The iBuyPower booth at CES 2026 is loaded with new RGB-clad CPU coolers destined to land in its pre-built PCs in 2026, but the system integrator has also revealed new case designs and custom loop liquid cooling solutions that it says will "make hard-line water cooling accessible to everyone." The highlight of iBuyPower's new pre-built PCs are the Trace X and Trace X CL pre-built PCs and PC cases. Both versions of the Trace X build use the same redesigned Trace and Slate cases, which now feature a curved tempered glass panel that serves as a window for both the front and side of the PC build, allowing buyers to show off their internals, while a mesh panel that runs along the case's top and right side bring in fresh air. The Trace X case has space for eight 120 mm fans—three side intake, three top-mounted exhaust fans, a rear exhaust fan, and one bottom intake—as well as support for 415 mm long GPUs, 165 mm CPU tower air coolers, and PSUs up to 230 mm long. The Trace X case will be available starting January 2026 for $99.99 in white, with silver or optional pink and lavender trim on the side panel, or black with gunmetal gray or optional faux wood side panel trim.

Here at CES 2026 META PCs, a U.S. based system builder, showed several custom-builds built around flagship components targeting the enthusiast crowd. The systems on display featured high-end components, custom cooling setups, clean cable routing and carefully styled cases. So, whether you're not particularly comfortable building a PC from scratch or simply tired of doing yet another build, their turnkey systems offer a way to get a unique, high-end machine that still stands out from the usual off-the-shelf prebuilts. Naturally, this level of customization and presentation comes at a price, but for those with the budget, META PCs' CES lineup demonstrated that the company knows how to blend performance and visual impact. Below, we're highlighting some of the designs that caught our attention on the show floor.More pictures follow.

EK by LM TEK, the leader in high-performance liquid cooling solutions, proudly presents the new EK-CryoFuel Space Black (Premix 1000ml) Clear Coolant. Based on our award-winning formula, EK CryoFuel Space Black is developed with vivid black color for maximum light absorption, ensuring an ultra-premium Space Black finish to your custom-loop.

This coolant contains everything a high-end liquid cooling system requires for efficient thermal performance and providing the necessary protection for your water blocks. Now available to order at EK Shop and authorized EK distributors such as TITANRIG (US) & AQUATUNING (Germany, Austria, Switzerland).

EK, the leading provider of premium liquid cooling solutions, is excited to announce the expanded compatibility of its esteemed EK-Quantum Magnitude sTRX4 water blocks. These flagship cooling solutions, known for their high performance and quality, are now fully compatible with the latest AMD sTR5 and AMD SP6 CPU sockets. This advancement ensures that users of the new sTR5 and SP6 platforms can experience the same superior cooling and craftsmanship that EK-Quantum Magnitude sTRX4 users have long come to trust.

The EK-Quantum Magnitude sTRX4 series, including the Full Nickel, Nickel Acetal, and Nickel Plexi models, maintains its renowned design and efficiency while embracing the evolving landscape of CPU technology. Customers can continue to rely on these solutions for their cooling needs without any changes in product naming or design. Refer to the EK Compatibility Configurator and EK Custom Loop Configurator database for a detailed compatibility list.

EK, the renowned premium liquid cooling pioneer, proudly announces the debut of its latest masterpiece, the EK-Quantum Momentum² Aorus Z790 Master X D-RGB - Plexi. This monoblock is expertly designed for the Intel LGA 1700 socket and engineered with precision for seamless integration with the GIGABYTE Z790 AORUS MASTER X motherboard. The monoblock's addressable D-RGB LED effortlessly harmonizes with Gigabyte RGB Fusion 2.0 control, providing comprehensive lighting customization for each diode and ensuring a dynamic visual spectacle. This monoblock is also fully compatible with EK-Matrix7, further enhancing its versatility within EK's liquid cooling ecosystem.

EK-Quantum Momentum² Aorus Z790 Master X D-RGB - Plexi
This is a complete all-in-one (CPU and motherboard) liquid cooling solution for Intel's 12th, 13th, and 14th Gen processors. The monoblock seamlessly aligns with the LGA 1700 socket on the Gigabyte Z790 Aorus Master X motherboard. The monoblock's unique design, incorporating a specialized metal cover over the I/O section, is noteworthy. This cover serves a dual purpose: it facilitates the mounting of the stock I/O cover without compromising the factory-intended RGB lighting of the motherboard while also functioning as an elegant stand for the original LCD screen.

