.
Running an "expensive" dedicated loop of watercooling, I can say that I greatly prefer it over both my "oversize" Noctua air cooler as well as my AiO Corsair watercoolers from over th years. I run a "analog knob x 4" fan controller that "shoves into" a PCI slot on the back of the case. It works wonders. The AiO coolers (Corsair and the like) are restricted, most likely, by the size of the radiator. I would say that computer design is "boring" with the inclusion of automatic overclocking as well as the lack of "hitting Moore's Law."
Any "comprehensive game when weighted against the generation of hardware used inside the PC box" will dial up the fans and the heat on ANY form of cooling used, imo. beQuiet (fans) are one indicator given by a company that "caters" to a certain "narrative" along with their cases that carry the "noise insulation."
That's how it stands.
Excessive fan noise is indeed "white noise" along with "gamers" always having big, "big' headsets on their heads to be used for audio, instead of 5.1 speakers while blasting the "neighbours away" with subwoofer goodness.
Air all day every day. Liquid looks neat, but it's not as reliable as an air cooling solution
Well for some dense/low profile builds, running at a high overclock sustained, or cases designed a particular way a low-profile AIO does have its place.
Otherwise 95% of the time air cooled all the way! 🌬️💨👌
You're right, they're way more reliable than air coolers. Because that's how physics works.
AIO's dump heat into the room, Only as good as the radiator and fans(air cooling) attached to the pump, That's how physics works!
Also the biggest problem with both is controlling ambient room temp, Both just dump heat into your room, Air conditioner FTW.
@ShaneMcGrath. Right but water is more efficient at removing heat and air coolers don't have the benefit of not only removing heat but also adding a cooling medium to the CPU at the same time.
Untrue
One thing I learned is that some AIOs have horrendously egregious pump noise. My friend has a Corsair H150i Capellix Elite mounted to the top of his case and I can hear the bloody hum across his room.
Meanwhile, my other friend has a Cooler Master ML240 that can keep his 5600x at 40 degrees gaming load while being silent. My Dark Rock Pro 4 (silent but overated, imo) is silent but keeps a 5700x 20 degrees warmer with the same thermal paste. I'm thinking of getting a Thermalright Phantom Spirit to replace my anemic cooler.
I prefer AIO. I do not like huge chunky air coolers taking up so much space. AIOs can often be pushed out of the way, when it comes to the radiator that is. CPU cooler part is often relatively small in size anyway. What goes for maintenance and simplicity should be worse on AIO compared too air coolers, well I cannot say if that is true for some people, or for cheap crappy AIOs, but my NZXT Kraken X62 RGB V2 has been working flawlessly for almost 7 years so far, and still going strong. In fact my whole X299 based build is all coming up on 7 years in July, and all running perfectly still.
HOW DID YOU NOT TEST WITH DIFFERENT AMBIENT ROOM TEMP!?!?!?
Please do this again and test the hypothesis that AIO is better for hotter environments and air cooling is better for colder environments!
What you are missing in this air vs aio is heat dissapation of the entire system, meaning an aio pulling warm air out of the system is keeping the net temp of the entire system lower than an air cooler would. This will keep your GPU and memory cooler, thus more headroom for more performance
Yeah that's why after spending like 2k+ on everything, my cooler is just a measly $20 Deepcool single fan thing. Well I ordered the Thermalright Assassin SE just because it looks cool and I can use that Deepcool on a workstation that I'm building in a few months for somebody that probably won't max out the cpu at all.
It would be nice to have a video that covers some of the most popular Thermalright market coolers. As right now, Thermalright is kinda in a league of their own with their price-performance rate.
I'm saying this as in a previous video you've had Frost Spirit 140 doing wonders on the intel platform, but I have no idea where to place it when I compare it to Phantom Spirit (from the current video).
And as prices being so close to each other sometimes, it would be great to have a HW Canucks Thermalright coolers tier list. So we'd know for sure where to place our moneys.
PS: Amazing work on the coolers reviews. Really appreciate the effort put in for all these numbers.
I have the Ryzen 7 7700x and I went with an AIO cooler because I was sick and tired of feeling pure FEAR from installing an AIr cooler. It felt like I was going to snap my mobo every time I installed that stupid thing. They always have those stupid screws where you have to push down with insane force just to get it to thread properly. The aio was hands down the EASIEST cooler I've ever installed. I would pay the extra price every time for the ease of installation.
