Ok, so the topic is mainly to get your attention. I know that water IS better, but I couldn't help but notice a few strange occurences.
On a consistent basis (every single cpu I have owned that has an internal diode ~ 6 cpu's) I have achieved higher overclocks with my watercooler (for those of you not familiar with my rig
http://pictures.zoson.net) than with my aircooler (alpha pal8045 w/ 50cfm fan).
BUT also on a consistent basis the diode of my cpu has read lower temperatures than my watercooler, at the same voltage, and same CPU speed. I didn't think much of this really, until a friend of mine put a fan pointing at his waterblock and his idle temperatures dropped a good 11C (I can't remember how much his load temps dropped offhand), and his max overclock went up about 150mhz. He's using a chevette heatercore, with an eheim 1250 (317gph) and a Z4 waterblock on a 1700+ tbred-b JIUHB cpu in a completely open case (no side panels etc).
So my basic question is why would temperatures report lower with an air cooler, yet not overclock as high as my water rig, and why would pointing a fan at a waterblock drop temperatures so significantly?
Lastly, a question that has been touched on before, why are there no waterblocks with fins+fans (other than that pos reactor thing from cpufx) for more active cooling? If the ambient air in your case is cooler than the cpu/water won't having active cooling on your WB help significantly?
-Zoson