Water cooling is a popular method for enhancing the look of a computer’s build, ensuring that its silicon components stand out from the crowd. It involves connecting parts to the case and any components needed to cool, making it easy to install and eliminate human error. A beginner’s water cooling guide provides information on liquid cooling, including pumps, reservoirs, radiators, and fans.
Water cooling can turn a top-end PC into a powerful monster or a budget PC into a respectable gaming rig. To properly water cool a PC, follow these steps:
- Prep your PC by removing the heat sink.
- Install the water block.
- Put your PC back together.
- Turn the water block on.
- Connect the pump, reservoir, radiator, and fan to the case itself and any components needed to cool.
In summary, water cooling is a simple and effective way to enhance the appearance of a computer’s build. It involves connecting parts to the case and any components needed to cool, ensuring that the CPU and video graphics card produce the highest amount of heat and benefit most from the cooling process. If you’re not ready to spend time, money, or effort on this process, stick to traditional air cooling or hire a professional.
📹 The Ultimate Guide to Building a Water Cooled PC in 2023
Hey Everyone! I am back! In this video, I dive as deep as I can to explain the process of building a water cool pc. If you have any …
📹 Before Liquid Cooling Your Gaming PC – Tips & Tricks
Building a liquid cooled PC? Start here. Here are some useful tips that I’ve learnt throughout all of my custom watercooled PC …
Just got a bunch of EK fittings (EK Quantum Torque nickel) so I can chime in on that one: They’re not easier. Still gotta press kinda hard. Kinda logical too when you think about it. They’re supposed to be real tight. Lubricating the gasket tends to help a great deal with pushing it in though. (that’s what she said) Nice build by the way. Kinda wondering what case that is? Interior sorta looks like an O11 Dynamic, but it’s clearly not. Some personal points: Personally would have redone the tube from CPU to the top rad. Just a tad bit too short. I’d also change all front fans to pull air into the case to create positive air pressure inside case. That way, more dust that gets sucked in gets pushed out. Now you just have all fans pushing air out, creating negative pressure, pulling dust into the case. (like a vacuum cleaner) I guess you could also eventually reposition the front rad to the floor of the case. Though that takes quite a bit more work + might screw with the outlet. A better alternative: Add some fans to the floor that also pull air into the case. Also, exactly where did you install the temperature sensor? Can’t really see it anywhere.
Tips: – soak the tip of the soft tubes in boiling water for easier handling, or use a heat gun carefully to make them softer 😉 – also, flush the radiators a few times when new, also flush the complete new loop a couple of times with plain distilled water, I let it run for 24-48h and flush then repeat before adding the final liquid 😀
Big list of tips, tricks and best practices (will be updated over time…): 1. The spatial relationship between components is very important. RESEARCH YOUR DAMN CASE! And if your current case is not good for custom water cooling, get a new one! The vast majority of bad experiences with custom loops originate from a case that was never designed with multiple radiators or custom loops in mind. The clearance between radiator mounts is a very important spec that most reviewers don’t mention. This has a big impact on what parts you can fit. Corsair mid towers are notorious for this. You have to account for the size of your GPU block in relation to your reservoir and radiator positions. Also pay attention to your case’s rad mounting solution. A sliding rail is far preferable to fixed mounting holes (again, bad on you Corsair). Finally, airflow. A bad airflow case makes for a bad custom loop case. 2. Quality components matter. You’re spending $$$ if not $,$$$ for some aesthetic pop, a decent reduction in noise and a marginal increase in performance. Don’t just get XY brand because you see everyone using them. You will spend less and get higher quality parts by mixing brands that excel in their respective product categories. I’ll touch on this later… 3. Invest in tools. One I find ESSENTIAL for hardline tubing is the Primochill Rigid Finishing Bit (there are vids on it). The main + of the RFB is not the chamfering, it’s that it lets you precisely shorten the lengths of your tube runs .