Ooh, ooh! Nono, no, no. That's-That’s not liquid cooling.
Hello DIY Tech enthusiasts, I’m Trisha Hershberger and if you are watching this video
it’s probably because you are intrigued by PC cases that look like they are straight out of a sci-fi movie!
Or maybe you love to run a powerhouse system with multiple graphics cards
and need everything to run super cool.
Or maybe you just want the sweet, sweet silence of a liquid-cooled system.
Whatever the reason may be, hopefully this video will help to make you a bit more informed
when it comes to the ins and outs, ups and downs, wets and dries of liquid cooling.
If you find this video useful, please give us a like and subscribe
so you know when we post future tips.
So what is liquid cooling and why would one need it?
First of all, no one NEEDS liquid cooling.
It’s an incredibly badass way of using liquid to transfer heat from one point to another,
for the purposes of keeping your PC components cool.
Traditional air-cooling fans with heat sinks, will do just fine for almost any use case,
but for the enthusiasts out there, liquid cooling looks cooler,
runs quieter and is more effective on the whole than traditional air-cooling techniques.
That being said, it’s expensive, complex
and your first few tries may come with a lot of frustration!
But if you are sitting there saying, “damn you Trish, I’m doing it anyway!”
then you are my people.
If you are thinking of taking on a liquid-cooled build, fortunately it’s much easier now
than it was about 10 years ago.
When it comes to liquid cooling, you’ve got 4 main options:
all-in-one, soft tubing, acrylic tubing, and copper tubing.
And they all have their advantages.
All-in-ones are the simplest to setup because all the parts are already assembled
and they come with a warranty.
Soft tubing is flexible, clear, and easy to use.
Acrylic is probably the most popular right now.
It’s super durable and creates really nice straight lines and angles.
Copper tubing gives you a similar look as far as corners go,
but it’s easier to bend and much more affordable.
Other components you’ll need to purchase vary based on the component or components
you want to cool, but basically you are looking at a case, tubing, radiator, blocks, backplates,
reservoirs, pumps, compression fittings, stop valves, coolant, and more.
That All-in-One I mentioned earlier is looking pretty nice right about now, isn’t it?
Whether you are looking to cool your CPU or GPU or both, you’ll need to do some research
and make sure you purchase a compatible CPU or GPU block.
If you also want to cool your RAM using liquid cooling, you’ll need compatible RAM modules
that match up with your water blocks.
Now, cooling your RAM is by no means necessary but it does look really awesome!
The type of fittings that you get will depend on the tubing you’ve chosen:
compression fittings or acrylic fittings or even angled fittings for extra pizazz.
The, grab a pump to keep things moving and a reservoir to hold all the liquid,
which, again, is not necessary, but makes filling easier.
Radiators are responsible for taking all that heat from the liquid and getting rid of it,
and you’ll need some static pressure fans to help out your radiators with that important task.
Remember to take into account case size as well when planning and buying.
While I will not be doing an actual build in this video, I do have some tips for your assembly.
1) I always recommend making even the shoddiest sketch of your tubing
and reservoir layout ahead of time.
Having a general roadmap is invaluable when in the midst of assembly.
2) Take out unnecessary cages or bays from your case before installing
to give you as much room as possible.
3) Don’t forget about cable management!
Not only will messy cables get in the way of the sleek look of your new liquid cooled setup,
they can get in the way of tubing and ultimately restrict airflow.
4) When testing the liquid in the system for the first time, put paper towels down
everywhere inside the rig so you can quickly detect any leaks.
And 5) Always do this with everything powered down and do a 24hr leak test
before powering on any of your components.
So, do you have any good war stories from your own liquid cooling adventures?
We’d love to hear them in the comments.
We can all commiserate and learn from each other.
If you found this video useful, please subscribe so you don’t miss any future tips!
I’m Trisha Hershberger and thank you so much for watching DIY in 5!