Hardware

Water pump in liquid cooling radiator, pros and cons

the refrigerations liquids are the preferred CPU cooling option for home enthusiasts, because they are quite accessible and have great cooling potential that allow CPUs to be overclocked to a certain level, but without reaching extreme cooling techniques such as the use of liquid nitrogen. Of course, the latter is purely experimental and in extreme cases only to break specific benchmark records, not for legitimate use. Liquid cooling achieves this with a water pump, coolant and a large radiator that allows for a closed liquid cycle that expels its heat in a controlled manner into a radiator. And recently it is common to see the liquid cooling water pump on the radiator instead of next to the CPU socket.

T-FORCE SIREN GD240E ARGB liquid cooling radiator liquid cooling

A liquid cooling works like a radiator would: a system of internal pipes and heat-transmitting liquid collects heat from a key point at high temperature, in this case a CPU at full capacity; and the heat is transmitted through the liquid part of the radiator, which is a heat dissipation system of the internal liquid that heats the air around it in a very intense way. With the help of the fans next to the radiator, a cooling system adapted to the needs of increasingly powerful processors is achieved, which get too hot for a fan to cool itself.

Liquid Cooling Review T-FORCE SIREN GD240E ARGB

A very important part is the water pump, whose size and position greatly influence how we can mount the liquid cooling, how often we must purge the liquid to renew it, and many more variants if we want to maintain its performance and efficiency. It has been sitting normally next to the contact in the CPU socket on the motherboard for decades. But recent liquid coolers are putting the water pump in the radiator, so it makes us rethink how we treat liquid coolers, fit them and maintain them,

How do I know if the liquid cooling water pump is in the radiator?

To check it, take the radiator of your liquid cooling if it is a modern one, and in All in One format. If in the middle of the radiator there is a square or circle in the center, close to the side where the coolant tubes enter, then This is where the water pump is. Otherwise it would be in the CPU socket, or it could be in one of the tubes that connect the socket to the radiator.

What does it mean for a liquid cooling water pump to be in the radiator and not in the CPU socket?

This change is very possible that we will see it in many liquid coolers from now on. Basically, it implies that if we want to check the water pump, it will be in the radiator and not in the socket. It is to change the procedure a bit when making a set-up of liquid cooling.

liquid cooling with water pump in the radiator

Below we are going to show what, for us, are the most important pros and cons, that it is going to become standard for the water pump of liquid cooling to be in the radiator. Keep in mind that this, over time, could change. In such a case, we will update it.

sockets CPU, learn about them

Points in favor

First, there's the separate pump block, or CPU socket, depending on what you want to call it, which is the hottest spot. This is going to mean that, in theory, we have a greater reliability and duration of the pump because it will not be a mobile element right next to a block of metal that reaches temperatures of almost boiling water. This will make you more efficient in the long run. This is all in theory, as it will also depend on the quality of the liquid, the maintenance and the quality of the water pump. But the same water pump and liquid from the same liquid cooling transferred to the radiator should last longer as it is less in contact with the CPU.

liquid cooling with water pump in the radiator

By having the water pump in the radiator, it is also more difficult for it to stall due to an air bubble which causes the coolant liquid not to flow and therefore does not cool properly because no liquid flows. Depending on the position of the pump, the air bubble of a liquid cooling pump in the radiator, might have to become huge, taking the position of the bomb as the top of the bubble size. This means that having the water pump in the radiator means that even if we don't check the coolant often enough and it micro-evaporates, it will take much longer to not properly cool the CPU.

But this does not mean that we have to forget, since we will continue to have to do biennial reviews of the fluid, perform the purge and fill it with new fluid. Yes, it can give us more margin but it does not mean that we can ignore maintenance.

Points against

The first point in favor that we said of having the water pump in the radiator is that it is not in the CPU socket, which is the hottest point that liquid cooling will suffer. Why is it bad too? Not being in the most usual place, near the CPU, you will have to use a cable to receive power from the power supply or motherboard. This implies more cabling or the fact that the radiator itself cannot be in certain positions if the box is large, which greatly limits customization for the sector of users who build their own PCs.

And this is basically the only point against that we can say for now of having the water pump in the radiator itself: which can make assembly much more difficult. This would sew on lower-end motherboards or power supplies with limited cables, or undersized cases, it could be a problem, but this is more of having chosen low-end components for a mid-range or mid-range component. high.

Won't it take away some of the cooling zone from the radiator and therefore may be less efficient?

In theory, yes. If you remove part of the cooling zone from the radiator, cooling power will eventually be lost. But the reality is that liquid cooling fans, on the side where they collect air, there is a certain cone in which the air is not collected. This cone in which air is not sucked, when mounting the fans, coincides right where the pump is located. And it happens in several models that we have checked. thus, nothing would be wasted, because by the very nature of the fans, it was an area that was not going to be cooled by the fan.

Conclusion: Is it better or worse for the liquid cooling water pump to be in the radiator?

We can say that it is slightly better. Performance wise, the cooling performance difference is almost minimal, if any. Unless we are in an extreme case, we will not notice that small percentage of lower cooling.

As for durability, in theory, and on paper, having the water pump in the radiator helps it to have more durability by not being in contact with the hottest part of a PC.

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Benjamin Rosa

Madrileño whose publishing career began in 2009. I love investigating curiosities that I later bring to you, readers, in articles. I studied photography, a skill that I use to create humorous photomontages.

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