##mm at a time. This is far preferable to cutting, deburring, sanding, oh crap it’s too long, but only by a little bit, so I can’t really cut, now I have to sand, well that’s a PIA… so now I have to start over. No thanks. I also like to finish off my hard tube ends with some sandpaper to make sure they are 100% smooth. Breaking an o-ring is the last thing you want. Another tool you may see people use are bending kits/mandrels. Some important points for those. Do not waste your money on a cheap plastic set. They are not precisely made and will often cause more problems than they solve. Only get metal mandrels. Bitspower and Monsoon make the best ones. Monsoon and Alphacool also make a interlocking ruler kit that is great for measuring bends to set up your mandrel positions. I would purchase these together. If you are doing hard tubing, a heatgun with adjustable temperature is nice to have. 4. PWM control software. Mobo software + a water temp sensor often “works”. However, as pretty much anyone knows, most mobo software sucks. Some people use Corsair iCUE since it also controls their RGB stuff. It’s better than mobo software… but there is a vastly superior option… Aquacomputer’s Quadro/Octo controllers w/ Aquasuite software. The lack of YT content on this solution is mindboggling to me. Ali, seriously, pls, make a article on this. I could write an page worth on this topic alone… but in short… lightweight software that doesn’t crash, granular PWM control, plethora of special functions like condition based PWM curves, warnings and autoshutdown, terrific UI, fully customizable monitor, etc etc. Best $45 you will spend. Now on to quality brands. There is a certain brand you will see pretty much every TechTuber use. They have a big marketing budget. They incentivize only showing their products together. Some products they make are great, most are ok, some should be avoided. They are NOT the only option out there and you should absolutely be considering the myriad of alternatives out there. Here is a detailed breakdown (get a cup of coffee): – CPU block: Watercool Heatkiller, Aquacomputer, Alphacool (XPX), Optimus and EK’s Magnitude (only) are top shelf. Bitspower, Phanteks, XSPC are good as well. – GPU block: Watercool Heatkiller, Aquacomputer, Optimus, Phanteks, and Bitspower. Pay close attention to your GPU model. Reference cards (this crazy gen as an exception) and Asus’s Strix are the best models to target if you are custom water cooling. EVGA is often a safe bet as well. – Reservoir: Reservoirs don’t impact performance and it really comes down to quality (material, glass/metal vs plastic), ports, size and mounting compatibility. Don’t sweat this one. I like Watercool and Singularity Computers for ATX builds. Distribution blocks are also an option. – Pump: D5 PWM (just not the VP755) for ATX cases. DDC 3.2 PWM (with heatsink) if you are tight on space (DDCs are noisier than D5s). Aquacomputer D5 NEXT has some nice features (display, temp sensor, rgb, etc) if you don’t mind paying a bit more. – Radiator: Hardware Labs. HWL GTS, SR2 and GTX are some of the best rads on the market. GTS is 30mm thick and is the best rad for 9/10 situations. Corsair and Bitspower uses HWL as their OEM, so they are good options if the price is lower or HWL availability is limited. XSPC makes the best <30mm rad (TX###). EK XE is the best thick rad (60mm). Alphacool rads are good for SFF/tight builds because they have multiport tops. Really, the only rad that is objectively "bad" is the EK SE (bad performance). Don't sweat this one too much, just make sure you have enough rad (at least 240mm of rad per overclocked component) so you can achieve quiet operation. - Fans: Noctua A12-25, Noiseblocker NB-eLoop, Arctic P##, bequiet Silent Wings 3, Noctua iPPC, Gentle Typhoons. Arctic P## 5 pack is your best perf/$. A12-25 is best perf/noise ratio overall. Don't skimp on fans if you are limited on radiator space. - Fittings: Barrow. Best price to quality ratio and better quality than the majority of other brands and it's not even close. Monsoon and Bitspower/Corsair are also great but are far more expensive. Primochill is also good, but also expensive. You can get Barrow fittings on formulamod.com for stupid cheap and the quality is better than EK, Alphacool and Thermaltake. EK Torque fittings look nice but the o-rings and finishes are not as durable as Barrow. Use the money you save to invest in better blocks/fans/rads. - Tubing: Brand doesn't really matter... but type does. For soft tubing, EK ZMT (black) is the most durable soft tubing. I've had bad experiences with various clear tubings, but YMMV. If you do go hard tubing, it's PETG vs acrylic. Both have pros and cons. IMO, PETG is easier for a first time custom loop builder but acrylic will give you a better (cleaner bends, clearer optics) final product if you have the skill (less forgiving to bend). PETG is susceptible to deforming if your loop water temp gets too high (from say your pump dying). This can be easily prevented by setting a shutdown command if a certain water temp value is reached in a program like HWinfo. End of the day, it's ZMT or acrylic for me. - Fluid: Save yourself a lifetime of pain and regret and stick to clear fluid (dyed is fine). Mayhems Pastel White + their dye (+cleaning with their Blitz kit) is the only opaque fluid I can recommend. Stay faaaar away from particle fluids (VUE). Mayhems X1, EK Kryofuel clear and Koolance 702 are all very reliable. If you want colored tube runs and the best reliability, get clear fluid with colored tubing or paint the tubing yourself like I did. Also, if you go with PETG tubing, double check that your fluid is compatible... some are not.
