The Cost of Cooling Components.

Why are custom water-cooling parts just so expensive?, I get that it is a niche product so the components will always carry a higher price tag due to the low scale of economy, but typically a single 150mm cylinder bay reservoir is selling for £30+, to me these costs just cannot be justified, the whole item consists of three components, two of which typically need machining, now contrast this with the all in one closed loop coolers and it comes of even worse!, your cheapest closed loop cooler consists of many many parts such as PCBs, micro-channels, wires, LEDs, Radiators, pumps, Etc, and these closed loop coolers can in many situations be cheaper or around the same price as a single custom water-cooling part, what is going on here?, are the major players in the custom PC water-cooling business collectively taking advantage of peoples passion for this hobby to make a quick buck?

 

Welcome to the world of low volume production.

 

Welcome to the world of exploiting the willingness of enthusiasts to throw money at their hobby.

(In a few weeks I intend to spend over £600 on a new monitor and graphics card and I'm not the wealthiest PC enthusiast.)

 

Go buy a cheap off-brand one from AliExpress and then see the quality difference.

 

Just because other items are low quality doesn't mean that those of sufficient quality aren't over priced.

I bought a named brand reservoir which ended up cracking presumably due to the thermal cycles it experienced. So there's no guarantees with any brand. Every company makes stuff as cheap as they possibly can.

 

That's when you've got to buy the OEM parts, such as Barrow who recently surfaced on eBay. They're the OEM for Bitspower (so I am lead to believe) ...

I bought a few of their fittings and they're freakin' awesome!

 

Barrow are great, but there are others you don't take the risk with. Even a known brand like ThermalTake's Newegg comments on its reservoirs are not complementary.