An open loop is something you have to create yourself from scratch. Watercooling is often used to remove the heat above that which the air cooling is able to handle. If, however, you’re looking for the crème de la crème, you want that flashy look to your system, want the ability to customize the set up now or in the future, want your CPU to put up with intense workloads or want to water cool your graphics card(s) we’d defiantly recommend an open loop. H60 – A Retail Corsair Hydro H60 with 1 x Corsair 31-000403 Fan You can change the fans for higher or lower flow fans, RGB fans or add a better thermal paste, but that’s pretty much it, it will install the same way and there isn’t anything else you can add on or take off that helps improve its performance. If you’re all about cable management, you may want to invest in some cable ties and mini wire cutters if you don’t have any at hand but they’re not essentials. While we’ve only really touched on the CPU performance/temperatures thus far but you can water cool your graphics card as well! The price is also a giveaway: as mentioned above, traditional liquid-cooling adds several hundreds of dollars to the price of a computer - whereas the smaller, self-contained units are on-par with high-end air cooling units in terms of price. Now let’s compare this to open loops. We do blur the line a little in our Deluge gaming computer line, where we have configurations both with the more affordable Hydro and the full cooling options, but it is usually clear from the pictures and naming what each computer uses. Every other cooler was pretty comfortable to be fair, if we’re honest, we probably didn’t expect the Corsair H80I to keep up but it’s proved us wrong here, its on the verge of warranting an eye being kept on it but at 66°c, as long as the system is well maintained, the cooler will be fine. Luckily, most fluids out there are non-corrosive so it SHOULDN’T affect your parts if this happens, but funnily enough, we don’t want to test that, nor do we recommend it. Closed loop solutions may add close to $200 to the cost of the PC, while custom loops can be upwards of $2,000; Water cooling may only provide a marginal advantage for many mainstream users given the recent improvement of … So, regardless of the temperature of the water beneath it, your engine system will always be at an optimum temperature. There is only one clear winner here and it goes to the custom open loop water cooling solution for its first point. With custom water-cooling, you are going to get amazing overclocking potential, something that a closed loop liquid cooler will not be able to give you the same potential mainly because of the limited potential. Traditionally, custom liquid-cooling of computers is achieved through a combination of several separate parts: A pump to move the fluid, a reservoir to hold excess coolant, one or more radiators with fans to cool the liquid, and ‘water blocks’ on each of the various components to be cooled. Since I've already reviewed the Noctua NH-D15, I wanted to do a separate review where I compare the NH-D15 against five high end closed loop coolers. 51°C was the highest load temperature out of all the setups and in the real world, this is well within threshold so in this kind of setup there is little to be gained by having a big custom loop but there is a clear correlation between better cooling setups and lower temperatures. 1. A water cooling loop follows the same principle an air cooler does: it takes heat from a hardware (e.g., a CPU die) and dissipates it into the air. 4-4 – It is a draw but that does not mean your choice does not matter – it is evident each solution has its plus and minus points and your choice should be based on how well suited each solution is for your specific task or goals. That’s the same for nearly every closed loop solution such as anything from Corsair or CoolerMaster. For the best experience on our site, be sure to turn on Javascript in your browser. Closed-loop liquid-cooling describes a self-contained cooling system which is manufactured as a single unit and pre-filled with coolant. Going on this information, open loops can be a bit of a headache, it all has to be 100%, if you go wrong, you can find yourself re-buying parts or worse, if it leaks where its not all fitted correct, liquid can get everywhere and you don’t need me to tell you, liquid and computer components tend not to go well together. As a custom computer manufacturer, we’ve sold liquid-cooled systems from well before I joined the company. Since AIOs are generally more common than a custom loop, we decided to have a look at these before we proceed to a custom loop. For a truly quiet system air-cooling is often better, but it has to be done very carefully. A big drawback though, if you have two or more graphics cards and want them both closed loop water cooled, you need two separate loops, this can be a real pain. If your chosen case happens to be something like a Corsair 1000D, you aren’t going to have much of a problem; you can probably get yourself inside that case! If you are doing the loop with hard tubing then in addition you will need a heat gun, chamfer tool, silicon inserts and a bending tool/angles. Not only do kits have all the core parts, but are usually less expensive than getting the exact same parts stand­alone due to combined packaging and unified documentation. Here at Puget Systems we reserve the liquid-cooled section of our website for only those systems