Liquid cooling for dummies?

Bunderband

For starters, assume I know nothing (basically true)

I dont even know if I need or want liquid cooling. Is it a universal good or is it extremely situational? 

Also I have an additional question that may or may not be a stupid question. Assuming my entire system is liquid cooled, is that gonna reduce the amount of dust and overall maintenance? Or should I not count on any advantages in that department? 

Thanks in advance for answering any questions I've posted here, or any questions I did not ask. Info dumps highly welcome. 

Ian

Greetings. What specific parts were you looking to cool?

Bunderband

Looking to cool the entire system, if at all

I don't have all the parts yet, just the GPU so far (soon™️) but heres a list of what I had in mind:

CPU - Ryzen 9 5950x
Motherboard - Asus ROG Crosshair VIII Dark Hero
GPU - Nvidia RTX 3090 (Founders edition)

Havent decided on a tower yet but was leaning toward a full tower. 

Ian

I would look over our guide for this, further information would depend on what type of liquid cooling you were looking to do:

https://community.microcenter.com/kb/articles/389-liquid-cooling-process-and-terms

PowerSpec_MikeW

@Bunderband

Assuming you mean a custom water loop. They're mainly for heavy overclocking, for the anesthetics or both. If you're not overclocking, functionally it's not wise. Although with a 5950X, I'd recommend a 360MM AIO. Beyond that, you're going to hit the 142W PPT wall before you run into thermal issues when you are overclocking with a solid AIO. Ryzen overclocking is a bit different, as it's about undervolting the CPU rather than overvolting it, but that's another discussion.

As for maintenance. You're still going to have case fans, dust will be the same. For maintenance, it's higher with a custom loop. Needs to be drained and refilled probably twice a year. Build in a drain for this to make it less of a hassle. Set your radiator up vertically, that'll help as well with making this painless.

Bunderband

Thanks for all the information guys! 
Definitely helped me make a more informed decision with what I have. 

Ian

https://community.microcenter.com/discussion/comment/34651#Comment_34651

You're welcome, please let us know if you have any other questions !

Obiwan_Shinobi

You want at least a 240mm radiator for the cpu and a 360mm radiator if you overclock it. the GPU will need a 360mm aio and an active cooled backplate to go full loaf 24/7 and not degrade ever over time. them GDDR6 HBM mem chips on the back get real toasty. good luck on the build!