aspire
The Water Cooling Guru
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Aspire's Water Cooling 101 Guide
**This guide is work in progress, there's a lot more on the way**
So, your interested in water cooling are ya? Before reading any further, there are a few questions I want to get out of the way.
1. Have you built the computer you want to water cool?
If no, Have you built other current generation computers?
If no again, you really should spend some time getting comfortable with the computer itself before considering tackling water cooling.
_________________________________________________________________________________________
2. Are you comfortable spending ~$200 on a CPU water cooling system, and significantly more to cool additional GPU's, Northbridge, Southbridge, and Mosfets?
If no, water cooling probably isn't for you, stick with a high end air cooling solution.
_________________________________________________________________________________________
Now that those questions are out of the way, chances are you know your way around a computer pretty well and have the money to put together a good liquid cooling system.
_________________________________________________________________________________________
Glossary of terms
A water cooling system or (loop) as I'll refer to it from now on is very similar to the cooling system for your cars engine. The most basic parts of a loop include:
-The Pump: This is what circulates the fluid in the tubes through the radiator and blocks.
-The Radiator: This is what dissipates heat collected in the coolant. It almost always requires fans mounted to it to accomplish this.
-The Block(s): These are machined pieces of copper/acrylic/delrin that are mounted directly to the heat producing component you'd like to cool. I.E. a processor, or graphics card.
-The Reservoir or T-line: Used either or, these two components act as fill-ports for the loop and is where coolant is added. They also serve as the point for air to work it's way out of the other parts.
-Tubing: This is what the coolant flows through and which connects all the above parts together.
-Barbs: The metal or plastic fittings that screw into or are molded onto the major components. These are what the tubing slides over.
-Clamps: Used to secure the tubing in place on the barbs
-Coolant: Ideally a mixture of Distilled water and some form of Biocide when used in a loop containing no Aluminum.
-Biocide: A chemical that kills algae, bacteria, and fungus to prevent things from growing in your loop.
**This guide is work in progress, there's a lot more on the way**
**This guide is work in progress, there's a lot more on the way**
So, your interested in water cooling are ya? Before reading any further, there are a few questions I want to get out of the way.
1. Have you built the computer you want to water cool?
If no, Have you built other current generation computers?
If no again, you really should spend some time getting comfortable with the computer itself before considering tackling water cooling.
_________________________________________________________________________________________
2. Are you comfortable spending ~$200 on a CPU water cooling system, and significantly more to cool additional GPU's, Northbridge, Southbridge, and Mosfets?
If no, water cooling probably isn't for you, stick with a high end air cooling solution.
_________________________________________________________________________________________
Now that those questions are out of the way, chances are you know your way around a computer pretty well and have the money to put together a good liquid cooling system.
_________________________________________________________________________________________
Glossary of terms
A water cooling system or (loop) as I'll refer to it from now on is very similar to the cooling system for your cars engine. The most basic parts of a loop include:
-The Pump: This is what circulates the fluid in the tubes through the radiator and blocks.
-The Radiator: This is what dissipates heat collected in the coolant. It almost always requires fans mounted to it to accomplish this.
-The Block(s): These are machined pieces of copper/acrylic/delrin that are mounted directly to the heat producing component you'd like to cool. I.E. a processor, or graphics card.
-The Reservoir or T-line: Used either or, these two components act as fill-ports for the loop and is where coolant is added. They also serve as the point for air to work it's way out of the other parts.
-Tubing: This is what the coolant flows through and which connects all the above parts together.
-Barbs: The metal or plastic fittings that screw into or are molded onto the major components. These are what the tubing slides over.
-Clamps: Used to secure the tubing in place on the barbs
-Coolant: Ideally a mixture of Distilled water and some form of Biocide when used in a loop containing no Aluminum.
-Biocide: A chemical that kills algae, bacteria, and fungus to prevent things from growing in your loop.
**This guide is work in progress, there's a lot more on the way**