Planning Your Perfect Loop

Now you have an understanding of all these different components, it’s time to decide what kind of loop you want to build, how you’re going to build it, what case you’re going to use, and more.

You might already have a chassis in mind, or maybe you’re keen to reuse your own—regardless, whatever you pick, we recommend it has good radiator support and strong intake air access. For a beginner, a big mid-tower case will help significantly when it comes to crafting your loop.

Something such as Fractal Design’s Define R6 or the Phanteks Enthoo Evolv X are great options for rookies because they provide solid airflow and plenty of support for liquid cooling right off the bat.

The best thing you can do before you begin is research the chassis you have in mind. Strike up its name on Google, add “liquid cooled build” to the end of it, and see what results you get. When we plan our systems here at

MaximumPC, we do that first, then head to http://pcpartpicker. com and http://builds. gg to check out the build logs there.

Once your case is selected, you’ll want to grab a pencil and paper next, and start drafting your loop design. You could do this in Paint or Photoshop, too, but either way, you want to roughly sketch out your chassis and start planning your runs. This is also a good opportunity to figure out how many fittings you’ll need. It does require a fair bit of brain power to visualize your internal layout and what angled fittings you’ll need, but it’s a quick and effective method to figure it all out. It’s worth noting that, inevitably, your finished system won’t look like your plan—you’ll likely have to adapt to problems on the fly—but it gives you a good basis to work from.