How do you afford to water cool your PC or even maintain it yourself if you can't afford another one

Basically what the title says.

I've been wanting to water cool my PC (hard tube custom loop water cooling) for awhile, or even maintain it myself (cleaning, paste changing) but I can't afford to lose it. If I screw up, I'll be without a PC for years (depending on what dies).

Is everyone that water cools their PC, or tests new case builds with their existing hardware able to afford new parts relatively quickly if something dies? Are there people doing it, for which a mistake would mean being left without a PC for awhile? If there are those among you - are you not afraid? What made you do it yourself? Are there no PC shops around you that can do it for you for like $20 and would be responsible for their own screw ups?

 

Watercooling is very safe these days if you do things properly.
Plus I've been doing it for so long that the last time I had a leak it wiped out the dinosaurs, so no, not scared one bit.

There are also some extra precautions you can take if you want, like stay away from coloured liquids (more hassle than they are worth, just use coloured tubing if you want colours) and use blocks with an acetal / metal top rather than acrylic (no acrylic = no cracks).

As for replacing stuff, I've been pretty lucky in regards to hardware failures over the years (except for HDDs that just love failing on me), I've got enough spare components around the home that I could have another PC up and running quickly (sure, it wouldn't be instant like for like replacement, but good enough and all that).

PC shops around me? Physical PC shops went extinct years ago in my country, its just online shops selling components and dodgy Dave around the corner who might advertise his services on facebook marketplace... so its DIY all the way or buy one of the bazillion prebuilts.

Also I enjoy the process, just hits the right spot to take a day off, tune out the world, build a PC and then fine tune it to my exact preferences.

 

I've been water cooling for years it has never been an issue and I am hamfisted. I have had one liquid failure and that was when I knocked a cup of tea on top of my computer and it went through the top rad

Not that'd I'd recommend it, if you are on a tight budget and can't handle a failure save your dough, air cooling is good enough, even these mad gpus are kept in check with air.

There's bugger all benefit to water at home, parts now self over clock to their practical limits to get the best performance, water might get you a couple of percent but on these new process the power ramp up is insane, only benefit I find is a consistent noise.

 

I would say, in short, you don't. In general (not just PCs) if you have zero fallback then I'd limit DIY to things you a confident and comfortable doing, or at least where the reward/necessity outweighs the risk.
In your situation I'd stick with air, with a view to doing the whole hobbyist water cooling thing if you become able to do a fairly wholesale upgrade.

 

Hell no, I actualy started watercooling to curb my constant upgrading! I've not upgraded in years, because I can't justify it! But watercooling (custom that is) is actually really safe and robust if done well. i has a Pentium D back in the day run happily in low power application even though the pump had died as the passive cooling from block to rad was enough to keep it going.

Conversely I've seen a motherboard catch fire as a friend took apart a CPU block and didn't redo the seal right and it leaked on the VRM's!

Its what you make of it! But very few of us have lost hardware to watercooling.

 

Risk vs Reward..... the question of "is it worth it" is entirely up to you...... same as everything else in life.

Do I go out of my house? The risk of being run over is pretty low, and the reward of getting things done is high enough, so I'll go out.
Do I custom watercool my CPU? The risk of leakage is pretty low, but for me the reward of getting a few % is not high enough, so I'll air cool my CPU with the quietest fan possible.
Do I AIO watercool my GPU? The risk of leakage is even lower, but for me the reward of no longer hearing the GPU fan speed constantly changing as load on GPU changes is enough for me to do it.

 

I started doing it when the 1080ti came out and stock coolers were so loud it drove me insane. I also noticed it was hard to keep my Titan XP (same sorta deal as 1080Ti) at anything close to 1800mhz even with the fans at full pelt, whereas on a 240 rad I got 2100 solid. That is quite a bump in clocks and performance, with almost no noise.

I have had a butt ton of leaks. I have never, ever lost any hardware. I jumped in right as they were starting to put VG and PG into coolant, so the chances of frying anything are extremely rare. The leaking part is a pain though, especially when you get all brave and use a coloured coolant.

As for the gear? yeah, very expensive. However, you tend to collect and build that up over years. It was only last week I broke down my final loop for the time being. Mostly because two of 3 of my GPUs now have 240 AIOs on.

Edit. FWIW I have never, EVER used hard line. Mostly because it is a one size only fits one loop, and upgrading or maintenance is a pain in the balls.

