edit 2: He has bought the air cooler!
He will be running the 9800X3D, which I don’t think gets hot enough to require an AIO. We are choosing between Arctic Liquid Freezer III 360 (AIO) and the Peerless Assassin 120 (air cooler)
Benefits of choosing an AIO (Arctic Liquid Freezer III) is better temperatures, nicer aesthetic. Downside of going with AIO is the possibility that it will leak/wear out over time, shorter lifespan compared to air cooler (which can pretty much last forever)
He will be getting a Lian Li case (the O11 Vision Compact) with the RGB fans set, meaning he could go with the cheaper 5 fan set instead of 8 if he decides on AIO. Combined with a decent sale on the AIO in my region, the price difference isn’t that large.
What do you guys think?
edit: Mmm the internet people seem to disagree with each other
Unless you’re overlocking or just have really bad case design, either one will fair about the same. I went with an AIO purely for the aesthetic and haven’t had a single issue. Install was pretty easy too. I haven’t personally heard any horror stories of the AIO loops failing catastrophically but that’s anecdotal at best.
I’m a little out of the loop these days, and I’m not sure this applies to the newer x3d chips, so grain of salt. But I have a 5800x3d, and took the time to undervolt it (each core separately) after getting it, and it runs a whole bunch cooler without losing any performance. I have AIO on mine, but it’s generally overkill.