Liquid cooling has proven to be a most effective method of heat dissipation, used in a whole host of industries and with a huge number of applications. There is a reason that almost every production vehicle in the world uses water to cool the engine, it is a highly proficient form of removing excess heat.

So just why is liquid cooling so efficient compared to simple air cooling? Well we need to discuss two fundamental concepts, specific heat capacity and thermal conductivity.

The term "thermal conductivity" is used to measure how well a particular substance can conduct heat; water has a thermal conductivity value that is around 2500% greater than air. This means that water can move heat, 25 times faster than air.

The term "specific heat capacity" is used to measure how much energy it takes to heat a substance to one degree. Water has a specific heat capacity of around 400% more than air; this means it takes 400% more energy to heat water than it does air.

We can see quite clearly, that water is a far superior substance for cooling purposes, so it makes great sense to use it to cool those ultra-heated PC components doesn’t it?

Before we dive into the waters of liquid cooling a PC (sorry very bad pun), we need to consider the single major flaw in considering water as the optimal PC coolant. Yes, you guessed it, water conducts electricity, and PCs run on electricity. Mix water with electricity and you can achieve some often spectacular pyrotechnic results. Simply put, water in the wrong place inside your PC will fry it. Be warned.

There is a second, although minor downside to using water cooling as a PC cooling technique. Air coolers are simple, usually just a fan assembly bolted or clipped into a pre-formed assembly. Water coolers are somewhat more complex and their installation needs to be planned well. They also require a slight amount of maintenance and upkeep; you can’t just fit a water cooling kit and forget about it.

The only other negative issue when considering water cooling over air cooling for your PC is the increased cost of components. In reality, it will cost around 3 times more to fit a water cooling system, than it would a high quality air cooler for the CPU, GPU and motherboard.

Despite these negative facets, water cooling is still a very attractive option when building a new PC, the current range of equipment, often sold in ready to fit packages, are much easier to deal with than the old fashioned, mix and match parts we have had to use for water cooling in the past. They are now mature products, which carry a bare minimum of risk if fitted and maintained correctly.

By water cooling your PC, you will have achieved levels of heat dissipation which are unreachable using conventional fans, and for those of us who like to overclock our toys, it can often be the only way to bring components down to the correct operating temperature. This is especially useful for high performance gaming computers.