Should I buy an air-cooled or water-cooled CPU cooler for the start of the school year?

The new semester is coming, and new students are rushing to campus. For students who have just entered college, assembling a computer has become a compulsory course. The hot summer is over, but the "after-autumn heat" still makes people feel unbearable. It is necessary to choose a good CPU cooler to fight against the high temperature.

In the process of assembling a computer, the CPU cooler is the cheapest compared to other hardware, but you must not be careless. In particular, you must pay attention to the even application of thermal grease during installation to avoid poor contact of the cooler. The main function of the CPU cooler is to keep the CPU operating temperature within a reasonable range and effectively dissipate the heat of the CPU. CPU coolers are divided into two categories, air-cooled coolers and water-cooled coolers.

Air Cooling Radiator:

It is mainly composed of heat sink and fan. The heat sink is divided into pure aluminum heat sink, pure copper heat sink, pure silver heat sink, copper-embedded aluminum heat sink and die-cast copper aluminum heat sink. Fans can be divided into three categories according to the principle of motor bearings: ordinary bearing fans, ball bearing fans and liquid bearing fans.

Advantages and disadvantages of air cooling radiator:

Advantages: many types and low prices, even if damaged it will not affect other hardware.

Disadvantages: The radiator is large and takes up most of the chassis space, making it inconvenient to disassemble and assemble.

Water Cooling Radiator:

A CPU water-cooled radiator uses liquid to circulate under the drive of a pump to remove heat from the radiator, thereby achieving a cooling effect. It is specifically divided into two designs: single-row single-fan and double-row double-fan.

Advantages and disadvantages of water cooling radiator:

Advantages: high heat dissipation efficiency, small size, stable overclocking, and cooler DIY.

Disadvantages: The price is much more expensive than air-cooled radiators. Once leakage or pump failure occurs, other hardware will be damaged.

Market performance of CPU cooler

The combination of loose-chip CPU and air-cooled radiator is becoming more and more popular in the market. Compared with the radiator that comes with the boxed CPU, players prefer to DIY their own radiator, which has better performance than the boxed radiator.

Air cooling still occupies most of the market and is the only choice for mid-to-low-end configurations. Water cooling is more suitable for high-end players and is essential for overclocking. Most of the current water cooling radiators are integrated, which are easy to install. When they were first launched, they were large in size and cost more than a thousand yuan. Now, not only are they compact in size, but the prices are also getting lower and lower. On a certain mall, you can see integrated water cooling radiators for 269 yuan, which shows that water cooling radiators have become more and more affordable.

Is air cooling radiator better or water cooling radiator better?

There has always been disagreement about whether air-cooled radiators or water-cooled radiators are better. Some websites have also evaluated them. The temperature of the 300 yuan air-cooled radiator and the water-cooled radiator in standby and overclocking differs by 1 to 2 degrees, and the noise is basically the same. The same is true for the 500 yuan one. It seems that the performance of water-cooled and air-cooled radiators at the same price is basically the same. The difference is that the air-cooled radiator is larger in size, and the leakage of the water-cooled radiator will damage other hardware. Which one is better depends entirely on the player's choice.

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.