The best air CPU cooler is the Noctua NH-D15 G2. This is a mammoth cooler with two of Noctua's latest and greatest fans. It's comparable to some liquid coolers, even larger ones, in our testing.

While air coolers cannot beat premium AIOs in thermal performance, a few factors give air the edge over liquid for cooling ...

Traditionally, organizations have relied on air cooling, typically using fans to manage ... cooling – single phase and dual phase. In single phase cooling, the liquid stays liquid throughout ...

While air coolers ... push the CPU clocks several hundred MHz higher. A simple single-tower MSI Core Frozr L leaves quite a good amount of space for RAM modules and installing fans at the top.