Obviously air, same like ptm7950 insted of liquid metal, the things is that WC is good when it is made by manufacturer, and not "water" some kind of non conductive liquid without maintance is ok, same like ps5 liquid metal made by sony, not by someone because it is too risky, thermopad PTM7950 + PS120 would be better than WC with average paste.
lots of people say that that air coolers are automatically superior but in a test done by HardwareCanucks the Deepcool LT520 AIO outperformed all the Thermalright Coolers on AMD CPUs by a small margin. I'd say it's a case by case basis. But the Phantom Spirit is 1/3 of the price of a LT520 where I live and good if you're building a PC inside a smaller case like I am.
There are not superior, but safer. Water cooling will always perform better, especially on CPUs that consum a lot of power. These days, air coolers are really close in performance to to good 240 AIOs.
@@tmtguitar I think water cooling has an advantage, because of the bigger surface area on the radiator used to cool the liquid and the liquids' superior thermal energy conversion from CPU to itself.
Air coolers have been able to compete with water coolers ever since the high end Noctua air coolers were released. The best thing now, though, is that this can be done for a fraction of the price these days 👍😁
It's because temperature matters less for cooler comparison than wattage does with AM5. AM5 is made to try and get up to 95 degrees and then adjust clock speeds and such accordingly. You will see the AIO letting the CPU run faster for longer because of heat soak it allows for.
This is a fantastic review - thorough and showcases the exact products in a comprehensive way. 11/10 good sir. Exactly what I have been looking for - just bought a phantom spirit, but a deal for arctic liquid freezer came up so I wanted to see the difference.
Thank you so much for this, these were the exact coolers I was comparing to buy. Ended up with the Phantom Sprite SE, definitely not worth double the cost to get the Artic.
Personnaly i prefer air cooler. With a little undervolt you dont even lose performance ans gain some temps and consume less power. Only the fans can fail so it’s very cheap to change. But aio is good too. Depends more of our personal taste and capability of replacing the part that fails. But a lot of people dont know that lot of motherboard company always over tweak cpu tension for « more stability » and performance. Nice video, keep going 👍.
@@sheshd arctic has a 6 year manufacturer’s warranty if they failed that often they wouldn’t be able to do that i got one it had a defect and they replaced it straight away and not had a issue since and 6 years ill likely build a whole new PC
Will take the phantom spirit. Thanks for comparing these three on the 7800x3d. These are exactly the coolers i was considering for my new build on the same CPU 😅
I like air better, for all the reasons others have said. But I do acknowledge water is better in an absolute sense, but for it to be worth it in my opinion you would not only have to be using very hot parts, but doing additional measures like mounting, paste, de-lid etc. to get the big gains that make it all worth it to push the power hungry CPU/GPU. In most people's setups good air cooling is more convenient, cheaper, and more reliable. Done right, air-cooling is also the quietest, since most water setups still have pump noise.
The only complain I have about air coolers, is when the OS starts to max out the CPU cores and the CPU fans starts to spin at max RPM, just for a second. I agree that, air cooling, most of the time is cheaper and the better solution. I think that when you have a power hungry CPU, going with water makes more sens.
@@casuallygamin9 kind of a necro but could be useful for others too. On my mobo (rog B550-E) there is a setting to delay the fan response (step up/step down), which prevents such ramp ups. (in Q-fan settings) Haven't actually tested it, but I have set it to the minimum (12 secs) and there is no annoying fan ramp up ever. So it probably works the way I think it does.
@@JKGaming1414 I know of this, Fan Control has that feature. One downside to this is that you may thermal throttle as the fans will not react that fast when the temperatures reach that point
@@casuallygamin9 ah I see. Yep that's definitely a concern, it's worth the "risk" for me though (casual gaming, large heatsink). Wish it could be set to a lower delay, like 3 seconds...
Water isn't always quieter. I ditched the LT720 because the pump was louder than the fans, and conversely the PS120 is quieter than the LT720. It also depends on your case. A Fractal Torrent or Lancool 216 with an air cooler will outperform say a H510 with a AIO. Also depends on where you live. An air cooler in Arizona summer won't be doing so good.
