Editor's Note: The views expressed in the following article are those of the author, and not necessarily those of HardwareLogic. We'll be publishing member articles as part of our HL/Newegg User Article Contest, as well as those we feel will generate good conversation in our forums.Watercooling, once only practiced by extreme overclockers, has lately become increasingly popular among a wider audience, and there's no shortage of companies willing to cash in. Pre-assembled kits are flooding the market, luring new users to the art of liquid, but with a little bit of know-how, you too can build your own custom cooling contraption. This guide will ease inexperienced users into water cooling and explain each part.
CPU Block
The CPU block is the corner stone of your water cooling system. A poor water block will give poor results, and it’s not unheard of for a water block upgrade to drop temperatures more than 10C. For those of you who are just beginning to learn about water cooling and its components, a water block is the component that will transfer the heat from the processor to the liquid in your loop. All water blocks are variations on a simple design concept. They are a block of copper (sometimes aluminum or other metal) with barbs that allow the fixation of tubing. Liquid enters the block and flows through a pattern designed to maximize the amount of heat being transferred.
There are several things to look out for when selecting water blocks. Stay away from blocks that mix aluminum and copper. Galvanic corrosion will eventually destroy the blocks. There are additives such as antifreeze that are supposed to slow down this reaction, but ultimately the best way to stop it is to simply avoid it. Steer clear from blocks that use acrylic or similar materials, lest you run the risk of having them crack.
Chipset Block
Generally, it's a good idea to avoid using these blocks. Not only are they very restrictive and will hurt the overall performance of your loop, but they are almost always overkill. I would only recommend a chipset block for those seeking silence or aesthetics.
GPU Block
Along with cooling your CPU, the GPU can also be added into the system. GPU Blocks are exactly like CPU blocks, save for the obvious fact that they are for your video/graphics card. Considering today’s videocard that generate copious amounts of heat, the GPU block is a nice option for those of us who like to over clock or just want a more efficient solution.
Pump
The pump is the heart of your water-cooling loop. It circulates the liquid through your tubes and without it the system would not function properly, if at all. Picking the right pump is very important and can be somewhat confusing. There are many different kinds of pumps for different sizes of tubing and system requirements.
There are three important pump ratings to keep in mind:
- Flow: Many people believe flow is the most important thing about a pump. The reason flow rate is not as important is because it is measured at 0’ head resistance.
- Head pressure: This is the most important rating. Due to all the components we will have in our systems, we will have lots of resistance. Head pressure is how high the pump can push water at 0 gallons per minute.
- Heat Dump: How much heat in watts the pump puts in the water that is flowing through it. Generally, AC pumps will dump more heat than DC pumps.
Tubing
Tubing is what is used to connect all your blocks and other components together. Just like a computer’s power supply, it’s easy to overlook tubing and put it off as something that you can slack off on. The type of tubing you choose to use can have a great effect on the performance of the system and how you can set it up. Cheap tubing or tubing with a thin OD (outer diameter) can cause kinks and cripple the system. Generally, most people will only use ½ ID (Inner diameter) or 7/16 ID tubing. ½ and 7/16 will provide the highest flow possible, therefore maximizing performance.
Tygon is the preferred brand of tubing but also the most expensive. R-3603 is the most popular of the Tygon tubing. Its large OD makes it great at making sharper bends and it’s very resistant to chemicals. Next up is Clearflex 60. It certainly isn’t as popular and is harder to find, but it’s much cheaper and you won’t see much of a difference. As of late, many people have been making the switch to Masterkleer PVC 7/16 ID tubing. You would think that since it has a smaller inner diameter the performance would be lower, but that is not the case. It gives a tighter fit on barbs making worm drives almost unnecessary and the smaller ID compared to ½ has almost no impact on performance (claimed to be higher performance but the difference is negligible).
Radiator
As the liquid passes through your loop and picks up heat from the waterblocks, it will eventually pass through the radiator. Heat will be dropped off here and dissipated. Without a radiator your system would not be able to function. There are many different types of radiators. Of course, some are better than others, but it all comes down to what you are using it for and what fans you use on them.
