Magoo's Wise Words
Guide to Water Cooling

P
A
G
E

T
W
O

O
F

F
O
U
R

What you need

A water cooling system has three basic parts- a pump, a radiator, and a water block– and tubing to hook it all together. Most systems also incorporate a reservoir of extra water and a fan to increase the effectiveness of the radiator.

The water block sits on the processor where the heat sink would go in an air cooled system. Its job is to absorb the heat from the processor and transfer it to the water. The radiator removes the heat from the water, and the pump circulates the water between the two.

The Water block

The basic water block is a chunk of metal hollowed out so that water can flow through it. You can make one yourself out of any chunk of suitable metal. Copper is the best because it conducts heat the fastest. Aluminum is a close second and is also much cheaper. The hard part of making a water block is having the tools to cut and drill solid metal and the expertise to use them well. I have neither, so I purchased one. My water block was the most expensive part of my system, but it was worth it to have it work well. You can get them from Thermaltake, Koolance, and most of the other big companies in computer cooling. I went with DangerDen and am very happy with their work.

The Radiator

The basic job of the radiator is to remove the heat from the water and dissipate it into the air. This is usually accomplished running the water over metal pipes cooled with a fan. Fins on the radiator make if more efficient. Radiators come in all shapes and sizes. You can buy them from all the big names in cooling, you can scavenge one from an old car, or you can make one yourself.

I made my first radiator myself out of some soft copper refrigerator tubing. You can purchase it from almost any hardware store. I laid it out in the sun for a few minutes to soften it up, and then bent it around different sized objects around my kitchen to form concentric rings. The tubing was simply attached with small hose clamps. It was a little ugly, but it got the job done. I even had a plan to add fins to it. I was going to cut aluminum strips out of empty soda cans, then glue them on with thermal adhesive. Sadly, I never got around to it. Instead, I bought an aluminum oil cooler from my local auto parts store and use that instead. For airflow, I use a small desktop fan on a dimmer switch to keep it quiet.

Next =>[Magoo's Water cooling Guide- Page 3, More parts]