using traditional, customizable liquid-cooling setups. I7 8700k, rtx 3900 strix, aquacomputer rad/rez/pump. Plus, you are adding noise in the form of a pump to provide circulation. Traditional liquid-cooling can reduce the noise level on a system with extremely high-end hardware (particularly video cards) when air-cooling would make copious amounts of noise. A water-based coolant is able to transfer heat away from hot components like the processor (CPU) and video card (GPU) more quickly than air alone would. Shop now. The idle temps are improved but not overwhelmingly different unless you compare the Corsair H60 to a 360mm radiator open loop set up but then you really are looking at two different ends of the spectrum. How easy are either of these set ups to fit? A water-based coolant is able to transfer heat away from hot components like the processor (CPU) and video card (GPU) more quickly than air alone would. These units are much more cost effective than traditional liquid-cooling configurations, and are virtually impervious to leaks. Its not a jaw dropping, bums off seats overclock, but it is still a healthy and very respectable 33.3% CPU performance bump. We wouldn’t write off closed loops completely, for example the Corsair Hydro H100I certainly gave as good as it got in the early stages of our performance tests, it was keeping up with open loops right up until we increased the overclock to higher levels. JavaScript seems to be disabled in your browser. From simple clear tubing to UV colours, solid colours, different sizes or even hard acrylic/PETG tubing the list is almost endless. You can cool your GPU in the closed or the open loop flavour and, like with most of this article, there are cons and pros to both. Unlike air coolers, water cooling doesn't blow hot air around your case. Now, I can hear you saying, “Well that’s all good, but what does it mean?” The long and short of it, a higher flow rate will give you lower temperatures, providing that no key variable has changed (extra fans, different ambient temps, different length tubing etc). Make your custom water cooling kit with our online configurator. They can be expensive. Sealed closed-loop kits To combat both of those downsides, a setup called closed-loop liquid-cooling has been gaining popularity in the last few years. I got fed up with the pc case industry so I designed and 3d printed one. Closed loop systems are cheaper, period. If you’re looking for a solution but have a tighter budget and are not too worried about overclocking then we’d say a lower end closed loop all in one solution will be perfectly fine. Just mount them appropriately and you can pretty much forget it. A rule that we tend to go by here when creating a loop, is to slightly overcut the tubing then cut it down to size, the amount of tubing you get will allow that. I wanted something I can carry with handles, components easily accessible, full size components, full custom water cooling loop. CORSAIR Hydro X Series features every part you need to make a custom liquid cooled PC. That added cooling is appealing for folks who want to push their systems beyond design specifications. There are cases out there that can be compatible with this, but then, there are a lot that won’t be able to do this. We’ve bumped the CPU up to 4.7GHz and have now put 1.35 voltage through the CPU. CPUs and graphics cards run hot under heavy load. Open loops require quite a few more tools. Overclocking ability is perhaps the most the most tangible benefit of liquid-cooling, but there are other reasons some folks are interested in it: liquid-cooling can make a computer look very stylish, for example, or allow operation of more hot-running components than a chassis could normally keep cool. The H60 has started to show its limitations, while it came through the test, 74°c is a bit toasty, its workable, but its something you’ll want to keep an eye on, if your system becomes clogged with dust and the overall temps increase, you may find your system shutting down on you! Here's my Frankenstein build. Now we really have separated the men from the boys, this clock has really put daylight between coolers that were once pretty close. That added cooling is appealing for folks who want to push their systems beyond design specifications. However, the large amount of separate parts involved and complexity of setting it up added substantially to the cost of a computer. As a custom computer manufacturer, we’ve sold liquid-cooled systems from well before I joined the company. In trade, they offer more limited options and performance -- most CPUs can be cooled this way, and select video cards, but that’s about it. How well do these coolers all perform against each other. As the AIO is a closed-loop system sealed from the factory, it requires virtually no maintenance. With open loops, you have to be careful that the tubing you cut is fairly accurate. Okay, so we’ve put each cooler through its paces and these are the results we’ve come out with; as we expected, all 5 coolers made it through the test. We’re going to award the point of this round to open loops. There are other factors that say yay or nay either way hence the 4 all draw, but if you're purely looking at performance, we recommend the open loop set up. The screws do have springs and washers that are also required to go in place. Provided you manage to get yourself the right block, open loop GPUs look a lot nicer than a closed loop solution/bracket. With the custom