COOLING THEORY
Most CPU towers consist of small
vacuum-sealed chambers containing
a tiny amount of fluid. When heat is
applied to this fluid, it evaporates
and disperses to the extremities of
the pipes. The vapor then condenses,
thanks to cool air being pushed over
it, then descends through a wicking
material back to the source of the
heat to repeat the process again.
With liquid cooling, a similar
principle is applied on a grander
scale. Instead of a small amount of
vapor you have massive volumes of
coolant, instead of convection, you
have a pump, and instead of the vapor
hitting the top of the heat pipe and
disseminating the heat through the
tower’s fins, the radiator channels
disperse the heat across its fins, then
it’s cooled by fans again.
This is why liquid cooling makes
such a big difference. It’s far easier
to move the heat away from hot
components quickly, then disperse
it across a bigger surface area,
cooled by more fans. An additional
benefit is that as the radiators are
usually located on the outer edges
of the chassis, heat is expelled
immediately, rather than lingering,
reducing the ambient temperature
around secondary components.Although
it requires
extra skill,
hard tubing
looks much
neater.Parts & Options
Typically manufactured from PVC, or
polyvinyl chloride, soft tubing is flexible,
easy to cut, affordable, and comes in
a variety of different diameters and
thicknesses. Although usually clear, you
can find opaque colored or translucent
frosted variants as well. It’s easy to use
and cut to length—in fact, you can get
away with just using scissors if you really
want—which makes building a loop with
soft tubing a great choice for beginners.
Downsides typically come in the form of
reduced bend radii, and it also has a bad
habit of leaching color over time.
There’s another type of soft tubing
worth mentioning here, and that’s EPDM,
or synthetic rubber tubing. Unlike PVC
tubing, EPDM only comes in matte or
gloss black. It can maintain tighter
bend radii, thanks to its thicker internal
walls, and also doesn’t suffer from color
leaching at all. This type of tubing was
originally designed for industrial use,
and as such, is ideal for those looking for
minimal loop maintenance, or for a more
grungy aesthetic for their loop.When it comes to planning your loop, the range of products available—
from fittings to tubing, and radiators to reservoirs—makes for a daunting
prospect for the uninitiated. So, let’s break down exactly what you’ll need,
and what you can buy to perfect your liquid-cooling loop.Tubing Types: Soft Tubing
Tubing Types: Hard Tubing
Sof t tubing is great
for those starting out
with liquid cooling.The most popular type of hard tubing is
made from acrylic. It’s a strong, clear,
hard-tube, usually coming in straight
lengths of about 20 inches or so. It can be
bent to shape using a silicon insert and
a heatgun, and typically needs its edges
cutting to size and chamfering off, so it
can fit within its compression fittings.
Like soft tubing, it can leach color over
time—however, that usually only happens
when it’s situated in direct sunlight for
long periods of time. Although it’s almost
always clear, you can find frosted versions
as well. The only downside to acrylic
tubing is that it does have a tendency to
shatter when hit hard enough. Which is
where PETG comes in.
PETG tubing and acrylic look almost
identical, yet the two have very different
material characteristics. PETG has
slightly less clarity than acrylic, and
additionally features a far lower melting
point, making it easier to bend. The big
advantage, though, is that it doesn’tshatter under pressure; instead, it
compresses when force is applied.
You can also get borosilicate glass
tubing, which apart from being PH neutral
and impermeable, features the highest
clarity of all tubing types. Typically usedin straight lines with angled extensions, it
c a n a l s o b e b e n t w i t h a b l o w t o r c h a n d s k i l l.
Finally, there’s annealed copper tubing,
which can be plated in zinc, chrome, or
other metals, or powder coated. To bend
this, you need a fairly heavy-duty mandrel.liquid cooling
24 MAXIMUM PC MAY 2020 maximumpc.com