Water Cooling PC

Cooling a full computer system with water may be a far fetched thought for most at first. Even so, those who works with computers on a daily basis, are aware of the usual issue: computers with extraordinary processing power (all current CPUs and graphic cards) produce an abundance of heat, which needs to be disspated as efficiently as possible. Air as a cooling medium does have its advantages, but also rather noticeable disatvantages. Produced heat is absorbed inefficiently and even a high volume of air can only transport a fairly small amount of heat away from the components. Higher cooling performance can usually only be achieved by using larger and faster fans, which result in higher noise levels as well. Water can conduct 3000 times as much heat than air in an equal volume. Just because of this, the enthuasist user should take a closer look at water cooling their system.

How is Water Cooling set up?

Similar to automotives, water needs to pass by heat sources directly to collect the generated heat. To do so, a copper block is applied to the CPU using a thin layer of thermal interface material to pass the heat from the processor to the water block, through which the liquid flows. The heated water passes through special tubing to a large radiator, which in turn cools it down again. Aiding this cooling process are usually low rpm, high-pressure fans, while a pump ensures that the water is circulated properly. The pump works at near silent noise levels, pushing the water from the reservoir back to the CPU water block. Such a setup represents the most basic variant, but one may expand the water cooling loop to include the graphic card, motherboard chipset, hard drive or even power supply. With such a complete cooling solution, the need for fans within the chassis is reduced or even eliminated completely - further reducing the overall noise levels.