Drain, disassemble,
and clean your
water-cooling kit—
then put it all back
together in the time
it takes to watch a
non-LOTR movie!
This one should be obvious: You’ll never be
able to get any maintenance done on your
water-cooled rig unless you get the fl uid out
of the rig’s tubes. But thanks to the wonders
of air pressure, draining a water-cooling
setup isn’t too complicated.
You want to hold one of the tubes nice
and high in the air, with a tube at the other
end of your setup as low to the ground as
possible and preferably going
into a bottle, jug, or bucket of
some sort. Obviously, liquid is
going to start coming out of
the tube the moment you tilt it
downward, and once you get
the opposing tube into the air,
your rig will magically drain
itself—sort of.
If your water-cooling setup
is entirely closed (that is, it
uses only a T-line, or for the
truly bold, nothing), then drain-
ing it is even easier. Air pres-
sure should take care of most
of the liquid, but if you’re impa-
tient, you can just wrap your
hand around the free tube and
blow, blow, blow. Try not to get
any coolant in your mouth.Reservoir setups are a bit more fi nicky
since the liquid in them will drain from your
kit only until it falls below the output hole of
the reservoir. Blowing will do you little good
at that point, so you’ll need to physically tilt
your case in order to get the liquid out of the
reservoir. Of course, you could always just
remove the reservoir, but be sure to watch
out for drips while removing the tubes!W
ater-cooling your PC is an exercise in trade-offs. What you gain
in performance and overall geek cred by attaching tubes and
water blocks to your pricey parts, you lose in time devoted to
maintenance. Unlike an air cooler, which needs only a good blast of com-
pressed air every now and then, a water-cooling rig demands a bit of atten-
tion over the course of a year. We’re not talking about new-puppy-level time
commitments, but be prepared to spend a few days a year performing some
basic maintenance tasks.
What happens if you just sit back and ignore your computer’s cooling?
Get ready for gunked-up water blocks, murky tubes, and decreased perfor-
mance. But taking care of your water-cooling system isn’t as difficult as you
might think. For your cleaning convenience, here’s what you need to do to
maintain your setup.Maintain Your Water-Cooling Setup
Draining the Fluid Without Staining Your Floor
BY DAVE MURPHY58 MAXIMUMPC SEPTEMBER 2007
how (^2) IMPROVING YOUR PC EXPERIENCE, ONE STEP AT A TIME
TIMEHOURS:MINUTES
02 : 00
If you can’t drain your rig using the air-pressure
method, you’ll have to start by dumping the reservoir.
WHAT YOU NEED
PAPER TOWELS
VINEGAR
TOOTHBRUSH
DISTILLED WATER
RIFLE-CLEANING ROD
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