There are two main types of radiators that you will find in watercooling loops: Purpose-built radiator and Heater cores. Purpose-built radiators are radiators that are specifically designed to be used in a water cooling system. They are usually designed to accommodate 120mm. Heater cores are the radiators used in a car's heating system. These usually require a lot more work but will often provide better performance. There is a lot of terminology, technology and mumbo-jumbo gibberish that I could talk about here but would mean little to you. For the beginner I would highly recommend getting a purpose-built radiator. Not only will it be less hassle to set up, but your system will be more aesthetically pleasing. And for those sticklers for performance, new purpose-built radiators have been catching up to their heat core cousins.
In terms of what to buy, generally a dual radiator will serve the average system just fine. Avoid radiators that use 80mm radiators because these will only result in high temperatures and a bad experience. I recommend a single 120mm radiator for a CPU only loop, dual 120mm for a CPU and GPU, and a triple for owners of high power CPU/GPU (ex. Quad core), or those wanting ultimate silence and performance. As a general rule, if the air coming out of your radiator is warm then your radiator is not good enough for your system.
Coolant
Many beginners don’t know where to start on this topic and often succumb to marketing schemes put out by companies advertising such advantages like “Nonconductive” or “Ultimate Performance” and sometimes even “Biologically safe”. To be honest I’m not too sure about any of those. As you become more and more experienced with water cooling you will soon find that there is nothing better for our loops except for pure distilled…water! Unfortunately we have other things to worry about like algae, corrosion, and bacteria. Algae are the nasty green stuff that grows on the sides of your fish tanks. It has the uncanny ability to clog up water blocks, pumps, radiators, and cloud up tubes. As I mentioned earlier in the guide, corrosion can occur when using mixed metals. Try to avoid this at all costs and you can skip corrosion inhibitors all together. For those who are going to run mixed metals, I recommend a 10% mixture of antifreeze and distilled water. Never use antifreeze or other additives by itself. The antifreeze will do a good job of killing off organisms and slowing down galvanic corrosion. It’s almost impossible to stop it completely. Please remember that antifreeze contains ethyl glycol/propylene glycol. These substances are toxic and should not be used near pets or children. And certainly don't drink it. To make matters worse, these compounds are glycols, hence they are naturally sweet so animals are attracted to it.
If you aren’t using mixed metals all you need is a biocide. These can be found in pet stores labeled as Algae killers. You can put more than the recommend amount of the label since we don’t want to have anything living in our loops at all.
The only “coolant” I would recommend is swiftech hydrex and this should be mixed with water as per the instructions.
Reservoirs and T-lines
These two items are used to fill, bleed, and sometimes drain your loop. Although they serve the same purpose they have their differences. Bleeding is the process of removing all the air from your loop.
A reservoir is essentially a container that stores the coolant from where your pump will draw it from. Filling and bleeding with a reservoir is extremely easy and the least time consuming. The only downside is that it takes up space. The reservoir should be placed at the highest point in your system, but if that’s not possible, situate it directly before your pump.
If space is a concern or you just aren’t interested in using a reservoir, then the t-line is pretty much your only other choice. T-lines are extremely convenient due to their small size, but there is a drawback. Bleeding often takes much, much longer compared to a reservoir, and we aren’t just talking about a few minutes; it’s possible for bleeding to take up to 3-4 hours and maybe even more.
Hose Clamps & Miscellaneous Hardware
Just like the pump, hose clamps are an essential component to the integrity of your watercooling system. These should be installed on every barb to prevent leaks. There are two common types of hose clamps: steel worm drive and nylon clamps. Worm drives can be picked up at most hardware stores and are the most secure hose clamps. These are tightened using a screw driver. As a warning, worm drives have tremendous sealing power and it is not impossible to collapse or crush a barb. You will know when to stop when there is more resistance.
http://img231.imageshack.us/img231/3570/clampqj0.jpg
Nylon clamps are those plastic clamps that are often provided with components. They do seal pretty well but I find that over time they wear out and have the potential to move around.
http://img131.imageshack.us/img131/4657/nylontr2.jpg
Fans
You will only want to use 120mm with radiators. The type of radiator you choose to use will help determine what fans are appropriate for it. For example, a low noise radiator will have less dense fins, thus allowing the use of fans that are not as powerful, while high noise will be the opposite.
