Originally Posted by
preter_s
"atomicWAR
Sort of not true. As a single purchase or AIO setup you are correct…but you go with a custom setup things change. Especially over time in terms of cost.
A good water custom water cooling loop isn't as quiet as an air cooler…it destroys it with nearly no noise what-so ever. It's cooling capacity, when properly built, is far superior to air cooling in every way. Now price for a custom loop setup that will do all those things properly is not cheaper then air cooling as a single purchase. I cannot argue that. However when using a custom loop you can carry over everything, with the sometimes exception of the water block. So once invested in a good custom loop set up, your costs go down considerably.
I have made the investment into water cooling a long time ago. With 2 120mm x 3 (360mm) with a thickness of 80mm I have all the cooling capacity one could ask for even in a tropical environment like Hawaii. For these reasons I will continue to liquid cool both my CPU and GPU for the foreseeable future."
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
@atomicWAR - Your argument is typical of water-cooling fan-boys ignorance that needs to be debunked once and for all.
See my reply to another one just like you - @moshpit. Your water cooled solution consumes more power due to the hydraulic pump, the inefficiencies caused by the hydraulic fluid flow (go study fluid dynamics for heaven's sakes). This already means that it already produces more heat that needs to be removed from the system!
Thermodynamics in physics also tells us that to prevent a proverbial melt-down of your motherboard (not that it will happen due to CPU/GPU throttling), the TOTAL HEAT to be removed from the casing must EQUAL the heat output from all the components in it to prevent a never ending temperature rise (again in the absence of throttling).
Your arguments that a water-cooled solution is quieter than an air-cooled one is misguided and a common misperception of water cooling fanboys. It is merely premised on the basis that the higher specific heat capacity of the liquid coolant leads to a higher total heat capacity of the water-cooling solution (heat pipes, radiator, metallic mass, liquid mass) and therefore a seemingly lower initial temperature and slower fan speeds. But in truth, a water cooling solution merely DELAYS the temperature rise. However, you guys conveniently ignore (or don't know) the thermodynamics physics of heat transfer OUT OF THE THERMODYNAMIC SYSTEM (i.e. the casing) that is ultimately necessary. Else the water cooling soution will still reach the same critical melt-down temperatures (in the absence of throttling) if it runs long enough (like a few hours of gaming). This is the notorious heat lag issue that fanboys talk about in the absence of any understanding about the physics. The whole system gets hot more slowly BUT stays hot for much longer too after powering down. In fact, that's how cars work too... they remain hot long after you have switched off the engine due to the huge amount of boiling hot water in the radiator! Try touching the engine bonnet! That is why often times, their radiator fans have to keep running on battery power for a while after engine shut off! There is simply no free lunch in life!
A water-cooled solution (like that in a car) merely increases the total heat capacity of the system (car/PC casing as the case may be), because water has a higher "specific heat capacity" than air. It helps with sudden spikes in temperature as the "system" has a total heat capacitance that can passively absorb more heat energy in joules before displaying a temperature rise. Its essential for ICE (internal combustion engines) vehicles where the mini-explosions in the combustion engine produce lots of heat upon the instant of engine ignition which therefore requires a big bulky water cooled radiator solution. Without which, the engine oils will combust and turn to carbon black goo and the metal parts may suffer metal fatigue or even melt. However, this solution is precisely why ICE (internal combustion engines) vehicles are so inefficient! The hydraulic pump and fluid dynamics inefficiencies needed to move that big mass of fluids, make it one hell of an energy guzzler! BUT - All water-based cooling solutions are just intermediate cooling measures that ultimately need an air-cooler to transfer the heat EXTERNALLY - that is the point!
A water-cooled system is hardly necessary for computers since the heat builds up more slowly and levels off at about 100 degrees celsius anyway (with throttling)!
The quietest air-cooled solutions will always be quieter than any water-cooled solution, with less vibrations too. Simply because there will be FEWER moving parts. In its simplest form, a passively cooled fan-less setup is unbeatable in terms of gross heat output, running cost, total silence, total vibration-free operation.
Even in an active air-cooled system, any good air-cooler with quiet bearingless fans from any reputable brand (be quiet!, Arctic, Noctua) will REMOVE HEAT FROM a casing just as well and as silently as the radiator's fan in a water-cooled system! In fact, to make an apple-apple comparison, if the surface area (and material, say copper) of the radiator of a water-cooled solution is the same as the copper heatpipes in an air-cooled solution, and they use the same exact fan, the total heat transfer capability OUT of the casing will be the same! With lower cost, weight, and complexity in the latter!