Water-cool your PC

To begin, gather the required tools. You'll need screwdrivers (Phillips and regular), needle-nose pliers, a sharp knife, cotton swabs, and alcohol.

Unplug your PC, remove the power cord and the cover, and rest the case flat. Locate the CPU's fan/heat-sink assembly and disconnect its power cable from the motherboard. You'll next remove the whole assembly, but before you do, examine the clips or brackets holding it in place. Every CPU-cooler assembly is a little different; removing it may require springing a lever or releasing a clip or two with a screwdriver. Once it's off, remove all thermal-paste residue from the CPU using the cotton swabs and rubbing alcohol.

Next, check the CPU's socket type, usually emblazoned on the socket. (Ours was a Socket 939 Athlon 64.) Sort out the mounting gear, brackets, and screws you'll need for your socket. Depending on the socket type, you may need to remove the CPU-heat-sink mount from the motherboard (for us, a simple matter of two screws), and maybe the motherboard itself, to install a backing plate or insert screws from below. After removing the mount, we simply screwed two metal pillars from the kit into the empty mounting holes on the motherboard.

Next, apply an even layer of thermal paste from the kit onto the CPU. (A playing card spreads it well, as does a finger in a plastic bag. Just don't use your bare finger; skin oils could fry a CPU.) Place the CPU waterblock, centered, onto the CPU. With our Socket 939 CPU, we placed a bracket onto the waterblock and screwed it to the two pillars, turning each screw alternately until they were tight.

Use caution when removing the original heat-sink assembly. Some have sharp edges.