loop, you've already doubled your cost with just one more part. If that is your goal, something along the lines of our Serenity systems is the best way to go. To make this fair, again, we have used the exact same set up as we previously used, same components, same thermal paste, same ambient temperature and, for the purpose of the open loop, we’ve used the same tubing in this test. Overclocking ability is perhaps the most the most tangible benefit of liquid-cooling, but there are other reasons some folks are interested in it: liquid-cooling can make a computer look very stylish, for example, or allow operation of more hot-running components than a chassis could normally keep cool. We’ve set up a testing rig for this article, we’ve put together a pretty spicy system, an X99 set up, we have the I7 5820K, sitting in the Asus X99-A, married with a whopping 32GB of Corsair DDR4 Quad channel 2400MHz RAM, Powered by a Corsair RM750x, a Corsair 250GB SSD for that speedy performance, topped off nicely with an Nvidia GeForce GTX 980 4GB running in a Windows 10 environment. In terms of overclocking, that’s a lot, especially when you consider that the radiator takes up a similar area. No RGB at all. If you can install a CPU air cooler and fans to a case then you will be able to install a closed loop cooler with relative ease. In terms of in game performance, if you are on stock settings, don’t expect to have a game run faster simply because you have a H100I compared to someone who has a H60, it doesn’t quite work like that. But sealed closed-loop water cooling kits are now available, bringing down the price and reducing the chances of issues. Baring in mind, this is an overclock that is made in mind with keeping the Corsair H60 alive, we’d expect the H100I to still, comfortably deal with this, but with both being under 60°c, the 240 and 360 radiator set ups are starting to give themselves plenty of breathing space. There is also the risk of a coolant leak, as there are many seals which could degrade or loosen over time. The tubing you get with an open water cooling kit isn’t unlimited; you do have to be careful. We’ve taken the time to come up with this article that will hopefully make everything transparent. A water-chilled, closed-loop cooling system allows a data center to add computing power with minimal impact on the facility’s heat load, thus extending the life of the data center. A similar 240mm Custom loop without cutting corners starts at £150.00 and can easily move north of £1000 for complex loop. There’s nothing wrong with that, and I personally prefer these types of setups - just so long as you know what you are getting, and it makes sense for your needs and situation. The CPU block also fits very similarly to a Hydro series cooler, back plate creates the thread for the screw fittings to hold the block in place. The results might not be what you'd expect. That isn’t quite where an open loop ends however, whether you get a photon cylinder reservoir, or a front bay reservoir, you’ll need a large Phillips flathead screwdriver to open to lid for when you fill the system and to seal it back up. 240mm Radiator - A Custom loop consisting of an XSPC EX240 Radiator, XSPC Raza CPU Waterblock, XSPC X20 420 Radiator/Pump combo and 90cm of XSPC 12/16mm Green UV Tubing along with simple distilled water and 2 x Corsair 31-000403 Fans Instead, a special anti-freeze liquid is used around the inside of a ride plate, which is also known as a heat exchanger, which works to disperse the heat of the engine into the surrounding water. The CPU can produce a lot of heat and is kept within a preset level by thermal sensors. The Corsair H100I has survived, just, and when we say just, its on the edge. Finally radiators massively differ between the two solutions – in general a closed loop will popularly come in 3 sizes – Single depth 120mm, dual depth 120mm and single depth 240mm depending on the all in one solution chosen. Each setup then had the CPU loaded with a workload using Aida 64, after 15 minutes the highest recorded temperature was recorded. If you’re looking to put your CPU under a bit of load, or just want to keep those temps down for peace of mind, we’d say go for a high end closed loop cooler and you won’t be disappointed. These systems are really more like souped-up heatsinks than traditional liquid-cooling systems. Many companies advertise the latter option as “liquid-cooling,” which is technically correct, but can cause confusion when comparing prices. You have the reservoir, the pump, the radiator, the fans, some tubing, a … Once cut, it either has to be used, cut to size or written off. If you’re using a tube reservoir, providing it’s compatible, you can use the provided screw mounts, just make sure that the pump is tightened to the reservoir (if there is one), don’t trust that it’ll come out the box like it! If you’re planning on putting your GPU underwater, you’ll also need to get your hands on a GPU water block that’s compatible with your GPU, extra fittings and tubing. Your front bay sits in as any other front bay part would. While gaming, this heat causes air cooler fans to run at a very high speed, producing noise. Now we have our results. Where a case simply does not allow for a Custom Loop For the fittings, you’ll also need a pair of large combination pliers, to help tighten them up. Now for Open loops, they are considerably harder to install but this is where the fun begins. We do blur the line a little in our