Watercooling Basics - Assembly

Watercooling isn't necessarily something complicated that requires the elite to figure out. One only needs to know the very basics of thermodynamics, fluid dynamics, (those first two are sort of a joke, as the only things you need to know about either are kind of common sense) and how to assemble some tube fittings together without them leaking.

The first question that most people want answered after they have figured out the components they are using is in what order should they put the components in? Simply said the order should always be this (starting from the pump, since the pump is the heart):

Pump -- Radiator -- Waterblock (or waterblocks fed with a "Y" splitter) -- Reservoir -- (back to) Pump

Most watercooling kits come with all the fittings you'll ever need to assemble them, so with that in mind, make sure to use everything they give you, as it is all in there for a reason. The clamps are especially useful, but for this particular kit although many clamps are provided, with the barb setup, I found they were not needed, and in some places (like on the RBX block itself), it was impossible to put them on as the barbs are so close together, you can't fit them in. The barbs on this kit are so good, that once you put the tubing on, it's not coming off; unless you cut it off with a knife.

My logic was simple, if I had the radiator inside the case at the intake then the rest of the parts would be filled with the heat from the radiator, making the ambient temperature inside the case terrible, eventually the heat would soak up into all the parts, and the benefits of having a watercooling setup would be diminished.

The Gallons Per Hour (GPH) Myth

Many people who start into watercooling look at pumps and become extremely preoccupied with getting a pump in which has high GPH. Truth be told there are two flaws in such logic. The first is, you'll never reach the maximum GPH due to pressure inside the tubing and the fact that the tubing constricts the amount of water inlet and outlet from the pump which will never allow the pump to pump water that quickly. The second is you may not necessarily want water to flow that fast anyway, because if the water pumps too quickly, then the water won't be able to absorb the heat effectively from the water block. On the other hand, you also don't want the pump to pump water too slowly, as hot water building up on the water block isn't good either.

Optimally, something in-between is desired. The only time that a high GPH pump is desirable is if you have a setup that is cooling multiple things with one pump. That is if your particular setup is cooling the processor, videocard, and northbridge for instance. With this particular setup however, only a processor waterblock is provided, so 320GPH is plenty, and is comparable with pumps. DangerDen only sells one pump which pumps more GPH than the provided with this kit and that is the Eheim 1260 which is rated at 600GPH. Such a pump is probably not needed unless you have at least three separate blocks cooling with different y pipes (meaning more constriction) off the single pump.

The Radiator

With that covered, we can move to the radiator. The size of your radiator directly affects the maximum cooling potential your setup can have (unless of course you move to Thermo-electric cooling, but that is a different story for a whole other article). Having a good radiator then becomes key. Generally speaking the larger the radiator, the more surface area it has, and therefore the better suited it is for keeping the temperature of the water closer to ambient. Without getting too technical, it isn't feasible to have the temperature of the processor cooler than the ambient temperature of the room and having a cooler ambient temperature will also help keep your processor cool, just like with air cooling.

Things to consider while choosing a radiator is size, based on what can fit in the case you're using. If you are using a HTPC or a microATX case, it's rather unlikely that without intense modding, you'll be able to fit a quadruple row, four pass or dual 120mm radiator. Other things to look for are how many passes the radiator makes, and how many rows it is. Although more passes and more rows decrease water output on the other side, it also significantly cools the water more.

The Reservoir

With only two major components left to go, it's time to look at reservoirs. Reservoirs do three major things (and a few minor things), allow the water that is going to the pump be under less stress and pressure, allow for a point to introduce water into the system, and also make sure that there are no air bubbles found anywhere else throughout the system The reservoir should be the highest point in the system (as in elevation) in the watercooling setup which is why all bubbles should eventually end up here. Without a reservoir, it would be impossible to have a closed loop system with no air bubbles in it. A minor thing (when compared to the other three things) that the reservoir allows is the ability to have more water in the system then is necessary for the closed loop system.

Things that should be looked for in a good reservoir are how large it is. Although a large reservoir isn't necessary, as a small reservoir is just as capable of doing all the things I mentioned, what are important are how many entrances and exits the reservoir has. If the reservoir that you have selected only allows one entrance and one exit into the reservoir, then that may force you to have y splitters constrict the amount of water flow into and out of the reservoir. Ideally it's nice to have at least 3 entrances, and 1 exit, as the one exit goes to the pump, so unless you have multiple pumps, multiple exits are not needed. Of course you could always use an "entrance" as an "exit", so it's not that big a deal. The dual 3 ½ reservoir that this particular kit comes with has two entrances into the reservoir, one exit, and of course the ever important bleeder hole.

The Waterblocks

Finally the waterblock, this is of course what most people think of when they are looking at a watercooling setup. But hopefully by now, if you read through my explanation of the other portions of the system, you'll realize that although a good block is important, having other good parts in the system is also integral. The waterblock(s) is (are) the piece of the system that directly interacts with the CPU/GPU/Northbridge (etc) and replaces the heatsink in traditional setups.

Things to look for in a waterblock is how much surface area the waterblock has (just like an air cooling setup), how much water it's capeable of taking in, and how much water it restricts after taking it in, and how much turbulence does it have inside the waterblock (which aids heat dissipation). The Maze design that DangerDen pioneered has water loop around the top of the waterblock which makes it have high dissipation at the cost of some water flow.

Water

Lastly make sure when you buy water for a kit, buy distilled water, having minerals in your water and exposing them to copper means corrosion. Additionally, stuff floating in your water is a bad idea. In other words, spend the dollar or so it takes just to buy a gallon of this stuff (you will use about half to fill up the system) it isn't expensive, and it won't mess up your precious system like tap will. Many people overlook the water they stick into their WC system, but distilled water can make sure your parts have the longevity they should.

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