Best Watercooling for Gaming 2022

If you want the most performance from your gaming computer, you will like it to run nice and cool. To that end, you need a solid cooling system that isn’t solid at all. Liquid cooling offers better thermal performance than standard air cooling. These work by drawing the heat away from the CPU with the liquid. Then cooling the liquid with a radiator and fans. This design makes liquid cooling fairly space efficient on top of its excellent thermal performance.

If you’re building a small form factor gaming rig, the space efficiency of liquid coolers will help give your build a cleaner look. If you’re going for a vast case, liquid cooling gives you more options and can look stunning. All In One, or AIO liquid coolers are simple and easy to use and – best of all – are maintenance-free. AIOs are also relatively well priced, though there are, of course, expensive options too. You can even build your own custom water-cooling loop if you want to go whole hog. Just be aware that this will be more expensive and will require maintenance.

To help you find the best options, we’ve drawn up our list of the best watercoolers for gamers in 2022.

The EK-AIO 360 D-RGB is basically all you need in an AIO cooler. EKWB is primarily known for being the king of custom liquid cooling hardware. Still, they sell it pre-configured as an AIO too. It comes with the necessary 3 120mm static pressure optimized fans. Static pressure is vital for being able to push air through the radiator. It comes with a small tube of thermal paste, so you don’t need to get any extra.

While we recommend the 360mm RGB version, 240mm and 120mm variants are available if space is an issue, with and without RGB, in case that’s not your aesthetic. Even in a push-pull configuration, if you need more airflow. The fans are quiet, reaching just 36.4dBA at full speed. The only downsides are that you can’t choose one of EKWB’s slim or extra thick radiators, a 4-fan option. Or the 140mm class radiators, but that’s what custom loops are for.

The DEEPCOOL Captain 240PRO V2 is a 240mm budget AIO. This low-priced option is excellent if you’re on a budget, though it may start to struggle with high-end CPUs. If you’re building a small form factor PC, you’ll need a small AIO, and 240mm is ideal if it fits your case. As a 240mm radiator, it comes with two 120mm RGB fans.

The water block comes with thermal paste pre-applied, though, as you might expect, it’s not the best quality. On the AMD AM4 platform, the water block has to be mounted so that the tubes can interfere with the RAM. The RGB of the water block and the fans is addressable for control via software. This is not compatible with the latest Intel LGA1700 CPU socket.

The Corsair iCUE H150i ELITE LCD Display Liquid CPU Cooler is a pricy option but a premium offering. The radiator itself is 360mm with 3 RGB magnetic levitation fans. The water block is the party piece, though. It has a 480×480 circular IPS LCD screen that runs at 30 fps. By default, it shows temperature information. But it can also be configured with custom animations.

The radiator comes in 240, 360, and 420mm. The first two use the standard 120mm fans. While the last one uses the large 140mm fans, which may not be compatible with most PC cases. It has a solid 5-year warranty and supports all current and upcoming CPU sockets from AMD and Intel. A fan controller is included, which should help manage many cables. It comes with pre-applied thermal paste, which can be convenient but tends to be of low quality.

A Custom EKWB Loop is basically the ultimate in water-cooling. EXKB is highly regarded as the premium custom water cooling provider. It has plain, RGB, and addressable RGB options for most of its stock. Radiators are available in one to four fan configurations, with 120mm or 140mm fans, and in slim, standard, or thick widths. A broad range of CPU water blocks is available, with any modern CPU socket being supported. You can get specialty water blocks for RAM, GPUs, M.2 SSDs, or motherboards. You can choose your preferred style and color of fittings, tubes, and liquid you want.

All of this combines to offer a tremendous amount of flexibility. Systems can be designed for small form factor builds or for complete overkill. The configurator helps to suggest a reasonable setup given your hardware, which should give you an idea of what you would need. The downsides of custom water-cooling can be a little challenging, though. The price is high, especially if you go down the overkill route. Custom loops also need regular maintenance, roughly once or twice a year. The initial setup can be time-consuming, mainly if you use hard tubing.

That was our roundup of the best water-cooling for gaming in 2022. Have you recently bought a water cooler for your gaming computer? What sold you on it, and what has your experience been with it so far? Let us know down below.