LogFAQs > #979903022

notforremnant posted...

Appreciate the explanation, maybe I just wasn't remembering but as Nox said I must've been thinking of situations where with water cooling it wasn't hitting all the components & only cooled the CPU which necessitated air cooling additionally, so someone might as well just do air instead of maintaining & making sure water doesn't leak through a hose or something. I remember Linus Tech Tips building water cooled PCs more than once, & even despite the mistakes they were making, you have to eventually replace & empty the water sooner than you would just cleaning fans for dust & such

One thing I forgot is that a large tower cooler like the NH-D15 can block the PCIe release lever and make it difficult to swap your graphics card without taking them out. They just get in the way in numerous ways.

Custom loop maintenance depends on what your fluid is. If its a clear fluid without any dyes and it has growth inhibitors and anti corrosive agents etc., you can leave it for 5+ years no problem, and nothing should get gunked up. But dyes will eventually gum things up, and some of the, with floating particles in them are way worse about it.

But the real problem with a rigid tuned custom loop is that if you want to upgrade, you have to drain the fluid out, take the tubing apart enough to get to the part, then do your upgrade (which will also probably mean a water block swap for a new GPU or CPU), then put the tubing back together and refill it. Its just not going to be worth it for most people.