Air Cooler vs AIO Liquid Cooler - 240mm AIO vs Dark Rock Pro 4

[@mikesunboxing]

Aio coolers have a certain mystique and luxury look to them, so for selling a pc or instagram posts they look great, but like you mentioned an air cooler is the low maintenance and relatively risk free and often cheaper option for similar performance.

[@Ked778]

Until the liquid leaks and destroys the whole pc lol

[@MrBeast1901]

@zakae6hdt7”it won’t, unless it does”

[@henry3397]

I think the biggest factor for me is product quality. I can get a Noctua D15 and know with great certainty that I’m getting a well engineered and high build quality product. Which product would be the equivalent to that in the AIO space? Well, I’m not really sure. It seems to me that the pumps are made by only two manufacturers, so you’re a bit more limited, and you’re also at the mercy of the AIO builder regarding what kind of coolant they put in and how clean it is. Definitely less risk overall with air coolers

[@Pillokun]

The Cinebench score might be because the AIO fans are blowing the air out so the fans that are mounted at the front of the case will not help that much when the air is redirected directly up and out from the case by the fans of the aio. While with the air cooler the air is simply pushed straight through the fans and the socket area and out through the back. The only thing that I can come up with right now that could affect the cpu perf in cinebench.

[@yuesu2325]

I prefer air cooler nowaday because of less risk and less expansive with relatively same performance, although I've ran the same AIO for 8 years before without any problem I figured it wasn't really worth it because I didn't overclock the CPU and while gaming the GPU temp was more important than CPU temp.

[@sydskits5962]

Consider swapping out the front fan with one that has a higher RPM to observe a 2-degree temperature decrease, 2000 rpm to 2500 rpm. Additionally, you can eliminate the 135mm middle fan and the rubber dampeners and replace it with a 120mm fan that has a higher RPM to achieve an additional 1.5-degree reduction thats 3 to 3.5C drop right there given it would be noisy. Original fans are silent but don't perform as well.

[@agentb4074]

Huh... I've had the opposite experience, in regards to noise. I bought an Arctic Liquid Freezer II 280mm, and I haven't heard any noise from it - like, ever. I did set my own fan curve in the BIOS to be just a teeny bit slower speed, though. I can't hear the pump at all, even with no other noise in the system. It's much quieter than my previous air cooler - but granted, my air cooler was a really cheap Hyper 212 something. And the non-RGB Arctic LF2 only has a single cable to control everything! (Unless you are super-controlling, like me. I disconnected the fans from the splitter, and plugged them into sys_fan headers so I could control them independently.) edit: I'm not trying to argue in favor of liquid cooling. Just giving my experience. Most of the time, I recommend air coolers to friends. I like experimenting with my PC, though.

[@tangosucka2000]

Been running the Dark Rock Pro 4 for 3 years now, has been great and no dramas with my OC'd CPU (3.8ghz to 5.1ghz). Wanted to give my PC a bit of a birthday, so just purchased the Deepcool Assassin 4 and installed it 2 days ago and wow! In game CPU temps have dropped around 7-10 degrees which is awesome. It's also super quiet. 90% of my friends went to AIO's years ago and made fun of me as I stayed on air. We all have high end builds. Now nearly all of them have come back to air after pump failures, leaks, noise, etc etc. They said I was right all along 😅

[@Ked778]

The Deepcool Assassin 4 looks gorgeous 🗿

[@ArcturionX]

I've been on air for years now but switching to AIO for my new build this December. I'm switching because I just like the aesthetic of AIO so much more. Are the issues really that prevalent?

[@runeluqman]

@@ArcturionX I've been using a secondhand cheap AIO the ID COOLING auraflow 240 for 4 years. Never had a problem with it. Just changed to the dark rock pro 4 a few days ago.

[@runeluqman]

I just bought the bq dark rock pro 4 a few days ago and installed it. Is the performance of the assassin iv really that much better or could an old thermal paste be a factor? just curious. Either way, I got the dark rock pro 4 at a steal for 189. the assassin iv is beautiful but its too expensive at almost 500

[@tangosucka2000]

@@runeluqman No, the Assassin definitely out performs the DR4 Pro. The DR4 has never run as cool as my system runs now, and I only put new paste on the DR4 around 6 months ago. And I ran Artic MX4 on both coolers. The Assassin 4 runs cooler and is a heap quieter too. Really impressed!

[@ArdgalAlkeides]

If your issue is the mass of wires, the gaudy RGB, etc. .. just get an actually good AIO from Arctic instead of those bad value RGB garbage things.

