This guide explains everything involved in making your own water cooling
system. Kits are great for getting started in water cooling, but if you want
the very best performance, you have to buy individual parts and build your own
system. In the first part of the guide, we explain how to choose the right components
for your needs. We then go on to explain how to design your system for optimal
efficiency, and show you how to assemble and fill it.
Water cooling is becoming increasingly popular for cooling high performance
systems. But what makes water cooling so much better than air cooling?
The real advantage to water cooling is its ability to handle much greater CPU
wattages than any air cooler can, and not be affected by high case temperatures. A water cooler will not produce significantly
lower CPU temperatures than a good air cooler can, if used with a low wattage
CPU. When you are using a high end or heavily overclocked CPU that puts out
a lot of heat, even a small DIY water cooling system will keep the CPU temperature
reasonably low.
Water cooling is the ideal solution for overclocking power hungry CPUs such
as the Pentium 4 Prescott and Athlon FX series of chips. Water cooling will not give huge performance increases
over high end aircooling when used with older CPUS, but can allow you to achieve
low temperatures with much less noise than an air cooling solution.
