How does CPU Liquid Cooling work?

[legendaryc4]

Do you need to put water in a water cooler CPU cooler every often or does it have water in it that re cools it self??

 

[Dark Lord of Tech]

http://www.anandtech.com/show/7738/closed-loop-aio-liquid-coolers

 

[JackNaylorPE]

The size of the heat sink attached to a CPU is limited. The only purpose of water is to move the heat to a larger heat sink (radiator) in the most efficient manner.

Air cooling - Heat transfers thru metal to metal contact to a large finned heat sink thru which air is blown yo move the heat from metal to air.

Water cooling - Heat transfers thru metal to metal contact to a water block which transfers it to the liquid which in turn transfers it to a large finned radiator thru which air is blown yo move the heat from metal to air.

Essentially, the process is the same, water just serves as a "middle man" so to speak. Both start metal to metal, both finish with metal to air cooling.

CLC's or "faux water cooling" attempt to mimic the performance of water cooling but, because of cost restraints, use inferior metals and generally smaller radiators thru which excessive air must be blow thru to remain competitive with cheaper air coolers. As a result, air coolers outperform comparably priced CLC type water coolers which can be up to 12 times louder.

 

[Alastair smith]

Do you need to put water in a water cooler CPU cooler every often or does it have water in it that re cools it self??

Well, as far as the sealed AIO liquid coolers are concerned, you don't have to change their coolants, as they are meant for maintenance free operation with the only down side being if any component fails, you have to throw it away if it's out of the warranty.

Now, every CPU/GPU liquid coolers on the market share same working principal and that is:
All the Liquid Cooler have

1. Radiators for the dissipation of heat out of the loop through their Fin Channels.

2. A reservoir for the storage of coolant.

3. CPU Block, GPU Block etc for the dissipation of the heat of the components on which they are attached. The blocks have small micro channels above the Block plate (Block plate is a flat plate like structure which sits just above the components like CPU, GPU etc with a thin layer of thermal compound between it self and the component that has t be cooled) which dissipates the heat into the cycling coolant, then the cycling coolant dissipates its heat through a radiator's Fin channels.

5. Tube whether it be Soft Acrylic tubing or Hard line Acrylic, PETG or Copper tubing, to cycle the coolant through all the connected mediums.

6. Fans for the radiator according its size.

7. Pump to cycle the coolant through each components.

8. Lastly fitting for connecting each components to each other only in case of custom water cooling loop.

Now onto the pros and cons of both AIOs and custom loops.

AIOs

Pros

1. Easy to install.

2. Maintenance free.

3. Cheap

Cons

1. If a single thing goes wrong within AIOs you are only left with a single option and that is replacing it.

2. Loud operation.

Custom loops

Pros

1. High cooling capacity.

2. Future expandability.

3. Quiet operation

4. Attractive if done correctly.

Cons

1. Expensive

2. Time taking.

3. Requires continuous maintenance like changing of coolant in every 6 months and cleaning of the components of loop every year.

Hope this helps you.