Sony Got Cyber Attack

PlayStation cyberattack another blow to Sony

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ARAM BOGHOSIAN FOR THE BOSTON GLOBE

Louis Justiniano, 18, wasn’t inside playing video games Friday. “I’m out here skating instead,” he said.

Sony Corp.’s joyless holiday season continued to sour Friday, as the entertainment giant endured the second day of yet another cyberattack, this one taking down the online PlayStation Network used by millions of video game players.

The attack, which began on Christmas Day, prevented gamers from accessing the system where they can play such popular titles as “Madden” or “Call of Duty” with opponents across the world.

At the Fields Corner Game Stop, the usual post-Christmas crowd of customers making returns and exchanges also included some bewildered shoppers unsure why their new games weren’t working.

“There’s been a bunch of people coming in saying their systems are broken when in reality it’s just that the networks are down,” said store manager Nelson Vasquez.

Sony is still reeling from a separate attack that led it to briefly cancel the controversial movie “The Interview,” a spoof of North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un. Sony later reversed course in the face of widespread criticism that included a rebuke from President Obama.

The US government blamed North Korea for the Sony attacks.

In the latest cyberattack, a mysterious group called the Lizard Squad claimed responsibility. The outages also affected Microsoft’s Xbox Live. Together, the Xbox and PlayStation gaming networks have about 160 million members worldwide. Microsoft restored service to the Xbox Live network early Friday, but Sony said its PlayStation Network remained off-line Friday evening.

RELATED: Who is Lizard Squad?

‘I tried to sign in but it was taking really long . . . and then it told me there was an error.’

David Murray III, GameStop shopper 

“We are aware that some users are experiencing difficulty logging into the PSN,” Sony posted on the PlayStation support site. “We will update this article with any changes that occur in regards to this issue. Thank you for your patience.”

The outage disappointed gamers who received Playstation or Xbox systems this holiday but were unable to access the online networks in order to boot up the games. Others were only able to play new games against a computer simulator or with friends or family members in the same room.

RELATED: PlayStation, Xbox networks hit by connection failures

ARAM BOGHOSIAN FOR THE BOSTON GLOBE

David Murray III, 19, of Dorchester, hoped to challenge another player in “Persona 4,” but that didn’t happen.

Game Stop shopper David Murray III, 19, said his excitement at receiving “Persona 4,” a fighting game, quickly dissolved when he turned on his PlayStation 3 on Christmas, hoping to challenge another user.

“I tried to sign in but it was taking really long — like a good three minutes — and then it told me there was an error and it just timed out,” Murray said.

Unable to role play as soldiers or star quarterbacks, some gamers left their usual indoor haunts and resorted to playing outdoors.

“I’m out here skating instead,” 18-year-old Louis Justiniano of Dorchester said Friday afternoon while skateboarding outside the Game Stop store in Fields Corner. “When it don’t work, I just go out.”

Cybersecurity analysts said the latest attacks appeared to be distributed denial of service, or DDoS, in which the hackers bombard the targeted site with so much traffic that the network crashes. However, it does not appear any personal information was exposed during these attacks.

“DDoS is a very serious and frustrating problem because it’s so easy to launch these attacks,” said Brian Krebs, a computer security researcher and author of the book “Spam Nation.” “In every case we’ve seen in the past, they’re a bunch of teenagers who live in their parents’ basements. These attacks are not sophisticated, and they let the kids who launch them feel like gods.”

Sony had already been dealing with a separate attack, stemming from “The Interview.’’

In late November a group calling itself Guardians of Peace released a trove of sensitive information stolen from Sony’s computers that included embarrassing e-mails from top executives, personal data about employees, and even the script for the upcoming James Bond film.

In December Guardians of Peace threatened to launch terrorist attacks against movie theaters showing “The Interview.” Within a day Sony called off the movie’s Christmas day premiere. The studio reversed that decision in part — a handful of theaters agreed to show the film, and it can be rented and viewed over the Internet.

The Sony network was hit with a massive cyberattack in 2011 that also exposed the personal information of tens of millions of online Playstation gamers.

This week’s attack on Xbox and PlayStation was signaled in early December, when the Lizard Squad group claimed responsibility for separate attacks on the PlayStation and Xbox Live networks and posted a warning on Twitter: “That’s a small dose of what’s to come on Christmas.”

