Why I Still Believe in Air Cooling

Disclaimer: the article was written by me personally and then edited with the help of a neural network — to correct errors and improve the style.

You can call me a traditionalist, but just as I considered air cooling to be the top solution, I still do. And it seems I've just been convinced of that once again.

Last year I was building a PC for the living room. The requirements were compactness, but without compromising on hardware: a decent graphics card and a powerful processor.

In the end, I chose the Corsair 2000D Airflow case — small, yet allowing for serious components thanks to support for liquid cooling.

This, by the way, was my first water cooling setup. To avoid making mistakes with sizes or compatibility due to inexperience, I decided to get everything from one brand — Corsair iCUE H150i Elite Capellix XT, especially since official compatibility with their cases was claimed.

And here’s what happened: The liquid cooling system worked for about six months. Today I turn on the PC — the pump lights up red, and after a while, the system simply shuts down. I checked everything, verified the connections, but found no obvious reasons. It looks most like the pump has died.

Although I installed everything “according to the rules”: the radiator on the side panel, the hoses at the bottom, so that air wouldn't circulate randomly and accumulate where it’s supposed to — in the upper part of the radiator.

Why did it fail? A mystery. Just a week ago, there were no signs of problems — no noise, no temperatures, no warnings. And this is despite the fact that the cooling system itself is far from being some no-name: it has about 4.5/5 on Amazon, and the reviews are mostly positive.

Meanwhile, my main PC with the Intel Core i9‑12900K has been cooled by the Noctua NH-D15 for probably five years now. Yes, it's not as efficient as liquid cooling: under extreme loads, the CPU temperature does hit the ceiling. But during all this time, I haven't had any issues — no failures, no surprises, no sudden "red lights."

So why do I still consider air cooling to be the top solution?

It's clear when it fails.

If air cooling comes to an end, it almost always gives signals in advance: foreign noises, vibrations, that very "death rattle." You have time to notice it and do something before the cooler completely fails.

Single point of failure.

The cooler is simple by nature. Essentially, the only thing that can break is the fan. Liquid cooling, however, is much more complex: the pump, hoses, radiator, controller, or tekkix — there are significantly more potential points of failure. The pump can fail, a hose can leak, the controller that everything is connected to can go haywire.

Simplicity of installation.

With air cooling, everything is as clear as possible: attach it and forget it. No hoses, angles, tensions, thinking about how to lay the tubes, and doubts like "did I bend it too much here."

And the biggest advantage: the death of the cooler ≠ the death of the PC.
If the fan in air cooling dies, the computer will simply overheat and shut down. At most, you’ll experience throttling or protective shutdown.

However, with a liquid cooling leak, a much more unpleasant scenario is possible — components can get flooded. Yes, people often talk about "non-conductive liquid," but if it circulates long enough, impurities can appear over time, and it can very well become conductive.

The result — the risk of other components failing.

Yes, liquid cooling has its advantages:

• high performance,

• less pressure on the socket,

• more compact installation on the motherboard.

But for me, the likelihood of a leak and the potential "death" of the entire PC outweigh these advantages. Unfortunately, it is impossible to install a high-performance bulky air cooler in this case, so I will have to settle for liquid cooling.

Meanwhile, I ran to DNS to return my liquid cooling for warranty. I hope the check won't take long and they will issue a replacement quickly. Although, to be honest, I’m already feeling uneasy at the thought of having to install it back in the case, lay out the tubes, and deal with all this stuff again…