Honestly AIOs are really needed on 5% of the cases, air cooling is still king, simplicity, ease of maintenance and taking up less space is always welcome. I'd argue that most people that install AIOs in their system is because of aesthetic purposes instead of need.
The reason i use AIO is to evacuate hot air right away from the case so i don't have to worry about exhaust of my CPU to feed hot air to the GPU. That does not give me better performance, but GPU runs cooler so it is quieter.
Thermalright is the only manufacturer I've been buying coolers from. They all perform really well and at a really good price VS all the bigger named brands.
My Thermalright Frozen Prism 360 AIO with Antec 30MM fans in push pull, Thermalright TFX thermal paste, and Thermalright contact frame can dissipate 330W+ on my OC'd 14700K without throttling. I paid about $120 for all 4 things on Amazon back in June '23. Insane price to performance!
The 7950x will run to 90+ no matter what cooler you use. I have a 480mm x 60mm rad with push/pull config and temps are 90C. But I can boost higher for longer and my fans are running alot slower and quieter than air cooling. Water cooling is better for noise, air cooling is on par with water with higher noise
Anyone using a 240mm AIO is doing it for aesthetic reasons. Testing coolers with a CPU and OS isn't really a testing methodology that will provide fine granular details, there are too many variables such as background processes that will vary run to run. That said there are few CPU's that necessitate water cooling for thermal reasons, although there are other reasons to use them. For sheer reliability a twin tower is King, with the better manufacturers selling mounting kits when new sockets are released. One disadvantage to a large twin tower is higher component temps. The large physical structure preventing airflow from the case fans reaching components. Not usually a huge difference but present in many cases. I recently stopped using the NH-D15 Chromax in favour of Arctic's Liquid Freezer ii 280mm, it's cooler and quieter than the Noctua and my GPU runs cooler, as do the VRM's, RAM & M.2's. It's the quieter operation that is my favourite thing about it though.
Noctua doesn't even sell it but send it to you for free (the new bracket set) when you send them a picture of your cooler and the receipt of your new motherboard/processor combo. Noctua are some serious great guys!
Air cooling is the way to go for most mainstream gaming builds getting almost equal results as AIO. I feel really nervous putting water in my build inside something where failures are expected.
water cooler is just an alternative heatsink. Both water and trad heatsink relies on air to transfer the energy out of the case. The only real way for you to increase cooling performance is to increase the amount of energy a fan moves out of the case per rotation.
Got a $60 slick black aio and was thrilled with how silent it is and that my temps are incredibly low
Keep in mind that's only the 240mm Arctic Liquid Freezer III. The 280mm and 360mm ones are still cheaper than the Noctua NH-D15 and will blow it out of the water (pun intended).
I began with an Intel build in 2018, equipped with the Noctua D15, which was amazing then. In 2020, I switched to AMD and, although I lacked the bracket for the motherboard, Noctua provided one at no cost. I have no intention of retiring it and it will be part of my next build. They're a fantastic company with an excellent product.
Honestly the biggest issue is heatspreader size. Take Threadripper, you'd think with all those extra cores that you'd require an AIO right? But instead, because of the massively increased heatspreader you can get great temps with a Noctua U14-TR4. Conversely, it really doesn't matter AIO or Tower all that much, with my 7950X3D hitting temps within 5c of each other with a 360mm AIO and a Thermalright Silver Soul 135 Lower Height Dual Tower.
during last year's black friday, I got a 12600k in sale to finally replace my 3770 system. I didn't know that unlocked processors don't come with cooler so when the parts arrived i snag a cheap PA 120 SE as a temporary cooler. until now I'm still using it because I don't find the need to replace it. in games it keeps the 12600k well below 60c.
I have a 13700k, air-cooled by an AK620. With a few tweaks to the BIOS and a decent undervolt, I keep it under control at 75-80C during gaming, even the CPU-intensive ones. If I wanted it cooler, I can nerf it to 5Ghz and 4Ghz on the E and P-Core respectively, and only lose about 5% performance for even way less temps at the high 60s. The point really is to keep the CPU from reaching TJmax
This answered all my questions about air coolers.
Noctua also comes with lifetime support and that factors into the price.