AIO makes case look much better and improved air flow for all components within the case, providing cooler air for GPU which has a lower heat tolerance.
I'm about to build a 7800X3D system on an ASRock B650E Taichi Lite board. I have on hand a Peerless Assassin 120 of some flavor and an Arctic Liquid Freezer III 240mm AIO. I think in this testing the placement of the CPU radiator in the front is hindering the AIO's ability to cool the CPU (and probably also the GPU). I prefer to draw room air into the case using unhindered front fans and place the AIO radiator in the case roof. That is the configuration I will be using.
When you place the AIO in the front you will have lower CPU and higher GPU temps then placing it on the top. Top placement means that the AIO will pull air from inside the case and in intense gaming scenarios the air inside the case will be warmer due to the GPU.
@@casuallygamin9 Always a compromise. The concept I wanted to emphasize is that when the GPU is air cooled, the most common situation by far, it is vital to feed it cool air. When the radiator is in front, the GPU gets air that's already been heated by the CPU. In a gaming system, again the most common situation for PC builders, the GPU is shouldering the load more often than the CPU.
Yes, you will always introduce hot air when installing the AIO in the fron. A way to mitigate this issue is to install fans at the bottom and have top exhaust fans, but that will help only a bit.
Thank you very much, I really appreciate the information and images. I want to buy the PS120 SE but I have been looking for days to see how the Corsair ram fits with that cooler. They look perfect and the performance of the cooler is incredible
in the past a liquid cooling tube cracked over the years and I had to throw away my PC... I've been a fan of my Noctua NH-D15 ever since. It's not pretty, but it's practical and quiet. If I had to mount an RGB Gaming PC to "show off", liquid cooling with a little screen. I have it under the table, air...
I'm sorry to hear that, I feel your pain. Never had this issue, but than again, I'm using most of the time air. One question, where did it crack, near the pump or close to the radiator. Was it custom loop or a closed loop (AIO)?
Well, all radiators have some air inside. With time you will have more, as the liquid will evaporate through micro fissure s. If the tubes are on the top, the pump will make some wierd sound when it pulls air. When installing an AIO vertically, the best is always with tubes down and the top of the raditor to be above to pump when installed on the CPU.
thank you for this video, I am planning a similar build and this video gave me clarity that i would be better of with an aio when trying to cool while gaming as my room temps can vary a lot and especially through summer, and im willingly to replace the aio every few years. appreciate man 👏
My 7800x3d (360 AIO liquid) is hotter (87c) but I've changed the thermal paste for a millennium and only the pump is running, no fans active in the PC case, I hate noise. If my cpu burns I'll buy another. My RTX4090 is running around 65c no fans.
You should be using lower resolutions and in game settings so you max out the usage on the cpu and not the gpu. You need to be cpu bound to truly see the difference in cooling between air and liquid in gaming.
Try the Thermalright Frost Tower 120. It's a 120 but it has a more fins ( on the bottom) and it has thermalrights faster and higher pressure fans. Same price.
I think the Peerless Assasin and Phantom Spirit, not the se versions, are the same. Both have more fins then their SE counterparts. Thermalright is wired when it comes to this, as it has so many coolers that are so close in performance, price and features that is really hard to pick one.
@@timetobargeinandgivemyopin7260 With how they evaporate their liquid through microcracks over the years, how the hell are you supposed to keep them alive?
I've replaced my u12s redux with Deepcool ak620, and i'm still getting 90c temps! even with CO- 40! CPUZ stress hits instant 90c, aida64 stays something between 80~85c I've no idea what's wrong.
@@svuudi did you remove the sticker from the new cooler? What thermal paste are you using? If you increase the speed of the intake fans does it help? if you have bottom intake fans, could you stop those and see if it helps? My recommendation is to have only one exhaust fan at the back and only the 3 intakes at the fan for best airflow for air coolers
@@casuallygamin9 yea sticker is removed ofcourse, no matter how i tweak the fan speed it doesn't help, even if the case side is open, I Don't know for real, and the cpu power consumption doesn't exceed 70w or 75w max.
No, but it depends on the fan curve you have and the power plan. Make sure to have the latest chipset driver and set your fan curve based on your needs.
