UnexceptionalJew :
I always thought there would be a huge difference between closed loop water cooling and air coolers but recently ive been reading and everyone seems to disagree. Is it true that air coolers run quiter and even in some cases preform better? I was looking at the H100i or the H110. Can anything perform on par with quiter noise and better overclockability? I was really looking forward to the water cooling since it looks so much nicer and cooler
then big old huge air coolers that look really ugly. Thoughts?
There's not a very large spread between a good air cooler and a crummy closed loop liquid cooler. However, there is a pretty large spread between a good air cooler and a really good custom liquid cooler.
The largest advantage that water cooling has is that water is very efficient at storing heat, and radiators are very efficient at removing heat. Unlike heatsinks which transport heat from a smooth contact plate on one side to metal rods on the other, radiators transport heat from the water pipes on the inside to the metal fins on the outside. This results in radiators heating up fairly uniformly, which results in significantly less airflow being needed to remove the same amount of heat, which in turn allows for slower and quieter fans to be used.