When a AIO is warrantied for 5 years or more then I'll do it. I have air coolers in 8 year old PCs still running just fine. PLus I don't ever overclock. Just XMP1 with w 1.50v on the ram.
Looks like air coolers will work for everything other than top Intel Oven Imitators that are allowed to go full throttle. Thank you for the tests!
Thermalright being better than Noctua is sickkk
Cool comparison.
Dude tell us what camera you have for this amazing image of your videos
The data is very interesting, but I feel the conclusion is a bit misguided. Sure they're comparable at 240mm, but anything bigger than the difference will be greater. If you don't need the higher performance, you can save money with air coolers, but if you're running a high end system, bigger AIO's will make a difference.
Best Tech Channel on RUclips……………and it’s from Canada. 👍🏻👀
Great report! Your episodes are most often the ones most relevant to me, thanks!
Would have been nice to see how 360mm and 480mm AIOs compare to the air coolers.
They will do better, as the surface gets so big.
I don't know. I used a Dark Rock Pro 4 for a year or so. I get better temps from the 360 Ryujin 3 I bought. The Asetek branded Asus AIO I bought really isn't that loud. The Dark Rock Pro was whisper quiet and about 10c hotter.
Im using a Deepcool 360 mm AIO on my i7 13700KF, but since i do not overclock, im switching to the deepcool assassin 4 Air cooler.
The assassin 4 air cooler has a TDP of 280w, and my i7 13700KF has a TDP of 125w. If i do overclock the cpu, the TDP is 253W, and the assassin 4 air cooler can still handle it.
Just fine tune the 13700K in the BIOS. Mine is all core overclock and still only takes 180w.
how does this change for SFF builds? none of the top air cooling performers will fit in some of the most popular and well designed cases.
“Primarily for bling” *stares at 12400 w a 240mm rad because my coworker sold me the AIO for $40*
My temps sit at 32-40 degrees under full load lol
I have a DeepCool six pipe dual tower from my 4th gen on my 9900KF. Three 120's on it. Cinebench gets the CPU to 75C. nuff said.
This channel's thumbnail art are absolutely gorgeous. You guys should release high resolutions of them as wallpapers!
Modern air coolers have gotten so incredibly good that it's hard to justify going with an AIO for twice or thrice the price, IMO. Not to mention the simplicity and reliability of an air cooler. While AIOs will pull ahead as far as pure performance is concerned, for me the small performance boost (likely indistinguishable in actual use) is not worth the trade offs compared to air cooling.
11:22 ...Me watching with my 10yo Corsair H105 240mm AIO still kicking. ok bro
I about to move on AM5 and I already bought a Thermalright AIO 240mm....nobody can beat them right now.
I want to see one that is not based on price just best of the best which will be 360mm, I just would never try to put a real high end cpu on a 240mm AIO unless it's a small form case or something.
It is nice to know the best 240mm AIO still tho
Team air cooler all day. The idea of having water inside my PC scares the crap out of me. Deepcool AK620 killin it on my 7600x.
Still hoping to see these results once the new Core Ultra processors come to gaming towers. The chip is so much larger there is a lot more surface area for cooling.
Curious to see what happens if you lower the ambient to 22C
i have 2 pc's with the ole d15 in them. set and forget .
I get the feeling this is not settled in the slightest and varies given conditions and requirements.
At least my air cooler doesn't leak and destroy the warranty on everything else.
The Dark Rock Pro 5 as an air cooler is too expensive and noisy to mention?
My next pc, as of now, will be a RTX 4080 and maybe a Intel i9. Might go with a i7.
That being said, I prefer air cooled. I'll be keeping my current 2070 Super i7, from, 2015, for streaming with a two pc stream setup, IF I go that route.
Let's be real - for gaming, not even a tower cooler is necessary - a downdraft box cooler that comes with the cheaper chips does the job - it has been tested and proven but RGB AIO gamers aren't ready for this talk.
Edit: if you're curious where I took that claim from, check out the HEATSINK VS i9 14900k on the WHAT with PC? channel.
Will a few degrees hotter cpu affect the lifespan of my pc? If the answer is no, then there is no reason to use an AIO over air cooling for my gaming PC running a 7800X3D.