In disabling the network this week, hackers removed one of gaming’s chief appeals: the ability to test one’s skill against a friend down the street or an unknown user in another country. In addition to connecting players in different locations, the PlayStation Network also serves as an online marketplace where users can download games and movies.

An annoyance for gamers, the network outage can be devastating for small video game studios if it drags on. Many developers do not sell their games in stores but market them only through online platforms such as PlayStation Network and Xbox Live. No connection means no sales.

Cambridge-based Fire Hose Games knows the toll a prolonged outage can take. During the 2011 PlayStation attack, which lasted three weeks, the company laid off three workers — a third of its staff.

ARAM BOGHOSIAN FOR THE BOSTON GLOBE

Iouless Rivera, 17, had planned to buy games through the PlayStation Network on Christmas but could not.

“With the service down, we had a new game out that no one could actually buy,” recalled Sean Baptiste, the studio’s marketing director. “Sony is a good partner that did their best, but that attack was extremely hard on small developers who depend on online platform sales. We’re very fortunate to still exist.”

Iouless Rivera, 17, had planned to buy games through the PlayStation Network on Christmas but could not. The Dorchester teen spent the holiday season saving his earnings from a job selling Christmas trees and bought himself a PlayStation 4.

Unable to download any games, he bought a title at the Game Stop in Dorchester Friday — “Sniper Elite III.”

The disc in his hand solved one problem, but then Rivera remembered another.

“I only got one controller,” he said, “so I guess I’ll play by myself.”

The New Micromax Yureka

The New Micromax Yureka 

Micromax has finally launched its much hyped Yureka smartphone, part of the new Yu series of phone made in collaboration with Cyanogen. The phone will be sold exclusively through Amazon India for Rs. 8,999 ($142).

The Yureka has a 5.5-inch, 1280x720 resolution IPS display with Gorilla Glass 3, 64-bit Qualcomm Snapdragon 615 SoC with 1.5GHz octa-core CPU and Adreno 405 GPU, 2GB RAM, 32GB internal memory with microSD card slot, 13 megapixel Sony IMX135 rear camera with 24fps burst mode and f2.2 aperture, 5 megapixel front camera, 4G LTE connectivity, dual SIM support, 2,500mAh battery and Cyanogen OS 11.

The partnership with Cyanogen is the big deal here and is one of a kind, with Micromax having exclusive rights over the OS. This was the main reason for the controversy involving OnePlus One and the Delhi High Court order preventing OnePlus from selling phones in India with Cyanogen OS.

The features and specifications of the Yureka seem quite impressive for the price. We will have to wait and see how the phone performs in real life.

Your phone won't get Android Lollipop and it is your fault

Google first revealed the existence of Android 5.0 aka Lollipop - at that time it was called Android L - on June 25. Next day Google released the preview version of the software for the Nexus 5 and the Nexus 7. The final version of the OS was announced on October 15 and on the November 3, the source code of the operating software was released.

Since then Android Lollipop is slowly rolling out to various smartphones in the market. So far it has reached a handful of devices -- Nexus 5 and Nexus 4, some Nexus tablets, LG G3, Motorola Moto phones in several countries. In the coming months, more devices will get it. But chances are that majority of existing Android users in India will never see Android Lollipop on their device.

And it is really bad because Android Lollipop, especially in its stock and unmodified state, the way it runs on a Nexus device, is pretty amazing.

But if your phone, even the one that you bought yesterday, is not going to get the Android Lollipop, it is mostly your fault. Yes, it is also the fault of Google as well as the phone company that sold you the phone. But mostly it is your fault.

The Android update process is in shambles. That is true. But it is in shambles because consumers - yes, you - don't care. When people buy smartphones, how many of them ask the seller about the software updates. Everybody is concerned about the processor, the camera, the memory… but no one bothers asking the company that is selling a phone whether the phone will get software updates or not. And when a company says that it will get the updates, no one demands a definite timeline for the updates.

This is the reason why every week companies like Micromax, Karbonn and Lava (which combined together sell almost 35 per cent to 40 per cent phones in the Indian market) come out with a new phone but have no proper system in place to service the existing phones which they have already sold to people.

