SEPTEMBER 2006 MA XIMUMPC 55
t fi rst blush, water-cooling a PC seems about as wise
as spending an afternoon in Mexico drinking the local
water, eating road-side tacos, and then paragliding over
a crowded beach. Of course, using water to cool your PC isn’t
that foolish. In fact, it’s not foolish at all: Water-cooling is the
best bang-for-your-buck technique to cool your PC components,
despite its seemingly steep price tag (compared to air-cooling).
When compared to air-cooling, water-cooling provides better
performance with a lot less noise, and it usually allows for higher
overclocking. Sure, there are risks—we won’t lie and say therearen’t. But if you’re careful, diligent, and able to RTFM, there’s
little chance of destroying your beloved rig or experiencing what
we call in the Lab a “gusher.”
Despite the relatively low risk involved, a lot of people are
reticent to take the plunge due to their lack of knowledge, and
that’s where we come in. We’ll walk you through the ins-and-
outs of water-cooling, and explain what every component does.
We’ll also offer installation and maintenance tips, and take you
on a virtual tour of a typical cooling loop. And with that, it’s time
to don your water wings (goggles are optional) and dive in.There are two kinds of pumps used
in water-cooling: submersible pumps,
which go inside a reservoir and are sub-
merged underwater, and the non-sub-
merged variety. Submersible pumps are
typically found in external, all-in-one kits
that sit on top of your case. The majority
of pumps used in DIY water-cooling are
the stand-alone, non-submersible variety.
The key stat for your pump is its fl ow
rate, the amount of coolant it can move
in an hour.
When pump shopping, keep your ulti-
mate goal in mind. If you’re just cooling a
CPU, you can go with a low-to-medium
fl ow pump in the neighborhood of 150
gallons per hour (gph). If you want to
cool a GPU, chipset, and a hard drive or
two, you’ll need a higher-fl ow pump. We
recommend 300gph pumps when you’re
cooling more than just the CPU.PUMP
A reservoir is not necessary in a
water-cooling kit, but it’s a good
idea to have one. First, it allows air
bubbles to escape easily. Second, a
reservoir greatly increases the total
water volume in a cooling kit, thereby
increasing cooling performance.
Third, having a reservoir makes it eas-
ier to fi ll the kit with water, because
you can just pull it out from your rig to
top off your loop. Kits without a reser-
voir require a fi ll port or T-line, which
makes fi lling and bleeding air from the
system more diffi cult.
The best reservoirs are made
from acrylic or molded plastic, and
have a separator to ensure that the
water is constantly moving through
the reservoir.RESERVOIR
Almost every water-cooling kit
requires hose clamps around the
tubing on the inlet and outlet barbs
of your cooling blocks, pump,
radiator, and reservoir, to prevent
leaks. Even though the tubing usu-
ally fi ts onto the barb very securely,
clamps are insurance against a
catastrophic leak.
There are two types of clamps:
the plastic, ratcheting type (shown
here), and the metal clamps used
in plumbing that are available at
Home Depot. The plastic variety
should be more than suffi cient, if
you use them properly. Make sure
you use some sort of clamp on
every tube end, and cinch the plas-
tic clamp (using your hands only)
until it’s tight enough to keep the
tubing on securely.CLAMPS
This pump
model—which
is packaged
under different
names—is widely
regarded as one
of the best avail-
able, and is found
in many kits.The reservoir holds extra water
to increase your cooling power,
and makes it easier to remove air
bubbles from the liquid coolant.Even if the
tube fits tightly
onto the barb,
always use
clamps. We
found this out
the hard way!A