Air is better than water
this post was submitted on 20 Nov 2023
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I literally just installed an NHD-15 and it dropped my idle temps 10 degrees vs my old AIO. Load temps are about 5-10 degrees cooler, too.
An excellent air cooler does beat a shitty AiO.
But an excellent water cooler beats an excellent air cooler.
The inverse is also true, that an excellent AiO beats a shitty air cooler. It's obvious, I just wonder why it was omitted. For anyone reading, it's far cheaper and gets you the same, if not better performance (though I'd argue that your case's air flow properties, as well as ambient temperature and space around the tower also factor in tremendously!)
Are the differences noticeable? What constitutes an excellent air cooler anyway? Even the Peerless Assassin is like $40 - $60? I think you're just getting diminishing returns per dollar on water cooled setups. The performance really depends on whether you're using crazy liquids like coolants inside your loops, as opposed distilled water, for example.