Member Avatar for mah300274

Im am hopfully going to order my custom PC soon, but was thinking about watercooling. A few questions arose but I was able to solve most of them except....

My case can support watercooling but I found an external triple radiator thing, short story is the thing would look bad-a** when up and running. But ther external part.... woud running the tubing a longer distance be better or worse for cooling? Has anyone ran tests? I mean I think it would be cool to run neon colors around my room and that being the cooling fluid... lol and people will ask and bring this cool story. Could the pump handle it as well? I would think it would be the same, just pushing out / cycling so much water, or is it more stress on the pump and could make issues?

Plus I was trying to find a radiator for the NZXT PHANTOM case but when looking at newegg or tigerdirect the make it look like there is room inside for 2x200mm fans and a liquid cooling system could go up there... most others have their liquid cooling system on the back of the system, or external, why?

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Short answer: long tubing is doable, but it introduces trade-offs you should plan for rather than assume "no big deal." The dominant cooling variables are radiator surface area, fan performance, and actual flow through the waterblock/radiator — the tubing length mostly affects hydraulic resistance and coolant volume, not the radiator's inherent ability to dump heat.

Longer runs raise loop resistance (each foot of tubing plus every fitting and sharp bend reduces flow), and they increase the coolant volume so the loop responds more slowly to load changes. To keep performance reasonable: use larger-ID tubing where possible, minimize sharp bends and excess fittings, place the reservoir so the pump always draws a flooded feed, and pick a pump with sufficient head (check the pump’s flow vs. head curve). If using an all-in-one consumer cooler, don’t assume its small pump will tolerate long external runs — a purpose-built D5/DDC-style pump on a custom loop is more forgiving.

A few practical cautions for the neon look you mentioned: avoid household dyes and inks — they stain, clog blocks/pumps, and can promote biological growth. Use premixed PC coolants or distilled water with a proven corrosion inhibitor and biocide. Avoid pairing dissimilar metals (untreated aluminum radiators with copper blocks) without proper inhibitors. Pressure-test the loop dry or with plain distilled water before final filling, use leak trays for external rads, and consider quick-disconnects for maintenance.

Building on and : don’t treat watercooling as a cure-all. Keep directed airflow for RAM, VRMs and drives, and prioritize radiator size/fan quality over shaving a few feet of tubing. If aesthetics drive the build, plan the route, fittings, and pump/reservoir up front — that’s what separates a neat, reliable external loop from a headache.

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Member Avatar for rubberman

And tell me why you think you need water cooling? It isn't an IBM System 390 mainframe is it? I have a custom dual CPU (8-core 3GHz), 8GB, 15TB workstation/server (2.5TB disc and 2 DVD recorders internal) that does just fine with air-flow cooling. Be more concerned with your power supply. If you are running multiple video cards that suck up a lot of watts, then the PS is critical, as is airflow. Any decent CPU fan and heat sink will generally do for the processors, but memory is more of a problem, and needs good airflow. Your water cooler will work with the CPU's ok, but probably doesn't deal with the other cruft, and it is that other cruft that will cause problems. My system when running at 100% cpu utilization on 8 cores will push the processor core temperature up to about 50 degrees Centigrade, but without adequate airflow, the memory temperatures reach over 105 degrees, at which point they start to fail. I can keep mine at 85 to 90 degrees with proper airflow, even under prolonged heavy load.

Member Avatar for mah300274

I acually bought a laptop and got a hell of a deal. But water cooling would be for lowering temps (I dont want stuff to be running at 90 degrees), and for looks. But its just depends...

Member Avatar for Sariscos

The water cooling mechanism is used for heat dispersion. The more surface area you have for the heat to cool off with the more effective the cooling unit. It's not like the liquid is going to be heavier, so the pump will be fine.

Member Avatar for mah300274

That is mainly what I was thinking, but thanks for just for the double check.

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