The Absolute Basics: Watercooling Components
There is a famous saying that a building without solid a foundation cannot stand and exactly the same is true for your water cooling loop. Choosing the right parts is crucial to the success of your build and overclocking efforts.
Table of contents
CPU / GPU / RAM Cooling Blocks
Primarily constructed of copper (sometimes silver) they sit on your components drawing heat away. CPU, GPU, RAM and Motherboard blocks are doing the brunt of the work in the loop drawing heating away from your components to your radiators.
Over the years of building and hundreds of hours spent on forums one thing I have consistently read is you should never mix metals. They can react with each other causing galvanic corrosion, while it’s not a huge problem with modern loops you should definitely learn a little about it..
Galvanic corrosion is an electrochemical process in which one metal corrodes preferentially to another when both metals are in electrical contact, in the presence of an electrolyte. This same galvanic reaction is exploited in primary batteries to generate an electrical voltage.
wiki
The result of galvanic corrosion in a water cooling loop can be devastating, causing irreversible damage to your water cooling loop and your PC components.
Top Tip: Mounting your blocks at different orientations can yield better results on some CPUs, find out more here
If you going to use multiple water blocks, When choosing them make sure to do some research – one thing that is bad in any water cooling system is restriction. It is important to make sure they are not overly restrictive as heat will become stagnant hanging around for longer and driving temperatures up throughout the loop.
Pump
The pump is one of the most crucial part to any solid build, there are lots on the market but over the years a couple of specific pumps have stood out from the crowd consistently performing above the rest.
My first ever pump I purchased was over 12 years ago at the tender age of 16, It was a Swiftech MCP655 and performed graciously. It was a powerful pump capable of cooling my Pentium 4 /w HTT to a beautiful POST @ 5Ghz; the pump lasted for eight years before it finally died, and I had to replace it. I didn’t even think twice before ordering another one; I went with the variable speed that allows you to crank up the water flow one step further.
Depending on your case there are a couple solid pump choices, I will list them from best to worse:
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MCP655 / D5 Pump
The pump I am currently using. It is a straight copy of Switches early MCP655 but comes with variable pump speed allowing you to crank the flow up and down to fit your needs.
Most people replace the molded pump casing with a built-in reservoir as it’s quite bulky and can be hard to get into your case without causing kinks in the case.overall this is the best pump money can buy for a custom loop.
- Swiftech MCP355
Swiftech really dominates the pump market. The MCP355 is a surprisingly small unit perfect for cases with little space. Just because its small that does not mean it is not powerful providing solid flow throughout. While I have not personally owned one before I know plenty of people who have, and they all say it’s a great pump.
Update: I have since invested in a EKWB dual DDC 3.2 PWM pump. It’s great to be able to run them at near silent operating speeds and still maintain a very competitive 24/7 overclock. The added security of have a redundant pump sweetens the deal making sure that if one pump dies the rest of the system won’t overheat and die.
Radiator
The second most important part of your custom build and also the part responsible for dissipating all that heat. While *most* radiators perform perfectly good, there are a few things you need to look out for when buying your radiator.
- FPI – Fins per inch
- Size / Thickness
- Type of metal
FPI or ‘Fins Per Inch’ is one of the things you need to be looking out for when selecting your radiator. Size does play a big role in the cooling efficiency of any radiator, but fin density is equally if not more important, The only problem this setup faces is that it can be a quite noisy at full chaps due to the use of high-static pressure fans – without them a high fin density radiator will perform poorly.
I will always opt to go with more fins per inch and invest in static pressure cooling fans when overclocking as they provide a more superior cooling efficiency.
The hard thing about getting a solid liquid cooling radiator is there are not many that provide both size and high fin density. This is partly down to consumer pressures to deliver quiet systems, only a small minority of the community will put up with rocket engine case fans.
Hardware Lab’s Black Ice series have gained immense popularity over the years consistently performing time and time again. The entire line apart from the non-SR1 come with fin density in the 20 – 30 range and perform extremely well when coupled with high-pressure fans but as previously mentioned can be quite loud when really pushing your overclocks..
Top Tip: If noise is a huge issue for you then Alphacool’s NexXxos radiators are a solid performers and reasonably quiet also due to their lower fin density, they also come in a variety of sizes and thicknesses.
