Air Cooler vs Liquid Cooler – Which One Should You Pick
Say you are building a new PC for yourself, and one of the most important aspects that you will have to choose is a good CPU cooler. Gone are the days when you could make do with the stock coolers that used to ship with the processor. Modern-day CPUs are a lot hotter for your average run of the mill cooler to get the job done.
You are now going to need something better and stronger to be sure that thermals are under check. Even if you are looking at running your PC on stock configuration, you are still going to need a good CPU cooler.
Now that we have concluded that you are going to need a good CPU cooler, the next step is to decide whether you should be going for an air cooler or a liquid cooler. Again, this is one thing that should never be overlooked, because, without this, you cannot make sense of this situation, to begin with.
So, should you pick an air cooler or a liquid cooler? That is what we are going to take a look here so you can make a proper decision.
Why Air Coolers Win
Now, we are going to look at why air coolers are winners, and honestly, it is simple. As opposed to the liquid coolers, air coolers work on a much simpler principle, and there are a lot fewer parts involved. You get a tower cooler, a couple of fans, and that is about it.
So, what makes these coolers so much better? That is what we are going to be exploring, so you can have a proper understanding.
Lower Failure Chances
Honestly, when you are discussing air coolers, the chances of failure are a lot lower than you might think. As opposed to liquid coolers, especially. The reason behind that is simple; air coolers have a lot fewer parts that can fail and stop working altogether.
For starters, you are only looking at the fans, and those are the only parts that can fail on you. The cooler itself is just a lot of metal fins and heat pipes stacked on top of each other, and they require proper cleaning to avoid any dust accumulating and getting stuck.
As far as the fans are concerned, if they malfunction, which is very rare, you can just swap them out for newer fans and they will work just fine, too. You can even go for RGB fans if your air cooler does not ship with them.
As opposed to air coolers, liquid coolers have a lot of failure points including the fact that your pump can stop working or worse, the liquid can end up leaking, which is a rare case, but the probability is still there.
Less Maintenance
Another thing here is that you are getting lesser maintenance when you are relying on air coolers. For instance, the only maintenance here is that you are only talking about cleaning the fans and the fins of the tower itself, and that is about it. You are not going to run into any other issues.
Easier Installation
I know it might sound like a rudimentary statement but a lot of people have decided to go with air cooler simply because the installation process on these is a lot easier than you might think, in the first place.
The installation requires mounting the cooler on top of the CPU with a help of the supplied brackets, tighten the screws and you are done.
Why Liquid Coolers Win
Moving onto liquid coolers, you are still getting an excellent choice with what you can buy and what you can’t. Honestly, if you are looking for a good liquid cooler, you are in the safer run in a lot of cases. Over the past couple of years, liquid coolers have become super accessible, too.
With that said, there are several compelling arguments in favour of liquid coolers, and we’re going to look at them.
Quieter and Cooler
The reason why most people go for liquid coolers is that they are a lot quiet in terms of the overall acoustic performance. You are getting fans here as well, but they are generally made quieter, and they don’t always need to spin.
In addition to that, you are also getting better thermal performance, so that is another great point here.
Better Aesthetics
Another great thing here is that you are getting better overall aesthetics that are low profile and look good in almost every single situation. Plus, lots of choices as to how you want to mount the radiator, and how much RGB you are looking for. The liquid coolers are the future, to say the least.
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