A CPU in operation is very busy doing a lot of things. Unfortunately one of those is converting electrical energy into thermal energy, creating large amounts of heat. Whether you’re gaming, editing high-res images, 3D modeling, or just multi-tasking, demanding a lot from your PC means it generates a lot of heat. There are two ways to safely manage your PC’s heat: air cooling and liquid cooling. Both have their benefits and drawbacks.
Air Cooling
Of the two, air cooling is more affordable. In this system, heat is transferred from the CPU to a heat sink, then a fan pushes warm air away from the CPU and other heat-sensitive components. Commonly found in consumer PCs, air cooling is cost-effective and entirely sufficient for most users. It’s easy to install too, requiring only some screws and plugging in a cable. Most CPUs come equipped with an air cooling solution so that you needn’t worry about purchasing additional components to support it. Air cooling is easy to maintain. Clean the dust out of your PC every few months and you’ll do just fine. Watch our video about cleaning your computer here: • How to Physically Clean Your Computer...
Despite these advantages, air cooling is not perfect. Some air cooling systems can be space intensive, restricting access to other components in the PC case. This can make system upgrades harder. Air cooling relies on fans, which can get noisy depending on how hard they need to work to cool down your system. Quieter fans are available but cost extra. Lastly, air cooling cannot handle very intense workloads, and will struggle to keep such systems at a safe temperature. Systems that spend too long at high temperature can experience component failure, an expensive prospect.
Liquid Cooling
Most liquid cooling options come in either All-In-One systems (AIOs), or custom cooling loops. Both use a pump to push liquid coolant to and from a radiator through a water block attached to the CPU. Heat is transferred from the CPU to the cool liquid, which is pumped throughout the entire system and cooled via the aforementioned radiator. Most people use AIOs because it is a simple system of a single unit that is ready to install. Liquid cooling’s effectiveness outstrips air cooling, and can look very cool and futuristic, but is more expensive and harder to set up, especially when it comes to custom liquid cooling setups. Simply working with liquid coolant near expensive computer components can be highly nerve-wracking. It also requires more maintenance: for example cleaning channels and maintaining fluid levels.
New builders seeking a more affordable way of getting into liquid cooling are in luck, as AIO liquid coolers mitigate a lot of these downsides, being closer to high-end air cooling systems in terms of installation, maintenance, and cost.
Making a Decision
Your decision will likely come down to some combination of personal preference, budget, comfort level, and system needs. Remember there are air cooling systems that have characteristics associated with liquid cooling, like quieter operating and RGB accents, and liquid cooling systems that are cheaper and easier to install and manage, like air cooling systems. Ultimately, the only thing that matters is that your PC’s temperature stays down. What was the system in your last PC build? Let us know in the comments below.
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0:00 Intro
1:23 Air Cooling
2:50 Liquid Cooling
4:56 Making Decision
5:23 Outro
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