Deluge gaming computer line , where we have configurations both with the more affordable Hydro and the full cooling options, but it is usually clear from the pictures and naming what each computer uses. Similar to open-loop, closed-loop cooling uses surrounding water to cool off the engine. Low CPU Overclocks or standard clock speeds, Highly overclocked CPU builds Once its all in, the last bit to do is tube it up! For each setup we booted into Windows and after 15 minutes recorded the CPU idle temperature using HW Monitor. Air Cooling vs. Water Cooling Some people said that if you got a premium air cooler like the Noctua NH-D14 that it would perform just like the closed loop system except it would be quieter than a closed loop system, cheaper than a closed loop system, and that it would last a lot longer than a closed loop system because apparently closed loop water cooling systems need to be replaced every 3-5 years. (We’ve had to recreate a loop as our testing rig has been dismantled since so results from earlier tests may vary slightly!). Customization is a big thing here, if you decide to go for a blue theme in your system, you can use blue fluid which, in some blocks, you can see the fluid as it passes through the GPU or you can use blue tubing between each card to help add to the chosen look. The H45 and H80i have single radiators, the H45 holding one fan, the H80i holding two (one either side), the H100i has a dual radiator holding two fans that both go on the same side. For the best experience on our site, be sure to turn on Javascript in your browser. They are also known as a “custom water cooling loop”. Out of the box comes a separate radiator, pump, waterblock(s), reservoir, fittings, tubing and coolant which you have to custom assemble after you have decided on what you want. Closed-loop liquid-cooling describes a self-contained cooling system which is manufactured as a single unit and pre-filled with coolant. The gap between the Corsair H100I and the 240 Radiator is still pretty close although the gap has increased ever so slightly. When you compare the flow rates, it isn’t surprising that the D5 comes out on top though; it’s moving up to 20 Litres of fluid per minute, that’s a lot of fluid for such a small pump. Firstly, the radiator, can your case hold a 360mm or 480mm radiator? It reaps the benefits of being a closed loop, as its easier to install, that, unfortunately for open loops, is something that closed loops will win at every day of the week. The Hydro coolers are quite nice and easy to set up, the radiators can sometimes be a bit tight to get in depending on your case but that’s not too much of a problem, ideally, you’d only need to take it off when upgrading and taking it off isn’t as fiddly as putting it on. These systems are really more like souped-up heatsinks than traditional liquid-cooling systems. This section’s a complete no brainer, custom open loops run away with it here, when your CPU is put to the sword, the temps are kept a lot lower. You get what you are given with a closed loop system which is usually a fixed 12mm black rubber like tube as where with an open loop you have a pool of probably 50 choices. However, liquid-cooling is not truly quiet in the grand scheme of things: there are still fans for cooling the liquid as it passes through a radiator, as well as fans in parts of the system not reach by the coolant. A similar 240mm Custom loop without cutting corners starts at £150.00 and can easily move north of £1000 for complex loop. We’re going to compare 2 bits of data we collected earlier, the H100I and the 240mm radiator setup with the front bayres scores on an overclock of 4.7GHz with 1.35 voltage, and see what happens when we swap the front bayres on the 240 for a Lang D5 pump which as a massive 10 times the flow rate of a closed loop solution. Take the popular Corsair Hydro H45, H80i and H100i. In a nut shell, if you’re looking for the best performance which most enthusiasts are, we recommend an open loop over a closed loop. With a closed loop the “get what you are given” applies as where an open loop will present you with dozens of choices that all vary in flow rate, pressure, size & shape and mounting options. These units are much more cost effective than traditional liquid-cooling configurations, and are virtually impervious to leaks. Custom CPU & GPU Loop. A system cooled in this way can easily cost $1000 more than the same hardware with standard air-cooling components. A water-cooled PC not only looks great but it also provides much better cooling to your major components that include your CPU and Graphics Card (Water block ones). Closed loop systems are cheaper, period. You can have your pump/reservoir either in the front of your PC which takes a front bay or you can go for a Tube Cylinder pump/reservoir, which is much larger than its front bay counterpart but it actually sits more inside the system than the front bay pump/reservoir. It looks bland, not unlike the CPU closed loops. The difference between the 3 comes when fitting the radiator. This is something we want to put to the test. Don’t worry. A custom loop cooling system is custom. If you are more inclined towards an open loop, you have more factors to think about. Corsair provides impressively competitive custom watercooling components and a new customization website to help you configure next... ’ m not going to award the point of this round to open.! 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