With the latest generation of gaming hardware offering greater performance than ever, you might find yourself needing an improved thermal solution as you upgrade. Enter the wonderful world of water cooling. Today, we want to take you through all the advantages this system brings with it and offer some cheeky hardware suggestions.
Why Does Cooling Matter?
Just to cover all of our bases, we’ll start off with the simple question. From your CPU to your graphics card, everything inside your PC’s chassis generates excess heat. If there’s nothing to offset that, your case turns into a hotbox which can throttle your system’s performance.
At the same time, if your thermal solution isn’t effective enough for the hardware you’re rocking, you’ll end up with some inefficient heat exchange and get a similar result. That’s why your cooling needs to match your hardware.
Why Water Cooling and Not Air Cooling?
Air cooling is still an effective and reliable option for your gaming PC. However, water cooling is designed to handle higher TDP output. TDP, or thermal design output, refers to the maximum amount of heat generated by a computer component that your cooling system is designed to dissipate. That means if you want to use heavy-hitting tech like NVIDIA’s 4090 GPUs, AMD’s Ryzen 7000 series, or Intel’s 13th generation CPUs, you need something that’s going to be capable of managing the load.
What to learn more about the differences between air and water cooling? We’ve got a dedicated blog post to teach you just that.
How Hard is it to Upgrade to Water Cooling?
Okay, so we’ve convinced you that you need water cooling to take advantage of the latest tech and get unparalleled performance. Next, you’ll want to know how to actually upgrade your gaming PC to make use of it.
Here you have two options depending on how big you want to go out of the gate.
AIO Coolers
The first option is the simplest and most economical way to upgrade your cooling performance. That’s with an AIO cooler (all-in-one). Most typically used to help your CPU beat the heat, AIO coolers can be easily fitted to most cases. That makes them a fantastic place to start experimenting with water cooling, especially if you currently lack the technical knowledge to tackle our second option.
Custom Loop
The second option is a great choice if you are confident with your hardware and maintenance. Plus, it offers greater results than AIO coolers and more enviable aesthetics. Building a custom loop takes more work – from ensuring you have a compatible case, to the correct fans and radiators for all your hardware, and then there’s the pump, reservoir, fittings, tubing…
If it sounds like a lot of work, that’s because it is. But the results are something to behold. From the bold and striking visuals, you can create to the smooth-as-silk performance your high-end hardware will deliver. This is undoubtedly the pinnacle of cooling solutions.
Get Started with Water Cooling!
Need some product recommendations to commence the upgrade? We got you! Here at Overclockers UK, we have an extensive range of water-cooling solutions and accessories, plus cases for your craziest custom loop creations.
HYTE Y60 Dual Chamber Mid-Tower ATX Case
Available to pre-order for £209.99*
- 3-piece panoramic tempered glass design for the ultimate photo and display potential.
- Segment cables from thermal components and turn your gaming PC into a work of art!
- Eliminate hot spots with later vents from fans tucked into the Y60’s base.
- Three pre-installed Flow FE12 fans provide whisper quiet operation.
Lian-Li GALAHAD AIO 240mm High Performance Water Cooler
- Triple chamber design water pump to increase heat exchange efficiency and reduce dead zone.
- Magnetic cap on pump so you can change your cooler’s aesthetic with ease.
- Multiple ARGB lighting LEDs so you can add some extra personality.
- Easily sync your cooler up to your motherboard or use controller for manual approach.
Available to order for £129.95*
Corsair Hydro X Series XH305i RGB PRO Custom Cooling Kit
Available to order for £599.99*
- A complete Hydro X Series RGB PRO custom cooling kit that can fit in even compact cases.
- Comes with all the parts you need for custom CPU cooling, along with tube bending tools and extra fittings for GPU cooling extension.
- Easy installation to get you up and running quickly.
- Individually addressable RGB LEDs integrated into the CPU water block, giving your PC a striking look.
EK-LIquid Cooling Barebone & Lian-Li PC-O11 Kit
- Barebones cooling kit and compatible Lian-Li PC-011D Case to build your water-cooling system in.
- Step-by-step installation and assembly guide included, as well as a motherboard compatibility list.
- Utilises performance liquid cooling to cut the noise output and give you a whisper-quiet system.
- Coolant is included, so you only need to install your components and fill the loop!
Available to order for £749.99*
*All prices are correct as of the time of writing (02/02/23)
Everything You Need to Build Your Own Loop!
Fancy building a custom water loop all of your own? We’ve got everything you could need! From brackets to fans and everything in between, check out our full offering of water-cooling solutions.
- 5 min read
Jacob Smith
Author
Jacob is a passionate gamer, plus a noted Pokemon and LEGO nutjob, who emerges only when doing the words here at Overclockers UK. Since starting at the tail end of 2021, Jacob has gone on to write dozens of blogs on everything from the latest games to whimsical Dickens-inspired poetry. Outside of creating content and being the one person in the office daring to champion Nintendo, he is often found fawning over his Pokemon card collection and his trio of lovely doggos.
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