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Horizontal or Vertical Rad?

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2Busy

Member
Joined
Jan 4, 2004
Location
Oklahoma
In the planning stages now, was wondering on placing a rad horizontal vs vertical? I have heard of a few people claiming that it is hard to bleed a rad that is horizontal? I have a Chieftec Dragon Full tower, and have contemplated putting a 77 Bonneville heatercore in the top and either exhausting the air out the top or pulling the air in. The other alternative would be to remove the lower drive bay and place this rad vertical in the front of the case. All feedback greatly appreicated!
 
If you use the bonneville heater core, you might lose both drive bays. I'm putting one in an Antec SX835 case which is the same basic frame work as the Dragon. Here are a couple photos
CaseWHCside.jpg

CaseWHC.jpg
 
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yes bleeding is more dificult.
fundimentaly you should have your rad at the mid point in your loop as you want the air to leave the rad but air travels upwards so its hard for it to get out of the highest point of the loop
 
thorilan said:
yes bleeding is more dificult.
fundimentaly you should have your rad at the mid point in your loop as you want the air to leave the rad but air travels upwards so its hard for it to get out of the highest point of the loop

Makes sense. Has anyone ever modded a rad to have a neck like a real auto radiator, so it could be bled and filled from the neck?
 
Has anyone ever modded a rad to have a neck like a real auto radiator, so it could be bled and filled from the neck?

I know someone put a third barb in the tanks, if thats what you mean.

Wasn't that you Thorilan? Or Weapon?
 
Want me!

Guderian said:
I know someone put a third barb in the tanks, if thats what you mean.

Wasn't that you Thorilan? Or Weapon?

Wasn't me. I wasn't actually thinking of a third barb. Just a neck out the top of a vertical mount res with a cap, just like a car radiator.
 
fhanderson said:
If you use the bonneville heater core, you might lose both drive bays. I'm putting one in an Antec SX835 case which is the same basic frame work as the Dragon. Here are a couple photos
CaseWHCside.jpg

CaseWHC.jpg

Ive got the full tower version, but it looks like the dimensions are the same below the 5-1/4 cages. Roughly about 13 inches.
 
i'm in the process of putting a 77 benneville rad in my case (like yours only not the full version) that puts it in the bottom but will not remove iether drive bay.

Notice the 2" gap between the drive cages and the mobo tray. Notice the 6" gap between the mobo and the front of the case. Notice the 12" gap between the bottom of the case and the 5.25" bays.

Its gonna be a tight one, but thats where i'm putting one. (i'd like to add two more later, and i know where to put em :) )
 
nice job on the heatercore. im using the same one in my case. just finished cutting off the bends and painting it
IMGA0043.JPG
 
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Not sure, but painting the fins could be a bad idea. May hurt temps a little bit. I painted the outside of mine, but had masked all the fins off.
 
the only thing im wondering about is how u wuld mount the drives again..i know there are 3.5 to 5.25 adapters..but im not sure of how else to put the drives in...3+ drives and 1 or 2 roms would be very very tight
 
I'm in the process of placing the rad vertical instead of horizontal. Having the rad at the top was making things too difficult: The system was too hard to bleed and temps were not what they could be. I would rather loose all my 3.5" bays than my 5.25" ones. I lost two 5.25" bays when I mounted the rad at the top, which caused me to lose my fan controller and my DVD drive.

Mounting it vertically is going to make it a lot easier for a number of reasons. First off, you'll be able to bleed the system much better and quicker than with the rad mounted horizontally.

Secondly, It'll be able to silence the HDDs by using elastic bands that are stretched between the 5.25" bays. There was an article here on OCforums but I can't remember where it was. Can anyone provide a link?

Additionally, temps will improve. You'll have enough room to install a shroud; something that I couldn't do with the rad mounted at the top.

Finally, the noise level will drop due to the absence of the 80mm fans and the shroud.

Hope that helps.
 
i really hate to nag, but you can mount it vertically without loosing any drive bays, i'd be finishing mine today but i have a job interview i have to get ready for (yeah...time for a shower)

my earlyer post described it...

and instead of a shroud i'm using case intakes at 7V and using hte rad as an exaust. cant spread the air out better than that :)
 
I'm lucky to have a huge Antec 1240 case where I can place my hc at the top. Lost 3 bay spaces but that case has lots of bay spaces. to avoid bubbles, I try to fill as much as possible with the computer on it's side. It works pretty well.
 
nartac said:
I'm lucky to have a huge Antec 1240 case where I can place my hc at the top. Lost 3 bay spaces but that case has lots of bay spaces. to avoid bubbles, I try to fill as much as possible with the computer on it's side. It works pretty well.

My case is similar, a Chieftec Dragon full tower. I was thinking about putting
it directly over the power supply. I have a 120mm blowhole centered in the top now, I may utilize that one and drill another one next to it back towards
the psu.
 
2Busy said:
My case is similar, a Chieftec Dragon full tower. I was thinking about putting
it directly over the power supply. I have a 120mm blowhole centered in the top now, I may utilize that one and drill another one next to it back towards
the psu.

that's exactly where I placed my 2-302 hc, brotha :thup:
 
2Busy said:
My case is similar, a Chieftec Dragon full tower. I was thinking about putting
it directly over the power supply. I have a 120mm blowhole centered in the top now, I may utilize that one and drill another one next to it back towards
the psu.
I put mine there...
 

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