Is liquid cooling worth it?

[mastergriefs]

I currently am using a stock cooler, but am upgrading CPU's to a rather hot one, and am going to use a Hyper 212 Evo, but I was considering using an AIO, how much of a difference is there in between a good AIO and a good air cooler? Also are the acoustics and worse on AIO's than a liquid cooler, or is it relatively the same nowadays?

 

[Zerk2012]

A good AIO and a good air cooler about nothing but the higher price of the AIO.
For the price of low end water is the 60 buck area you can buy a much better air cooler.
Most water coolers the fan noise is a lot more.

 

[Gadhar]

AIO's are over priced and can be out perfomed by the top air coolers out there. The 212 is still a good cooler, especially since it is currently on sale at newegg, but there are better ones out there if you are willing to spend a bit more money.

 

[rubix_1011]

This is a good question and one I can help shed some light on.

AIOs often have higher noise levels (look at decibel readings on our cooler charts) due to having more fans and denser fin arrays.

Good air coolers don't always perform as good as good AIO coolers. It often takes a very good or great air cooler to reach the same performance, but again, this depends on the coolers being compared, so don't assume this applies to every instance of cooler.

Some of the best AIO coolers have high noise levels because they utilize higher spinning fans to cool the radiators. Air coolers rely on very large fin surface areas to do this, which requires less dramatic airflow.

 

[n0ns3ns3]

Simply put, not everything that has a "water/liquid" in the name will do wonders for cooling.
If you have 160mm clearance for CPU cooler, a decent air cooler (~50$ and up) will usually perform same or better as most 240 AiOs.
Air coolers will be usually quieter for the same performance.
Liquid cooling practical reasons are space constrains and aesthetics. There is also a case of over 200W CPUs. High end custom loops do few degree better cooling (at lower noise) and allow another 100-200MHz overclock. that comes with the price difference of few hundreds $.
It is (custom loops) nice to have and cool hobby, but otherwise, get decent air cooler.
As for AiOs, except those niche use cases, not worth it.

 

[rubix_1011]

A lot of this also depends on 'what IS worth it to you'...whether that is money, real-world cooling performance or just telling your buddies that you have liquid cooling.