Barbs, Fittings, Threads, Oh My!
For this who are interested (from left to right): Danger Den G1/4 High Flow Fittings, Swiftech stock plastic barbs of various sizes, Custom Stainless Steel 1/4 NPSM High flow Fittings.
When I first started water cooling, this was one of subjects that I spent a lot of time researching and trying to find information on. There is no standardized fitting that is used in the watercooling market so companies will choose whatever fitting they want.
The following is a list of the most common water block fittings and what companies use them:
¼ NPSM – Commonly used by Swiftech in their waterblocks except for the Apogee GTX
G1/4 - HW-Labs, and Alphacool use these on their radiators. Many waterblocks use this as well.
G3/8 - Thermochill uses this on their PA series radiators.
9/16 UNF – Not as common but is used on Danger Den Maze 4 LP and AquaXtreme MP05/01 blocks.
3/8 NPT – The only component I know that uses this is Swiftechs MCR-X20 series radiators.
NPT or Tapered- National Pipe Thread. NPT is a US Standard for tapered threads used to join pipes and fittings. The threads are wider at the beginning and thinner at the end thus the name tapered. As mentioned earlier, it is isn’t very common (only Swiftech). There isn’t anything wrong with them, but thread seal tape or thread sealant compound must be used.
Straight/Parallel or “G” – As the name suggests, the fittings are straight and do not taper. There are two variations of this that are used in watercooling: “G” or BSPP and and NPSM. BSPP stands for British Standard Parallel Pipe Thread while NPSM stands for National Standard Free-Fitting Straight Mechanical Pipe Thread. NPSM has 19 threads per inch at ¼ and BSPP has 18. The two can be used together without problem but I wouldn’t recommend it. Plumbing tape or thread seal tape is not required with these fittings and is not recommended. Instead of tape, Parallel threads rely on an o-ring to create a seal. Just like tape and tapered fittings, o-rings are absolutely necessary to create a water proof seal.
Metal or Plastic Fittings?
The only difference that I have seen between metal and plastic barbs is how easy or how hard tubing goes on. Once tubing is put on a plastic barb, it is usually very hard to get it off. Tubing goes on very easy with metal barbs and comes off without the need to apply a lot of force. Metal fittings look good too.
Perfect Seal, Push-to-Connect, Compression, High Flow?
I don’t know much about these because they aren’t recommended for high performance systems. My advice is to stick with what works well and use barbs. As for high flow barbs, these are made to have the maximum inner diameter so that flow is restricted as little as possible. Again, these are often metal and tubing goes on easy as pie.
Preconfigured Kits
These setups will use parts that can be easily found in most stores that stock water cooling components.
Performance Setup
CPU Water Block: D-Tek Fuzion (Multidie processor. Ex. Q6600) or Swiftech Storm (Single die processor)
GPU Water Block: MCW60 or Danger Den Maze 5 w/ appropriate ram sinks
Pump: Swiftech MCP655/Laing D5/Danger Den D5 (all the same pump)
Radiator: Thermochill PA120.3
T-Line
½ ID ¾ OD Tygon or 7/16 Masterkleer
"Bang for the Buck" Setup
CPU Water Block: Swiftech Apogee GT
GPU Water Block: MCW60 or Danger Den Maze 5
Pump: Swiftech MCP355 or DDC-2.
Radiator: Swiftech MCR220
T-Line
7/16 Masterkleer
Kits
Avoid kits at all cost, they are often nothing but bad news. A good air cooling setup can perform better then a kit. For those who are unsure about what to get I do have a list of kits that would be safe:
Swiftech H220-Apex Ultra and any Petra’sTech kit.
Conclusion
This gives an overall general de scri ption for all the components that one would normally find in a water cooling system. It will give a good idea of what to purchase and what to avoid and how these components work. To finish the guide off are some essential tips:
1.You must always place the reservoir or T-Line before the pump. The radiator would ideally go after the pump but it is not necessary. Having the shortest amount of tubing should have priority.
2.No mixed metals.
3.Avoid 90 degree bends.
