You have two options when it comes to purchasing your radiator. You can purchase a commercial water Cooling radiator, which will be built for either one or two 120 mm fans, and come equipped with small sized hose barbs or connectors, and will set you back £50 to £100.

Your other option is to go scrap yard raiding. A car heater core is ideal for the job. They typically sport much more surface area than a commercial radiator, and connect to half inch hosing easily, allowing for greater flow.

They also come in a nice little box, with one or two extremely high power 12volt centrifugal blowers, which are far better than normal axial fans. All this will cost you between £10 and £15. Read our article on finding the ideal heatercore here.

The Hosing

Hosing for water coolers comes mostly in two sizes. 3/8" / 10mm, and ½" / 12mm. I recommend the use of ½" tubing for the entire system, as it costs no more, flows more water, is suitable for fitting to heater cores and will also fit over 15mm copper piping, which can be used as a connector.

Commercially sold hosing comes in three different materials. PVC, Silicone, and Tygon.

Tygon is the most expensive, and is a very clear colour. It is very strong, and very kink resistant.

Silicone hose is a milky colour, and extremely flexible. It made of very soft rubbery material, which is ultra flexible, and can be bent into very tight curves without it trying to spring out again. Silicone hose is by far the easiest hose to work with, and is highly recommended for your first water cooling system. The picture below shows Silicone hose on the left, and PVC on the right.

PVC is the cheapest hosing that is sold specifically for water cooling. It is very strong, but very inflexible. It is not recommended for systems that will need tight curves in the hose, and it can sometimes make it very difficult to install the waterblock.

The cheapest option by far is to use garden hosepipe. This is only available in ½" diameter, but it costs less than 50p a metre. It is very kink resistant, and is flexible provided you do not make the curves too tight.

I use a mixture of PVC, Silicone, and garden hose. This means that I can have the best of both worlds, by choosing the right hose for each section. I use PVC for filling tubes, where I need to be able to see the water level clearly. I use silicone for awkward curves, and for stretching over unusual size connectors. I use the garden hose for longer sections, as it is very strong, and saves the more expensive hose for where it is needed. If you plan the routes the hoses will take, you can avoid buying too much or too little hose.

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