BIX 2 dual 120mm vs Dual 120mm HC

just pondering, the price for a black ice pro 2 rad is obviously 20 dollars or more then a dual 120mm heatercore, but which one would perform better? cause im starting to think that my heatercore isnt doing its job

the heater core overall has been reported by many water coolers that it makes it run cooler.

im mostly thinking that b/c the paint isnt as thick, but i can be incorrect.

A black ice pro (BIP) is not the same as a black ice extreme (BIX). The BIP core is less than an inch thick and probably a better choice for really quiet, low airflow fans. The BIX core is about 1.5 inches thick and is closer in design and performance to heatercores which are mostly 2 inches thick. It takes more fan pressure to push air through a heatercore or BIX, but it can cool better (more rad surface area) at the expense of potentially higher noise levels.

I'm running a single 120mmx38mm Nidec Beta V fan (4,000 RPM, 100+ CFM at 12V) at 5V on a shrouded, chevette heatercore and it's quiet enough and moves plenty of air. I've got another of the same fan (also at 5V) for a rear exhaust case fan. You can tell the computer is on, but it is not even close to loud.

A dual version of the BIP, BIX, or heatercore should be more than enough for overclocked computer use.

I've been away from the watercooling forum for 6+ months now. The big thing I'm noticing is no one seems to recommend anything smaller than a monster dual (or even triple!) 120mm fan rad/heatercore for normal cooling use. I'm all for using the largest rad you can reasonably stick in a case, but everyone doesn't need a dual fan radiator to get reasonable performance. It seems the single fan rads and chevette heatercores are dinasours now and that's a shame because they would generally fit into the lower-front area of a mid-tower case without permanent case mods. I'll be quiet now and go look for a cane.

I see no reason a single 120mm sized rad is no longer an option. As long as we are talking just cooling the CPU. In the case of loop just cooling the CPU, a smaller rad is plenty. Add a Vid card into the loop and you will probably want to look at going bigger, or multiple rads. Chips are just plain putting out more heat these days, and while a smaller rad will effectively cool cpu and gpu, it won't do much better than a good air cooling solution (Potentially much quieter though).

I myself use a BIX in the front bottom of my case, and a BIM2 in the top rear of my case. I get temps right on par with people using the larger dual rads. Its really a matter of knowing how much heat you really need to disapte, and matchign your components.

Another option now is the PA160 dont forget. Quiet and good performance.

Maybe all of the "dude (AKA newbie), you really NEED a dual heatercore rad" comments clouded my perception.

exactly
thats what i was thinking, cause its all about room for me, its hard to get a dual hc in a chieftec case like mine without punching out the rivets (which i was considering) in the bottom front, ill just stick with a normal hc then, thx guys

Rivits are easy to remove and replace if required. I wouldn't let that stop you from using a dual fan rad because they are more efficient at dissipating heat, but they shouldn't be a hard requirement for every water system in my opinion.

No they shouldn't be, and in many cases, dual rads my be more suitible to a particular case. Sure, we'd all like giagantic rads, but not everyone has or wants a huge case. The easy way out when it comes to watercooling is to just go brute force, huge rad, tons of airflow. But with a little homework and a calculator you can more or less figure out what you really need in heat disipation, and can match your components to fit your case.

The price for a dual heatercore at Autozone is on par with the price for a single HC, so IF one can find a way to fit a dual, why not? This is just my preference, but I would rather have more cooling capacity than needed so that I can use quieter fans and achieve the cooling I am looking for, not to mention that if I have more cooling capacity than I need at the moment, i can add whatever I want to the system and still cool fine without changing rads. I have a rather small midtower case, and even with it I could manage to fit a dual heatercore mounted in the top or bottom. And having one rad is just easier when it comes to tubing, although dual single rads of course can work fine also. What Jas said makes sense- it is all about balancing cooling capacity needed vs. space and noise considerations.

Tak emy case for example, I COULD mount a dual sized rad in the top drive bay, but if I add a shroud and powerful fans, I am looking at loosing more drive bays than I am willing to part with, or doing away with a shroud and or thick fans. On the other hand, removing the frotn bottom hard drive rack, leaves me with 2 3.5 bays and 5 5.25 bays, and enough room in the bootm fron for a single sized rad. I currently have a shrouded BIX with an ultra panaflo on it. (Plan on putting a PA160 there soon as I can get one), and in the top rear I have fitted a BIM2 at the rear 80mm exuast ports. The bulk of the cooling is done by the BIX, however the BIM2 gives the extra oomph needed.

I woudl liek to have a single rad, just plain easier to work with tubing wise, but in my case I wasn't willing to part with the drive bays, and wiring layout I had planned. For instance, my inverters for the case lighting are hidden in the 3.5" bays. And my various leads for my wiring collect at teh point directly behind the 3.5" bays. If I had lost my 5.25 bays, I would have had to use thos bays to hold hard drives, and would have had a much more difficult time wiring the case, not to mention the situatioen of the rad woudl not have been ideal.

Jas said:

No they shouldn't be, and in many cases, dual rads my be more suitible to a particular case. Sure, we'd all like giagantic rads, but not everyone has or wants a huge case. The easy way out when it comes to watercooling is to just go brute force, huge rad, tons of airflow. But with a little homework and a calculator you can more or less figure out what you really need in heat disipation, and can match your components to fit your case.

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thats a really good and simple way to look at that jas, ill take that dffinately into consideration when i or if i plan to water cool my gpu again, after i cool my cpu here soon.