{"id":407,"date":"2022-03-21T16:26:04","date_gmt":"2022-03-21T16:26:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wordpress-698089-2344727.cloudwaysapps.com\/2022\/03\/21\/air-vs-aio-cooling-for-cpu\/"},"modified":"2023-06-28T07:13:39","modified_gmt":"2023-06-28T07:13:39","slug":"air-vs-aio-cooling-for-cpu","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.gearlush.com\/air-vs-aio-cooling-for-cpu\/","title":{"rendered":"Air vs AIO Cooling For CPU"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"elementor-widget-wrap\">\n<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-76b927f elementor-widget elementor-widget-theme-post-content\" data-id=\"76b927f\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"theme-post-content.default\">\n<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n<p>One of the key factors that determines your PC\u2019s overall performance is the CPU temperature. The CPU is arguably the most critical component of your PC, but it needs the right temperature to work efficiently.<\/p>\n<p>Anything higher than that will cause thermal throttling and will result in performance degradation or CPU bottlenecking.<\/p>\n<p>All you need to dissipate this heat is a cpu cooler.<\/p>\n<p>But this is where things get interesting as they\u2019re different types of coolers in the market, of which two most popular ones are Air coolers and AIO coolers.<\/p>\n<div id=\"toc_container\" class=\"no_bullets\">\n<p class=\"toc_title\">Table of Contents <span class=\"toc_toggle\">[<a href=\"#\">hide<\/a>]<\/span><\/p>\n<ul class=\"toc_list\">\n<li><a href=\"#Air_cooling\">Air cooling:<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"#AIO_cooling\">AIO cooling:<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"#Air_vs_AIO_cooling\">Air vs AIO cooling<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"#Conclusion\">Conclusion<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<h2><span id=\"Air_cooling\"><strong>Air cooling:<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>As suggested by its name, air cooling involves air. Air coolers transfer away the heat from the CPU\u2019s IHS (Integrated Heat Spreader) to its conductive baseplate through a thermal paste\/pad. After this, this heat is transferred from the baseplate to the cooler\u2019s heatsink fins through the attached copper heatpipes. After this, the heat is pushed away from the heatsink via the cooler\u2019s fan.<\/p>\n<p>Air coolers can be very effective but it depends on their build quality, fan quality, material, design, and size. Large air coolers generally perform better but not everyone has a chassis large enough to accommodate them.<\/p>\n<h2><span id=\"AIO_cooling\"><strong>AIO cooling:<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>Up next we have the AIO cooling. Its working principle is the same as air cooling, but instead of air, a coolant (liquid) is used here to transfer away the heat.<\/p>\n<p>Like air coolers, AIO coolers have a baseplate connected to the CPU\u2019s IHS. This baseplate is a part of the waterblock that is connected to the radiator through liquid-filled tubes.<\/p>\n<p>After this, the liquid absorbs the heat and travels to the radiator (through tubes) which is usually mounted at the top or front of the PC case. The radiator has built-in fan(s) that blow away heat and cools down the liquid. And the whole process starts again.<\/p>\n<h2><span id=\"Air_vs_AIO_cooling\"><strong>Air vs AIO cooling<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>Now that we\u2019ve learned how air and AIO coolers work, we\u2019ll compare their different aspects to see which one of them is better suited for your PC.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>Ease of Installation<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>Although both air and AIO coolers come with a straightforward installation process, we would suggest air coolers if you\u2019re building your first PC \u2013 just for the sake of simplicity.<\/p>\n<p>For air coolers, the installation process typically goes like this: you attach mounting brackets on your motherboard, apply thermal paste on your processor, attach the fan with the heatsink, align the heatsink with the CPU before attaching it to brackets, and connect the fan cable to the motherboard headers.<\/p>\n<p>To install an AIO unit, you\u2019ll need to attach its waterblock on the CPU (just like you attach an air cooler) and then attach the radiator on either the top or front side of your chassis, depending on the rad size and the chassis.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>Noise<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>In general, AIOs produce less noise than the air coolers. Most of them have 2-3 fans installed in their radiator which means they can afford to rotate less fast (producing less noise) while dissipating the same amount of heat as a typical air cooler.<\/p>\n<p>That being said, there are some manufacturers (be quiet!, Noctua, etc.) who specialize in producing silent-operation air coolers.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>Performance<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>AIOs perform slightly better than air coolers in terms of heat dissipation. That\u2019s why it\u2019s better to go for an AIO unit if you\u2019re going to perform heavy-duty tasks on your PC, or would like to overclock the processor down the road.<\/p>\n<p>Unlike AIO coolers which push the heat out of your chassis, air coolers push it into your chassis\u2019 atmosphere. It means your case fans must be good enough to take this heat out of the chassis if you\u2019re looking to go for an air cooler.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>Compatibility<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>Although both air and AIO coolers are compatible with all the major socket types, you can face some issues regarding their weight and length.<\/p>\n<p>Many high-end air coolers weigh more than 1 KG. It means if your motherboard is flimsy, it can bend or even break due to extra stress. Bulky air coolers can also create compatibility issues if you currently own an SFF PC.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>You can opt for a low-profile air cooler for those cases, but its performance will be lesser than its regular-sized variant.<\/p>\n<p>The AIO coolers don\u2019t face weight issues as the waterblock is fairly light, but you\u2019ll have to consider radiator size before choosing one for your PC. AIO coolers\u2019 radiators come in different sizes ranging from 120mm-360mm. And like with air coolers, it\u2019s your PC case that will determine the biggest AIO cooler you can put. Your best resource is the specs-sheet.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>Reliability<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>For many years, people used to consider AIOs as less reliable than AIO coolers.<\/p>\n<p>Since AIO coolers come with a liquid filled inside their tubes, there\u2019s an inherent risk of them leaking out and damaging your other PC parts.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>But now this perception is changing. Most AIOs come with 2-5 year warranty these days and easily last 5-7 years in reality.<\/p>\n<p>Moreover, AIOs have fewer points of failure than most air coolers. It means in case you\u2019re shifting your PC from one place to another, an air cooler has a higher chance of breaking down than an AIO cooler.<\/p>\n<p>That being said, this warranty can get void if you disassemble your AIO cooler or do improper installation. That\u2019s Why we would suggest going for air coolers if you aren\u2019t comfortable with this stuff.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>Price<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>The only major factor that keeps people away from AIO coolers is the price. Most of them have a starting price of sub-$100, which is higher than even the flagship air coolers from Noctua and be quiet!.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>On the other hand, AIO manufacturers argue that the price is justified considering the extra bells and whistles you get in these units, such as RGB lighting, customizable waterblock, VRM cooling fan, etc.<\/p>\n<h2><span id=\"Conclusion\"><strong>Conclusion<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>Both air and AIO coolers have their own advantages and disadvantages, and it ultimately boils down to your preferences.<\/p>\n<p>In case you\u2019re building a PC for the first time, or having a tight budget, then a good 3rd-party air cooler would be a good start for you.<\/p>\n<p>On the other hand, if you\u2019re an experienced PC builder, and building a high-end PC on which you plan on doing some heavy-duty work, then an AIO cooler would serve you better.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>One of the key factors that determines your PC\u2019s overall performance is the CPU temperature. The CPU is arguably the most critical component of your PC, but it needs the right temperature to work efficiently. Anything higher than that will cause thermal throttling and will result in performance degradation or CPU bottlenecking. All you need [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gearlush.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/407"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gearlush.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gearlush.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gearlush.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gearlush.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=407"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.gearlush.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/407\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gearlush.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=407"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gearlush.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=407"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gearlush.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=407"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}