*ATTENTION*: if you are using the aqua computer aqualis glass res. The leak tester might lose pressure and make you think that you have a leave but you won’t. The design of the res causes you to lose air but not water. It has something to do with the nickel plated metal tube and the glass. I recommend leak testing without the aqua computer aqualis reservoir. Adding the reservoir once your leak testing is done. The only place it SHOULD leak from is the base of the reservoir, Make sure to tighten the reservoir if you have previously taken it apart. If you apply pressure against the reservoir than you will create a small leak BUT that’s only if something pushes against the reservoir
While assembling all the hardware, and planning my first open loop, I’ve watched or read at least 50 in-depth water cooling tutorials, and 4 minutes in this is already the most useful. Once you understand the basics, the details become critical, and your fittings discussion – especially your extenders mention (and the subsequent shot of their use on a radiator port) provides useful detail I haven’t previously come across. A broader discussion of angled adaptors and T-fittings would have been even more appreciated, but that’s mostly due to the fact that I’m currently trying to plan my fill/drain ports. Your website is obviously very professional, and the information presented is incredibly valuable.
If you are using a large reservoir separate from the pump, you should always feed your pump from the reservoir. Use gravity to your advantage. The opposite configuration will cause unnecessary wear. This is mostly irrelevant in little ITX builds, but should be mentioned in a general water cooling article.
The temp sensor for the coolant is really important. At least for the pumps that I use, they have a max operating temp of 60C. Sometimes my coolant reaches upwards of 52C which isn’t so great, but at least I know and I can set a notification on my system to warn me if it goes above a certain temp (I set it at 55C). Also, from what I’ve heard, PETG tubing can warp or deform at temps around the 50s (you are bending it with a heat gun at 62C and above), so perhaps in the summer or if you are overclocking some really hot components (3090, etc.) for extended periods of time, definitely need a temp sensor for your coolant and run your fan curves based on that.
You forgot to mention an important and crucial best practice, do not mix different types of metals in your custom loops, never ever, always try to go with the same metal everywhere. Also i honestly prefer cheap out on my fittings and tubing with buying from Bykski or Barrow and then spending a little bit more on my Radiators or even CPU/GPU blocks (EKWB, Alphacool). Buying also the right tools for cutting your tubing is mandatory otherwise you are just up for nightmares lol
So there’s no such fitting that allows you to couple soft tubing to hard tubing? I have a general idea of what I want for my first custom loop build. It’s not small form factor and the premise of what I want is “hidden tubing”. So something like hard tubing bent and routed right behind the motherboard in the straightest/cleanest way (so two bends/couples). Then once the tubing is behind the mother board be able to switch to soft tubing as it won’t ever be seen and is easier to work with (from what I’m told)…. Although the case I want to try this in is the Lian Li Lancool 2 Mesh, which if you aren’t familiar has tempered glass on both sides so maybe it would be cool to show off some tubing on that side as well. I know what a lot of you are thinking but I’m pretty handy with working with my hands and power tools so I’m not afraid to put some holes in the motherboard tray to route tubing or even modifying the front radiator bracket to accept a 420mm radiator. I just want the loop to be pretty minimal and clean… I k is there will could be lots of space left in the case when I’m done but I just want a clean looking MOBO with pretty much just the block standing out… I’m also not sure if I would include both the cpu and gpu, just the cpu, or even just the gpu for the loop. System is currently a 5800x being cooled by a Artic 280 AIO, with a MSI Gaming Trio 2080Ti (not liquid cooled). If I start with just the CPU I guess I can always modify the loop for a future GPU (don’t feel like growing through the trouble for the 2080Ti as I’ll probably replace it in the next year or two).