It is always about, "here, buy our next phone powered by 16-core processor". It is never about, "come here, let's update the phone you bought one year ago." This is because the 16-core processor sells. People only care about it. They don't care about the software updates, or security fixes, or bug fixes or new software features that a phone may require in future.

This is why even companies like Samsung, LG and Sony just don't bother to update most of their phones. To avoid the bad press, they just update a few high-end phones and then move on to push more models into the market, instead of servicing the existing phones.

Phone companies are not running a charity. Providing updates and servicing the existing phones is not an easy job, especially in the world of Android, and if you - the consumer - is not going to ask for updates, no one is going to bother with it.

And that is exactly what happens.

You are not interested in software updates when you are buying your new shiny phone, so no company is going to promise you anything.

Unless this changes, unless consumers - and that means you - start to demand regular software updates, in a timely fashion and whenever required, the broken state of Android updates is not going to be fixed. Better still, consumers should vote with their wallet and punish the companies that don't give the timely updates.

Software updates are as important as any hardware feature. This makes iPhones so good and the whole iPhone ecosystem so good. Without latest software on your Android phone, not only you won't get access to new and updated user interface but you will also miss out on a number of unique usability or security features.

Why would you like to miss out these new features and interface? The only reason is that maybe you don't care. Well, if that is the case lack of Lollipop on your phone should hardly bother you.

Ultimate AMD Gaming PC

HARDWARE

• how-to,
• computers,
• pcs

Red Team rocking: Build the ultimate AMD gaming PC

There’s never been a better time to be a PC gamer, with an abundance of excellent hardware available. Intel recently refreshed its flagship and mainstream processor lines, and AMD and Nvidia both have killer graphics cards on the market—some of which are going for ridiculously low prices.

As part of a weeklong celebration of glorious PC excess, we’ve recently put together a pair of ultra-powerful Intel-based systems using that very hardware: An insane Intel Haswell-E Core i7-5960X build featuring Nvidia’s powerful new GTX 980, and a drool-worthy Devil’s Canyon Core i7-4970K PC paired with a monstrous AMD Radeon R9 295X2 graphics card with not one, but two top-tier graphics processors. Two systems powered by Intel’s top chips will get any DIYers juices flowing—but now it’s time to give AMD its due.

Intel’s processors have been the mainstay of the enthusiast community ever since the company’s Conroe architecture hit the scene in 2006 and knocked AMD’s Athlon off the top of the desktop processor heap. But while years have passed since AMD's had a desktop CPU that could compete with Intel’s best in terms of pure performance, AMD’s chips remain competitive further down the line.

Case in point: the AMD FX-9590. The FX-9590 is an 8-core processor, with a base clock of 4.7GHz and a turbo boost clock of 5.0GHz, making it the first desktop processor to officially hit 5.0GHz. In a different time, a chip like the FX-9590 would probably cost a cool grand—and it used to—but in the current landscape, the FX-9590 is only $260. At that price, you can grab the processor and a top-end Radeon R9 290X graphics card for roughly the same price an Intel's eight-core Core i7-5930K 'Haswell-E' processor alone. 

So we did. Let’s get cracking.

Component selection

Our plan was to use AMD’s fastest desktop processor available, so the FX-9590 was a lock from the get-go. The 220-watt processor is a beast in the power department, however, which required some careful build planning.

MARCO CHIAPPETTA

The AMD FX-9590 eight-core processor.

Using the FX-9590 meant finding a board with support for 220W socket AM3+ processors. AMD hasn’t updated its core logic chipsets in quite a while, however, and we didn’t want an aging board with outdated technology. Thankfully, MSI recently released a new socket AM3+ motherboard—the MSI 970 Gaming—that’s loaded up with 7.1 channel audio, a Killer E2205 Gigabit LAN controller, and USB 3.0. And at $99, the MSI 970 Gaming’s price was right. 

The FX-9590 will push the limits of this motherboard’s VRM, but we aren’t planning to overclock the PC and we’ll install plenty of cooling to keep the CPU and motherboard temperatures in check. To keep the CPU cool while riding along in the motherboard, we opted for a $79.99 Cooler Master Seidon 120XL liquid cooler. AMD once sold a liquid-cooled FX-9590 bundle, and this was the cooler in the package.

