Quote:
Originally posted by schoolie
When I said steady state, I meant a system where the soltuion to the temp of the coolant at any point in the system would not change as a function of time, assuming that the CPU power and the ambient air temp remains constant.
First, no matter what the rate of flow, the time that the water spends in the rad is the same
OK, I think #5 is where I don't agree:
The heat flux is proportional to the temp gradient. The lower the coolant temp, the lower the heat transfer. If one contends that a low flow produces better heat shedding, then that implies that the temp diff between outlet and inlet temps is higher in a low flow system, right? Doesn't this to a contradiction because this would logically mean that a low flow system is shedding less heat?
|
I'm really trying, but I have a hard time understanding what you're trying to say.
Given a fixed period of time, I agree that the amount of time that the coolant spends in the rad is the same, in proportion to the other components. i.e. within say 1 minute, wether the flow rate is 1 gpm or 2 gpm, the water will spend a proportionally equal amount of time in the rad.
I agree that the higher temp difference (between coolant and ambiant air) will make a rad more efficient.
The part I don't get is: if the flow is faster, then the coolant doesn't have as much time to cool down. Given the above, that might be ok, since the coolant would come across twice within the same period of time, but the problem is that the semi-cooled coolant gets heated up again, before coming back for a second pass.
Here's a link that might spark this conversation up a bit:
http://www.overclockers.com/articles481/