Great article Ali from a fellow Aussie – useful tips as usual. I first came across you when researching waterblocks for the EVGA 1080TI SC2 and have followed you since. I use EK’s ZMT for my test bench (Streacom BC1 Open Benchtable) for both flexibility & durability which has served me well. I’m glad EK released their leak tester… so much better design/build than the Aquacomputer Dr Drop offering which was difficult to get an air-tight seal. Like you, I prefer the EK Cryofuel clear in all my builds although I have used the coloured variants in the past and dye has a habit of getting stuck in radiators when cleaning out. A few extra tips – * Don’t forget cross-flow radiators exist. My builds are normally in full ATX towers and the return tube from the top radiator can look a bit ugly and potentially interfere with high RAM. The biggest issue is availability of such radiators in Australia and I source them overseas from either Aquatuning (can be very expensive shipping to Australia) or Performance-PCs. * Another company’s fittings I use (sparingly) is Bitspower when I want something a bit specialised. I use 2 temperature probes (one to each of my Corsair Commander Pro’s) and use a Bitspower rotary “Q” fitting directly off a radiator port allowing the 2 probes and the return run from the radiator to my pump/res without excess bulk. * If you are using a Singularity Computers D5 PWM pump and filling your loop, ensure you disconnect the PWM wire from your motherboard or fan controller to get it to run at full speed.
i’ll just give 1 tip cause i’m lazy and have typed these out so many times, but the biggest thing I think most ppl can do better: don’t get drawn in by the admittedly very effective marketing of EKWB and other brands (but esp them). to be clear, they make good products. but they’re also expensive asf. aliexpress and the like can offer wayyy better value, esp in certain areas like CPU blocks, fittings, and radiators. if you spend a few mins looking around on those sites, you can save hundreds on your loop. don’t be afraid to dig a little, you’ll save so much in the process.
This is a great article! Been working with ZMT tubing for a while, and desperately needed to be reminded about the soaking. Definitely a great point about having extra fittings! I think my one tip would be if at all possible, have a backup machine. If you’re inexperienced, you may find you’re missing a component that you’d like on the first go for your loop, or down the line experience a pump failure, and then potentially be out of commission. I’d say just anticipate it won’t be as reliable as an air cooled system, and then enjoy the glorious temperatures/noise levels the other 95% of the time.
Pro tips: Radiator size (length, width, height) and fin density (fpi) are the biggest factors in loop performance followed by fans; but it’s a lot easier to add/upgrade fans than swap a rad. Consider your budget and physical limitations, then get the biggest/thickest rad you can. Higher fpi rads (>18fpi) should use higher static pressure fans Built myself a $450 loop, nexxxos 1260 rad, dual bykski ddc, cpu+gpu, 3 quick disconnects, soft tubing, compression fittings, and a water temp sensor.
I made an oversized loop with 6 x 360mm plus one 240mm rads, with radiators in parallel in a set of 4 and 3. With two D5s in serial at 100% I see a 4C delta between the coolest and hottest points of the loop. At a more silent pump speed I can see deltas of over 8C. If you have very power hungry components and extremely restrictive rads like the HWLabs GTS line you’ll definitely see more than a couple degrees of coolant temperature variation at different points in the loop.
