FEATURED [2013] What kind of cooling do you use?

[MattNo5ss]

This poll is one of a series of polls designed to give members the opportunity to see what the membership as a whole has chosen in regards to some of the more common cooling choices. This particular poll is for members to show what kind of cooling they are using. It will also give anyone who feels the need, the opportunity to explain why they have chosen that method and possibly help others decide on their next cooling setup. This poll, along with the others will be stuck in the appropriate section and will be open for one year, after which a new poll will be set in place to allow future members to show their choices, current members to list any changes in their choices, and to allow members to track shifts in trends over an extended period.

Having said that, what is your primary method of cooling your main system? Air, water, or something else?

Again, this poll will run for 1 year, after which we plan to replace it with a new poll. Please make your choice based on your main computer's cooling method.


Previous Polls and Results


eobard's original poll thread (~2005-2007)

Results (434 total votes)

Air - 72.12% (313 votes)
Water - 25.12% (109 votes)
Other - 2.76% (12 votes)
​

muddocktor's 2008 poll thread.

Results (586 total votes)

Air - 78.50% (460 votes)
Water - 19.11% (112 votes)
Other - 2.39% (14 votes)
​

muddocktor's 2009 poll thread.

Results (413 total votes)

Air - 76.27% (315 votes)
Water - 22.52% (93 votes)
Other - 1.21% (5 votes)
​

muddocktor's2010 poll thread for you to to follow the progression of the cooling scene.

Results (305 total votes)

Air - 78.03% (238 votes)
Water - 20.33% (62 votes)
Other - 1.64% (5 votes)
​

muddocktor's 2011 poll thread shows changes in cooling that happened in the last year. The poll results definitely are showing the influence of the LCLC water cooling setups such as the Corsair and Antec offerings.

Results (280 total votes)

Air - 63.93% (179 votes)
Water - 32.86% (92 votes)
Other - 3.21% (9 votes)
​

muddocktor's 2012 poll thread shows that even more people are getting into water cooling due to the AIO (all-in-one) units since the 2011 poll.

Results (304 total votes)

Air - 56.25% (171 votes)
Water - 40.46% (123 votes)
Other - 3.29% (10 votes)
​

 

[hokiealumnus]

Water...water everywhere! (On CPUs anyway).

Primary PC: MCP350 -> Koolance 140x2 -> Swiftech Apogee XT
Test bench: MCP35x -> Swiftech MCR320 -> EK Supreme HF Cu
HTPC: Dinky AIO Intel cooler (it saves space).

Laptop: Haven't figured out how to practically water cool a laptop yet. Or my phone. Need moar nano-water-technology.

It's nice to see mainstream water cooling component availability actually leading to more widespread adoption.

 

[MattNo5ss]

I'm using air on both my main system and test bench. Venomous X on the main system and Samuel 17 on the test bench.

I also have a CPU + GPU + 6x120 RAD loop, but it's just collecting dust for now.

 

[\dev\goat]

The change from 2010 poll to 2012 poll is pretty cool. semi-kinda-quiet water cooling for 80 bucks has swayed a lot of users.

 

[GTXJackBauer]

Its great to see the shift from air to water. Times have changed and so has technology. Soon alot more folks will have some type of AIO system which is great.

 

[MattNo5ss]

The only thing that's odd to me about the shift from air to water is that hardware has gotten much more power efficient over the last few years, meaning there's less of a need for water, yet more people are switching to water.

 

[\dev\goat]

bolt-on AIO units give consumers a very strong "just because" factor as well, I'd imagine

 

[notarat]

I use Air on one and Water on another so there should be an option for Both

 

[wagex]

in my case a 240 rad fits better than a hyper 212+ lol i had to grind down the heatpipes a little bit on the top to make it fit and it still touched the side pannel so thats part of the reason im sticking with water, ontop of quietness, and epeen

 

[GTXJackBauer]

The only thing that's odd to me about the shift from air to water is that hardware has gotten much more power efficient over the last few years, meaning there's less of a need for water, yet more people are switching to water.

I think of it as a beautiful thing. H20 can be more silent than ever and theres more overclocking headroom.

Edit: Also I might add that the prices for H20 are much cheaper than what it used to be.

 

[Bobnova]

Air, unless you want to get into heatpipe theory and operation

I swap parts entirely too often for water to be worthwhile. Plus I run at stock or close to it anyway, so I can run a good air heatsink and a suuuuuuuper quiet fan or no fan at all.

 

[MattNo5ss]

I use Air on one and Water on another so there should be an option for Both

The poll is for your main, 24/7 PC. So try to choose the system you use the most. I'd like to stay consistent with the previous polls.

Air, unless you want to get into heatpipe theory and operation

So, you would argue that a heatpipe air cooler is an AIO unit?

 

[doyll]

Air on everything. May go water someday but not for awhile yet.

 

[trekky]

i use a H100 for main rig
benching rig uses Air but i would have liked to get a water but couldnt afford it (and i had a heatsink sitting around)

 

[shadowdr]

in my case a 240 rad fits better than a hyper 212+ lol i had to grind down the heatpipes a little bit on the top to make it fit and it still touched the side pannel so thats part of the reason im sticking with water, ontop of quietness, and epeen

I'm with ya on this. It looks way better, is much more quiet and hopefully it won't require as much cleaning. A 212 with push pull fans may be enough but is certainly not overkill for cooling and sounds like a clean air machine. It throws dust around on everything and makes reaching the mobo almost impossible. I like it much more and the price is reasonable for what you get, not great but reasonable.

 

[pwnmachine]

Air, though my next major build will be water


Now that I think of it, that is coming up pretty soon...

 

[BCboneless]

Water, I used air for so long and then switched. Water is better on everything!

 

[WhitehawkEQ]

V6GT air

 

[MattNo5ss]

Good idea on the pics

Main System with Venomous X:

Test Bench with Samuel 17:

 

[hokiealumnus]

Always love sharing pictures!

Primary system:



Test system:



HTPC:



(Without GPU, the GPU hides the rest, as you can see here.)