 

Yup once you have the initial gear you don't need to buy much else again, I have been re-using my old stuff for years, just put new tubing and fluid in when I put a new part in. AMDs stable socket has meant that I can just switch CPU easily and retain cooler another benefit of non hardline, I leave enough flex in the pipe I can pull the cooler away from socket to drop a chip in, same with the GPU, whilst I can't put a new GPU in, if I want to get to SSD slots etc, being able to pull GPU out of the way is a benefit, so hardline would be a no for me too.

 

If you can't afford to risk it then don't.

Watercooling, even custom watercooling, is pretty foolproof these days. As others have said, you tend to build up kit as you go but there's definitely an investment required in order to get started. Off the top of my head, it'll probably cost me ~£300-£400 to build out a custom CPU & GPU loop, and that's without replacing my case. But if I ever upgraded my CPU, or changed from AMD to Intel, I'd only have to change out a CPU block (I run a 5900X - any upgrade would mean a new socket/platform) - the rest of the loop would be fine.

I'd argue that full custom loop is less of a necessity than it once was. Even monstrous 4000-series GPUs can be adequately air cooled, and fans these days have come a long way from the Delta "Screamer" CPU fans I used to run ~20 years ago.

 

It's always a risk.

I've peed coolant all over components, even back before the "non conductive" coolants (That are still conductive if you ask right), and so far I've killed one GPU (That I can remember) since the Athlon XP days. Couldn't even kill a board with an improperly insulated Prometeia. But you can definitely kill boards with those. And processors.

It's scary, especially early days, but these days there are tools to leak test, generally speaking if you leak test the loop and keep an eye on it after it passes the leak test it's not going to develop puddles spontaneously.

My biggest argument against water cooling is that it is a huge faff. Often for barely better temperatures than can be achieved with air - Although more often quieter. My four 140's don't bother me nearly as much as the three 92's that were on the GPU did.

I won't go back to hard tubing, though. It sealed fine, it looked cool, but the second anything needed changing I wanted to light the whole thing on fire and go live on a mountain side.

 

Good luck finding a shop that will throw in a hard line loop for $20, nevermind assume all responsibility for something going wrong afterwards.

Without being too harsh, you're asking for the moon on a stick. If you want that, either be prepared to pay handsomely for the work, or DIY it .

 

Sadly, the days you could get sponsored for even the more outrageous builds is over. There's still a possibility if some of the big contests are happening.
leaks: I had a lot with the old experimental rigs. Bloo has a rag under the reservoir just in case. I recently tore down GG to find it had leaked on the GPU, and the leeched plastic from the tubes re sealed it. It didn't seem to hurt the GPU.

Aquarium style pumps are nearly impossible to kill, and having one as a backup has been very handy. I got into this because I had a lot of experience with plumbing, and I had several aquarium pumps I could play with until I found my first sponsor. My early loops were nasty inside.
I'll repeat what the others said; If you don't need water cooling, don't get into it. Ambient indoor temp here can hover around 28C in the summer, and I've killed 2 cnc controllers because of it. I kind of needed it.

 

So sorry for the late reply. I've been meaning to reply sooner, I just... didn't.

Thank you everyone!

Yeah, I've been hearing more and more opinions against coloured coolants. Good point about the acryllic tops, haven't thought of that. I know that watercooling is safe if you do it right, but that's my biggest concern. That I won't do it right. I won't screw-in a fitting all the way or something and it will all die, and my problem are exactly the spare parts. Not in terms of watercooling parts but in terms of the hardware itself.
If I **** it up, I can't afford to replace it soon, although I guess it does depend on what dies. I do have the advantage of having a local PC store that I trust, and I use it for everything. I mean heck, I don't even change my own thermal paste. I ask them in advance, once every 6 months or once a year when I can bring them my PC for cleaning and thermal paste change so that it can be ready for pickup the same day and they let me know. When I am getting a new PC, I tell them (well him, I mostly communicate with the owner as he's the one working there the most) I want parts X, Y & Z, while I don't care about A & B & C, choose something, they tell me the price and build it for me. The current PC I just got was actually the first one I built myself, but with the supervision of the PC shop's owner.
I don't know... I guess I'm trying to say that I'm afraid to try watercooling and maintain my own PC because I'm afraid I'll **** it up and if I do I can't afford to replace what I ****ed up and I have an alternative, so I never bothered doing myself and facing my fear.

Sorry! I could have worded it better. I meant $20 for building your PC for you or for cleaning/thermal paste change and covering any possible **** ups during that, or just a PC shop to do the watercooling and maintanence for you. You are right though that any leaks that happen after it leaves the shop can't be insured by them.

