Cooling Would copper tubes dissapate heat?

Here's my thinking...would copper tubes work to cool the water as it flows through it? I have a relay system envisioned, where the water runs in a set of tubes on the outside of the case. It looks like a big copper cage, basically.

There are custom choppers that employ this technology, where the motor oil runs in a channel through the bike's frame, effectively cooling it. This is what I had in mind but for my WC setup. What do you guys think?

 

Yes they would if you had enough tubing, it would work better if you had finned copper tubing. (if it exists)

This external water cooling uses plastic tubing, and it works ok (especially considering it is passive)

 

Well, yea, theoretically any heat-dissipating metal that the water toches would dissapate heat.

However, you'd have to be very careful with copper tubing because it seems to be far more, well, firm is the word I'd use and if you arn't careful when mounting you might either be putting xcess pressure on your chipsets or the tubing may be pulling the block off the chipset.

it strikes me as no more effective than the copper 'heatspreaders' that really don't do much to cool the RAM that they are on (i.e. all things considered the benefits seem outweighed by the problems)

then again, go for it, as always be careful but who knows? I don't think this has been done before, you could be onto something

 

Actually you can use copper tubing for your setup. I used all copper tubing in my first water cooled setup and it worked great. depending on tubing size you may need to make your own connectors and fittings. You will also need to solder the tubes together using a pen torch and solder. I did notice that some condensation did take place on some of the tubing a little insulation will fix that.

 

given the temperature of the water and the temperature inside the case the copper tubes could also act as a heater to the water, so be sure if you go with this that your case has adequate airflow.

 

yeh, that's what i was thinking, if your not careful, all of the cooling that you do on the outside of the case will be futile, cause it could heat right back up inside the case. if you are going to go this route, i'd use regular tubing in the loop from the outside of the case to your various chips and just keep the copper tubing on the outside of the case. btw, any idea how much copper tubing runs by the foot?

 

i think this would be quite interesting to see... let me/us know how it works out if you try it

 

I've seen a couple of setups on the internet that use coipper.Some guy on Ebay is selling waterblocks he designed himself that hascopper coild on it, included are some pics of his setup that uses all coppertubing. Another setupI saw had PVC tubing inside the computer but it ran to some 60 odd feet of copper tubing he had in the garage acting as his radiator, it ran in about 15 feet legnths up and down underneath a bookshelf. Overall most people who've tried have hadpretty good success but it definately takes some careful planning. I'd be concerned with condensation if you ran copper iside the case. I wonder if there's any real benifit.
I always wondered about running a counter-flow cooler. I used to brew beer, and when your making it, after the boil you need to drop the temperature to room temp. or less. There are several ways to do this. One is running it through a copper coil immersed in cold water, the other is called a counterflow cooler. A copper tube is run through another tube which has water running through it the other way. The only problem (which is pretty major) is that because during brewing it doesn'ttake very long, it's usually done with a garden hose, the tube is run through and exits the hose just before the connections. The end is then hooked up to a regular garden faucet and run. This wouldn't be very practical for a computer since you'd have to have water constantly running (big water bills but I can only imagine the temps possible). The onlyway I ever really got it to work in my head ended up requiring two water pumps. The good thing was the second pump (for the counter flow) didn't have to be anywhere near as big as the first one. I thought of running one inside a 15 gallon igloo cooler I have (left over from my brewing days) I could immerse a copper coil and keep the counter-flow running underneath water...who knows...maybe I'll figure something out some day...