The following watercooling radiators are solid choices, I have ordered them according to thermal performance – either way they are all solid radiators.
- Hardware Labs Black Ice GTX M160 – 20 FPI
- Hardware Labs Black Ice GT Stealth 240 – 30 FPI
- Alphacool NexXxoS XT45 – 10 FPI
Reservoir
Watercooling reservoirs are available in a few options.
- Drive Bay Mounted
- Tubular
- T-line
Drive Bay Reservoirs
Drive bay reservoirs have been around for years and are very simple to install and use. They can either come with a mounting bracket to attach your pump or simply with two bars.
Tubular Reservoirs
Tubular reservoirs have grown in popularity over the past few years. They are simply to install and often have kits available allowing them to be directly attached to your pump and provide great hydraulic pressure. Best of all they look absolutely amazing, especially when combined with some Mayhem’s Aurora coolant.
T-Line
While a t-line is not strictly a reservoir, A T-line by-passes the need for a reservoir but can be quite tricky for a newbie to bleed the system.
What Type of Reservoir is Best?
I only use a T-line exclusively on my overclocking and bench marking loop as it keeps things clutter free however, for a regular build it entirely depends on space and your preferences. You cannot go wrong with either, just make sure you have enough space if you are opting for a tubular variety.
Tubing
When it comes to tubing things soon get confusing especially if you are new to PC water cooling. First off there is many different dimensions with various inner and outer diameters. Once you know the diameter you will be using, you then have to choose between acrylic and flexible tubing, both have their advantages and disadvantages so choose wisely.
If you are a beginner and this will be your first build go with flexible tubing the first time around, it is a lot more forgiving if you make a mistake.
If you are a beginner and this will be your first build go with flexible tubing the first time around, as it is a lot more forgiving if you make a mistake.
No matter which tube diameter you decide to go for your end choice will not affect the overall performance of your loop or your temperature.
Radiator Fans
While you cannot cool anything beyond ambient case temperature without using sub-zero cooling methods, having solid fans that provide enough static pressure will help keep temperatures under control when pushing the boundaries.
Standard case fans will keep your components reasonably cool at idle but any pressure and heat will start to build up in the loop resulting in high temperatures after prolonged use.
The only downside of using a high-CFM fan is noise. As more air is passing through the fins, it is natural for more noise to be produced, as long as you have a fan controller it should not be a huge issue.
A great high static pressure fan that is readily available and look great is Corsair’s 120mm and 140mm SP Range. They are shipped with all of Corsair’s AIO Hydro coolers and I use them on all of my daily systems.
If you don’t care about noise then definitely check out Delta fans, they provide unprecedented performance with some pushing upto 190CFM! they are noisy at full-chaps cranking out 48Dba but grab a fan controller and you will do fine, they really are the best fan money can buy for any serious overclocker.
Fixtures
There are two types of fixture or ‘barb’.
Compression fitting
A compression fitting provides a smoother build process and look much nicer however, if you fiddle around too much in your case its possible for them to come loose and leak. That does not mean they are not safe; you just have to take more care when you are building your system making sure all connections are as tight as they can be.
Compression fitting are my go-to choice for water cooling builds if you have a small case where build space is limited, angled compression fittings can make the whole process easier, and the result much cleaner.
Standard Jubilee Barb
The second type of barb is your standard affair where the tubing slides over the end and is fastened into place using jubilee clips. As a beginner this is how I started out to reduce points of failure and potential for leaks. You can get them really tight making it near impossible for any water to leak unless you didn’t screw in the barb tight enough.
Top Tip Generally speaking each section in the loop will require two barbs, an inlet, and an outlet. However sometimes pumps come with molded cases that already have barbs for you to use.
Cooling Fluids
The cheapest water cooling fluid around (and best) is osmosis or distilled water, you cannot just use it straight from the tap because of the high mineral content.
For flexible tubing systems, you must use distilled water and treat the water with a solution that neutralizes the Ph level or even use a silver kill coil that kills bacteria. It keeps the loop free of gunk and performing at its peak.
If you want your liquid cooling loop to glow under UV cathode lighting then buy tubing that is already pre-coloured and UV treated, it will not fade and will always look vibrant
For people building with acrylic tubing, it is safe to use the huge range of fluids that are premixed with colorants. Because of the hard polymers in the acrylic tubing most colorants in the tubing do not damage the tubing.
