This Customizable Liquid Cooling Solution for GPUs Could Actually Be Affordable

All-in-one (AIO) liquid coolers for a CPU have been around for a while now, and they're affordable and easy to install. The GPU, however, has remained an air-cooled part, as they come from the factory with massive heatsinks and fans pre-installed. Most people are wary of dismantling them as it will void their warranty. Pre-installed liquid GPU coolers are available today but are expensive and closed systems. Now a new company called Lynk+ is coming to market with a novel GPU AIO designed to come pre-installed on your GPU that's affordable and modular, which would be a sea change for the GPU market.

Traditional AIOs for CPUs include a water block that sits on top of the CPU, which usually has an embedded pump. Lynk+ offers a radically different design: The pump is located inside the radiator, which is a first, as far as we can tell. The radiator also has internal chambers that act as both a cooling reservoir and are designed to prevent air from being trapped in the system, which can happen on an AIO, depending on how the radiator is mounted. Since GPUs are installed vertically or horizontally, Lynk+ designed it so the pump would never run dry due to a pocket of air getting stuck inside the system.

Another unique feature of the Lynk+ system, as detailed by de8auer in a recent video, is its modularity. This allows you to disconnect one of the tubes from the GPU water block and hook it up to a second radiator. You would then connect that outlet tube and run it from the radiator back to the GPU. This allows for adding additional cooling capacity according to what your case allows. Also, since the pump is contained within the radiator, you can swap out the GPU and water block when you upgrade without buying an entirely new cooling system. The GPU connectors are removed as a unit with a single screw instead of removing the cables individually, and the company promises it won't spill any water when you disconnect it.

One main reason these coolers might be affordable is that the water blocks are made entirely from die-cast aluminum instead of copper. This should offer similar performance while making them dramatically less expensive. That cost will theoretically be passed on to add-in-board (AIB) companies that sell GPUs, such as Asus, MSI, etc. This won't be sold to consumers, so you don't have to worry about removing your GPU's heatsink to install it.

In the video linked above, 240mm and 360mm radiators are shown as options, and two water blocks are shown as well; one for a Radeon RX 7900 XTX and an RTX 3080. The Radeon is shown running the stress test Furmark at just 49C, with a hotspot temp of 75C, which is impressive. The company also promises it will be silent in operation, a hallmark of liquid coolers.

This cooler could theoretically show up on a future GPU if the company can ink deals with companies that sell them. Since it uses an entirely aluminum water block, it should cost the same to the company as regular aluminum heatsinks. Adding the radiator assembly will add some cost to the equation. However, you can keep the radiator system throughout your upgrade path and buy new GPUs to connect to it. It's unknown if any manufacturer will adopt this technology, but we'll probably find out when the Radeon 8000 series and RTX 5000 series appear in about a year.