Features - QOTW: CPU Cooling - Liquid or Air?

[deejayburnout]

Only ever used air but considering liquid. This warm weather is even making my PC cook.

Idle has went up 7 deq the last few weeks.

[T Muffy]

Just air so far, using stock coolers too, but will be looking for a better cooler for the next build. Was considering all AIO but many air coolers can give almost the same performance for much less, so it'll either be a tradition cooler or trying my hand at a full loop.

[ajones]

It was the engineering challenge that swung me over to water rather than anything else. Unless you overclock (or live in a hot climate - something that doesn't usually effect us Brits) you may as well stay on air, but I wanted to play!

Whilst it is expensive, most of the kit will live through system upgrades. Only the blocks and coolant need to be changed, and sometinmes not even then.

[Andrew McP]

I have enough to worry about in life without waiting for my PC to develop a leak. :-)

[Kushan]

At the moment, I'm just on air and nothing fancy at that but I would love love love to go the water cooling route. My rig is about 5 years old now (sans upgraded GPU) so is due a major upgrade ( == new build) soonish. I can't quite justify it at the moment as it still plays everything I through at it at medium-high settings but when I do finally pull the trigger, I'll be tempted to go all out water from the get-go.

Like many here have said, mainly for the benefit of the GPU, which I hate seeing get so hot. That and noise.

[jonah]

air, always fancied tinkering with liquid cooling, but just not near the top of my list of things to do or spend money on.

[Jayfunk]

air cooling here... might try water at some point soon.

[Djini]

Air. I don't overclock my CPU much (2500k @ 4.3 is TONS on speed for gaming with my GTX 680).

Maybe I'll go 'water' when my setup isn't fast enough, but to convert from air for GPU/CPU it's a fair wedge of cash... Might as well just upgrade the hardware.

[shaithis]

After having high-end water cooling for many years, I recently switched back to air.

CPUs just do not create the amount of heat they used to and IB and haswell is limited by the core>IHS connection, making exotic cooling even less value.

[ekamdeep]

i would like to use 6 TEC's in my loop my rad is fridge's heat exchanger and it keeps my 5830 oced to 1000 mhz under 70C and i have not used any fan on the exchanger
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w88lv5YGHEU

[phili_c51]

CPU- i5-3570K Liquid cooled with a Corsair H80i. Stock temps less than 40°C. Temps under 70°C when overlooked to 4.9GHz!!

[Kovoet]

Since starting from the Corsair H50 then H100 to the H100i, I much prefer liquid as I don't overclock much but the temps are cooler and consistent than with air

[hapilynvraftr]

Air for me.
Tried liquid (H60) before and I'm not really impressed with my temps. so I go back to Air.
haven't tried expensive one though.

[stanonwheels]

Thick 120mm rad with an 800rpm fan and a 4770k at stock clocks. Fast and virtually silent.

[magnetobob]

Haven't tried air went straight for a corsair h100i clicky pump was not impressed

[liammcd]

Air at the moment.

Considering water for an imminent new rig, but I'm having trouble weighing up the cost/benefit ratio.