Heat-pipe waterblock
 

Surfing around today I came across a few interesting looking heatsinks, and I can't help but ponder whether we could use this technology somehow with water-cooling. If we had a similar base as used in the heatsinks shown in the linked page, but a piece of tubing over the heat-pipes (leave about 1/4" gap around the heatpipe) and flowed water down over the heat-pipes, collected it around the base of the block (have all the outter-tubes end a bit short connected to a collector base around the block itself) and then send that water back to the rad/pump.

Maybe this isn't the best way to water-cool the heatpipes. But it seems as though most of the discussion around here currently centers on the most effective way to get heat from core to water as fast as possible. If this moves heat away from the core to a large heat exchanger faster for air-cooling, could we not use the technology somehow but use water to keep the hot side of the heat-pipes even cooler. It wouldn't be much below, but if the hot end of the heat-pipe was cooled to very near ambient, could the block on the core (doubtful the core itself) go sub-ambient? I'm thinking/hoping that with a well designed water-cooled heat-pipe system that we may start getting core temps within 5C of ambient under load.

And..., before I forget..., the link.
http://www.frostytech.com/articlevie...articleID=1193

Nice!!! I'm going to file THIS LINK for posterity. It's got the most amount of info (although still not complete) about making your own phase change unit.

Actually I have been thinking of how to encoorperate a heatpipe/watercooled block for some time now. The main problem is that heatpipes work best (again) when the difference between the hot side and the cold side is greater.

Heat pipes are simply sealed tubes with some sort of liquid sealed inside in a vacuum. The tubes are not filled completely on purpose as well. When one side of the heat pipe gets hot, it evaporates the liquid and moves the heat to the top or other side of the heatpipe (which is naturally cooler) where it condenses back into a liquid again.

What we would have to do is locate a liquid that boils at a lower temperature than what most heatpipes are made to boil at and then keep the temp lower with our water setups.

For example, I believe that the new Shuttle Mini cases use H20 heatpipes to keep the P4s cool. Well H20 in a vacuum will probably begin to boil off at about 47C. What we would need is a liqid that would boil off at say 20-25C and then our watercooling setups would need to keep the hot side at about 30-32C.

Correct my numbers or thoughts if necessary but I believe that is the way to go in order to be able to use a good heatpipe setup with watercooling.

so what is the two water-carrying pipes that goes into a waterblock, non other than two "heat-pipes", really....

granted they are not self propelling, but they do have the ability to carry a significantly larger amount of heat, than what the closed loop heatpipe will be able to carry, simply because they are woking with water as the transfer medium.

A waterbloc (Aquacomputer) using heat pipes is already in project

http://www.aqua-computer.de/prodimg/evohp.jpg
Barbs are hidden but there are the holes to plug them into the bloc and the 2 grey tubes are heat pipes.


:D

Is that the EVO ???

It looks like besides, the two grey tubes....

Havnt. seen that pic at aqua-computer forum......

Where do you have it from ?

Yes it's an EVO with heat pipes (project). It was a news on a french web site :)
I don't know if this bloc is already realized at this time..

OK, I have to swing into this because it is so interesting. BigBen2K, that has to be one of the most interesting sites I've read in the last 6 months. Thanks!

As for heat pipes, I think you are barking up the wrong tree. Yes, it would be good to move heat from a small area to a larger area so that the cooling method requires less vigor. However, I don't believe that the cost effectiveness of a heat pipe can compare to the simple changes needed to increase water velocity and decrease the skin effect. Note: please prove me wrong, as I'm just spouting my theories instead of experimentally proven fact.

A heatpipe should have a hard time competing against a moving body of water which is close to the surface of the CPU. The higher the water velocity (and the thinner the skin effect), the thinner you can make the bottom wall of the waterblock.

I just think that it's easier to fiddle with getting a better pump, larger diameter hose, lower restriction radiator and so on. I read a web page saying that heat pipes were really finicky and not all that good at moving heat compared to even simple water cooling close to the die. Remember, every extra layer we add to the coolant system means an extra layer of resistance to the heat flow (unless you add peltiers or other active heat movement technologies).

Dang. Sorry for not noticing that your original link, Cova! I didn't notice that BigBen2k's link was from the 3rd page of the article you referenced. Doh!

a heat-pipe, less than 2 inches long, is that not kinda like missing the point all together..... I sugest a chat with TN from OCN... he is the residual heatpipe expert of the world.. if not, then well... he should be... :D he's been heatpiping his xeons since long ago...

link1

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