So i have had this idea for some time: to build an external radiator box with enough heat exchange power to work passively most of the time, and during intense gaming some fans could kick in and cool things down. As my current case is barely large enough to fit one 240 RAD in the roof i figured instead of upgrading my case (as i have already put a lot of time and effort making my current one look all nice) i would build an external system that could handle future computer builds. I was thinking to buy 1x 360 rad and mount fans to it, then buy some baseboard radiators and use the copper fin pipe as the passive portion of the radiator see link: http://www.finnedtub...to-gallery.aspx http://www.tex-fin.com/prod.htm or a car radiator. (much larger for lower cast than a typ 360 RAD) or a radiator from an old A/C unit (could find junk one for free) So my question goes out to you, Is it possible to get enough cooling from a passive system? would it be worth wile to even build something like this? all comments and suggestions are welcome,
I have seen people use a 1080 radiator to passively watercool a pc, so it can be done, but I don't think you can use a single 240 radiator, it may require something bigger. Like you said a car radiator might do the trick. if you can't find any good car rads then you can always buy a 1080 radiators in a specialised watercooling pc store if I remember correctly.
is phobya 1080 radiator better than, equal to 60mmthick 3x120 rad or 4x120 rad? price per surface area seems to go to the 1080 rad. 3 xspc rx360rad would be about $300 vs the $125 for the 1080. I am not expecting to game with passive cooling, however it would be nice to get silent when watching movies etc.
Passive radiators tend to have a much lower FPI count than active radiators - the lowest FPI watercooling radiator I can think of is from Coolgate with 7FPI which is closer than most, but still not the 1.5-2FPI which is better for passive. See HUSH for passive radiator design ideas.
1 section of al radiator for central heating could dissipate approx 20W with reasonable delta (up to 10*). and they designed for passive cooling... which means ones need 20(!) sections to draw away 400W and stay below boiling point i trying to say that using typical LC rad in passive mode will be disappointing. better grab 200L steel barrel and use it as a reservoir
I think you may have slipped a decimal place somewhere, or you've found a fairly inappropriate product... This looks similar to the image you linked, and will dissipate 94-180W per module with a liquid delta temperature of 50C differing output due to a choice of extrusion lengths (height) and with a cost of £29-£45 per module. 400W could be achieved for... £120 which would be 690mm high 320mm wide and 116-121m deep. 4 sections, not 20, and for approx. 70C not 100C liquid temperature. Call it 1.2 for every 10C drop, and we get... 400W with a delta of 10C being equivalent to 829W with a delta of 50C - this is a very rough conversion. So for a 10C delta (water temp 30C ish) we'll have to double our number of radiators modules to 8, which would give a square-ish area of radiator - 690x640. Not excessive; and that's without going back and comparing number of modules/hight/cost to get the optimum.
they declare approx 200W for 600mm section for delta 70* (air=25*C then water 95*C) lets assume linear dependency between W and delta t (which is more exponential i think) where 0*C air to water delta equivalent 0W dissipation. for 10*C delta it will be approx 1/7 of 200W - which is 28.5W... and for 400W it's 14 sections... thats my math. i don't buy 5 time decreasing delta (50* to 10*) - main factor IMHO - which lead to only 2 times decreasing effectiveness (850 to 400W) this radiators created for big deltas. for more LC delta radiator must have different design IMHO
Why not do it the easy way and run a T balancer so it cuts in at the designated temperature...Simple.
I've seen at least one dude with a car radiator mounted on the back wall under his desk. -So, yes, passive is possible. ...Just in case you are allergic to numbers like me.
You're quite right, in fact, it's even worse than 1/7, it's 0.123! It's pretty shocking, from all the thermal curves I've been looking at (Skinnee, Martin, etc.) I'd have figured it would have been a recurring curve (hence 1.2 per cycle) but it's not, it's far uglier than that! 400W output requires 3.25KW of standard domestic radiator to dissipate the heat load! You could always try cloning the cape cora in copper, using standard piping and soldering some sheet onto it... I just don't like the Al that it's constructed from...
