Whats better air cooled or water cooled

[Spazzonater]

I was woundering what was better, water cooled or air cooled?

What gets colder, performs better cost effective, and effecient.

:pc: Da spazzman

[Drake]

Cost effective: air
Performance: water

You could spend a few hundred on a WC system, but the most expensive HSFs are $60 at most.

[foment]

Yeah I would have to agree.

My old trusty thermalright slk800 with a nice 50db 80mm fan kept my amd chip at a decent 48-52C with full load.

Now that I switched to WC I get almost 5-9C cooler but it is a lot quieter, looks cooler, is more impressive than regular cooling

but the major benefit is.....I get to do a lot more tweaking with my computer now.

I keep making adjustments here and there...which is what really makes me happy I think. If I had a nice computer that was stable and never gave me problems...I doubt I would be happy.

My comp is stable as a rock mind you, but its the little things here and there that I have to tweak that keeps me occupied and keeps me away from doing effective and tremendous school work...but hey im only a history major....I can read shit later ;)

[Kill-Switch]

Air cooling is most cost effective and can rival watercooling for low temps ... but you'll have to put up with an insane number of noisey fans on the go which will drive you nuts.

Watercooling is way more expensive but you get better temps without an increase in noise levels. I hesitate to say it's quieter than air cooling as my own watercooling setup is almost as noisey as when i had air cooling :(

[Drake]

Watercooling can cool more effectively than air cooling, so it's loudness/quietness is dependant on the components, what it's cooling, and how well you want it to cool.

[WesM63]

Drake's right, water is 30% more efficient than air. Water shows its true potentail under load with lots of Volts. Water is so effective that you'll see hardly any increase in temp. I think the only down side to water cooling is you can only effectivly cool the water back down to room tempature. So in theory ambient temp should be the lowest temps you'll see without fans on the rad. With fans you may see a degree or two below ambient.

I like air cooling and see no problem with it, it's alot easier than water, but is'nt as great as a performer.

[Gregorach]

Conventional water cooling will never get you below ambient, not matter how big your rad or fans are. The only way to get sub-ambient is to use some form of chilling - either electrical (TECs), evaporative (bongs), or phase-change (Vapochill).

As everyone else has said, air is fine if you're not a tweak monster. If you're a tweak monster, water is the way to go, if only because it gives you more to tweak... Oh, and don't forget the incredible chic and glamour of it! :D

D