How do preassembled liquid coolers compare to air cooling?

[NunzioTheGreat]

Sometime in the future, I'm looking to update my I5-4570 to an I5-7600K or I7-7700K, as well as getting a 1151 motherboard to go with it and a large full tower like the Corsair 750D to house it all. As it stands, I have a small mid tower case with only two case fans and a stock CPU cooler. While this is fine for the I5-4570, there's no way it'll accommodate a much more powerful CPU in terms of temp regulation.

So I'll be between air or liquid cooling for the revamped system. Since a $300 custom water loop I won't be able to assemble isn't really in the question, I'll be looking for a preassembled system. (Currently looking at a Corsair H105) If I go air cooled, it'll just be a standard CM 212 Heatsink and a bunch of fans.

In terms of the ability to cool and relative noise, what would be better, a liquid cooled system with, say, four case fans, or an air cooled system with maybe six case fans? If the case has 3x 120mm fan slots up top, will it fit a 240mm radiator up there?

Thanks so much!

 

[Math Geek]

the best air coolers usually beat out the AIO water coolers for less money. a lot less money. space is a consideration if you don't have room for "big air" then a small AIO loop may be more ideal.

those high end air coolers also have great fans on them that are rather quiet while the AIO's seem to be rather noisy especially the pump itself. overall, if you got room, then a large air cooler is better bang for the buck.

 

[USAFRet]

Liquid cooling only brings the advantage of a larger fin area.
A 120mm liquid cooling situation is no better, and maybe worse, than the better air coolers.

A 240 or 280mm AIO liquid cooler can keep things a little bit cooler, maybe.
And only because there is actually more fin area to dissipate the generated heat.
If you could get an air cooler with that same fin square inch space, it would probably do as well as the larger liquids. But obviously, you can't hand that much material off the CPU/motherboard.
The liquid allows you to mount that fin area elsewhere.

But they are not magic.

I have a Cryorig A80.
Previously, I was using a CoolerMaster 212 PLUS.
Temps went down 12C under max load.
But it is a little bit noisier than the previous air cooler. But only a little tiny bit.

 

[gondo]

Good advice so far. An AIO doesn't perform any better than good air. Where it does shine is under heavy load such as gaming. Liquid is great under heavy load with all the extra heat.

Another positive for liquid is the small water block compared to a pound of heatsink hanging from the CPU. And you have no fans spinning near the CPU where there are cables running to the motherboard. Just the small waterblock, lack of CPU fan that can catch cables and alter in case airflow, make liquid cooling desireable for me.

But dollar for dollar, good air cooling works very good and can be had for under $40. The new Intel and future Ryzen from AMD don't heat up very much.