[@ArdgalAlkeides]

Also you'd get the extra benefit of the offset mounting which improves temps.

[@GameWithTonyYT]

My Arctic freezer 360 AIO started having pump noise after 1.5 years. And yes it is properly mounted.

[@JamieR]

​@@ArdgalAlkeidesAdd in a contact frame and undervolting for even more performance, especially on intel 13/14th gen 👌🏻

[@greymack]

When I built my rig last year I went down the AIO route, won't do that again. Noisier and more problematic, I had a dark rock 3 previously and it was dull yes but never skipped a beat and was super silent... Everyday a school day 😁

[@KevinEF]

I don't recommend AIOs, but was the AIO improperly mounted with the radiator on the front or bottom of the case? It shouldn't really be too loud if it's mounted on the top as intended.

[@gordon861]

Last time I built a new PC I bought a 240mm AIO for the CPU, bloody thing was constantly humming, RMA'd it and got a Noctua air cooler, never looked back.

[@Boorock70]

I went with the Thermalright Frost Commander FC 140 for half of that price tag & it's a beast both in Cooling / Low-Noise performance!

[@mitchellputukara1711]

I have e a BE quite dark rock pro 4. I will never ever put a AIO in my expensive pc. I don't need to stress

[@tpmunizz]

The reason is the aircooler is more stable, when the AIO'd Cpu hits high temperature, it takes more time to cool, more time "locked".

[@InimicusSolitus]

I have used the dark rock for years, in 2 builds, with zero issues. Also no RGB !

[@peite7878]

If you have pets or are prone to get lots of dust in your PC the AIO’s radiator will also get mucked up with very hard to clean dust and dirt -essentially blocking all airflow out from the PC. I don’t get why people complain on GPU and mobo prices and still buys unnecessary AIO’s. Better buy a good air cooler (if you don’t OC -you could just get an Evo 212), add some extra fans to the chassi, take some time to wrap up all cables nicely to increase air flow inside. Finding ways to keep the GPU temp down will always be a gamers main concern. Also, vacuum clean your room once every week 😉

[@Kapono5150]

After using the NH D15 in the Fractal torrent, iv gone Air cooling all the way. Using 7900X currently

[@jessiemyers1675]

Been a pain on virtually building my PC. Just trying to figure out the correct path to choose for the CPU cooler. Been leaning towards Air for these exact differences. But reading the comment section it seems that I've leaned the right way since AIO leak and gives a lot of problems. I grew up in the 90s and had to deal with phone snow & dial-up. So I'm not worried about sound. Looks like I will be going with the Noctua 15 or be quiet! Rock Pro 5. Thank you!

[@linkzellda]

Me trying to figureout about AIo and Air Cooler because I can't decide which one to get. The Computer I am building is for Gaming, Video Editing, and Digital Art.

[@WatchTheLadyOfHeaven313]

Which one you ended up choosing?

[@linkzellda]

@@WatchTheLadyOfHeaven313 Air

[@pvue]

After more than a decade and 2 failed AIO's (Both failed within 2 yrs of use), it's only air cooler for me now. Air coolers have less points of failure; essentially just the fans, and I have case fans that are going 10+ yrs. Price, performance, and longevity, a good air cooler is my choice. Currently using the Noctua NH-D15 Chromax Black.

[@KevinEF]

old comment, but not only are there less points of failure, but if a fan fails on an air cooler, then you can visually see it and replace it easily. When a pump fails, or something leaks, it's catastrophic and you have to replace the entire cooler. You also have to top off the water cooler every few years.

[@JamieR]

I run the glacier one 280 in front, pump at 50% and it's almost inaudible. Same with the fans, running low curve with an undervolt of -175mV and 140mm fans in top. Having the AIO in front will yield way better temps based on butwits tests and my own included. As you barely heat the gpu, and the cpu gets fresh air. Add a contact plate to LGA 1700 and you'll have a good time. Got a 13600K at 59-65c under full load, 30 minutes at a this temp, and regular runs hit 23944 r23 score. Pretty pleased with that. This is before adding contact frame, which arrives in a few days.

[@kolyagreen1566]

I have 240 mm AOI on top. And pump noise kills it, very noisy for me. I have Deepcool LS520. The temperatures are good. But the noise...

[@jamesm568]

I use both depending on the size of the case. I've never had an AIO outlast an air cooler.

