comparison of air cooling and liquid cooling
With the increasing demands of DIY computer hosts, liquid cooling appears in the vision of more people and has become the standard configuration of medium and high-end hosts. At present, the main heat dissipation methods of the host are generally divided into air cooling and liquid cooling.
The difference between air cooling and liquid cooling:
Air cooling is the process of using the radiator to contact the hot spot and expelling the heat through the fan. Air cooling heatsink is generally composed of base，copper pipe, stamping fin, and a fan.
Liquid cooling is a process that contacts the core heating components through the radiator, takes water as the medium, brings the heat to the larger water-cooled exhaust, and uses the low-speed fan to easily discharge the heat.
Liquid cooling is divided into integrated liquid cooling and split liquid cooling:
The Integrated liquid cooling is generally composed of cold exhaust, fan and CPU cold head, which is not flexible for performance extension.
The Split liquid cooling generally consists of CPU cold head, GPU cold head, fan, cold exhaust, water pump, water tank and connector.
The comparison between air cooling and liquid cooling can be analyzed from their heat dissipation efficiency, mute degree, safety index, price gap and visual appearance：
| Item | Air Cooling | Liquid Cooling |
| Thermal Performance | There is a certain limit to the temperature that can be reduced. Under the same pole, the heat dissipation efficiency of air cooling is lower than that of liquid cooling | The advantage of liquid cooling is that its ability to handle CPU watts is higher than any air-cooling. At the same level, the liquid cooling performance is better than that of traditional air cooling |
| Noise | Depends on the air volume, air pressure, speed and noise of the fan | Liquid cooling takes water as the medium, and the heat dissipation system is quieter than the air cooling system |
| Safety index | No moving parts, higher reliability | There is a risk of water cooling liquid leakage |
| Price Difference | Lower price | higher price for most users |
| Visual Appearance | Traditional shape and out looking | colour light effects and Unique shape looks more like Science fiction |
