Open loop water cooling gives your PC a bit of customization and luxury that makes it stand out from the crowd, and the performance benefits sure don't hurt either. But it's complicated, and, in the wrong hands, dangerous for your rig. But here at Computex in Taipei, Corsair has announced a new product line, the Hydro X series, along with a configurator to help you pick the parts you need to make an open loop in your case.
The lineup includes a $155 330ml pump/reservoir combo, the $75 XC7 and $80 XC9 CPU waterblocks (the former has 60 cooling fins, the latter 70 fins), a series of XG7 GPU waterblocks (including several for the latest Nvidia GeForce RTX series). There's also hardline tubing at 12 and 14mm, or softline tubing (12 mm exterior, 10mm interior), a radiators ranging from 120mm to 480mm. The company will even sell a variety of coolants in different colors. Many of the parts, including the waterblocks, are RGB-compatible using Corsair's iCue software.
The waterblocks already have thermal paste (and, on GPU blocks, thermal pads), and there are a bunch of installation videos available for assistance and 24/7 customer service.
The configurator is extremely simple. Plug in your PC case (unfortunately, my Fractal Design Meshify C couldn't fit the system right now), choose your chipset, whether you'll overclock, your GPU and how many radiators you want, and it will start to put together a parts list. You can then buy it directly from Corsair or take the list to a participating retailer.
Just because it's easy to configure doesn't mean it will come cheap. A setup can still cost you a few hundred dollars. But you can try the configurator today and see how much it will run you.
