By matt safford 18 september 2020 here are the best cpu cooler solutions air and liquid aio for a range of systems from small form factor builds to overclocked big rigs.
Liquid cpu cooling vs fan and heatsink.
Water blocks that come with aio coolers which attach to the cpu are far smaller than the traditional heatsink and fan which air coolers use.
The pros and cons of liquid cooling a cpu.
The self contained loop of water cools quietly so you don t have to worry about loud fans breaking your focus while fighting that last big boss in your favorite game.
Liquid cooling requires much less space and it looks a lot.
A water cooling kit will reduce the need to use more than one fan in your pc case.
Cpu coolers generally come in two varieties.
Liquid cooling especially when using an all in one aio tends to be quieter than the fan on a cpu heatsink.
However liquid cooling a pc can also be dangerous if water leaks onto hardware.
Liquid cooling is the best way to cool a cpu because water transfers heat much more efficiently than air.
The main difference in air vs water cooling is the presence of a heatsink.
Five things to consider before you choose.
A huge heat sink fan combination might perform well enough but the best cpu coolers eat up a ton of real estate inside your case.
The first is an air cooler which comes with a big metal heat sink and a fan that pulls air away heat from the cpu.
The purpose of a heatsink is to dissipate heat with or without a fan attached.
This method of cooling completely removes the issue of ram clearance and altogether it makes the build look cleaner.
Again this can vary in that there are air coolers with fans specifically designed to reduce noise and fan settings or fan selection can impact the amount of noise generated.