I like your idea iroc, however I've realised there's a much easier way for humble diy-ers like me to make something that works. In fact redleader might be chuckling when he reads this
So yesterday, got itchy and started making a proof-of-concept small-scale prototype radiator, for testing purposes. I never got round to doing any tests because I got diverted from barking up the wrong tree(?) by Groth's link(nice one!) for a
review of the Xice passive cooling kit, which got me slightly excited. Even more so when I saw what lay inside that £200 box!
So of course, I don't have £200 (to spare) but I do happen to have 7.5m of ¼" black micro irrigation pipe in my garage. Isn't life sweet?
I also happen to have a 10ohm power resistor and a variable power supply, as well as a couple of thermometers. So after spending a couple of hours taking temp measurements, I now know that I need approx 30m of pipe to keep a 100W load at less than 10°c above ambient.
Hopefully this will be enough to keep CPU, GPU and HDD cool (warm?) in summer, at full load.
(tests reveal that with 7.5m of pipe, dT =10°C @ 25W and 17°C @ 45W)
So at this stage I'm wondering how I can pack 30m of this pipe in a small a footprint as possible??? Obviously there needs to be some space between the loops for the air to move around…
Also I can't just use one single 30m line, because the flow rate would be non existent. So that means working out how many lengths to put in parallel…more Excel fun ahead: )