Yeah, that's why I haven't gotten into it yet, but I really want to. I don't know if I was looking for a push or trying to figure if all people that watercool can afford hardware replacement in-case of a **** up, or they just risk it or what to I guess gauge the situation and figure out what I want to do. It's not so much that I need a custom watercooling loop, but that I want one. My new 13900K is being pretty well cooled with just an AIO, while my 4090 is air cooling itself + an extra case fan blowing towards it, that I probably don't even need.
It's not so much that I'm worried about replacement of watercooling parts, as much as it is replacement of the hardware itself. My fear is not so much components of the loop failing, as it is me ****ing it up during building it or during maintanence. Like forgetting to tighten a fitting or something and water going everywhere and frying my GPU or something.

You do have a point that if I just remember to do a leak test each time even before filling the loop then watching it for some time after I do, it is pretty safe. By the way, when you say keeping an eye on it after it passes the leak test. For what period of time are we talking about? Do you mean just in-general checking it ocassionally? I want to integrate the PC into a desk, but not in top. In the vertical part on the back, with the PC facing away from me and the desk, so I can't just glance over it ocassionally. I guess I can go around the desk every once in awhile to check though.

Yeah, I imagine it is harder with hard tubing, although to be fair, I can't remember where was the last time I did a partial upgrade to my PC, at least when it comes to any of the components that usually get watercooled. I just tend to get whatever hardware's the high-end at the time of me getting the PC, then I don't change anything (unless something dies) then 5+ years later just everything gets changed.

Yeah, I didn't word that well.

I totally forgot about the sponsorship sides of things. I wasn't even thinking about that.
Hmm.. I haven't owned a thermometer for not sure how long, so I don't know what's the ambient temperature here during the summer, but outside can get up to 45C ocassionally.


EDIT: I just realized I haven't replied to some of you. I'm sorry, it wasn't intentional.

 

As someone till in the middle of rebuilding and redoing mind (its been 2 months so far!) do it because you love it. If it destroys stuff, I can afford it. It wasn't always that way, but PC's are my hobby, so I'll always have money for it. But honestly, I have enough parts for 2 PC's right now, possibly 3, although far lower performance.

Watercooling is peak custom PC's. Its all a risk, you could destroy your CPU or motherboard with bent pins and not get warrently, you could damage stuff with a screwdriver, ect. There's always risk. We're mad enough to sink the cost and take on this risk because to us its fun, and destroying stuff while being horrible and annoying is part of that.

 

Oh, I completely understand the madness! There's probably nothing electronic at home I have not taken apart. I want to water cool my PC, but most importantly do it myself, remove my RAM heatsinks and make my own, etc, but I just spent about $6K on my PC, got it less than a month ago and it's my only PC, plus that's like 4 months of my salary
I guess I need to start small, build the confidence and only risk it when I can afford it. Perhaps I can always buy a lower end second hand PC and do stuff to it.
Btw if you buy a PC just to mod it, i.e. you don't need it - what do you do with it after?

 

That was how I started out. Old X6 Phenom (free) and a board I got free. I got a cheap Chinese block for about £10, and a SC600 pump.

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/327...!sea!GB!4490298625&curPageLogUid=PVl5SqAdx8Eh

G 1/4, very strong quiet pump. Even has ceramic shaft etc.

 

Sell it, donate it, I keep most of my older stuff to show off, its my version of orniments

 

Another thing to bear in mind, if you're putting a water block on a brand new GPU, in most cases you're voiding your warranty. It's far easier to stomach learning and tinkering on older, or second hand parts than jumping straight in on top end stuff.

You're also adding a load more potential troubleshooting issues into the mix, that if not familiar with building PCs in general, or confident all the parts are fine, can cause additional headaches

Plus building any loop is always more expensive than you think. No matter how much you plan it in advance you ALWAYS need more fittings than you originally thought. Which can massively extend build time, and put your rig out of action.

If it's something you really want to do, start picking up cheaper components second hand and learn that way. Get comfortable stripping a GPU down, fitting blocks, and building loops. And use flexible tubing. It's way more forgiving than hard line, which introduces another load of new skills and potential headaches.

 

I could have said that.

Shelf decor for the old ones. I'll admit with 7 working systems, I'm having trouble finding a use for all of them. I kept one because it has my old Photoshop software, (The stuff Adobe no longer activates because they want to charge you monthly.) I'm currently thinking about building something with no system inside just to sell, but no one has any money in this economy...