The Powercolor PCS+ AXR9 290X 4GB graphics card.

Thanks to some recent price cuts, our GPU selection for this build couldn’t have been any easier. Sticking with the AMD theme, we opted for a Powercolor PCS+ AXR9 290X 4GB, which was available for $359. This card is powered by AMD’s Radeon R9 290X “Hawaii” GPU and is outfitted with a huge triple-fan cooling solution. The cooler allows the GPU to operate at higher speeds than reference R9 290X cards, and it’s quieter, too. The only AMD-based graphics card that’s more powerful is the Radeon R9 295X2 featured inyesterday’s build.

MARCO CHIAPPETTA

The Radeon R7 series SSD and Lite-On optical drive.

We also turned to AMD for PC’s storage—sort of. AMD Radeon R7 series solid state drives are built by OCZ and available for fairly competitive prices. Their overall performance is good too, so we picked up a 240GB model for about $145. To complement the SSD, we snagged a 1TB Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM hard drive for 60 bucks and threw in a cheap LG DVD-R optical drive on the off chance we’d need to use a CD or DVD at some point.

We had initially planned to use AMD-branded memory in this build as well, but when we saw Corsair’s Vengeance Pro DDR3-1866 16GB kit, our minds changed instantly. The kit consists of a pair of 8GB DDR3-1866 DIMMs, which would be a good match for the FX-9590. They even sport black-and-red heat spreaders that go perfectly with the MSI 970 Gaming’s color scheme. Corsair is also one of the most trusted names in system memory, so the $175 asking price for the kit was no problem.

We also turned to Corsair to power and house the rig. The Corsair Graphite 600T was one of my personal-favorite cases. When the company recently updated the Graphite line with a newer 780T model with features better suited to today’s hardware, I was intrigued. The Corsair Graphite 780T isn’t cheap at about $180, but it’s absolutely worth the asking price. The case is spacious, with plenty of mounting locations for both 2.5-inch and 3.5-inch internal drives. Even better, the windowed case sports a tool-less design and a trio of quiet fans. And hey, it looks good, too. About the only things missing from this case are a switch to turn off its integrated lighting, and a hiding spot to store all of the spare screws and connectors it includes.

MARCO CHIAPPETTA

The Corsair HX750i power supply.

As for the power supply, the Corsair HX750i was a good fit. We planned to use only one GPU in the rig, so its 750W capacity was fine, and we also liked that it's fully modular and operates silently under low loads.

For those of you keeping track, the complete parts breakdown for the system is as follows:

• CPU: AMD FX-9590 - $259.99
• Motherboard: MSI 970 Gaming AM3+ - $99.99
• Memory: Corsair Vengeance Pro 16GB DDR3-1866 - $174.99
• Graphics card: Powercolor PCS+ AXR9 290X 4GB - $359.99
• Storage: AMD Radeon R7 SSD 240GB - $144.99
• Storage: Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM HDD 1TB - $59.99
• Optical drive: LG SATA DVD-R - $17.99
• Chassis: Corsair Graphite Series 780T - $179.99
• Power supply: Corsair HXi HX750i 750W PSU - $169.99
• CPU cooler: Cooler Master Seidon 120XL - $79.99
• Operating system: Windows 8.1 OEM - $99

All told, the system cost rings in at $1,646.90.

Though you don’t necessarily have to put Windows on the system, we also accounted for an OEM copy of Windows 8.1 here. If you’ve already got a Windows license available or plan to use an alternative free OS, knock $100 from that total price.

At about $1,646, this system isn’t exactly cheap—despite costing about half as much as our previous two Intel-based builds—but it does represent one of the most powerful, single-GPU all-AMD systems you can build today.

Turning the screws

Although it may seem daunting to the uninitiated, building a PC is actually pretty easy. Virtually every part of the system is keyed to fit into their respective sockets, connectors, and slots only one way. For the most part—save for the odd electrical shock—you’d have to be a brute and force something in the wrong way to actually break something. Just follow the directions in the manual and you’ll be OK, we swear!

MARCO CHIAPPETTA

The assembled motherboard with installed RAM, CPU, and graphics card.

