Do I need water cooling?
To put it in the simplest terms: no, you don't. But man, it looks so cool.
Now that we've stopped joking around, honestly, a fully water-cooled setup is completely overkill for most people.
What are the differences between the 2 options?
Well, let's keep this really simple. The difference is how heat is moved away from the components. Air cooling blows air across a stack of metal fins and uses that air to transfer the heat away. Water cooling is similar to a radiator in a car, using water as the primary way to move heat away from components before air flows over the radiators to kick that heat out of the case.
This is a basic way of defining the two main methods of cooling a PC. Don't get me wrong, I could spend hours talking about the details, but for our purposes here we don't need that level of nerdery.
The key thing to remember here is that water is much better at carrying heat away than air. That's the important part for what we're talking about.
Water Cooling
What water cooling is great for, other than looks, is thermal control. It allows more heat to be dissipated from the system, allowing components to perform at their highest level for longer.
There's also longevity. As long as you have the GPU, the water block can last for a very long time because there are no moving parts. The CPU block can potentially do the same if you have the correct mounting kits for your socket, and a lot of companies provide kits for newer sockets over time.
There is another benefit to this kind of setup: noise. A lot of people water-cool things so that the noise coming from the PC is lower. Why does it do this? Well, because the cooling system has a higher thermal capacity, it means that you can run fans at a lower speed for the most part, and unlike air cooling, water is the primary method of moving the heat away.
But there are downsides.
Let's deal with the big one first: cost.
Water cooling a system can sometimes cost as much as the base system itself.
Let's look at a real-world example of this. When I recently upgraded my gaming setup, I wanted to go fully water cooled. It ended up costing around £900 just for the gear to water cool the system!
So the price is the painful one, but the awkward one is maintenance. You should replace the coolant periodically. My preference is yearly, but some coolant manufacturers have different recommendations, so this is just a personal choice. You'll also need to pull everything apart and clean out the blocks for the CPU and GPU. This means that there is an ongoing cost for replacing the coolant and thermal paste for the CPU and GPU. Now these aren't huge costs but they are ongoing ones.
Generally, most parts other than the pump and fans have no moving parts and can last for a very long time. However, there isn't the same kind of second-hand market for water-cooling hardware that you'll find with other PC components, so finding a genuinely cheap way into custom water cooling isn't always easy.
And the last problem is more of a risk: leaks.
If, for whatever reason, a tube comes off, the system could get soaked and potentially cause component failure. I say COULD because liquid on a component doesn't automatically mean it's dead. Linus Tech Tips has demonstrated this rather spectacularly with Coke before. But I'd still rather not test the theory with my own PC.
But there is an ‘entry point’ for water cooling: All-In-One coolers. These are essentially half of a full water-cooled setup and are designed for your CPU. They come pre-built and ready to go out of the box. Mount it, screw it in, connect it and you're done.
But there is a difference: they have a lifespan.
I can hear you asking, ‘How can an All-In-One (AIO) have a lifespan?’ Well, the coolant in the system will slowly permeate out over time and, because in most cases you can't refill them, eventually the cooler needs to be replaced.
Now to Air Cooling.
Let's talk about the best parts.
Firstly, price: air cooling a system is much more cost-effective than custom water cooling. Secondly, reliability. Unlike water cooling setups, air cooling is simpler and has way fewer moving parts. The only moving parts that really need looking after are the fans.
Next there's longevity. Looking at just the CPU cooler as an example, a good air cooler can last for decades.
Noctua is probably the best example of this. They've been offering mounting upgrade kits for existing coolers since AMD's AM2 platform in 2006. So if you've still got one of their old compatible coolers sitting around, there's a very real chance you can mount it to a modern CPU.
What is the downside?
Well, noise.
At higher heat loads, air cooling can require the fans to work harder to keep temperatures under control. That can mean more noise, although a well-designed air-cooled system with a big heatsink and large fans can still be incredibly quiet.
The other potential weakness is sustained boost performance. On particularly power-hungry CPUs, better cooling can allow the processor to maintain higher boost clocks for longer before temperatures become the limiting factor.
But what does all of this mean?
I think, for the argument of water vs air, it's just not as simple as ‘water is always better’. There are so many different things that need to be considered.
For super high-end, power-hungry parts? Maybe. You want the best performance? Then yes, you can make the case for that. Want a quiet build? Yes, but you can also make a super-quiet air-cooled system if you use larger fans, as they don't need to spin up to a higher RPM.
Cost? God no. A fully water-cooled system is very expensive. Looks? I say yes, but this is very personal.
Realistically, we happily recommend an AIO all day long but a full water-cooled system requires some TLC. An air-cooled system, again, happy to recommend these all the time because they are bulletproof.
It comes back to one thing.