Planning little help with aluminium-copper heat transfer

Hi guys!

I'm new here, actually I've been reading this forum for a long time (I’m a big fan ), but just joined now because I need a little help from you master modders and water-coolers.
I’m planing on building an aluminium, micro ATX, water cooled case. And I was thinking to use the aluminium case itself to passively dissipate heat from the coolant, alongside a 240 radiator. The easiest way to do this would be of course to run the coolant in direct contact with a part of the inside of the case (like a big waterblock). But, since my loop is mostly copper, that doesn’t work. So what I’m thinking is to hook up a couple of DIY cooper blocks to the inside of the case with Arctic Silver 5. Some ideas and/or improvements from you guys would be very welcomed.

Some metrics: The case will be about 330mmx330mmx140mm, all parts welded, and I’m also planing on using some alu fins which would bring the external area of the case to about 2-2.5 it’s normal size. It would have to cool a i5 2500K @ about 5 GHz and a Radeon 6670 (possibly upgradable in the future).

So basically my questions for you guys are:
1. Would this be worth the trouble, or should I just get a bigger rad? (thicker or 240+120)
2. How efficient do you think the heat transfer between the copper blocks and the aluminium case would be? (the blocks can’t be very large maybe 80x80mm)
3. How about the heat dumped back into the case?
4. Any other ideas to transfer heat from the coolant to the case?
5. Any other ideas or comments are welcomed.

Thanks! And keep up the good work!

PS: some SketchUp models are coming soon

 

I would go for a bigger rad. The contact patch on the blocks will be so small it would be a complete waste of time. Plus you would need some way of making sure the panel stays cool, which in summer would be a non starter with out some sort of fan blowing on it, which of course totally defeats the idea of being passive cooling.

 

^^^^ what he said

 

I can help in anyway other that saying zalman already made this case but it costs hundreds of pounds as all high end zalmans do

http://www.quietpc.com/lq1000

also


just adding ideas as i think of them to why not source some of the alphacool passive rads that go on the outside of your case?

http://www.specialtech.co.uk/spshop...onvekt-Passive-Radiator--Black-pid-14177.html

 

Since you are welding, I'm going to assume you can solder and braze too. It wouldn't hurt to make a copper box reservoir mounted on a big heatsink. (Like the zalman. only homemade.) It might not help much, but it WOULD be cool.