If you’d prefer to dive a little deeper with more detailed, visual steps on actually assembling a PC, check out a couple of PCWorld’s past articles. Our PC building best practices can walk you through piecing together a system, and our instructions on how to properly install a CPU cooler will help with that somewhat tricky process. Of course, there’s plenty of variation with products from different manufacturers, but if you get the fundamentals down, assembling any system is a piece of cake.

We didn’t run into any particular issues with this build, but some of our component choices—like the cooler—did require some additional work to install. A couple of the Corsair Graphite 780T case’s features were a bit unusual, too.

Installing the Cooler Master Seidon 120XL liquid cooler took a few special steps. First, the stock cooler mounts had to be removed from the motherboard to make way for a metal mounting bracket that sits behind the motherboard and holds the cooler’s CPU water block securely in place. The cooler’s fans and radiator also required mounting in the case.

MARCO CHIAPPETTA

Installing the radiator fans.

Removing the stock mounts from the motherboard was as simple as disengaging a few screws and popping them off the board. Mounting the radiator and fans, however, was a bit of a puzzle. The Cooler Master Seidon 120XL’s fans should be configured in a push-pull arrangement—one fan pushes air through the radiator, while the other pulls it. We first had to position the fan properly in an available 120mm mount at the top of the Graphite 780T and then feed the included long-screws through the fan, while holding the radiator underneath. Then we had to tighten the screws to hold the radiator in place. The second fan was mounted to the bottom side of the radiator. A couple of brackets also had to be screwed to the water block, which in turn, get screwed into the metal mount positioned behind the motherboard.

The process is certainly more complex than snapping an air cooler in place, but the assembly looks nice and clean when finished. It’s also much sturdier than most air coolers and won’t jostle out of place when moving the system.

MARCO CHIAPPETTA

The final, assembled cooler assembly.

The Corsair Graphite 780T also had some funky 2.5-inch drive mounts that required installing the SSD vertically, adjacent to the motherboard tray. It was a theoretically simple matter of mounting the drive to a tray that snaps into place, but the positioning was somewhat unique and forced us to route cables differently than usual.

Other than that, the build was pretty standard fare. The Corsair Graphite 780T was spacious and had a multitude of areas to route and tie-down cables, so assembling this one and making it look good was relatively simple.

The end result

We used a handful of readily available benchmarks to quantify the performance of our AMD FX 9590-based rig.

MARCO CHIAPPETTA

The all-AMD beast, finished.

In the 3DMark Fire Strike Extreme benchmark, our system put up a very strong score of 4,995, which was higher than 63 percent of the systems in Futuremark’s database. In the Unigine Heaven benchmark (v4.0), with Ultra quality settings at a resolution of 2560x1600 with 4X anti-aliasing and maximum tessellation enabled, the system scored 845 (with an average frame rate of 33.5 FPS)—another strong showing for a single-GPU setup. In the heavily threaded Cinebench R15 benchmark, the system put up 94.44 frames per second in the OpenGL test and scored a decent 698 points in the multi-threaded CPU test. In terms of overall system performance, our AMD FX-9590 build scored 5,547 PCMarks with the latest build of PCMark 7, and its storage score was a speedy 5,296.

We should also mention power consumption, considering the FX-9590 is a 220W CPU and its power use and heat output may be a concern for some of you. While idling at the Windows desktop, this system pulled a relatively modest 80 watts from the wall. If we let the GPU go to sleep (with the monitor dimmed), that idle number dropped to only 69 watts. Under stress, the effects of the FX-9590 are apparent: The system pulled 338 watts with the processor under a full load, and that’s not even factoring in the Radeon card’s power draw.

With a CPU like the FX-9590 at the heart of this system, you may assume it'll be fairly loud—but that’s far from the case. The Corsair Graphite 780T and 750HXi combo are nice and quiet, especially with the case’s fans set to their lowest speed.

MARCO CHIAPPETTA

A glimpse inside.

Benchmarks tell part of this system’s story, but the user experience matters, too. Quite frankly, I was pleasantly surprised by this build’s performance. Intel has been giving AMD processors a drubbing in terms of single-threaded performance, IPC, and multi-threaded performance for years now. The scales have tipped so far in Intel’s favor that lower-clocked, quad-core Intel processors can often outpace octa-core AMD processors in the vast majority of benchmarks, and the Intel processors consume less power too.

