In early April, I reviewed the EK 275 Conquest. It’s a gaming PC built with custom liquid cooling, which brought forth years of misconceptions, bad advice, and dated ideas about custom liquid cooling and what it could do to the hardware. What if there’s a leak? What if a fitting isn’t put on correctly? What if I need to take the loop apart to troubleshoot a problem?

Conteúdo

MONTANDO MEU PRIMEIRO WATER COOLER CUSTOM!
* Misconceptions about custom liquid cooling
* Making the process easier
* Room for error
* Não é impossível

I quickly learned that I had nothing to worry about.

The Conquest was remarkably easy to get set up, and within a few hours after using it, I had a shopping cart filled with parts for a custom loop of my own. It’s a hobby that has come a long way for newcomers, so I sat down with Attila Gober, senior product marketing manager at EK, to understand the common misconceptions about liquid cooling, how the industry has made it more accessible, and how the process doesn’t have to be scary.

Misconceptions about custom liquid cooling

There are a lot of misconceptions about custom liquid cooling, and it makes sense. You’re putting water next to components that cost thousands of dollars, which is prime for speculation and assumptions. According to Gober, most of those misconceptions are either wrong or severely misguided.

Let’s start with water and the idea that it could ruin your components. Liquid-cooled PCs don’t, or at least shouldn’t, use just water. Companies like EK and Mayhems sell dedicated coolants, which are comprised of multiple chemicals that prevent algae growth and rust, among other protections. Unlike straight water, they aren’t electrically conductive — at least initially.

“All of the coolants which are made are non-conductive. When you put them into your loop, that’s when the liquid becomes conductive,” Gober said. It’s the process of the liquid rubbing against metal in your loop that makes it conductive, so the only risk comes from neglected leaks days or even weeks after the loop has been running. Gober says leaks and minor spills beforehand aren’t a big cause for concern. “Leave it to dry, leave it for one day or maybe even more, and you have a 99% chance that everything will be fine.”

The other major misconception is maintenance. Gober says this is the “main misconception” he’s encountered, because custom liquid cooling doesn’t require much maintenance at all, assuming your loop is working correctly. EK recommends replacing your coolant once per year. That’s less than most air-cooled PCs.

Gober had a personal experience to share on this front: “Even when I had a fully air-cooled PC with 12 Noctua fans, I was cleaning my filters, dusting my PC every few months.”

That’s not to say the custom liquid cooling is easy. Although basic maintenance is much less than what new builders may assume, a custom loop makes it more difficult to get at your hardware in case there’s an issue. “This is why it’s important to always test the hardware prior to installing liquid cooling,” Gober said.

Making the process easier

Custom liquid cooling has been around for decades, but misconceptions aren’t the only thing that have held would-be custom liquid coolers back. It’s been a slow process, but the liquid cooling industry has been pushing toward making the process easier and more inviting to newcomers.

“EK and the whole industry has been working toward this, that it is easier for everyone to get into custom loop liquid cooling without all of the fears and mishaps,” said Gober. An example of that is EK’s Leak Tester, which is a small tool that can point find leaks in your loop before you put liquid in. EK isn’t alone here, either, with companies like PrimoChill selling pressure meters to detect leaks.

Avoiding the hard sell, Gober provided a free DIY alternative: Simply blowing through the loop as custom liquid coolers have done for years.

The number of custom liquid cooling products has grown significantly, too, allowing for more diverse hardware and easier installation. Lian Li’s PC-011 Dynamic case — among the best PC cases you can buy — has dedicated distribution plates available, for example. “Even changing your coolant nowadays is much safer because you have disruption plates, more ports for draining,” Gober said.

To see how far custom liquid cooling has come, it’s good to look back. Gober shared that his first introduction to liquid cooling involved using Bluestone, a copper sulfate mixture used as a disinfectant. Now, not only are dedicated coolants available to purchase, but they’re backed by support.

“The way you got this important information was forums and stuff like that, but nowadays, manufacturers have like, ‘buy this and if something is wrong, then you have our support,’” he said.

O trabalho ainda não acabou. A EK é realmente no processo de lançar sua linha de produtos de matriz 7, que será um padrão para resfriamento de líquido personalizado que deve facilitar emparelhar seu hardware de resfriamento líquido com o hardware do seu PC.

room for error

Gober compartilhava algum encorajamento para novos construtores que podem ser assustados pelo resfriamento líquido personalizado. Ele disse que “nem mesmo novos construtores, na verdade, os veteranos” fazem a parte do leão de erros, que geralmente se resume a não ler o manual ou fazer sua devida diligência durante o processo de construção.

Ele apontou um exemplo de um construtor que instala um bloco GPU separado de um loop líquido e reclamando sobre superaquecimento, bem como os usuários que instalam tubos de uma forma que o líquido não circulasse ao longo do bloco. “Estas são as coisas básicas, como se você não entender, você tem que ler o manual.”

O resfriamento líquido personalizado não é fácil, e está longe de ser simples. Mas entusiastas que estão interessados no hobby têm muito espaço e recursos para corrigir erros antes de serem prejudiciais. No caso de um vazamento, por exemplo, Gober diz que eles surgem principalmente quando o construtor não prestou atenção suficiente. “Cada vez que eu tinha um vazamento, foi minha culpa porque não chequei”

Não é impossível

O resfriamento líquido personalizado não é para todos, e Gober reconheceu isso. É para profissionais que querem espremer o máximo de seus hardware, bem como entusiastas que só querem um glam para o Instagram. “Eu gosto de comparar a cena do carro para a cena de refrigeração líquida”, disse Gober. “Você realmente tem que ter acessórios vermelhos e verdes? Não, você não. Você tem que ter grandes rodas no seu carro? Não não não. Mas alguém pode querer um carro legal e dizer ao mundo: “Este é o meu carro”.

Se você é um iniciante e quer entrar no mundo do resfriamento de líquido personalizado, este é apenas o primeiro passo. Há muita pesquisa, leitura e perguntas envolvidas. Mas não é tão assustador de uma tarefa como uma vez foi, e isso é ótimo para os construtores de PC que querem fazer sua construção se destacar.