technology air or water for your cpu ?

[Angle Alastor 3,805]

i really need some help on choosing water or air for my cooler im really leaning twords a aio cooler but some say it leaks sometimes some say it works just fine , i was wondering if anyone has an aio in the past or is using one right now i would be happy for some suggestions :3 and the cpu ill be cooling is a i7 8700k no overclock but want to try the aio so it can look better in my case.

[MangoFoalix 24,943]

I think watercooling is pretty overrated. Unless you are going sub-zero or are overclocking an overly powerful CPU, a good air cooler for your CPU should do well. Though you should make sure the airflow through the case is right. (fans that aren't blowing in for example)

[Early Sunsets 2,106]

Good air cooling is enough if you're not going to be doing any overclocking. The hyper 212 evo is a really popular choice. 

[Angle Alastor 3,805]

thing is i already looked at some air coolers they are either too ugly or to big for my case its a NZXT H500i and its a 165 mm distance...

[RDDash 19,163]

I would say air because I am not really comfortable with the presence of the water supply near sensitive electronics.

[Prometheus 3,038]

Oh man, I wouldn't even risk using watercooling for my CPU, 'cause if there's a leak then your motherboard is knackered. Air coolers do the job just fine, unless you're planning on overclocking you'd be as well as sticking with the stock cooler, it usually does the job well enough. But yeah, if you're looking for a good air cooler, I'd recommend the Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO like @Zephyr / Karou suggested. Pain in the arse to install, but it works pretty well. 

[Here No Longer 5,276]

Mine is water-cooled, but as others have said there's not really much of a reason to take it over air-cooling, unless you want to overclock a computer that's more powerful than it probably needs to be. Otherwise, it's not really any better, it's just more expensive.

Edited February 15, 2019 by ~Dusky~

[SturdyShield 0]

I agree with most others here that for simplicity air cooling has advantages over water. Fewer moving parts, simpler to manufacture and price.

In many cases good quality air coolers are on par with or very close to entry level all-in-one (AIO) water coolers.

In my last build I started with and AIO water cooler because the case I was using had a short height limit. The first unit I got had a really bad pump grinding noise and was RMAed with another and it worked fine for a few years but eventually the pump started to make a warbling/grinding noise so I replaced it with an air cooler which I like a little better since it is quieter.

If you're still looking for air coolers to compare Thermalright and Noctua are two that I would add to the ones that others have posted. Also they usually have good physical drawings for their coolers which helped me make sure that it would fit in my case.

 

Water cooling still has its place in high performance cooling and other specific applications (not to mention some custom setups can look really neat).

[The Historian 516]

I have an AIO CPU water cooler on my new build, also on an i7 8700K. Keeps the temperatures low and I can blast the hell out of it with Prime95 and not even get above 50C. Air cooling is usually fine but I wanted something a little better. Plus it looks good with my tempered glass side panel. :p