But that doesn’t mean AMD’s processor can’t compete overall. 

Dollar for dollar, there’s still a strong argument to be made for AMD processors. Although the FX-9590 is a power-hungry, relatively inefficient CPU, its high frequencies give this PC some major oomph. This all-AMD rig would make any single-display PC gamer happy—and it costs a mere fraction of the Intel-powered world-beaters we highlighted earlier this week.

COMPONENTS

• desktops,

• desktop pc

Liquid cooling vs. traditional cooling: What you need to know

Every computer, from the smallest of home theater PCs to the most hulking of gargantuan gaming rigs, generates heat during operation—heat that can kill your PC's precious internals if you're not careful.

While you don't have anything to worry about if you bought your computer from a big-box retailer or straight from a manufacturer like HP, you'll be faced with a potentially crucial decision if you're building (or custom-buying) a fire-breathing, benchmark-eating computer: Should you chill your PC with a traditional air cooling solution or a pricier, yet more efficient liquid-cooling system? That question has many aspects to consider before you can answer it.

Cooling methods explained

The secret to harnessing the cooling power of air lies in fans—lots of fans. Your typical air-cooled PC is packed with case fans, graphics card fans, and a CPU fan or two—positioned atop a big metal heat sink—to keep your expensive components nice and frosty.

A water-cooling system, on the other hand, employs a series of coolant-filled tubes, a radiator, water blocks (the equivalent of heat sinks), and a couple of other components to keep your PC feeling refreshed. You'll even need a few fans to push around all the water! Our guide to setting up a liquid-cooled PC explains a basic (ha!) system in exacting detail.

Got it? Good. Defining air cooling and liquid cooling is the easy part. The trickier bit is making the decision to use one or the other.

Air cooling

A stock Intel CPU cooler, as installed in a PC: Not too big, but not too impressive.

One of the great joys of using fans to cool your system is that, in a lot of circumstances, you really don’t have to do anything to create a decent cooling setup. If your system’s chassis is of the non-bargain-bin variety, odds are high that its manufacturer has already installed exactly what you need—namely, an intake fan in the front that pushes outside air over your hard drives and an exhaust fan that shoots hot air flying out of the rear of the chassis.

Graphics cards and computer processors pretty much always ship with powerful stock fans—you know, the ones that sound like a plane taking off when they roar into action. Those, combined with case fans, make up the Holy Trifecta of air cooling within a typical desktop PC.

NOCTUA

Aftermarket coolers like the Noctua NH-D14 can handle overclocked CPUs, albeit loudly.

So, the big question remains: Why air? It's cheap, for one thing. Even if you want to go with an aftermarket cooler for your CPU or GPU, you’re going to be paying far less than you would for a liquid cooling setup. The same goes for case fans. You can certainly purchase bigger, better, more efficient fans if you want a quieter rig, or even fans that light up if you’re into that sort of thing. Sure, you'll have to pay for them, but you’ll still spend far less cash upgrading or building a nice air-cooling setup than you will on a typical water-cooling loop.

Also consider the cost to your sanity. It’s a lot easier to use four screws to attach a fan to your case than it is to build your own water cooling setup.

Traditional air cooling has three major downsides, though. First, fans aren't as efficient as water cooling, which can pose a problem with severely overclocked processors or in particularly beefy rigs filled with multiple graphics cards. Second, the heat sinks on powerful CPU coolers can get big. Finally, fans are loud.

Water cooling pros

The act of switching from air to liquid cooling represents a personal milestone in one’s computer-building life. You, young PC Padawan, are now a desktop Jedi.

EKWATERBLOCKS

A water-cooled PC can be a work of art.

Let’s start with the pleasant bits. One of the key benefits of a strong liquid cooling setup is that it allows you to cool specific system components to a greater degree than if were you to use fans—not the most applicable setup for someone running a typical stock-clock processor, but one that’s definitely of interest to anyone looking to overclock their chips a bit (or a ton).

Even if you don't tax your rig enough to need a bigger cooling boost, a cheap self-contained water cooling loop—more on those later—can help lower your PC's sound output. Water cooling is much quieter than stuffing your case full of fans.

