[SOLVED] Fan vs Water Cooler?

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mojorisin23

mojorisin23

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Jan 7, 2012
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Anyone have any suggestions? Not gaming intensive, more of a work PC but multi monitors, TV streaming, etc running basically 24/7.

My current build has a THermaltake FRIO and is quite loud in the new office with no carpet (no dampening). My new build needs to be smaller and MUCH quieter.

Suggestions? pros? cons?

thanks!
 
Solution
Phaaze88
Liquid coolers are just hybrid air coolers, so be aware of what you will choose for your next chassis; they are just as dependent on good airflow, if not even more so. Avoid thermally poor models like Cooler Master's Masterbox Lite, for example.
You'll have a scenario where the fans can hardly move air, and the pump is doing all the work; that's only going to do so much if the fans can't bring in enough air or pull it out.

Something like THIS would be great if you want to go small form factor, but you do need to be sure everything will fit.

As long as you don't put it in a stuffy chassis, I think air would be the quieter option.
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Liquid coolers are just hybrid air coolers, so be aware of what you will choose for your next chassis; they are just as dependent on good airflow, if not even more so. Avoid thermally poor models like Cooler Master's Masterbox Lite, for example.
You'll have a scenario where the fans can hardly move air, and the pump is doing all the work; that's only going to do so much if the fans can't bring in enough air or pull it out.

Something like THIS would be great if you want to go small form factor, but you do need to be sure everything will fit.

As long as you don't put it in a stuffy chassis, I think air would be the quieter option.
 
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Solution
Personally just for ease of use I would choose a fan
Water coolers have many parts that are expensive to repair such as a pump and that cannot be identified as not working just by one look
 
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I prefer air coolers for the following reasons:

  • Heatsinks don't break. Heatsinks don't leak
  • Fans do break (rarely), but they're not expensive to replace, and if you have warranty you get a replacement for free as is the case with my NH-D15
  • They're actually easier to install and handle than an AIO
  • Quieter. Pumps can be louder than an air cooler at idle
  • Cheaper and more reliable
However, ensure your case has good airflow. It is essential for an air cooler to work well.

If you want quiet, go for a Noctua air cooler (I recommend NH-U12S, NH-D15 or NH-D15S, depending on your processors TDP). Be quiet's Dark Rock & Dark Rock Pro are good options as well albeit harder to install and with barbaric fan clips.

Check case clearance and RAM clearance.
 
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I've custom watercooled for 19 years.

I've reviewed air and liquid coolers for Tom's Hardware for nearly 4 years.

I've never heard a pump louder than case fans. They some of the most quiet components. Not sure where this misnomer comes from.. If your pump is loud, there is something wrong.

The 'loud' part of watercooling or AIO liquid cooling is the fans used.
 
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For reliability. An air cooler is still #1.

There are a few reasons you might want to get an AIO or CLC. Primarily if the PC is going to be moving around more often such that the weight of a large air cooler my damage the board. An AIO allows you to strap all that weight to the side of the case where it wont flex the board. Temps might be slightly better over an air cooler, but for the cost...its not usually worth it. Larger CLCs might allow for better over clocks but for your purposes probably not worth it.

Custom liquid cooling is really a separate, but related, hobby. It requires more maintenance and is far more complicated and expensive than the other two options. I wouldn't suggest it most people. People who do custom water cooling loops do it because they want to do it. Almost never because they "need" to do it.
 
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Always an air cooler for me.

f441bQM.jpg
 
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Phaaze88 said:
What's with all the fans? Like 3 of them serve no real purpose, unless they're there for looks - it did achieve that purpose.
Click to expand...

Most of them came with the case, I added another 3 but more for the RGB aesthetics. Those top 3 do nothing in terms of cooling, the front 4 and back 2 do all the work, this 3700x runs at 70c all cores loaded and graphics card mid 60's.

It's a good case for airflow, but you're spot on about the top 3. I do like the industrial look lots of fans give too :)
 
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Really wish ppl would do the research before repeating what the Rumor Mill spits out. So far rubix_1011 is the only one to actually hit the nail on the head.

The whole 'noise' debate started @ 20 years ago with the founding of Noctua. At that time, and still today, they produce some of the quietest fans for pc's. Then in @ 2009 Noctua released its flagship, and things went spastic. You had Big Air NH-D14, the king of aircoolers and the Corsair H100. The H100 had craptastic noisebeasts for fans, hitting 2400rpm. The NH-D14 barely tweaking an uber silent 1000rpm.

Air coolers are quieter than AIO's! Well of course that was true, you had the 2 most popular coolers on the market, one was air and silent, the other liquid and jet engine replicating.

And the rumor mill has not stopped since, regardless of the fact that more often than not liquid coolers are far quieter than many air coolers. But to compare the noise output of any Noctua heatsink to any AIO, that's just patently unfair. I'd put my NZXT Kraken X61 up against my Cryorig R1 Ultimate any day of the week and twice on Sunday and the AIO wins hands down in EVERY competition.

It's all in the fan, the capacity, the load. Small heat exchanger, crappy fan, high load = noisy.

I have that case, the nCase M1 v6.1. It's tiny. But Very good. Still trying to source parts for my 2x 240mm radiator custom loop.

That's my size 10 sneaker box. There's a 1" difference
 
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Perhaps I am doing something wrong. I only just bought my first liquid cooler back in June. There were a couple of hiccups, but the installation was completed successfully.

From what little experience I have with them so far:
-Yes, the stock fans for the AIO I use were, and are potentially the most audible, but that's in a chassis with NF-A14s and A15s(NH-D15S).
Fractal Dynamic X2-GP12 > NF-A14/A15(~1300rpm and above) > Celsius S36 pump(100%) > NF-A14/A15(1000rpm and lower)

-After I replaced the AIO's stock fans with even quieter NF-S12As, that changed.
NF-A14/A15(~1300rpm and above) > Celsius S36 pump(100%) > NF-A14/A15(1000rpm and lower) > NF-S12A

I can hear the pump - a steady, subtle hum to it - over the other fans if I run them at 1000rpm or less.
Then again, sound is subjective; people can be sensitive to certain sounds.
 
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