From the installation mode of water cooling, it can be divided into built-in water cooling and external water cooling. For built-in water cooling, it is mainly composed of radiator, water pipe, water pump and enough water source, which determines that most water cooling systems are "heavy" and need enough space inside the chassis. As for the external water-cooled radiator, because its cooling water tank and water pump are arranged outside the chassis, it not only reduces the space occupation in the chassis, but also obtains better cooling effect.
According to the principle of water cooling, it can be divided into active water cooling and passive water cooling. In addition to all accessories of water-cooled radiator, active water cooling needs to install a cooling fan to assist heat dissipation, which can greatly improve the heat dissipation effect. This water-cooling method is suitable for DIY overclocking players with fever. Passive water cooling does not install any cooling fan, but only relies on the water-cooled radiator itself to dissipate heat. At most, add some cooling fins to assist heat dissipation. This water cooling method is worse than active water cooling, but it can achieve the effect of complete silence, which is suitable for mainstream DIY overclocking users.
Because the number of fans is reduced, the vibration and noise generated by fans are also reduced.
The heat dissipation effect is much higher than that of air-cooled system.
Disadvantaged
Water-cooled radiator needs huge electrical appliances, occupying a certain space.
The price is higher than that of air-cooled system.
Because the structure is more complicated than the air-cooled system, the reliability is also poor because of the addition of an additional working medium.
If the assembly process is careless or the materials are poor, water leakage will occur, which may damage the computer parts.
Just like PC performance optimization or car adjustment, the secret to excellent performance is to systematically reduce bottlenecks. This has nothing to do with how good a single component is, but only with whether it is suppressed by another component with lower specifications. This is why you need to be able to cool every part of the system, and every part must have the same patience.
water pump
The water pump circulates water in the system, constantly changing warm water into cold water. The volume of water flowing through the channel and radiator is very important, because heat is taken away by this movement, just like a high-speed fan can better keep the work of conventional radiator to take away heat.
It is easy to find water pumps with different power and price suitable for water cooling in the market. Users should give priority to embedded water pumps when choosing. The integrated design of water tank is adopted, and the input and output ends are equipped with hoses, so it is not necessary to soak the whole thing in the reservoir. The reservoir era is getting farther and farther away from us, and there is a danger of overflow.
The performance of water pump can be seen from two specifications: flow and lift. Speed refers to the amount of water that can be pumped when nothing restricts the flow of water. The lift is the height that the pump can reach when spraying water upward in the vertical direction. The lift is the most important figure, which reflects the ability of the pump to overcome the resistance of the waterway and radiator. Most pump tails have special plugs that can be directly connected to the power supply. Or other small 3PIN interfaces can be plugged directly into the motherboard.
river channel
Waterways follow a very simple design concept. A piece of copper or aluminum with some fins on it. Water enters from here and flows in a pattern designed to maximize the amount of water containing heat. Metal partition is added on the pure copper base, and the liquid is cut into n parts for full refrigeration. By absorbing and increasing the heat on the metal partition, the effect of increasing the heat dissipation area is achieved, and there is no constraint on the water flow.
As an accessory in direct contact with the heat source, the quality of workmanship and the comfort of installation have also become the primary considerations.
radiator
The performance of radiator plays the most critical role in primary water cooling, and even the performance of radiator row can be used to measure primary water cooling. The high heat value brought by the improvement of hardware performance is no longer just the patent of CPU. GPU is far more fierce than CPU. The calorific value of hardware such as North Bridge, hard disk and power supply should not be underestimated, and the simultaneous heat dissipation of multiple heat sources is huge. A row of 12 cm radiators may not be enough. At present, 24CM and 36CM radiators have become the mainstream in the market, and users can choose radiators of different sizes according to their own heat dissipation needs.
pipe/tube
Generally speaking, there are three kinds of hose manufacturing materials: PVC, polyethylene and silica gel. Polyethylene is bright in color, very strong and anti-twisting, but it is expensive. Pvc is the cheapest hose for water cooling, but it is very hard, so it is not recommended to use it in water cooling system, which may make waterway installation very difficult. Silicone tube is made of very soft rubber, which is very tough and can be rolled very tightly without bouncing off.
clip
Every connection point must be firmly clamped. Don't use plastic hose clips, it's not enough. The use of metal connecting peripheral spiral clips completely eliminates risks and can be bought in any DIY store.
water
You may think that water is the simplest part of the water cooling system, but there are still some things to remember. Many users simply choose water or distilled water. Because the radiator, water pump, heat absorption box and hose in the whole water cooling system are all PVC hoses made of copper, aluminum and welding materials, if ordinary distilled water and deionized water are used together, they will become weak acid liquid for cooling after a period of time, and the metal structure will rust for a long time, which will seriously affect the heat dissipation function of the cooling system. Therefore, it is best to choose a special heat transfer liquid.