[@0Bariq0]

you really summed it up at the end. aio is slightly cooler in temp. but air cooler with much cheaper price preforms almost the same. I switched to aio because of the weight, and looks nice. the aio i bought was only $75 thermalright 360 magic. my old heatsink was AG400 for $30...performs almost the same, aio is 2 degrees cooler but noiser, if you were to drop down the speed of pump and fans, you get back to same result. so meh, the best option probably is a heatsink with support and extra fans. but that would come to the same price as this aio i bought. so yeah

[@jeremiah4112]

Hate RGB. Hate glass panels. Been running air cooled systems for 20 years with no problems.

[@avirtualworld4U]

I am an air cooler person always have been, I enjoyed your presentation thx.

[@drdoomslab]

Have to disagree / have some of my own opinions on some of your points. 1. air cooler heavy? thats what the spreader on the back of the MB is for along with big bolts. much better than the crappy super heavy gfx cards we have now hanging off a pci-e lane and a couple of screws on the other end (gigabyte anyone?). Also AIO can be kinda heavy. Just not putting all the wait on the cpu bracket. Also super Heavy massive GFX cars anyone? But yeah even then my 4x HDD's and 2s sdds i have in my old system wayed more than the air D14 cooler. 2. the MB power supply prob had no air flow over them so they ran hotter with the AIO and hence needed more power to run at a similar if slower speed. 3. you did not really seem to test the AOI cooler for that long. 30mins is almost long enough for the water to just about get up to temp. but prolonged testing (many hours) the water will be hotter and not release as much heat as it did. So over time it would lose performance. Maybe you did test this but from my previous usage of AOI's is you need to test them for longer to see the correct results. I used to have AOI's on my old system, a 3770K @4.9ghz. AIO's are grate for fitting in some good cooling into small places as well. But i had my first pump fail about 2 years in. luckily cpu was all good even though it got super hot it throttled very well and survived (it was on a 3D render at the time). I got another bigger AIO this time and all was good again for another 2 years. Then the pump failed. Went back to a big ass air cooler, D14. And now on my new system i have a DR4 running on a 5800x and it can hit 5ghz on one to two cores, lol. Most of the time its just 4.9ghz most cores and 4.8ghz on all cores when rendering. Pritty good but still nothing like the old cpus for overclocking. That 3770k was ment to be 3.5ghz but ran at 4.9ghz and then 4.7 on air rendering 3d animations and video for nearly 7 years straight. Never have had any issues since with ether (other than sata on the old system). It might be about 200mhz slower on the old cpu compared to the AIO but no issues with a pump fail. And it didnt really change render times much at all. I might have to change some fans sometime but ive never had to so far (the AIO fans are still running, lol). Even then for one to just die on me without making some horrible noises is unlikely. lol. Cheers

[@benjammin3714]

CPU stats should def be included because of throttling, that's how you could see slightly lower temps alongside reduced performance. The CPU is a higher temp because it's more active which would imply better performance. The fact it's throttling more and achieving a lower temp with a certain cooler doesn't necessarily mean the cooler is performing better but possibly that the CPU is performing worse. Ambient room temp and humidity are also directly proportional to how efficient a cooler can be.

[@grtitann7425]

I would love to see this review but with an Artic Freeze II 120.

[@GungHoSourdough]

I currently have a Kraken Elite 280mm AIO installed and it runs great however I may swap to a TR Peerless Assassin SE cause of the easier mountability than the AIO as the radiator and fans are front mounted externally on my case which isn’t a good look

[@_-_-.-_-_]

Good video on the PROs and CONs of air vs liquid.

[@ronaldkuizon5713]

I am just wondering what if you have a hot environment? What is your ambient temp when making the test. I live in the Philippines by the way.

[@TheCritter024]

In a room at 27C-30C, idle temp: 36C-lowest and 47 highest and in stress test never got more than 74C. This is my own test, cant say if you will get better or worse result. Cooler Dark Rock Pro 4, cpu AMD Ryzen 9 7900X3D (cpu is great, no ideea why people hate it so much and I use it for gaming and pro video editing) and thermal paste, the one that comes with the cooler.

[@datapro007]

I prefer the air cooler. Safety and reliability, less cost all trump a few degrees in a stress test to the good.

[@DeeDee.Ranged]

People also forget that RGB (specially a lot) consumes power and it can make upto 4/5W at the wall. Electricity being so expensive in Europe I switched off all my RGB every penny/eurocent helps.

[@frankwalker3362]

You can’t be serious.

[@willy7968]

U might as well stop using a gaming PC if 4/5 watts matters to u that much

[@ky9263]

​@frankwalker3362 dead serious. I stopped watering my goldfish bc 😊of drought.

[@ky9263]

​@@willy7968it was for back light decor who said anything about gaming.

[@Kie-7077]

Eh, looks to me like the air cooler completed the cinebench runs before the AIO and with the temp spiking later, I'd call that a win.