There's also the issue of space. A huge heat-sink/fan combination might perform well enough, but the best CPU coolers eat up a ton of real estate inside your case. Liquid cooling requires much less space, and it looks a lot niftier to boot. You can't discount the cool factor of a case full of colorful, liquid-filled tubes!

Water cooling cons

Liquid cooling takes a lot of homework, several parts, and careful planning.

One big downside of water cooling is its comparatively high cost, especially if you’re looking to build a custom setup. While most traditional upper-end CPU coolers cost somewhere between $50 and $100, building a liquid-cooling setup can cost far more. For example, EKWaterBlocks' top-tier H3O 360 HFX water cooling kit costs a whopping $360. (The price is converted from euros, so the 360 in the name may be coincidental.)

Quality matters in a liquid-cooling setup: You don’t want to buy cheap parts to save a few bucks and end up dousing your pricey PC components in brightly hued coolant.

The homework involved is another drawback. Generating the parts list is going to take a little planning if you're not buying a prepackaged kit. You’ll have to pick up a water block for your CPU that fits its socket, fittings that match your block and tubing size, the tubing itself, a pump, a reservoir, a radiator, a fan (or fans) for the radiator, and the coolant itself. And that’s just a typical setup for the most bare-bones configuration you can build. If you want to power separate loops for your video card, motherboard, RAM, or hard drives, you’ll have to do even more planning and purchasing.

Don't forget to include a way to actually get the coolant in the tubes!

You'll also have to make sure you have room for your setup. Radiators typically require open fan slots on your case. Reservoirs require space in your case as well, and you’ll have to plan out your loop’s layout so that you can actually get it up and running ("priming" the pump, so to speak) when you fill it with coolant. In other words, your water-cooling loop does you no good if you don’t have a good way to get the fluid running around!

Then there’s the installation itself. Simply put, your first adventures in water-cooling land could very well be fraught with peril. Installing loops isn’t exactly newbie-friendly, and the process might be more involved than you’re comfortable with, even if you’ve installed a typical fan-based aftermarket CPU cooler or two.

Which reminds me: Connecting your tubing and fittings in a secure and safe fashion is going to be your number-one issue when building your first water-cooling setup. You willspring a leak in some fashion. You'll want to construct and test your liquid-cooling systemoutside of your PC to ensure its fortitude before installing it around your expensive electronics. Component manufacturers aren't likely to replace flooded electronics, and the manufacturers of your water cooling parts certainly aren’t going to foot the bill.

Self-contained liquid coolers

Antec's Kühler H2O 620 sealed liquid cooler: Water cooling in a box.

If all this talk of water cooling's complexity has left your head spinning a bit, fear not: Another solution is available.

Self-contained or "sealed" liquid-cooling kits—preassembled and completely sealed, they start at around just $60—allow you reap the benefits of a simple water-cooling setup without having to deal with any of the messy particulars. You just need to attach a water block to your CPU and a radiator/fan combination to your case, and you’re off to the races, with nary a drop of coolant to worry about. You may lose customization options if you use self-contained kits like Corsair’s Hydro H-series or NZXT's Kraken-series coolers, but you also lose most of the headaches typically associated with do-it-yourself liquid cooling. Leakage is highly unlikely as long as you don't bend or twist the tubing at sharp, weird angles.

Installing a self-contained liquid-cooling kit is about on a par with the difficulty of installing an aftermarket cooler for your CPU. If you need to water-cool only your overclocked processor, a sealed liquid cooler is a compelling option. Stick to DIY loops if you want to liquid-cool more than the single component, however—or if you want the bling factor of clear tubes filled with colorful coolant. Most sealed coolers are opaque.

Conclusion

So, which is better? Air cooling or water cooling? The answer depends on your particular usage needs.

One size does not fit all when it comes to case cooling, but most people can get by with fans alone. It's easy, and it's cheap. If, on the other hand, you’re an enthusiast who needs the best cooling possible for your flaming CPU and a gaggle of graphics cards, a DIY water-cooling setup is in your future. Finally, try a sealed liquid cooler if you're considering liquid cooling either to keep your overclocked processor chilled or simply to benefit from reduced system noise.