There is no question that the landscape of liquid cooling is changing and, along with that, the factors involved with making component choices are changing. Part of this change actually makes me feel I need to have a disclaimer or explanation statement here of the type often found in contracts in legal documents. Something along the lines of ?open loop, referred to in this document as 'liquid cooling?, in no way implies any correlation or relation to CLC, and the facts contained herein do not apply to CLC as a whole?. In less legalese terms; this article is not about CLCs. The basic ideas and principles discussed really won't apply to CLCs. This article is about custom, open loop components.

Moving on to the changing landscape, there was a time that performance was really all that mattered to those using liquid cooling. Looks were not of any particular importance, even intended usage of a component wasn't of great importance if it performed well. Cost was typically looked at with chagrin, but taken on for the sake of performance. Now we are seeing prices drop and liquid cooling moving more and more into the mainstream. With that, aesthetics, build quality and easy functionality have come to take on huge roles in the component choice process. Performance is still key, but right now, only a few degrees will separate any of the CPU blocks from top manufacturers. With that in mind, looks and usability become that much more important.