I don't want to give you a headache, but what about dem GPUs? Air or AIO for GPU cooling? I mean, if things continue the way they are now we're gonna have to look at AIOs to cool successors to products like the 4090 and 14900K, unless, as you say, they find a miracle cure.
call me crazy.. I run a 7800x3d with an d15, I only use one fan, 1 fan makes less noise and also saving the other fan for years down the road, the only thing that will fail is the fan. I only had a 2 degree difference with 1 vs 2 fans on the cooler.
I was expecting that you'll include some data from the Mystique AIO from deepcool.
one has only 1 part that probably breaks, and when it does, it doesn't break others with it. the other i can't say the same. air cooler all day everyday!
You guys always have amazing thumbnails for cooler reviews
Oh thanks!
I bought the D15 almost 10 years ago now, and I'll still be sticking with it
and if you get a new motherboard with a new socket. they will sell you new mounting hardware! this thing is build to last, unlike the water coolers 1-3 years most need maintenance.
@@cheezy2455Arctic will send you new mounting kit for free.
noctua is just nuts bought a d15 when i built my pc back in 2019 still have it they offer free mounting kits for new mobos and cpus not changing it till the new gen comes out
Solid investment. Especially impressive in the world of computers where components are redundant far too quickly.
I have the D14 with an AM4 mount. Still strong.
I am glad you touched on CPU variation. Like there is an overclock silicon lottery, the same happens with temps on some of these CPU within the same generation and model number.
The second chart says intel am5, just found it funny so pointed it out. 1:20
Yeah sorry for the misprint.
Reminds me of the days when AMD uses Intel socket, kids nowadays don't know what are they missing.
@@HardwareCanucks no issues, the amount of data required is staggering.
On a second note, do you think a contact frame would change these results for intel?
@@HardwareCanucks better watch out for GamersNexus! you're gonna get cancelled!
Curious to see how the next gen Noctua D15 will hold up given it'll have 8 heatpipes instead of 6. Plus it'll be coming with their new 140mm fans
My Arctic Liquid Freezer 240 has been running for 8 years at 2500K@5GHz/8700K@5GHz and still OK. This is a matter of longevity. 😎
But we could also implement price in that argument as you could buy three new air coolers at the price of one liquid cooler. I know of air coolers that have been running for 8-10 years. If you're buy a new air cooler every 5 years, your longevity to money spent is much better with air coolers
Entropy is at work. Be ready.
@@dustinthomlinson3859 The Liquid Freezer III tested in this video is currently 62€ in Germany, since months!. You get a quieter and cooler running cooler for less money than the highest end aircooler. If you still buy a Noctua you are fucking dumb, sorry.
I've been using D15 for about 8 years. It has been used in many different builds, possibly the best investment I've ever made for my PC. All I had to do was to buy an AMD kit for the new Ryzen. If you can afford one, it wont disappoint, and it has zero percent chance to leak.
I have a NHC14 and noctua sent me a free mounting kit when I swapped to lga17000, 8 years into ownership. I didn't even buy the cooler, got it from a friend.
@@alisioardiona727 Arctic Cooling does the same for you if you ask them to send u a mounting kit. When I did that some years ago, they even sent me a new fan without me asking for it. That was for a Arctic Freezer 13CO - look up that price and just awe at THAT customer service.
I'd bet, Thermalright would do the same for you.
I used a TR Macho for many years, until I had to switch it for size reasons when changing to another case. In the meantime, TR almost vanished from the market despite having top performance coolers all the time. That AC Freezer 13CO was my cooler BEFORE the Macho btw. And this Freezer is still in use today.
After switching the Macho, I used a Scythe Mugen 5 for some years which never disappointed me and would still work today, if used.
Now I am using TR again (Phantom Spirit), and since they will be forward compatible, I am confident I can stay on that one "forever".
I give it to Noctua for being top of the charts or at least close with their coolers for long, but just as long they were so expensive, that any other air cooler with decent performance would have been a better buy, price/performance wise. So, you guys using yours for 8-10 years should be standard and is nothing to brag about, imho ;)
aio i s better
The problem with this is it is not air coolers vs AIOs, it is air coolers vs 240mm AIOs. The biggest advantage of AIO over air coolers is in the temp soak. They can keep a lower temp for much longer than an air cooler does. I'd love to see you compare the Arctic Freezer III 360mm and other 360 or even 420mm AIOs along with this. I'd wager to guess they would be a good amount better at the full load situations. That said for general use on the vast majority of systems I don't think you can beat the price performance of the TR Phantom Spirit and Peerless Assassin. And while I currently have a 420mm I might move back to air on the next build, we will see.
