Air Cooler VS Liquid Cooler (CPU) / which one is better for sustained performance?

neverland

Hello there people.

It has been a while since I decided to build a new machine as the one I have is quite old (I do mainly modelling/texturing).
I am figuring out the components and I actually have some doubts about the CPU Cooler. (I am a bit lame about hardwares ahahah)

For your opinion guys the cpu cooler should be liquid or air for sustained performance?
If you could share your opinion and also if you have some links concerning the specific model would be really great!

Thanks!

Andreicus

Liquid coolers, water or nitrogen, are the most efficient however maintenance is needed because the cables get ruined over the years and the water/nitrogen can leak out.

Air coolers on the other hand don't need any maintenance except the occasional fan cleaning due to dust.

Liquid coolers are only worth if you have a very powerful machine with dual CPUs ( ex. dual xeon ) or if you perform overclock. In case of overclock is mandatory.

I would go air if i was you. A good air cooler like the Noctua NH ( AMD Threadripper ) or an Arctic Freezer Xtreme ( Intel or AMD ) will keep the temperatures down.

zachagreg

For sustained performance pretty much liquid cooling is going to surpass air, as long as you are placing your radiators in the correct locations. I personally will always have my radiators on the top and front which pulling in cool air across the radiators with my bottoms fans pulling in cool air for the other components. Back of the PC being exhaust. I use two closed loop systems one in the front for GPU and one on top for CPU. I've never messed with a custom loop and don't really want to right now as I don't have money to burn on custom parts like that.

This is my CPU cooler: https://www.corsair.com/us/en/Categories/Products/Liquid-Cooling/Dual-Radiator-Liquid-Coolers/Hydro-Series™-H100i-v2-Extreme-Performance-Liquid-CPU-Cooler/p/CW-9060025-WW

Ive replaced the fans though on this as Noctuas offer better performance and are a tad more quiet. I use 2 of the 120mm ones attached to the radiator on a push configuration.

https://noctua.at/en/products/fan/nf-a12x25-pwm

My GPU loop is https://us.msi.com/Graphics-card/GeForce-RTX-2080-Ti-SEA-HAWK-X with a noctua again instead of the base fan.

I usually use two 2k monitors as 75hz plus a cintiq, never hitched with modeling or rendering and havent had any thermo throttling due to gaming, rendering or anything other than if I'm stress testing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hr0qLLv3dKc This episode by Linus will show counter points to water cooling which is why I have extra cooling in my entire machine, also my radiators are setup with the noctuas mentioned in a push-pull configuration to increase performance. Also overclocking, and form factors are worth looking out for as sometimes air coolers can be super bulky and stop usage of SSD M.2 slots on your motherboard and sometimes mess with RAM clearance.

Shrike

You can get AIO (All in one) Water coolers which require zero maintenance (aside of dust as usual) 
Its about as easy to install as a air cooler and essentially without risk (unlike custom water cooling, which is more powerful but way more expensive and high effort) - just dont buy any cheap china ware that may eventually break

Only the AIO usually cost more than a high end air cooler, but its clearly superior. Also your GPU will get a bit more air as you will have better air circulation without the huge block in the center. AIO take the cold air first and the GPU gets the hotter one then basically but we are at the point where CPU heating is far more of an issue than GPU heat, the new nvidia cards dont run very hot while the new intel CPUs are liquid lava, so unlike 5 years ago, this is actually an advantage now

PolyHertz

AIO water coolers are the way to go if you're regularly doing long-lasting renders, but keep in mind that you'll will want to replace them once every few years (especially if you're in a humid environment).

zachagreg

PolyHertz said:

AIO water coolers are the way to go if you're regularly doing long-lasting renders, but keep in mind that you'll will want to replace them once every few years (especially if you're in a humid environment).

I second this, Florida will fuck you.

neverland

Hi Guys thank you so much for all the info! Really appreciate it.

So at the end I think I will go for a liquid one, not sure why but I have a feeling.
As for the components are the following : 

CPU 
https://www.scan.co.uk/products/intel-core-i9-9900k-cpu-oem

GPU
https://www.scan.co.uk/products/asus-geforce-rtx-2080-ti-dual-oc-11gb-gddr6-vr-ready-graphics-card-4352-core

CASE
https://www.scan.co.uk/products/cooler-master-mastercase-h500-grey-mid-tower-pc-case-w-tempered-glass-window-atx-matx-mitx-2x-200mm

*don't need to list the others lol


So I was thinking to go for this cooler for the cpu:
https://www.scan.co.uk/products/corsair-hydro-series-h100i-rgb-platinum-240mm-all-in-one-hydro-cpu-cooler-2x-120mm-ml-pro-rgb-fans-r

Do you guys think this combo will work well?

Thanks guys

Cheers

Shrike

if you do work that profits from multi threading, go for a ryzen its just way better value for the money even if single thread is a little lower

PolyHertz

Get a Ryzen 3900X instead. 4 more cores / 8 more threads for roughly the same price as that 9900K.