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Oh boy!
It's been a few years since I've seen a good mini fridge argument.
Subbed for entertainment.
I was thinking along similar lines the other day.
I know many "niche" market areas sell the same products as those used in other larger industries and applications at a significant markup (for many reasons). I hypothesized that the PC rad market seemed like a likely area for markup to occur.
So I did, "the old jazz hands routine," and started looking for water to air heat exchangers, intercoolers, oil coolers, etc. Most of the stuff I found that would be suitable was of the industrial nature and way overbuilt (more $$$) for the purpose.
The HVAC hot/cold water heat exchangers looked promising though. Automotive oil coolers also seemed possible and they are sized nicely. I wouldn't bother with a used oil cooler unless I was prepared to pump hot solvent through it for a period though.
Having built a SS from an old A/C I know how easy old A/C units are to come by. Scrap yards have often already evacuated them so taking the condenser would be easy. They are often 1/4" or 3/8" inlet tubing though so flow may be a issue with those.
As said above, you'll want to do more digging on the technical specs of this stuff. The design of a radiator that needs to keep water in the couple hundred of degrees range and a powerful fan will be different from that of one designed to cool electronics. This is relatively easy for industrial parts as they often provide data sheets that will speak to things like outlet pressure as a function of inlet pressure, cooling capacity as a function of fluid flow, fluid temp, air flow, air temp.
Also, you can find new car radiators cheap <$50 so a used one may not be worth it considering the cost and hassle.
I've never done much with water so I can't say if any of this is actually wise; just some thoughts I had.
Mora radiators.Somewhere someone sells a 3x3 rad made for computers. I don't remember if it's a 9x120 rad or 9x140, but with that kind of surface available, it can operate fan-free.
Somewhere someone sells a 3x3 rad made for computers. I don't remember if it's a 9x120 rad or 9x140, but with that kind of surface available, it can operate fan-free.
I think Zalman made some finned copper tube that was a fanless radiator/reservoir at some point back in the P4/Athlon days. It always looked kind of gimmicky to me and I don't know how it performed, probably highly dependent on whether or not you set up a box fan next to it...