An Introduction to Adequate Cooling Methods - Water Cooling
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It's quite obvious that water cooling is more effective than air cooling due to the fact that water's heat conductivity is 25 times better than air's. There are also a few disadvantages: high cost, weight, reliability, installation, and aesthetics. People are usually afraid to have water recycling in their electrically powered computer. Still, current pre-built water cooling kits are getting cheaper, more compact, and more reliable than they used to be.
It's important to understand how water cooling works. First of all there are water blocks, preferably made of copper, that will be placed on the integrated circuitry that needs to be cooled down like processors, chipsets, and video cards. Another material used for water blocks is silver, but those are way too expensive even though I won't question their effectiveness. I'm sure they are amazing.
The second important part in a water cooling setup is the pump-it pumps the water into a loop, or cycle. A pump must have enough power to handle your designed loop. A reservoir is optional because it just helps maintain the water level.
The radiator is another component that is quite important. You can pick up retail ones or use a car radiator, if you are eager to spend more than a few hours with modding and construction. The last needed component is tubing. It is available in several sizes, 1/2", 1/4", 3/8", etc., with 1/2" tubing said to perform the best.
If you plan to build your own water cooling setup, read several guides and articles about water cooling. There is plenty of information available. On the market there are pre-built, ready-to-run kits that are reliable enough; unfortunately the rule of thumb with pre-built kits is "the more expensive, the better." You must pay for their value, the brand name (which matters if you don't want to end up with a leaky setup or something malfunctioning), and quality. Here are some companies who are producing quality water cooling kits: Corsair, Danger Den, Koolance, Swiftech, Thermaltake (high end ones are okay, but budget ones aren't really advised), and Zalman.
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