Why do people pay so much extra for liquid-cooled computers when fans seem to do the same thing?
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The real answer is that fans were not very profitable parts for a while until companies like Corsair made a killing on all-in-one liquid coolers. They saw significant development, despite some patent obstacles, which made them leapfrog air cooling for a good bit. They had more room to seem “premium” and every computer needed one, but only one. Why sell a $15 cooler for $25 when you can sell a $50 cooler for $100?
In 2023, air coolers are basically neck and neck with liquid cooling in almost all scenarios, barring outliers.
Also of note, cooling is facing new challenges every year. With AMD in the lead, cooling small chiplets with a small surface area became more important, and although wattage is plateauing a bit (unless you use Intel where it has quadrupled) it is still higher than it used to be.
The one unique advantage that industrial water cooling has over air is a much better ability to transport heat, even if you aren’t doing that much different volume. You can pump water outside of your “system” to be expended in other ways. For instance, heating the building! Moving air long distances like that is inefficient.
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