Going for utter silence

[Gerwin]

Originally posted by gmat
Looks nice, looks even like the kind of HDD case + block i've been looking for... But since i don't speak a word of German (apart from "wasserkhuler"), and since Babelfish tells me that "the waterblock part is made out of *brass*", i'd like to know: brass or copper ?

I'm already saving money for it... I'll have to find 12mm barbs though, to fit in my current system.
Woohoo !

It says "Messing" ,which is brass. But the only difference between brass and copper is some zinc, and that's not a problem like aluminium: It will oxidize, but I think zinc-oxide forms a protective layer so that oxidisation stops, but you'd have to check it with a chemist. One thing: the site also states (in small letters, like everything in that shop looks ridiciulously small) that it's "currently unavailable" ("z. Zt. nicht lieferbar "). But may be it is by the time you've saved your money

[Axle]

Hey Gerwin, not to thread jack, but hope you don't mind- I borrowed your idea?



My very own rad. Or winter rad, rather. For my summer one I plan on copying you even more....would you mind?

more here

Again sorry for the OTness!!!

[Gerwin]

Originally posted by Axle
Hey Gerwin, not to thread jack, but hope you don't mind- I borrowed your idea?
My very own rad. Or winter rad, rather. For my summer one I plan on copying you even more....would you mind?
more here

Again sorry for the OTness!!!

I don't mind at all that you copied my idea, but there's something fundamentally wrong with your design: There's nothing to prevent the water from taking the shortest route from the intake to the outlet. All the vertical pipes will be unused. See my drawing (sorry I'm not an artist). That's because going from inlet to outlet through the horizontal pipes is shorter and easier.
If you would move the inlet to the lower corner and the outlet to the upper corner of it, then whatever route the water takes, it's equally long. See second drawing. Thus you ensure that all pipes are used.
Another reason I put the inlet on the lower corner of one side and the outlet on the upper corner on the other end is this: When the water comes in, it's divided between all different possible routes, depending on how many vertical pipes you have. This means that in each vertical pipe, the flow rate is extremely low ( [flow rate]/[nr of vertical pipes] ). This is good for cooling. The air that gets into your system when filling it, is going up, so will collect in the upper parts of the rad. No problem there. But at some moment, it has to come down again into your computer, and the pump has to compensate for the tendency of airbubbles to rise. When the flow rate is low, the pump won't manage. But in my rad, when water is coming down, it's already collected again into 1 vertical pipe, and so the flow rate is high again, and the airbubbles will be easily pushed down by the waterflow.
In your rad, all air will gather in the upper part of the rad, above the level of the inlet and outlet, and probably stay there, because the water will flow on the lower part.
Try your rad, and then try my ideas (would mean resoldering, ouch), and you will see that with my design, the flow resistance is extremely low because of the low flowrate in the majority of pipes, that the cooling capacity is good because of the same reason, and that it get's rid of air very quickly, especially if you don't put it exactly straight, but the outlet slightly higher than the inlet.
What I do really like in yours is the way you 'folded' it, so that it's more compact, I will copy that from you I think, and that you soldered it instead of using those ugly compression fittings like I did. Keep up the good work.

[Axle]

Indeed, sir, all valid points. I realized some of the flaws as I was building and testing it, but you sure do bring some smart cards to the table. This was really my first rad, (not to mention the first time I've ever soldered anything in my life), The tubing and T's cost ~$5- worth the investment for the experence. If I have time this weekend I may try something I've been playing around with in my head...

As for this rad, I realized even on paper it was a poor design. But it was/is intended to be put behind the rafters, exposing it to our chilly PA winter air... it's -8C out right now, and to give you an idea of how poorly it performs: my 1.2 T-bird is at 28C at the moment. But to get it behind the rafters it had to be >11in wide, >7in deep, and 16in tall to fit my hole in the wall....(the hole was very inexpensive).

The rest of the pics are here....it's the first, but not the last.

Thanks for taking the time to explain a few things to me, Gerwin, I'll stop rambleing on in your thread now. I've bookmarked this for futher research....

thanks again!!

[Seal]

cool, good stuff guys, axel, you couldnt by any chance give us any water temperatures then we would be able to tell if ur rads performing any good by compairng air temps to water temps.

[Seal]

I found this link few mins ago, its got some very good stuff on silent cooling on it:

http://www.webx.dk/oz2cpu/homemade-pc-main.htm