radiator question

[ringxero]

ok, abit new to all this, so go easy...

planning a watercooling rig and wondering about radiators and pump flow rates. Common sense tells me that there must be a limit to how fast you want water to flow through the waterblock on the cpu, but this limit will be rather high, as the quicker you get the heat out the better. Also, the slower the water goes through the radiator the better (to a limit to when the water gets to ambient).

How about running multiple radiators in parrallel? Thinking three 120mm radiators, the flow would slow down when split to go through the radiators, and when the lines combined, would speed back up.

This make sense? or am I insane? will be easy to test with inline temp probes, is there info elsewhere on this type of setup?


thanks,

RX

[FishaOfMen]

That makes perfect sense. Three radiators sounds like a little overkill to me, but there are many people who do two radiators in parallel. I think, however, that one big radiator (like a van heater core) will work better than two smaller ones, flow rates considered and all.

[ARGON]

Radiators in parallel is fine. HOWEVER, it will seriously hurt your flow rates.

[ringxero]

The flow rates will decrease by about how much though? 'Seriously hurt' doesn't sound good, what kind of impact on the rest of the system? or are you talking about the decrease of flow rate through the radiators (which would be a good thing)?


RX

[Charles Wirth]

The Lytron radiators that have been selling on ebay lately are very high performance.

You might want to check those out too.

Some come with 120mm fans installed and the highest possible quality.

[ringxero]

I have looked at the lytron radiators, but we head into the main issue/problem with this one design. It will be built primarily for looks, preformance is still very important, so for the person I am building it for, they are willing to pay extra to make it look 'Nice'

the design would look rather good with three radiators (or two) in the way I have it planned, and those radiators are suited for 120 mm fans, chromed. But, I am still trying to get decent preformance out of the system, so parallel sounds like a good idead, just wanted to see if there were any issues/problems with using it that way.


thanks for the help,


RX

[Craig]

If performance counts, then I'd say go with a single large rad. The multi rad idea for slowing flow is correct, but there is another and better way, and it allows you to eliminate the xtra fittings needed for duals, or worse a 3 way. buy one large heater core that has same sized inlets AND a large lower tank with a good sized flat area. A Audi 10 3/4" x 6 1/8 x 2" is one such that would serve you well. Now mod it as follows, (if you're not set up with a torch you could get this done pretty low cost at most any metal working shop or a auto shop).

Add a barb to that flat area on the lower tank, and in the case of the rad/ heater core I suggested cut off the curved inlet/outlet fittings to only about 1.5-1.75" so they are now pretty much a pair of standard inlets/outlets.

Run it as follows. Use a dual inlet, this adds one Y and 1 barb on the lower tank. The added barb at the other end's lower tank is the outlet. This will be better is a couple ways.

1. By running the flow full width of the core you slow the flow to the point of being nearly the same as with a dual rad set up. I say nearly as this won't be quite as slow due to the fact you have saved your flow losses that the higher resistence duals with it's greater numbers of fittings will cost you(1 fewer Y & 1 barb minimum). Also a bit more flow is saved (not large amount) due to the fact that flow is now one way, no internal changes of direction within the rad itself.


2. Your customer will, I think, like the idea of having a more custom look to his system than most. Modded custom jobs are more interesting (at least to me) than standard bought equip. is. And you can take the savings from buying 1 rad instead of 2 and have this single chromed at a local shop. Will look sharpe & offer the highest performance.

3. While this can and likly should be set up with dual or even quad fans you can also gain a bit of greater quiet. As all fans are on 1 rad you could, if usage allows, shut 1 or more off when not needed without cutting off all air flow to the rad. You couldn't do that with duals without cutting off almost all cooling to 1/2 your water flow.

Pump selection: Try to find the highest head rated pump, within reason, that your system space & funding will allow. A stronger head rate is better than max unrestricted flow with low head.

Best of luck with your build.

[Craig]

www.heatercore4u.com

this place is a good one to check for good usable cores. The have pix of the individual cores with demensions of them there.

I hope this helps you with your build, best of luck 2 U.:)

[Tweaked!]

pm me if your seriously interested in using a larger radiator. I have access to residential a-coil for air conditioning, ranging in size from a 14x18 double pass to a 20x30 (or so) quadruple pass radiator. All made w/ 3/8" copper tubing w/ the interior of the tubing spiraled. I can post some pics a little later of a couple I've been experimenting w/.