I really am pissed with my rig ( 7800X3D) my room temps are from 27c to 29c and my pc idles at 55c/61c and when in big intense games like Once Human and Still wakes the deep I go up to 80s and as soon as it starts hitting 86c to 87c my pc will crash back to windows. I am thinking of going to AIO Cooling. I am currently using Phantom Sprite air cooler
This temps are normal. Look at his video: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-x8XXoqGQc7o.html I get more or less the same temps as you with 29 room temp. What is strange is that you crash to desktop, this should not be the case as usually the CPU will thermal throttle at 89. Are you sure it's because of the CPU?
Use hwinfo64 and log a game run. It is very unlikely that you will reach 89 degrees while gaming. Even at 29 degrees room temp I didn't reach that point. Is this a new setup? Try to repaste. Make sure that the sticker is removed from the heatsink and is sited properly. Try to reinstall the air cooler and if that doesn't help, try to run the cpu fans at 100% fan spoed and log the run using hwinfo64. To me this doesn't look like a cooler issue. Keep in mind that modern CPU should have protections in place so that these will not restart under high temps, just downclock
@@NiitoIsHere Look at the latest air cooler review from them, but they don't do it on a 7800x3d, I think they have a 7700x and a 7950x. The 7800x3d is a bit easier to cool then a 7700x.
Hello sir i need your help i saw your video and i bought arctic 280 but my system having spikes 30c to 82 when i open chrome or some games whats problem i didint understand can you help me? And where i have to plug power cpu fan or aio fan on board? 🙂
Hi, it's kinda wired to have that big of a jump from 30 to 80. Have tou removed the sticker from the AIO. Make sure that it's plugged in the CPU fan on the motherboard. Also, I recommend MX-6 as MX-5 had some issues, or even MX-4. I'm saying this as some liquid freezers came with Mx- 5 thermal paste
@@casuallygamin9 oh fuck normally i odered that two coolers but i felt on your video aircooler is bad idea i dont know maybe i should buy aircooler or i have to send all of them 😢 i have no idea what have to do because its jumping 82 and fans are very crazy loud
Air coolers are not bad, nor water coolers. What you're experiencing is wired. Arctic Liquid Freezer II is one of the most silent out there. Have you removed the sticker from the pump? It should be only the coper plate in contact with your CPU. What CPU do you have? Did you apply thermal paste as well?
@@casuallygamin9 7800x3D same with your system b650 asus tuf gaming wifi 32gb ddr5/6000 i need to do i guess new thermal paste something wrong here yes i removed sticker 🙂
Make sure to read the installation process for the AIO for AM4/AM5. In the bios of my MOBO if I install it in the AIO header it will have a wired fan curve
You need to show benchmarks. These CPUs are constantly throttling even at 70c by managing boost speeds. You can have two coolers each showing 80c but one gets a 18k cinebench score while the other gets a 17k score. Same temperature, but clearly the 18k one is the better cooler. Your 2 degree ambient temp difference in the game benchmark is also a problem.
At 70 these should not throttle as newer CPUs are ment to increase frequency until these hit the thermal limit. A 7800x3D will throttle at 89 degrees. Intel CPUs tend to throttle at higher temps, as non x3D cCPUs from AMD. This is why I show the averages from 3 runs.
@@casuallygamin9 search youtube for "Air or AIO for Ryzen 7900X and 7600X? Cooler Comparison", notice how the 7600x is the same temperature with aio and air, but the aio is 4% faster in the test. Because precision boost is always throttling, if you plot your hwinfo "effective clocks" on air vs aio the aio will be higher on average, even at lower than 80c temperatures. These cpu's eek out performance at nearly all temperatures, gone are the days of the same performance until the hard throttle limit. Precision boost is adjusting boost and voltages up to 1,000 times per second depending on load, thermal, and electrical conditions, those variables are relevant at 70c as well as 90c.
I've got a 7800x3d and I live in a hot country, this cpu is still hitting 5ghz while gaming on 85c... So no it's not thermal throttled by any means... Also no fps loss or performance loss as well, unless u hit 90c those am5 cpus won't throttle