[GuyBFF]

Imagex, only in the last couple years have aluminum radiators become standard in the automobile market place. Advancements in plastic tanks and corrosion additives have made the fears of life expectancy dissapear. Almost all domestic vehicles of the eighties have copper cores. The unit shown looks like a very common 6x6 copper core used in Chevy and Ford products.

Redleader, aluminum rads have been proven to transfer 10-15 percent more heat than copper rads. Talk to anyone in motorcycle racing. In the last couple years Honda has quoted there aluminum design has increases cooling 15 percent in motocross and road racing bikes. I don't dispute your comments on the fact that air is fluid, water is fluid. In fact that's exactly the case, and aluminum does do a better job of transfering heat from water as well.

Where it fails in water blocks and heatsink fans is it won't move this heat very far. So a copper surface spreads the heat from a CPU threw more area, but in a rad the heat from the water is relatively close to every surface, and aluminum does a better job of heat transfer in shorter distances.

Again this is why the best heatsink fans (like the swiftech) are copper base, aluminum fins. Check there tests, they found aluminum / aluminum ok, copper / copper ok, but copper / aluminum much better. What more can I say.

Again I will say I will only use a copper rad, as really where talking about a degree max here. In the waterblock copper is a great advantage as it spreads the heat out over more area to be in contact with the water, and I really, really don't like corrosion, so copper and plastic are the only materials in my system.