Liquid Cooling Help

[Apolyc]

I am looking to move into liquid cooling for my computer, however this is the first time i will even attempt liquid cooling. I need some help or advice on how to go about this.

What components need to be cooled? Do kits come with everything i need to cool all the parts? Recommendations on how to go about this?

I thank you and appreciate any and all help.

[GirlyKittyBoy]

You don't need liquid cooling unless you're overclocking and even then a decent heatsink/fan is usually enough to get the job done and a lot cheaper. The money would probably be better spent elsewhere.

[Mythbredor]

Are you looking into going custom loop liquid cooling or AIO cooling? Custom loop is MUCH bigger of a time investment and I would highly recommend doing your research before you get into that. It involves quite a bit of work and know how. If you're doing AIO it's pretty much just like installing a air cooler cept you have a radiator you have to stick somewhere and put fans on.

But as stated above me you really don't need liquid cooling unless you are doing some more ambitious overclocks.

[Shinzou]

You don't need liquid cooling unless you're overclocking and even then a decent heatsink/fan is usually enough to get the job done and a lot cheaper. The money would probably be better spent elsewhere.

A lot of people do liquid cooling not for the performance increase from OCing, but for the experience. Some people just like building. Liquid cooling is just the next step and lets your creative side show.

Liquid cooling is not something you get into if you want to save money or just OC your stuff. There are cheaper and easier ways.

JayzTwoCents' channel is the go-to for liquid cooling questions. His overview of questions you should ask yourself before liquid cooling is spot on.

[Thunderball]

A lot of people do liquid cooling not for the performance increase from OCing, but for the experience. Some people just like building. Liquid cooling is just the next step and lets your creative side show.

Liquid cooling is not something you get into if you want to save money or just OC your stuff. There are cheaper and easier ways.

JayzTwoCents' channel is the go-to for liquid cooling questions. His overview of questions you should ask yourself before liquid cooling is spot on.

Custom liquid cooling requires extensive research to build even if you buy a kit. OP doesnt look like someone who is ready for that. AIO water coolers are pointless.

- - - Updated - - -

I am looking to move into liquid cooling for my computer, however this is the first time i will even attempt liquid cooling. I need some help or advice on how to go about this.

What components need to be cooled? Do kits come with everything i need to cool all the parts? Recommendations on how to go about this?

I thank you and appreciate any and all help.

Answer one simple question: why do you want liquid cooling, and we can go from there.

[Apolyc]

Answer one simple question: why do you want liquid cooling, and we can go from there.

Aesthetically looks nicer. It's quieter, provides better performance whether you overclock or not. Seems easier to maintain.

[Thunderball]

Aesthetically looks nicer. It's quieter, provides better performance whether you overclock or not. Seems easier to maintain.

1) Looks are subjective.
2) Not quieter. Plus pump noise is very annoying for some people even if it's quiet.
3) 2-3C OC load performance difference when comparing the best ones.

All of this of course applies to AIO water coolers vs air coolers. Custom system cooling is an entirely different story, but be ready to spend at least $1000. It's also requires a lot of maintenance.

[Jakexe]

You don't need liquid cooling. It's expensive. It requires maintenance. It won't help with the cpu temps much at all. It's going to make you cry at least once. Now that's done.

Water cooling kits generally come with a pump/reservoir combo, radiator w/ fans, cpu block and terrible quality tubing. They can be a good start but you'll more than likely need to buy extra anyway. Pump/res combos have been poor in my experience plus when the pump dies (and expect to have one die) you'll have to replace the entire unit, ending up costing you more. It's better to buy individual parts, will be more expensive but at this point expense better not be an issue.

I'm not even going to bother with the math you'll want which isn't required, but it's best to have if you want to make sure you're system works consistently. It deals with flow rate/rpm and tubing diameter as well is flow rates when dealing with elbow curves etc.

https://martinsliquidlab.wordpress.com/ is a site you'll want to read over if you want to know that side of liquid cooling.

You'll need to work out what you're cooling. A general rule is you want 120mm of radiator per component + 120mm. So if you're just cooling a cpu you'd want a 240mm radiator, cpu + gpu = 360mm radiator.

You'll need water blocks for the components.

Need a pump, get a laing D5 or equiv. offers high torque with variable speeds.

A reservoir. More water = more heat capacity so bigger is better but the difference between 150ml and 250ml isn't very large..

Radiators. Mentioned above.

Fans. Radiators can use push, pull or push/pull sets ups and generally SP fans are better, although it can depend on cases air flow.

Tubing. Soft tubing is easiest, hard acrylic/basolite is difficult and metal is a whole new skillset of difficult. You'll need to learn various sizes of tubing.

Fittings. You'll need to learn various size of fittings, as well as whether to use compression, barbed, hard tube etc.

Others. Things like temp readers, fill ports, drain ports, flow indicators need to considered. A drain port is a must.

Water. It's best to just use deminerilised water with an antifungal/growth solution (usually CuSO4) or a coil of 99.9% silver. This needs to be changed every 6-12months. If you add colour to the water expect to half that. Especially with darker/thicker colours as they can create build ups in the blocks and need to be cleaned more regularly.

Tools. Mostly depending on what tubing you use, you'll need some tools to certain jobs. Heat gun for acrylic, metal bender for metal etc.

That's basically all there is to it. It's incredibly rewarding and can look amazing and can really help with gpu overclocks but that's about it.

[Lathais]

Aesthetically looks nicer. It's quieter, provides better performance whether you overclock or not. Seems easier to maintain.

Generally speaking, water cooling is not quieter. Air Coolers and Water Coolers both use fans, however, on air coolers, the fan is the only thing that can make noise. Since fans can be changed out to near silent ones on either system, the sound from the fans can be ignored. On a water cooler though, on top of the fans you also have a pump that can make noise and occasionally, depending on the radiator, the air is being pushed through tiny holes which can cause a whooshing sound.

As far as better performance, with AIO coolers, just slightly, but they are more expensive for not much gain. For custom loops and whatnot, yeah, there is better performance, but if you are not OCing, what do you need that better performance for? If you are not OCing, even the stock cooler keeps the CPU cool enough to prevent any damage or shortening of life.

As for easier to maintain, nope, not at all. Air cooler require no maintenance whatsoever unless a fan goes out aside from cleaning dust out of them. Water coolers have both of those issues, plus the potential for a pump to go out, a leak, or just loss of coolant/water over time that needs to be replaced.