Watercooling - sounds scary

Katsumoto

Katsumoto

Katsumoto

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Joined
28 May 2012
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400
Location
England
Looking at buying a very high end gaming PC. Budget simply isn't an issue with this and consequently i'm looking for high quality cooling systems. Naturally that lead me into the watercooling section.

My worries are simply that i'm an ultimate tech newbie in hardware. Never built a machine, wouldn't know how to at the moment either and the idea of (someone else would build it for me at the moment) water being in my system sounds weird.

Basically it's the maintenance that is the most worrying bit. I read that people think you should empty the whole thing out and refill every 12-18 months or something like that. Obviously a high end pc now will still be fine by then, and i'll probably have to do this 2-3 or maybe even more times before my pc starts to show its age.

For a muppet is there a high risk of all that water going splat over my machine when I take it out to do this refill? Are there safety features to stop this. I'm really quite concerned i'd end up ruining my own computer but at the same time I don't want it to burn from sheer heat either.

Help please!
 
its well easy 2 do a water loop,just do some research like read the guides watch some vids plenty going about,and then ofc if you need any help ppl on here will sort you out
 
i was scared ****less the 1st time i did it, but after you've done that, rebuild your loop etc, you're much more comfortable. just don't get over confident like i did and not inspect an o-ring which killed a mobo :p
 
I have built my first ever rig in January and I'm going into watercooling this weekend, my advice would be take your time, YouTube or post on here if you are stuck, don't get frustrated and at the end of the day pc's are plug and play so dont be put of by their seemingly complex appearance. Oh and watercooling is all about preparation and planning :-)
 
If you build your loop slowly and carefully, and check flow using a separate power source for you water loop (ie so you don;t have to power up the motherboard to power up the loop) then you should be fine, and get some confidence in what will happen. The worse thing is when something doesn't power up and you have to take water cooled items out of the loop which is full.

You can safe guard a little here and put drain points in, in preparation. It'll make servicing it, so you can do a complete fluid change, much easier in the long run.

If you want to sense check any loop as you are building it, use your lungs! Blowing into one end of the loop with your finger over the ultimate other end so that you pressurise the loop using your mouth is a great way to sense check your work without getting anything wet.

Don't waste your money on non conductive fluids. De-ionised water and Distilled water are also non conductive - on DC. I spent a fortune on MCP-5 (I had a loop with about 3 litres capacity) and it leaked. I'm safe I thought, until it dripped into the PSU and went BANG. Keep any fluids away for them AC as this is a completely different beast electrically speaking.

I'm sure there are other watch points, but this should keep you safe.
 
Do a nice slow build, be anal about everything and you'll be fine, my first wc build took about 13hours from start to finish, these days its less than half that.
 
Personally I went the easy route by ordering a pre-water cooled system from OCUK. Now im looking into completely renewing my loop (I used UV dye fluid and its ruined all the blocks) and just by simply maintaining my current loop and learning at what is what and how it all connects has put me in a far better position than I was before.

That being said there are some brilliant members on these forums who have sage advice and its priceless information. Honestly your best bet is to look up the guides and tutorials provided by the guys here and whatever isn't covered there look at asking.

Also there are a few good sources on youtube and elsewhere on the net. The one that comes to mind with me is someone called Dazmode (or similar). He has given very good reviews and tutorials on setting up a watercooling system and what kind of parts to look for.

If your like me however youll want to hear it from many mouths than just one so asking here is probably your best bet.

Also its very important that you learn how to correctly maintain your system as its not a case of simply installing it and letting it live its life. Like all good machines it needs TLC every so often. As long as you keep it in good condition it will look after you. And frankly it takes next to no time to frequently maintain them but it does take a little bit of know-how.

Id definitely recommend you look into how to correctly bleed a system as the last thing you want to do is do something wrong and cause a leak or break components!

Good luck and have fun!
 
Some wise words in there....

Emjay86 said:
Personally I went the easy route by ordering a pre-water cooled system from OCUK. Now im looking into completely renewing my loop (I used UV dye fluid and its ruined all the blocks) and just by simply maintaining my current loop and learning at what is what and how it all connects has put me in a far better position than I was before.

That being said there are some brilliant members on these forums who have sage advice and its priceless information. Honestly your best bet is to look up the guides and tutorials provided by the guys here and whatever isn't covered there look at asking.

Also there are a few good sources on youtube and elsewhere on the net. The one that comes to mind with me is someone called Dazmode (or similar). He has given very good reviews and tutorials on setting up a watercooling system and what kind of parts to look for.

If your like me however youll want to hear it from many mouths than just one so asking here is probably your best bet.

Also its very important that you learn how to correctly maintain your system as its not a case of simply installing it and letting it live its life. Like all good machines it needs TLC every so often. As long as you keep it in good condition it will look after you. And frankly it takes next to no time to frequently maintain them but it does take a little bit of know-how.

Id definitely recommend you look into how to correctly bleed a system as the last thing you want to do is do something wrong and cause a leak or break components!

Good luck and have fun!
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overcome the fear that you think its hard, and 90% of your issues disappear

read up, take your time and you'll wonder why you didn't do it sooner
 
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