I've run a noctua air cooler for a couple years now and never hit anything over 60c while running games like cyberpunk and star citizen, so I don't agree with your claim that they can't keep lower temps for as long. It's all gonna boil down to proper airflow regardless of cooler type.
I feel most people do not realize just how nice a quiet pc is. I replaced all the fans, inclduing my aio fans, in my case even adding some with just dirt cheap arctic p12 fans. Not hearing a mini turbine while enjoying content is crucial and highly underrated.
^ this. In the video they only tested 240mm AIOs. Put a 280 or 360 in there and it would blow the doors off everything in the chart. You likely don't need that thermal headroom, but what it buys you is silence.
If I'm just watching content, I hear no fans, if I start gaming, I put on a headset anyway.
@@ryanreynolds2401 Yeah seriously a 360 mm aio with an i9 is silent bliss and this video did not cover it.
the pwm or the common ones?
I run an air cooler and I can't hear my PC fans ever as is. Especially if you have AC, your PC won't run the fans that high if you're in a climate controlled room.
this takes a LOT of work to do. Appreciate you guys
Easy decision for me. Bought TR Peerless Assassin ARGB and used the money I saved to buy a better GPU. It was $42 Canadian. Used Arctic MX-6. Ryzen 5600X.
Shout out for Spring weather being here! So tired of the cold.
Very smart decision!
how much did the phantom spirit cost for you?
Hey man! What are your temps? I have a Vetroo U6 thinking of getting this if temps are much better.
@@BlazeBullet My temps will not be your temps unless you have identical hardware. My case is a Mastercase H500 with two 200mm front intake fans. Arctic MX-6 shaves about 3C off as well. Gamers nexus did a great video on this cooler.
@@Lukiel666 ok but the temps? I'm curious. Thanks.
Answer to that question, Saison 69 Episode 420 : IT DEPENDS !
Wow.
I wish more videos focused on testing in different ambient temperatures. I wonder in a scenario where its 34C outside on a summer day if the results are different
That's an interesting question.
The temperature delta from ambient is purely additive. If a CPU is running at 80C in 24C ambient, it will run at 90C in 34C ambient. So in that environment basically everything will thermal throttle on all core loads. I suppose testing would be needed to find how much throttling.
@@rightwingsafetysquad9872 Well, not quite, if humidity wouldn't be temperature dependent, yes, you could summarize that. Environmental conditions make all the difference in cooling systems and testing.
Sensible vs latent heat is non-linear.
Nocta D15 is the best ;)😂
Factually correct Lauri
AIOs are more about the coolness factor in terms of the aesthetics. It's not for a bang for buck. I have a number of air coolers, but still considering an AIO, possibly thermalright or Arctic in the future.
I bought my Noctua D15 10 years ago and still use the same one. Don't think a single AIO-cooler could do that, hence why I will probably be getting the D16 when I'm upgrading next time.
They make a D16?
Your previous reviews on coolers helped me choose the TR Phantom Spirit for my AMD build. The PS is so consistent on all your tests. Biggest bang for my buck from my experience so far!
Glad you like it!
Will you guys be able to test at lower noise levels soon? I primarily value lower noise levels as I play with open-back headphones so lower noise levels are what I shop for
Air cooler is more than enough if you are not obsessed with temps
True, unless for some reason you need to run cpu hog apps
this is exactly why watercooling is so stupid. you should honestly never buy an AOI unless you cant fit an air cooler. they are higher risk, harder to install, more likely to have defects, and significantly more expensive. in all seriousness they are the inferior technology.
why not use the liquid freezer iii 420 mm? its only $92 right now too wouldn't it be better
Air: quieter, smaller, more convenient, easier to clean, less potential for catestrophic failure.
AIO: better potential cooling? Eh.
Feels like LARPing at the cutting edge. For most people this is putting a spoiler on their Honda Civic.
AIO: looks better, quieter, can do all CPUs.
Bro what about the TR Frost Spirit and DC Assassin III? I thought those outperformed the Noctua and other Thermalright coolers before in your previous videos?