[Hansfragger]

I am an end user and was having a hard time comparing radiator performance to the "specs" Hardware Labs provides on their products. Kcal and BTU's gave me nothing to compare to real world usage. All you have to do is go to a reputable site like Swiftech and right up front there are complete, useful data such as cooling watts(That the average Joe can take their CPU, GPU, etc, add them together and see if the rad will meet their needs)and coolant flow, etc. Even charts showing different fans effect's. It became pretty clear to me that I was not meant to decipher the specs(KCAL and BTU), only be "wowed" by them.
The situation with specs on watercooling products right now reminds me of how amplifiers for the audio industry were rated back in the 70's. Manufacturers could claim any wild power rating they wanted and there was no regulating body to set any standards. You could only grimace when a reputable reviewer would compare an amp claimed by the manufacturer to have "500 watt peak power" with a conservatively rated (by the honest manufacturer)25 watt amp and guess what? The 25 watt amp would kick the 500 watt amp out the door. Eventually I think it was the FTC that stepped in and said "All amps will be rated at a continuous power(RMS) with a specified amount of distortion-no more instantaneous peak power". Finally the average consumer could look at any amp and have a fairly good idea of it's performance. Hopefully that day will come for the watercooling industry as well. Until then, we should all be thankful that we have people such as Bill and Stew to give us the "Unbiased and straight scoop". Thanks guys!
Now back to the thread: I assume that the benefit of the X-flow is because the coolant enters one end and exits the other without changing directions, unlike dual pass designs which suffer a performance hit when the coolant changes direction. So it seems that performance would be improved again if the coolant was directed straight in and out of the header tank. I just modded my dual pass rad to accomplish this. mainly for tubing routing, but hopefully I'll get a little bump in flow. Any ideas? Here is a look.