My passive radiator built of 1/2 in copper pipe

I just built a passive radiator out of approx. 20ft of copper pipe. I'm currently testing it and if it doesn't perform well enough, I have plans to expand it to around 48 ft total. Currently, it has 4 4.5 ft "coils" that reside behind my desk hidden from view. I'll post my results later as it is currently bleading. And now for the pics

Tools & Materials:


Finished Product:


Detail of End:


I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. This is only my second time for soldering anything. The first time was when I built a harddrive cooler. I just hope this will dissapate enough heat from my system so that I can run fanless.

i dont think it will disipate enought heat... mabey some fins of some kind soldered on would do pretty well.

I've seen people have success with these, all you can do is try.

I'm hoping it's enough. I also have a Chevette core in the loop, so that should help too.

Seems to be working ok. Still bleeding, but even now it will run 16M super-pi and only hit 54.5C. That seems high, but this is an NF7-s and I know this one read close to 10c too high. The system temp is reported to be 41c and the room's 68f! My temp with the fan turned down was around 58c, so I'm happy I may still add on to it later though.

Right now the CPU's at 51.5c with about a 25% load and it's still bleeding. With the fan cranked for 15 minutes, it droped to 45.5c, and I have a 120CFM Y.S. Tech 120x38mm fan! As I said earlier, I think it reads 10c too high, so it looks like I'm at about 41-42c running fanless with a moderate load. I don't think that's too bad

what tools were required to make this?

Saw someone else on here make a setup very similar to that, but he put it in his garage so the pipes were laying on the concrete of the garage that always stayed cold.

A radiator really does provide more surface area, hence why they transfer heat well from the water to the air. I am using a new copper car rad I got on ebay that I use to cool passively for $35 shipped. It gives me great temps with no fans on it, and it is only about 12"x18"x1 1/2" in size.

Using this idea would be more effective if you were able to set it down on a cold basement floor or the like as the previous thread mentioned. You have to realize that just by introducing all of that pipe you are slowing down you flow also.

n6b72g said:

what tools were required to make this?

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Solder, Flux, Torch, Pipe cutter (or hacksaw), emery cloth/sand paper/wire brush, copper pipe

It wasn't hard at all to make. Just do some research first. I'm 16 and this was my second time soldering pipes/soldering with a torch yet I still managed to put this together in an afternoon

Total cost including pipe cutter & extra cylinder of propane was $31. The torch runs about $12 and the solder and flux shouldn't be any more than $10 or so. You'll end up with useful tools and experience after this aswell, so I don't think the cost is too bad.

A radiator really does provide more surface area, hence why they transfer heat well from the water to the air. I am using a new copper car rad I got on ebay that I use to cool passively for $35 shipped. It gives me great temps with no fans on it, and it is only about 12"x18"x1 1/2" in size.

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But there's no fun in that Plus, my parents would go nuts if I did that. The only reason I got away with this was that I just showed up at the house with a bunch of copper pipe and went to work.

The pipe length shouldn't mess with the flow too much. I have an MCP600 that seems to push plenty of water to keep my CPU cool. Plus, the radiator isn't any taller than where the water has to go in the first place, so the only thing working against me is friction, and at these low flow rates, that doesn't seem to affect too much. Lower temps are lower temps IMO

I do plan on enlarging this and adding fins with flashing later on. That should help a bit. But for right now I'm happy and will buy & watercool an AIW X800XT before this gets updated.

Saw someone else on here make a setup very similar to that, but he put it in his garage so the pipes were laying on the concrete of the garage that always stayed cold.

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Yep, that's on overclockers.com

that is crazy...how are you keeping it still? All that water has to put some sort of load on the pipes and the fact that they are so long would make me think they would rip right off the cpu

ticktock123 said:

that is crazy...how are you keeping it still? All that water has to put some sort of load on the pipes and the fact that they are so long would make me think they would rip right off the cpu

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It's along my wall attached with tubing... not hanging off my waterblock or anything. The water doesn't put any strain on the pipes at all.

Maybe this will answer your question better:

IMO if you can you should route this underground.

bartsimsonii said:

IMO if you can you should route this underground.

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I wish... give me 6-10 years

Sweet cooling. Now lets hope you don't have a leak over all that electical equipment

Cyrix_2k said:

I wish... give me 6-10 years

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Kidding aside if your room has a window...

This should give you very low temps lower than ambient.

bartsimsonii said:

Kidding aside if your room has a window...

This should give you very low temps lower than ambient.

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yep, it has three (corner of house ). Again, parental issues prevent this from becoming a reality.

Don't worry, it's been leak tested to 40-50 PSI (whatever pressure the water is in my house). The connections with the tubing are the only possible leak points and they are pretty snug. (Ignores the whole no hose clamp thing... *whistling*)

jamesavery22 said:

Saw someone else on here make a setup very similar to that, but he put it in his garage so the pipes were laying on the concrete of the garage that always stayed cold.

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Wasn't there another one where a guy burried something like 150 feet of tubing like this a couple feet deep in his backyard? I guess if there's enough tubing it'll work, but wouldn't even a couple tranny radiators running passive provide more cooling surface--while needing a lot less pump?

MVC said:

Wasn't there another one where a guy burried something like 150 feet of tubing like this a couple feet deep in his backyard? I guess if there's enough tubing it'll work, but wouldn't even a couple tranny radiators running passive provide more cooling surface--while needing a lot less pump?

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Yeah, that was pelican. There's another guy who buried a propane cylinder in his backyard too.

I'll probably end up getting a car rad or something in the long run. But for right now this fits the bill because it fits behind my desk very easily and it's out of site. Plus, it's custom and hand built

BTW, I just got done playing UT2004 and the computer ran fine without any fans except GPU & PSU. This PSU is on loan, so I can't mod it, but when I get a new one, I'll be sure to first check that the heatsinks aren't hot, and then watercool that aswell. All that will be left will be the GPU. I think I'm going to get an AIW X800XT first; there's no point in putting more money into my AIW 9800 Pro IMO.

Cyrix_2k said:

Yeah, that was pelican. There's another guy who buried a propane cylinder in his backyard too.

I'll probably end up getting a car rad or something in the long run. But for right now this fits the bill because it fits behind my desk very easily and it's out of site. Plus, it's custom and hand built

BTW, I just got done playing UT2004 and the computer ran fine without any fans except GPU & PSU. This PSU is on loan, so I can't mod it, but when I get a new one, I'll be sure to first check that the heatsinks aren't hot, and then watercool that aswell. All that will be left will be the GPU. I think I'm going to get an AIW X800XT first; there's no point in putting more money into my AIW 9800 Pro IMO.

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Thanks for reminding me of pelican. I knew his name was a birds but didn't know which one lol.