The value of water cooling is only understood to the geekiest of geeks. Most folks are just fine when their systems maintain a decent temp, don’t lock up and give them a decent frame rate while gaming. But the ultra-geek has other desires in their minds. Tom’s Hardware takes a serious look at water cooling a high end CPU. Don;t forget your scuba gear before you swim off to read this!

Water or other liquids are already the coolants of choice in many industries. Porsche has long switched from air-coolants to water cooled engines. Nuclear reactors are water cooled. Now, the semiconductor industry is increasingly shifting from air to water.

The principles of thermal resistance dictate why liquid cooling is more efficient than air-cooling, which also show that the potential for liquid coolants to heat up is much lower compared to solids.