[@Kie-7077]

I'm done with AIO, after just 3 years of very very light use - mostly just a couple of hours a day web browsing and my Arctic Freezer II pump died. the fans all work, heatsinks obviosly can't die. So given that air coolers are just as quiet and cool just as well, I'm 100% going back to air cooling, all the noise about AIOs being better clearly was not true. Only advantage is they look nice but I prefer dampened quiet closed case anyway.

[@Pharesm]

Don't forget, if you install a Dark Rock on your CPU, you can't move or ship it without uninstalling it, or it'll rip your mainboard off its stays, or it even rips the mainboard stays off the case. An AIO water cooler is much less likely to mess up your system

[@TheCritter024]

Thats what the spreader on the back of the mobo is for along with big bolts. Idk man, never had any issues with them, no matter the brand of mobo, cpu (different brakets) or any thing else in 4 pc builds. People are afraid of them because those collers are heavy and they are right about that but mine is 3 year old and still working great. If you know some people who had issues, it could be an install mistake.

[@Username4453]

You can lay your pc flat when your moving it then.

[@Pharesm]

@@Username4453 doesn't really work for shipping, since it'll get tossed and not kept "flat". If you're just moving it from room to room, you'll certainly not have a problem..

[@TheCritter024]

@@Username4453 Yes I know that. Cooler and RAM was already mounted before the mobo got into the case (GT 501).

[@lukec.6658]

I built my pc in 2019 with an i7-8700k + dark rock pro 4 + MSI RTX 2080 trio. I would drive my PC 30 minutes to work 5 days a week, buckled it in like a person in my passenger seat, completely upright. Did that for about a year and a half. Obviously not the brightest thing I have ever done, but I still have the same computer and use it every day with no problems.

[@alexrahardjazh]

Air cooled is heavy granted but if any vendor can create low profile air cooler that almost have the same tdp with the huge tower or dual tower air cooler. The weigjt will decrease significantly

[@Roman00744]

I prefer air cooling, got 2 nhd15, 2 nhd12 and a few other smaller air coolers, got an Arctic liquid freezer 420 aio sitting in my closet, was on sale open box for 100$ so couldn't pass that deal, might use it some day.

[@Smartphonekanalen]

It's no logic in the cinebench score. How optimized is the AIO CPU water block? Does it cool all the cores equal? How cool is the motherboard chipset? I'm using a kraken in the same way and sometimes the performance is not logical since the motherboard becomes hot.

[@ThisOLmaan]

@TechteamGB Been wanting to buy the Dark Rock Pro 4 but till i upgrade my CPU, already had the AIO Leak in mind don't think i'd ever buy one for the fear of Leaks... also don't mind me asking the Hieght of UR Ram Sticks ? Thank you for sharing this video...

[@Forsigh]

Problem with air cooler i had, i was using one for good long time, after roughly every 2-3 years it would break my processor thanks to gravity. I decided to go with AIO just so it wont happen again.

[@bigskydude8068]

Unless your doing some heavy overclocking, air coolers are by far the better way to go....

[@randomanun4278]

Peerless assassin is 33 bucks your average aio peice is 60 the diffderence is roughly 4c choose accordingly.

[@Grahamaan27]

Why did you say in the conclusion the air cooled version might struggle to keep up? All your tests showed it outperformed. Would it be hotter? Sure, but performance wise it was better

[@HansenPL]

Interesting review and comparison.

[@alexmannen1991]

do aio do better on idle or light load?

[@Scorpio_1974]

Yeah, I have seen where a company made the Liquid but did not include the fans made no sense at all...smh!

[@alexarose2996]

Where are the temps ?

[@Groove1024]

Hey! nice video i got a AIO a long time ago it was running one 120mm fan (was also of course the seize of that fan) and it was fine with the I5 760 and a geforce GTX 460 1gb of that time i did use that for way more than what they said you should... about 8 years of use and of course you can imagine that the poor I5 760 after 8 year was not the best CPU anymore and been at 100% usage a lot! (i never overclock cause it's useless even if it might have become a good idea with that poor old thing) then it died.... the day i sell the PC the AIO die the pump did suicide and anyways when i did cut the tube to do an autopsie there was almost nothing left on the circuit! (i sold it with a heatsink i was having at home the next day :p ) so i will say AIO are not that bad but, my old DELL Precision T5810 from 2014 is still running it's Xeon E5 2697 V3 with it's 140 watts of TDP and a Quadro P4000 and it did not fail cause it's a good old heatsink and fan so my new computer i bought brand new few month ago with a I5 14500 and a RTX 4070 super is running with a good old Noctua NH-U12S Chromax Black heatsink. all the fan on the PC are made by Noctua (4x120mm and one 140mm) and i can't hear that PC... it's silent and it's going to be silent for a really long time cause Noctua is really like that my only problem is the fan that is on my FSP Hydro K Pro 750W power supply for people who are not too sensitive to noise it's an ok one but i really am so i'm going to replace that fan so that tells how that thing is quiet.

