[Stoanhart]

I was just thinking, would it be hard to make a rad myself? I need a small rad, one that is at the most 5"x5"x2", but preferably smaller. I remember someone here had a 4x4 rad custom made and it was only like $35. In order to make one, wouldn't I just have to take something like copper tubing and makeit run up and down and up and down and so on. I have access to metalworking equipment (ie: Pipe bending tools, etc). Also, are the fins important to the cooling process or will i get similar results with just bare tubing with air blowing over it.

[Shocker]

I would just go to a auto store and buy a heatercore...

The quote is from maskedgeek article about heatercores.
You can find more info here. click here

-86 Chevette Heater Core, its 6x6in cooling area, and about 6x7.5 total size, and 2inches thick which is around $18.95 to $28.95

-89 Camaro Heater Core is another good one, maybe better, but it's a little bigger. It is 7x7cooling area, and 7x8.5 total size, and 2iches thick and costs around $18.95. Both of these are made of copper with aluminum fins for best performance. You need to find a core to fit in your case, but the 86 Chevette core is the smallest non custom one that I know of.

[Frodo Baggins]

when I wanted to water cool a a year back, I got osme copper tubing and triwed to do this. (BTW there's two articles ont he verclockers.com website when someone did this)

You could do this, but then you'd still haev to buy the fans and the copper. So your saving like 10-15 bucks. My suggestion, save your money up, buy a heater core for that extra 10-15 bucks and you'llk have a way cleaner stup. who the heck wants to see a bunch of copper tubing cooled with fans?

[Stoanhart]

Did your home made rad ever get tested? How well did it work? I don't care all that much how clean the setup is, im looking into this because of space restrictions.

[Stoanhart]

I've been thinking about how I would make my rad. Since 1/4 inch copper tubing is cheap stuff ($10 for 80 inches or something at www.onlinemetals.com), but I plan on using 1/2 inch lines in my WC setup, I plan on splitting the line where it enters the rad, make the rad contain 2 line the whole way through, then join again at the end. I'm downloading Gmax right now, and hope to post some renders soon (as long as I can figure out how to model, lol).

[The Overclocker]

Is it hard to make a rad?

no

Is it hard to make a good rad?

yes

creating a radiator with the fin density and type of tubing used today by most people is very hard, and probably very expensive. if this had been before people were using heatercores and when processor heat was quite low, making your own radiator may have been an option, however not now.

[Stoanhart]

This is the render i was planning on. First try with a 3d rendering program, but it turned out pretty good. took about 1.5 hours. Anyway, there will also be a shroud that i didn't render. This thing is less than 1 inch thick, but I can add many more layers to get enough surface area for propper cooling. It is 6 inches wide, wich used to be readable on the pic till I had to resize it for the forums. Do you guys think this thing plus a homemade, prbably spiral design, copper block will keep a 1600+ cool?

edit: the rad ends before the 1/2 inch to 1/4 inch pipe converter thing. Just look at the greenish square under the tubing, that is the size

[johnnyw]

I was thinking of starting in the "art of overclocking (watercooling)" by refrigerating a pentium 150 I have oced up to 180 mhz. You must be laughing of the low crunching power it has, but what about taking it further with watercooling? I just thought of using a spiral copper tub ( hme made). Would that just do the job?
Johnny

[Daemonfly]

You can always scavenge a bigger radiator somewhere and cut it to proper size. Just remove a few fins to give you room to work with the ends of pipe.

Heatercore would be best though, but I don't think they make one as small as you need.

[Freeloader]

You may have better luck focusing your energy on increasing your limited space. Moving the floppy and harddrive into the upper bay area, may provide room for a nice large heatercore. Using a small rad defeats alot of the advantages of watercooling, in my opinion.

[Stoanhart]

Thanks for all the tips, but i think I'll just be laying the rad flat on the bottom of the case, with the intake on the bottom. I'll raise the case a bit by adding wheels or something, and put a dust cover on the bottom. My case sits on my desk anyway, so dust from the floor shouldn't be a problem.

[Albigger]

Besides the fact that this will probably not cool as well as a regular heatercore/rad, which is fine - i have only one other concern:

the high degree turns your picture shows with the tubing. What size will those copper tubes be? I did this with 3/8" and one other size, i think 1/2" (if not it was 1/4") but i'm pretty sure 3/8 and 1/2, and I couldn't get very tight turns.

my design basically ended up being like a coil spring design, but smaller diameter on one end and larger at the other, with a fan at each end.

coupled with a low-flow alum. waterblock it was decent for keeping at 750 duron @ 1100 and 2.1 vcore cool enough. can't quote exact temps etc... as that was a year ago and it was a homemade block anyhow

EDIT: I just saw the label that said 1/4" tubing. you may be able to make those bends with that small of tubing (i'm not sure what tools you have exactly, i just used a pipe bender from local hardware store).

Also one other note - you have two 1/4" tubes leading into a 1/2" diameter tube. the cross sectional area of the 1/2" tube is twice that of two 1/4" tubes - you may want to go 3/8 here so as to not cut off your pressure and flow as much.

[Albigger]

one more thing - this thread provoked a thought in my head.

would look messy, and would definately take a lot of tweaking to get to be efficient - but what about a case-radiator

take a LOT of copper tubing and bend it all throughout the case. Then add many many intake fans to your case and a couple outlet fans as well. As long as you tweak it to minimize dead spots and dont' put copper tubing in dead spots - you would cool the water and your case at the same time (if you had enough airflow)

just a thought - it would be interesting to see

[[EG]~NaTz~]

hey black ice has a mini heater core type thing it is awesome looking holds an 80mm fan is barely bigger than one. and if u had the room u could but dual delts 92's or even 120's on it im sure it would kick some ass. i mean that much airflow over so little surface. sure a full heater core would be better but he has a space prob.