You want to fill your cooling loop without any hassle? The new ES Orbiter Filling Station from Alphacool enables very simple and extremely effective, bubble-free filling of water cooling systems. With two powerful pumps, the system to be filled is vented in no time. Thanks to the integrated high-performance filter in the station, the coolant is also cleaned of the finest particles, making it just as ideal for cleaning cooling loops.

Via the slightly raised G1" filling cap on the top, the cooling system is filled effortlessly with the Alphacool ES Filling Station. The illuminated viewing window makes it easy to monitor the fill level at any time, even in poorly lit environments. The integrated reservoir has a sufficiently large capacity of approx. 4500 ml. In addition, the Filling Station has a maintenance door to allow work to be carried out, such as changing filters. The ES Filling Station is now available in our online store (Editor's note: for €399.98 inc. VAT).

EK, the premium liquid cooling gear manufacturer, is releasing a new AMD AM5 socket-based monoblock, the EK-Quantum Momentum² ROG Crosshair X670E Hero D-RGB - Plexi. The monoblock is engineered specifically for the ROG Crosshair X670E HERO motherboard from ASUS. It features addressable D-RGB LEDs compatible with ASUS Aura Sync RGB control and offers a full lighting customization experience for every single diode at any given time. This Quantum monoblock is EK-Matrix7 compliant and allows the use of the stock I/O shield with LED implementation.

This is a complete, all-in-one (CPU and motherboard) liquid cooling solution for AMD's Ryzen 7000-series processors compatible with the AM5 socket on the ROG Crosshair X670E Hero motherboard. The monoblock packs the latest generation Velocity² cooling engine to ensure the best possible CPU cooling without reducing flow to other components. It directly cools the AMD Ryzen 7000-series CPU and VRM section.

TechPowerUp loves cooling. We pride ourselves with bringing you hundreds of reviews, and thousands of news articles, covering PC cooling components of all shapes and sizes. With ever more powerful hardware comes the need to keep them cool and quiet. There are plenty of air coolers and pre-built AIO liquid cooling solutions available that you can install and forget about. If you still want to +1 that, then DIY custom liquid cooling exists as higher performing (and potentially quieter) option to pre-built AIO coolers, but it's also more expensive and complex. We are eager to know how you're cooling your PC, how you'd like to cool it in the future, and what your thoughts are on custom watercooling tech, so we've put together a survey to learn more.

The survey is for you, regardless of whether you've even used custom liquid-cooling before. We hope to better understand the custom watercooling market—people who never used it, veterans who've done it for years as well as recent members of the club. We also want to learn why you're not using watercooling, or why you are considering it for a future build. It will only take a few minutes of your time. Once data collection is completed on November 2nd, we'll put together an article summarizing the findings, with charts and everything. As a token of thanks, taking the survey also adds you to our Global Sweepstakes in association with CORSAIR, a leading brand for gaming peripherals and PC components. One lucky winner stands to win a Care Package worth $1000 from CORSAIR, which includes a K100 premium mechanical keyboard, a Virtuoso XT headset, a Sabre RGB Wireless mouse, an MM300 mousepad, an ST100 headset stand and two LT100 desktop ambient lighting towers; in a winner-takes-all prize. The survey and giveaway is open worldwide. In return for their support, Corsair gets access to the anonymized raw data. Please don't answer "Corsair is best" everywhere, just because they provide prizes, we're looking for honest opinions.

To participate in the Survey, please Visit This Page.

Update Oct 19th: Corsair saw your comments "why not watercooling prizes?"—the winner can now substitute the prizes for Corsair Hydro X components.

"The focus of our development has always been to improve the deliverable performance." (Rico Weber, WATERCOOL CEO, Sep.2020). This quote marked the beginning of the development of the new HEATKILLER V VGA cooler. In addition to an increase of performance, the focus also lay on improvements in handling and durability. The HEATKILLER VGA coolers, known for their outstanding workmanship, have also been visually enhanced. In the latest revision for AMD graphics cards of the RX 6800/6900XT series, the HEATKILLER V has been further optimized.

