Anyone have experience with Apple radiators?

I just acquired an Apple branded radiator, from an old G5. I was wondering if anyone has worked with these radiators before, and if they are good radiator to use. Ill be making my own bracket for the fan as it doesnt have any mounting hardware or any way to mount anything to it at the moment.

It looks like this
http://www.overclockers.com.au/articles/307166/4_small.jpg

From what I can find on Google, they are made of aluminum which means right off the top they are not good to use. You will have to run antifreeze or some kind of corrosion inhibitor to use it with any kind of modern copper waterblock.

It looks like either a 120mm or 140mm square so it's going to offer similar performance to modern 1 fan radiators that cost 20-30$ and it also looked to have proprietary connectors rather than barbs and fittings so it will be tough to use with standard tubing.

If you are using it for nostalgia then by all means you can make it work, if you are using it just because it's free and you have it, just recycle it and get a cheap copper or brass radiator with proper fan mounts and g1/4 threading.

They have a tendency to leak from what I've heard and seen.

Probably not the best platform for building a water cooling loop.

if its anything like the rest of apples products itll prob reject any foreign parts like the plague.

I used one for a year + with zero issues. With the G5 pump, and a copper block. Heck, even the stock apple blocks are copper! Just goes to show, with the correct anti-corrosive coolant, it's doable. The WC purists will always shame away aluminium though

On the flip side though, the G5s that didn't make it... often was a coolant leak, and a power supply that got a shower. My guess is the waterblock leaked. That lil rad is build well, from my inspection anyway. Almost looks as tough as a small automotive transmission / oil cooler. One thing I did was hack off the schrader valve on top, and place a JB weld covered bolt in it's place, then sand it down.

Ideally, you wouldn't want it, but I'd say (and this is just my opinion) that thing would beat an older swiftech 120mm rad. It has excellent fin density, and it all aluminium vs having brass channels / tanks. Will post a pic of my setup if I find it

Ben333 said:

The WC purists will always shame away aluminium though

Click to expand...

No shame to it, I'd not be worried to run it if it had an aluminum water block to go with it.
I saw a nice big passive aluminum rad online tonight that actually made me think twice about about making an aluminum block...

My point is, if you run the right coolant, isn't it fine? Cars are way more subject to less than ideal conditions than PCs at home. Think of all the metals in an engine. The water pump, the radiator, heater core, etc. Copper blocks are readily available, and perform better. And, well, aluminium rads have always caught my eye... (But copper is a better heat conductor in any circumstance)

Anybody have long term experience using mixed metals in a PC loop WITHOUT issues?

Don't get me wrong, if you run tap water, or probably even distilled... and mix your metals... You'll probably have nasty parts and maybe even water on your floor in 2 - 3 years.

It should be fine for some time with a proper coolant in it. All the ready made sealed units already do run with a coolant (never plain water).
I'd disassemble and clean the water block when replacing the coolant though, because as the OP said, it is a used one from an old G5, and already has a few years on it.

The red stuff, not the green BTW....flushing completely before adding, so there's no trace of the old stuff left inside.

Lots of people do it without issues. Many all in one's have aluminium radiators. Koolance cases for the longest time were aluminum rads with gold plated copper cpu and gpu blocks.

The big issue is that the best performing cpu blocks have microchannels combined with water jet impingement so if you use say automotive antifreeze the glycol separates and clogs the channels. Similar things happen with dyes.

If you use an older design super high flow block like the danger den mc-tdx you don't have to worry as much about separation and clogs, but you pay for it with worse performance.