Custom Water Cooled PC

During the span of this personal project, I want to learn more on how liquid cooling works for personal computing and how effective liquid cooling is when compared to traditional air cooling. I originally discovered my interests in personal/gaming computers back when I was in 3rd or 4th grade. I used to watch videos and read up on different parts that make up a PC. This eventually led to my personal interest in computer hardware, and I assembled my first gaming PC at age 12. Since then, I have assembled additional, newer machines as well as helping other family members and friends to get into the hobby. During this time, however, I have never tried to assemble a computer with a customized liquid cooler. This personal project will be my chance at exploring and learning this topic.

I chose to learn how to build a computer with a liquid cooling system, because I have already had experience with assembling computers normally. If I were to set this as my learning goal, it would not be challenging enough to be a learning curve and therefore become an effective personal project.

Product Goal

As a result of my learning and investigation during the span of this project, I will create or modify a personal computer to include a water cooler as its primary source of heat dissipation. The product will be created in my own existing computer as part of a modification I will do to that system. Similar to other cooling mechanisms, it will contain a coolant reservoir, a pump, and distribution blocks.

Reflection

After accomplishing my product goal, I felt a sense of satisfaction with myself and the fact that I was able to complete something that required a more advanced skill set than I did. Naturally, being the first water-cooled PC that I have built, I noticed a lot of imperfections, especially in the way I designed the loop, some of the tubing runs and bends, and the symmetry of the design. However, after dwelling on it for a while, I accepted that my first product will always be, in some ways, imperfect due to my lack of skill. I should have been proud of myself for creating something that works in the first place.

As for the learning aspect, this product serves as proof that I have learned something new and was able to apply it in a real-life situation. While I was creating the product itself, I felt that I knew what I was doing the entire time after completing my research. While I found the more advanced steps such as tube bending a little difficult, and still had to reference my notes and online videos some of the time, I still felt that I had the experience needed to complete the product successfully.

Product Evaluation

According to some public surveys that I have done, people generally prefer the look of my custom water-cooled PC compared to the standard PCs that they have. Most of the people that left feedback in my Discord forum praised the aesthetic value of my PC. They complimented my work on organizing the components and trying to keep the internal cables and components tidy. They also praised my choice of PC case. While it does perform worse than a stock air cooler when idling and not doing anything, It works better than a stock air cooler when sustaining a load and keeping the temperature of the CPU comfortably under the maximum designed operating temperature of the Ryzen 9 3900x of about 90C. Under load, this system runs at a stable 65-68C while standard air coolers handle the CPU at around 84-86C.

To evaluate the cost effectiveness of the cooling system, I compared the performance of my product to a similar, store bought model and the cooler that comes with my model of processor. Specifically, I chose the DeepCool Castle 360EX due to the same size of radiator and the readily available benchmark information online, meaning that I did not need to purchase it myself. Both results above show that, while maintaining the CPU at around the same temperature as that AIO cooler under load (both are 360MM radiators), my system’s fans (CPU FAN IN data only) run at least at 49% (1182/1934) less speed, resulting in a quieter and more efficient system. The cooler is also able to stabilize the temperature given a few minutes.

However, despite the fact that it runs at a lower RPM speed, therefore consuming less voltage and power, making it more efficient, overall it is still about as effective as an on-the-market AIO cooler that would cost much less and be easier to install compared to my system. At a list price of 1,9 million rupiah for a DeepCool Castle 360EX compared to a price of above 10 million rupiah for a custom system, this is a much better option economically compared to a fully custom system considering that they have similar cooling capabilities.

Unfortunately, It is also not a very easy system to install and set up. Any beginner that wants to install a custom liquid cooler must learn an entirely different skill set and knowledge base to do so. Not only do you have to work with high-temperature tube bending and plan based on the layout of your PC, you also have to learn the different standardized components and which component is compatible with which brand of cooler and which model of cooling component. It is far easier and more effective to buy an AIO cooler, unless customization and flexibility is one of your top priorities.