• Overview

• The Parts

• How Water Cooling Works

• Overclocking

How does Water Cooling work?

The basics of water cooling are that, basic. The idea is that water is passed through tubes to the CPU block, which is mounted on the CPU. As cold water passes over a hot surface the water takes onboard this heat. As a result the CPU becomes colder. The water is then pumped round the system to the radiator where a combination of heatsink style fins and a large fan cool the water. The water is then return to the reservoir in a cooled state where it is ready to be pumped round the system once again. The Diagram below shows this.

As you can see the design is very simple and understandable. The hard part comes in finding the space inside your case. As everyone's case is different and so I can't really go into the best way of doing this. However most of the kits you buy come with fitting instructions which should help solve one or two of the problems that you might have.

Overclocking

Like I stated before, Overclocking was once the main reason for putting such a system in place in your PC. Looking at the advantages that water has over air in terms of removing heat, you can see why it was a popular choice amount overclockers. Overclocking depends on the PC still being stable. The key element in stopping a PC from being stable is heat. Simply looking at it like that you can say that less heat equals more overclocking ability. Of course its not that simple but its a great head start to have when looking for a stable over clocked system.

When you overclock a system, you often find that you have to increase the voltage of your CPU in order to keep in working in a stable manor. Increasing the voltage gives your CPU more power in order to produce the extra speed you are asking from it. Increasing the voltage however increases the amount of heat again coming from the CPU. This again is another reason why the better cooling capabilities of the water cooling system is safer than the air cooling. Air cooling is not always efficient enough to deal with highly overclocked systems

During overclocking the water cooled system really shows why its superior. If you have set up your water cooler in a non overclocked system you will have undoubtedly noticed a reduction in your CPU temperature. It may not however have been as much as you expected. During overclocking though, the extra heat produced by the CPU is dealt with a great deal better. If you compare results between air cooling and water cooling now you will see a bigger gap. This is down to the capacity that the water cooler has to cool the CPU. Although the water cooler cannot cool your CPU down to super low temperatures. It can remove a lot of heat when the CPU is at high temperatures. This is why its the number one choice for overclockers.

All these items and kits are Available from Maplin Electronics
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Disclaimer - Although water cooling is safe when done correctly, PantherProducts can not accept responsibility for any damage that is caused by the process of water cooling. If you are unsure of what you are doing, get a professional to help or more information.