Waterblock scrubbing man…what a pain. I rinsed my 3x 360 rads so many times, over a few days, one day with diluted vineger solution, another 2 days with tap water then distilled water, but there was still some whitiest hard residue/build-uip to clog my cpu block in a few months time. Full nickle plated copper blocks with copper rads and brass bitspower fittings and mayhem’s anti-rust and anti-mircobial to boot. When u rebuilt my comp, i got paranoid and flush the loop once a day for 3 days, then 1 more time after a week and a few more times over the course of months and after i feel comfortable, double dose the mayhem loop treatment drops. Temps seems stable now after 6mths+, not sure what went wrong initially.
Would love to see a article on the Sliger S620. Just completed an air cooled build in it with a 3090 and not only was it a pleasure to build in, but the temps have been surprisingly good. I was basically going to build something very similar to your M1 but someone mentioned the S620 to me. Definitely glad they did.
I use cryofuel exclusively too. However I used the solid blue and over time the solid component broke from solution and clogged the blocks. Took ages to clean out would never use solid coolant again, whereas normal colored cryofuel has never given any problems at all apart from some slight staining of blocks after prolonged use ( nothing that cant be fixed 🙂 )
If you aren’t concerned about looks, i have 4 tips: 1) The best tubing is food grade silicone (sometimes called medical grade). It’s soft, flexible, and lasts forever. You’ll easily push it onto your barbs. It can bend sharper without kinking, meaning you can use straight barbs more often. You can eliminate the spacers too. For example, at 3:20, instead of a spacer and a 90-fitting, just use one straight fitting coming out of the radiator and let the tube do the bend 2) Use barbs, not compression fittings. Compression fittings are just a barb with a screw-on collar to hold the hose in place. You can accomplish the same with a zip tie. At the low pressure a D5 produces, you can even skip the zip tie, but it’s cheap insurance against accidentally yanking a tube off. 3) The best fluid is purified or distilled water. A few drops of biocide is enough to keep it clean. You’ll want a few drops of corrosion inhibitor too. 4) Don’t buy an AIO. All watercooling transpires water through the tubes. An AIO is gonna dry out sooner or later, and you can’t add water when it does. For the same money, you can buy air coolers that are almost as good, and will last forever.
If I were to custom water cool, I would buy Swagelok metric fittings. Their selection is much wider for English units over metric, but they have 12 and 16 mm fittings that should work. Using them properly requires some experience. And if Swagelok makes metric ferrules out of polymer or graphite (I didn’t find any in a quick search), one could go all glass! (ok, that would be a LOT of work)
I used the have a water cooled machine, the acrylic on the CPU block cracked at some point overtime, and was slowly leaking on my graphics card. Had weird GPU crashes for a while before I figured this out, luckily nothing seemed to have broken permanently. After this “fun time”, I decided to not bother with watercooling unless neccessary to the build.
3:50 when I was installing my loops, for CPU block I read the manual clearly stated that flow should be going into inlet first (that is the one that goes in the jet plate), order matters; for GPU block I read the manual stated there is no specific inlet/outlet port order, either way is fine. my blocks are EK ones.
How about doing a water cooling parts build list for the mini ITX cases you have displayed on your website. First timers and even some advanced builders more times than not, often waste hundreds of dollars buying parts, fittings etc. that they will never use and have to re-order to finally get what they need. You would help the community save time, money, and mental fatigue, and you might even make some extra money with affiliate links.
What about rads? Which one are better? I found and order from ali EK classic PE 240x45x120mm, with weight 980/860 gramms. And I start to think when I should do first maintenance, coz rad is copper, fittings are barrow and seems to be they are made from brass. Brass is Cu+Zn if I understand correctly. Also which materials was pump made of? Alu, steinless steal?
I’m curious though how far stretches the compatibility of gpu waterblocks. Like I have 980Ti so it’s impossible to buy a waterblock for it (unless second hand), unless they don’t include it’s name in supported graphics just because of “If you are watercooling your pc now, you definitely have newest hardware” logic.
What do you think of a mini itx system that has quick disconnects and for travel using ryzen master to underclock when you travel with it, to something like ces or for hotel use. while at your home you have an external rad so you can quick connect it to unlock your processor to let it stretch it’s legs