The inflow to the cooling structure has been completely reworked. It now is placed with a vertical offset above a second level. The inlet and outlet channels cross each other, but are spatially separated from each other. The new design allows a symmetrical arrangement of the cooling channels. The advantage of the symmetrical design is a steady flow through the heat sink. Dead zones and hotspots are thus effectively avoided. At the same time the windage is reduced. The HEATKILLER V for RX 6800/6900XT features a vertical cooling structure, which significantly improves the cooling performance even more. The enlarged cooling surface ensures exceptionally low GPU temperatures. To reduce turbulences, all cooling channels were manufactured in a rounded design.

EK, the leading computer cooling solutions provider, is introducing a cutting-edge addition to the EK-Quantum Line. EK-Quantum Vector RE RTX3080/3090 active backplate is made to complement the existing EK-Quantum Vector RE RTX 3080/3090 water blocks and actively cool the backside of a reference design NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 and 3090 GPUs.

EK-Quantum Vector RE RTX 3080/3090 Active Backplates
EK-Quantum Vector RE RTX 3080/3090 active backplate links the water block and active backplate part with a new terminal, which replaces the stock terminal that comes with your water block. This way, the whole enclosure requires only one inlet and one outlet, removing unnecessary additional tubing and reducing clutter. It is the ultimate aesthetic and performance solution that finds your GPU sandwiched between two water blocks, allowing maximum cooling.

TUL Corporation, a leading and innovative manufacturer of AMD graphic cards since 1997, today brings it's fastest AMD Radeon RX 6000 series models with its Liquid Devil series, designed for the most demanding gaming and PC enthusiasts that require the very best performance for their existent custom loop water-cooling.

PowerColor and EK teamed up to create the fastest AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT and RX 6800XT. The new PowerColor Liquid Devil series are powered by the revolutionary AMD RDNA 2, with Raytracing support, groundbreaking AMD Infinity Cache, and 16 GB of dedicated GDDR6 memory to deliver outstanding gaming experience while running with zero noise at the lowest temperatures with the beautiful designed and high performance full-cover EK water block.

ModMyMods rose out of the proverbial ashes from the meltdown of FrozenCPU, a PC hardware boutique in upstate New York that catered primarily to custom watercooling. While FrozenCPU is back up and running in some form today, people in the northern states and along the east coast of the US have become accustomed to having a local resource for PC modding and cooling supplies with the Rochester-based ModMyMods. We met representatives from the company at CES this year where they showed off their upcoming line of coolants for DIY custom loops, aptly named ModWater. They anticipated a launch in March at the time, but have managed to churn out enough in the month since to release these for sale as of the time of this news post.

The company tells us that ModWater is the result of over an year of work that began with the making of ultra-pure water from an in-house designed purification system with a series of processing to bring down the final TDS (total dissolved solids) value to <0.05 ppm. They are separately selling this water in 5 US gallon tanks for system integrators, but the retail customer will not doubt be interested in the coolants themselves that come in Pure-Clear, and several UV-Reactive colors including: Red-UV, Green-UV, Blue-UV, and Clear-UV (Blue base UV). The coolants ship in 1 liter containers for $9 each in bottles that are shaped similar to motor oil bottles, with a spout design to help pour the coolant out. The coolants, as expected these days, has additives for anti-corrosion properties with biocide and fungicide activity as well. If you are interested, here's the collective link for the product pages.

When we first had a glance of the CORSAIR Hydro X custom watercooling loop parts in action, we suspected they might have a CES debut. CES has come and gone since, with no word of the company's entry into this field. Their direct competitors, including Phanteks and Thermaltake, have since added to their respective product portfolios comprising fans, water blocks, coolants and radiators. Perhaps CORSAIR wanted the launch to not be overshadowed by the other product launches at the recent trade show, and perhaps the listings of the Hydro X products on Digitech.ch is a sign of things to come sooner than later. Read past the break for a more in-depth discussion on the various parts listed, based on our experience with this industry as a whole.

Swiftech is looking to make it easier for users to build their own custom-loop water cooling solutions via the introduction of its Boreas kits. The Boreas kits take a gander at using predetermined hardware parts sold in a kit, which allow users to build their own custom loops without having to worry about part compatibility or any manual fabrication of their own. It also promises a straight upgrade part within Swiftech's ecosystem, with many of the parts being separately available.

As with everything, the Boreas line of products includes addressable RGB options, controlled by Swiftech's IRIS (you think game launchers are bad? Just look at how many RGB controller solutions are on the market these days). The kit comes with everything you might need for a custom cooling loop, and is available from Swiftech starting at $259.95.