Is Heat Sink Better than Water Cooling?

[yutubemedia]

I know the big fancy water cooling sets are better, but I always thought the maintenance free water cooling CPU coolers such as "CoolIT SYSTEMS Domino A.L.C" Were better than any other normal heatsink?? But in these reviews of the best cpu coolers, almost ALL of them are Heatsinks and not water coolers???

http://benchmarkreviews.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=432&Itemid=62&limit=1&limitstart=20

and http://www.legitreviews.com/article/1212/6/

Because the CoolIT SYSTEMS Domino A.L.C Advanced Liquid Cooling is what I was thinking of getting, I have a i7 950, what are your suggestions, I wanted top of the line, but not to expensive. Maby $65 max. Thanks

 

[hunter315]

The low end self contained water coolers get beaten by a good air cooler, often for cheaper, even a fairly cheap air cooler like the Hyper 212+ will perform similarly to something like the CoolIT ALC or the Corsair H50.

 

[MU_Engineer]

I know the big fancy water cooling sets are better, but I always thought the maintenance free water cooling CPU coolers such as "CoolIT SYSTEMS Domino A.L.C" Were better than any other normal heatsink?? But in these reviews of the best cpu coolers, almost ALL of them are Heatsinks and not water coolers???

http://benchmarkreviews.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=432&Itemid=62&limit=1&limitstart=20

and http://www.legitreviews.com/article/1212/6/

Because the CoolIT SYSTEMS Domino A.L.C Advanced Liquid Cooling is what I was thinking of getting, I have a i7 950, what are your suggestions, I wanted top of the line, but not to expensive. Maby $65 max. Thanks

All cooling systems eventually dissipate the heat generated by the CPU into the room air; it doesn't matter if it's done directly as with an air-cooled heatsink, or if it's done indirectly as in a water-cooling loop. The greater the heatsink surface area, the cooler the ambient air, and the greater the airflow, the higher the cooling capacity. Most traditional assemble-it-yourself water cooling loops use a radiator that takes at least two 120 mm fans on a single side of the radiator for CPU cooling. The biggest air-cooled heatsinks generally use one 140 mm fan per side. The radiator thus has more cooling capacity as it has a greater usable surface area and higher airflow, assuming similar fan noise levels. The self-contained water-cooling units have a single 120 mm fan radiator, so it's not surprising they don't cool a CPU as well as an enormous 140 mm fan air-cooled heatsink.

However, you may still want to use one of the little self-contained units in certain situations. The part that mounts on the CPU is a lot smaller and shorter than a 120 mm tower heatsink and you can put the radiator anywhere the hoses will reach, such as on the top, side, or back of the case. This lets you use one of the self-contained units in cases that are too narrow to fit a 120 mm tower heatsink or on boards that have clearance issues with 120 mm tower heatsinks, but still get cooling performance similar to a 120 mm tower heatsink. My particular computer case's motherboard compartment is 4U in depth and will not fit 120 mm tower heatsinks.