[@CptPff]

AIO is so much quieter than AIR. Cooling efficiency doesnt change much bei increasing fan speed. 20-30% fan speed is usally enough to cool the cpu under gaming load, while being inaudible. Just tweak the AIO fan profile by yourself...

[@Robin.F96]

Great video, I searched all reddit to find if I could use the ryzen 7900x with that ventirad 😱

[@junito1957]

THE AIR COOLER GET CLOT WITH DUST SO THEY PERFORMEST GOES DOWN HILL STARTING DAY ONE YOU HAVE TO TAKE IT APART AND CLEAN AND TAKE ALL THAT DUST THAT CLOTING THE FINS ONCE A YEAR , THE LARGE ONES SCREW THE FLOW OF WHAT GOING ON INSIDE YOUR CASE , BETTER WITH WATER COLOR DOES NOT ATTRACT DUST ON YOUR MB AND THE AIR FLOW GOES WHERE IS SUPPOSE TO

[@ibrahimdeniz7308]

Bro come on... I bought an air cooler, returned it. Bought an AIO, because its more quiet. Now i have to return it and buy an air cooler again?

[@michaelbenham3603]

DRP4 is beautiful, silent, and will last forever

[@ionutortian5885]

100% the AIO With AIO we have better performance, better cable management, better clean look...

[@cutzenburgermcfly5680]

7:50 you can have the same for half the price without ROG branding and RGB.

[@Herlander25]

all that weight verticaly hanging out on the motherboard from the cooler ...is quite alot.

[@mowtoll]

AMD AM5 CPU whit a X eg 7700x, 7900x etc is not so good test CPU coz where are designed to run at a certin temprature at full load, if you add more cooling the CPU just increse the watts upp to the hard limit..

[@alonesadchannel]

i use tower fan 100 load only 75 to77 not bad in ryzne 5 4600g

[@indio2111]

my cpu has tempts of 90 with a aio i think my cooler is failing ...

[@powerplay074]

Air always better dark rock 4 pro goat

[@xrism8290]

well done TY

[@johnnyguerra6234]

My aio is quieter not noisy and have Corsair iCUE H150i Elite LCD XT and I not even heard it

[@ggooaa100]

3:40 Heat soak?

[@sladesurfer]

I went back to air cooler. I had 2 AIO died on me. Plus , you dont need water to play ANY games.

[@thseed7]

Air Coolers are great. No as pretty, most of the time, but reliable

[@CrazyhorseDK]

Noctua NH D-15 on my rigs

[@jackbeen-u3q]

AIO Liquid Cooler is the best i have 67.99 aio 360mm my 13600k runs 26c on ide 34c gameing my old Air Cooler my 13600k 44 ide over 50c gameing

[@SuperiorDefense]

Your 13600k is not running 34c when gaming unless it's Minecraft lol... Those aren't even direct die cooling numbers. Why do people lie like this? What does it gain? I'm guessing you don't even have a computer if you can throw out such a wild claim filled with spelling errors and think no one would notice.

[@donnav786]

​@@SuperiorDefenselooool exactly

[@michaelv1984]

Oh you’re supposed to turn your pc case, not your head. 😂

[@DOOMocrat]

AMD recently dropped the "280" from their recommendation of a liquid cooler in the official Ryzen 9 spec sheet. This video is a good case for why they shouldn't have.

[@jameslewis2418]

What accent is that???

[@opamanni3437]

Diese Aussprache muß man erst einmal hinbekommen. Hat was von Comedy

[@kkaanumit]

Your way of speak is like Greta Thunberg :D

[@Screeeeeeee]

label your graph axes jesus man

[@user-zv9zm9uy4e]

the dark rock 4 pro has slow fans, there are better aircoolers like the noctua d15 wich performs wayy better and it still costs less than an aio

[@kamilkachnic7360]

My processor is so hot that it seems closer to reaching critical temperature than allowing me peaceful gaming. Even the air is surprised by its heat, and the AIO seems to have returned from a beach vacation! 🌡☀ Maybe it's worth considering running the refrigerator as my new cooling solution?" ❄😅

[@vinsa.3634]

You should undervolt your CPU and change your case with decent airflow