Heatercore 2-302 or 2-342 with low flow fans?
 

Well I'm looking to build my first water cooling system for myself and was wondering which rad would be better for a quiet water cooling somewhat on the cheap.

Would the 2-302 noticeably impact my flow rate vs a 2-342 and would the larger surface area make up for it?

My planned system:
MCW-6002-64 (my board has 4 holes would the p4 version work and give me a better holding system?)
Zalman GWB1 (e-mail sent to zalman concerning possible compatability issues)
10' of 7/16" ID tubing.
Maxi-jet 900
2-302 or 2-342 heatercore
2 120mm coolermaster real silent fans (Got these from a friend. Might undervolt them if I can, but not neccessary.)
Shroud made out of cardboard or whatever i can find.

Silence is the primary goal of this system but performance is a very close second.

There is a guy on the HardForums selling nice shrouds for the 302, and for a decent price to boot. You might go with that simply for ease of use.

yeah i know, i saw weapon's shrouds for sale, that is also a concideration.

Also i can pick the 2-302 locally but have to order the 2-342 however shipping is free and i still have to wait for other parts.

Well, since you plan to use silent 120mm fans - which is your best option if cost and silence is your main concern - I would argue in favor of the 2-342.

Since you will not be moving a large amount of air over the radiator fins, any additional surface area provided by the 2-302 will, IMHO, not be worth the added restriction to (water)flow. The area of the face is nearly identical for both models, and the thickness is also the same - so your airflow/ airflow effectiveness should be nearly the same for both radiators. The fact that one will be less restrictive to water flow clearly makes it the best.

My vote would be with the 2-302 because even with the added restriction to the water flow it will be more efficient since the water velocity in the tubes of the rad will be basicly double that of the 342. That and the fact it does have slightly more frontal area even tho by a small amount.
It is my guess that pump doesnt have a lot of pressure and the added velocity in the rad would help.

Dont think anyones mentioned whats really important considering his question.

If you want to use slow fans a thinner rad is the way to go. They are both 2" thick.
As far as a double pass increasing the velocity of the water though the tubes? Im not really sure about that.
Yeah with the double pass the water is going through the same surface area and the water going through each tube will be faster but you are talking double the restriction of a single pass HC, maybe even more. I dont have any #s to back any of this up but I'd guess the flow rate loss would negate and gains you get from higher velocity in the tubs of the HC :shrug:
Course then again with a 6002 even if his flow rate goes from 0.75gpm to 1.5gpm from a double pass HC to a single pass HC its like 0.5c of a difference. So I dunno.

Regardless, one of those black ice pro double 120mm radiators would perform better than any HC due to their thinness when you use slow fans...

seeing as a black ice rad would cost 3 times as much I think I'm willing to sacrifice some performance.

I've a 2-342 and BillA tested it vs a dual pass of same overall size.

Pressure drop of the single pass core was 70% lower for the single pass core. It's been a while, I don't recall for sure what the dual pass core model was, but was of about the same size.

So the added velocity does come at a cost. And with a low pressure pump that would tip the balance towards the lower head loss rad.

With a high pressure pump it would be better to use the dual pass for best cooling.

If the difference in pressure drop is 70% (or >%50) I think I'll go with the 2-342. I don't think greater sureface area will be that much of an advantage.

I believe that with that pump and setup you will probably be in the area of 1gpm flow. I see that JoeCs review of the BIP3 (which is a dual pass single core rad) it had less than 6" of head drop at 1gpm and I would guess the 2-302 would have less since it is a dual pass dual core rad, and I believe that the added water velocity would maKe up for any small drop in flow that could come from less restriction. The only thing I can see that could change that is I see from BillAs testing with weak fans the flow through the rad has minimal effect which could pertain here. But I honestly dont see a real downside from using the 302 over the 342 and possible gains instead.

well i wanted soem extra time to work with the core so i went ahead and picked up a 2-302.

It's a bit larger then i expected (10 3/4 instead of 10 1/2), but should still fit snugly into my SOHO II.