Watercool Your Rig
Set up water cooling (in a nutshell)
Pros:
- Cuts temperatures of factory-clocked hardware in half
- Allows for great overclocking
- Often quieter than air cooling
- Often more power efficient
- Rewarding experience once it's set up
Cons:
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- Expensive
- Leakage can ruin the computer
- Difficult to set up
- Requires yearly maintenance (replacing coolant)
Item List:
- Pump - Pushes coolant through the system
- Reservoir - Stores a pool of coolant for use
- Radiator - Transfers heat from coolant to the air
- Waterblock(s) - Transfers heat from the hardware to the coolant
- Fittings - Attaches tubing to water cooling parts
- Tubing - Pipes that the coolant travels through
- Coolant - Distilled water, usually with antifreeze additives
Buying tips:
- Do not mix metal - All components should use plastic, or the same type of metal. Copper is recommended.
- Pump - Should be strong and quiet. Adjustable pumpt speeds are a plus.
- Combination items - Pumps, reservoirs, and radiators often are combined. Pump/reservoir combos are recommended to save space and money.
- Radiator - Standard radiators are built to attach 120mm fans. This is recommended to increase cooling capability.
- Waterblock(s) - There are water blocks for every piece of hardware, but only GPU cooling is essential. CPU cooling is recommended but not necessary. Make sure the waterblock is designed to fit your specific hardware. Universal waterblocks exist, but are not as effective.
- Fittings - Make sure that the tubing matches with the fittings. Fittings usually have G1/4th threads that connect to most WC hardware, but the other end (the not-screwy end) is variable. Triple check that the fittings match the tubing!
- Tubing - Make sure it's transparent
- Coolant - It's easy to make your own, it's also cheap to buy online.
Setting up the loop:
- Attach waterblock(s) to hardware
- Find a place for the pump and reservoir. Often this is somewhere inside the case if there is room.
- Find a place for the radiator. Often this is somewhere outside of the case to give heat off to the air, and not the computer.
- Screw in fittings to the WC pieces. Tighten with your hands only, do not over-tighten.
- Connect your devices according to this path of coolant: Pump -> Radiator -> Waterblock(s) -> Reservoir -> Pump
- Make sure that the tubing does not kink. Kinking is when a tube is bent so that it collapses in on itself at a harsh angle.
- Less tubing is better.
Starting the water loop:
- Disconnect all power to the computer's hardware.
- Connect power to the pump
- Take the PSU's ATX power connector (the power cord with 20-24 pins that plugs into the motherboard)
- Use a paperclip or jumper to connect the green cable to any black cable on the ATX power connector.
- Now if you turn on the PSU, it will supply power to the pump only for testing.
Testing the water loop:
- Lay paper towels below the water cooling system, and above the graphics card.
- Fill the reservoir to the top with coolant. Close the reservoir.
- Tilt the case such that water from the reservoir enters the pump.
- Say some prayers
- Turn on the PSU, the pump should start pumping coolant. Continue tilting the case so that coolant flows from the reservoir to the pump.
- Eventually the pump will not need you to tilt the case.
- Check for leaks. Refill the reservoir with more coolant. Close the reservoir.
- Agitate the water loop to get rid of air in the loop. Agitation includes: turning the pump on and off, adjusting the pump speed, tilting the case in various directions.
- Continue checking for leaks, agitating the water loop, and topping off the reservoir for 12-24 hours.
Using the water loop:
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- Cut power to the PSU.
- Remove the paperclip/jumper.
- Attach power to the rest of your computer from the PSU.
- Turn on the computer.
- Keep paper towels in the computer for a couple of weeks, periodically checking for leaks.
Tips on clearing the water loop for maintenance:
- Get a bottle with a sealed tube, squeeze the bottle, place the tube end into the reservoir, let airpressure pull the coolant from the reservoir.
- Attach tube using fitting to reservoir if this is supported, put other end of tube into bucket/container, tilt case so that coolant pours from reservoir into tube and into bucket.
- Empty enough coolant so that it is safe to detach the out tubing from the pump, blow into pump to push coolant into reservoir for extraction.
Troubleshooting:
- There is a leak: Don't panic. Cut power to the PSU. Dry off areas with coolant. Usually leaks come from the fittings not connecting properly to hardware or tubing. Try to clear the water loop and reconnect these pieces. Consider using a sealant. If the leak is coming from a piece of WC hardware, try to seal the leak, or buy a replacement piece of hardware. Let your computer dry for 24 hours before re-testing your waterloop.
- My temperatures aren't dropping like I expected: Use a fan to cool your reservoir. Make sure the fan blows air away from the reservoir and case. Make sure the pump is strong enough to push coolant through the loop. Make sure there is no air left in the waterloop (air in reservoir is fine). Make sure you aren't overclocking your system. Re-read your waterblock manual, then re-attach the waterblock.
- It doesn't look as impressive as I'd hoped: Add lights. Add a UV-reactive dye to the coolant, and add UV lights. Be careful that the UV lights do not spot something hidden in your room.