I suppose there's still a use/need for air coolers. I'm a former "Airhead" that made the move to water cooling AIOs a couple of years ago with a Corsair 115i. I wish I could still use air coolers as I'd sleep better at night, but the newer CPUs with more cores and great overclocking means, for me, water cooling is here to stay.

rpjkw11:

I suppose there's still a use/need for air coolers. I'm a former "Airhead" that made the move to water cooling AIOs a couple of years ago with a Corsair 115i. I wish I could still use air coolers as I'd sleep better at night, but the newer CPUs with more cores and great overclocking means, for me, water cooling is here to stay.

Seems like a pretty self-centered statement... You say that as though nobody uses air coolers anymore, or that air coolers are insufficient for high-end rigs (which is completely false). With the exception of i9 and HT builds, I'd say liquid cooling has been on a decline, because the performance of them doesn't justify the cost.

rpjkw11:

I suppose there's still a use/need for air coolers. I'm a former "Airhead" that made the move to water cooling AIOs a couple of years ago with a Corsair 115i. I wish I could still use air coolers as I'd sleep better at night, but the newer CPUs with more cores and great overclocking means, for me, water cooling is here to stay.

I'm the opposite. Came from a H110 to a Noctua D15 and never looked back.

nhlkoho:

I'm the opposite. Came from a H110 to a Noctua D15 and never looked back.

I did the same, albeit on a lower end - from H50 to Noctua NH-U12S. Better temps and quieter for same money.

rpjkw11:

I suppose there's still a use/need for air coolers. I'm a former "Airhead" that made the move to water cooling AIOs a couple of years ago with a Corsair 115i. I wish I could still use air coolers as I'd sleep better at night, but the newer CPUs with more cores and great overclocking means, for me, water cooling is here to stay.

I think if you get a really good air cooler like the monstrous Noctua NH-D14 or new Noctua NH-D15 then they are really just as good as the AIOs, and from what I remember in some cases better than some of them. You can delid your Intel CPU and combined with Noctua NH-D14 overclock to insanity! I'm using NH-D14 on low/silent fan RPM using the low noise adapter for the fans (900rpm), and Prime95 on my 4.7Ghz 1.4V 6700K pulling about 110W doesn't go above 60 degC at standard room temp.

nhlkoho:

I'm the opposite. Came from a H110 to a Noctua D15 and never looked back.

I'm with you there! I've not used H110, but NH-D14 & D15 produce same temperatures as the H110 AIO (see following link): http://www.guru3d.com/articles_pages/corsair_h110_review,13.html

schmidtbag:

Seems like a pretty self-centered statement... You say that as though nobody uses air coolers anymore, or that air coolers are insufficient for high-end rigs (which is completely false). With the exception of i9 and HT builds, I'd say liquid cooling has been on a decline, because the performance of them doesn't justify the cost.

Pretty much this, I for example bought a higher-end air cooler instead of a low-end liquid one because it's simply better value for the money. Did the same thing on my last rig although liquid coolers were pretty expensive back then so I wouldn't have gotten one anyway. Air cooling is not dying off anytime soon. It's cheap and effective.