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Quad 120mm Dual Pass Heater Core?

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MadHatter

Registered
Joined
Aug 29, 2006
http://www.voyeurmods.com/index.php?action=item&id=1702

Yeah it sounds great, but does it work?
I was looking into 3x120mm rads (ThermoChill), and I had found a way for it all to fit in my midsize tower, but then I found this.
Strangely, installing a 4x120mm heater core would save me from having to do a bunch of case mods to accomodate a 3x120mm rad.

Will it perform well, or would I be better off getting a different rad/heater core? If so, which one?


I will be running an overclocked e6300 allendale with an overclocked 7900 GS and 2 GB DDR2-800 on a Gigabyte DS3 mobo.

The other WC components will be:
Laing D5/Swiftech MCP655 Inline 12vDC Pump, MCW30, DD Maze4 GPU, and White Water - LE.
 
:welcome: to the OCForums!

I'd say that looks just fine. I'm not sure if it's aluminum or not. It says silver. If it is silver, it should be fine, and wayy cheap as well.
 
IF you put on 4 high CFM fans, that'll own...
But it's highly impratical unless you're running parallel lines into one rad. A single line will have the last thing being cooled in the loop running hot... unless you're not going to have alot in your loop.

Also, welcome. and beware:sn:
 
those are copper, Weapon used to mod cores like that a little while back. I'm sure it'll perform well for you, they're just not too popular because they're so huge.

@ Shell, actually, the w/c gurus around here argue that the order of the loop doesn't matter, as the water temp only varies by 1-2 degrees at any point.
 
SolidxSnake said:
:welcome: to the OCForums!

I'd say that looks just fine. I'm not sure if it's aluminum or not. It says silver. If it is silver, it should be fine, and wayy cheap as well.


Silver refers to the paint. I imagine its two Bonneville or similar heater cores put together.
 
Shell said:
IF you put on 4 high CFM fans, that'll own...
But it's highly impratical unless you're running parallel lines into one rad. A single line will have the last thing being cooled in the loop running hot... unless you're not going to have alot in your loop.

Also, welcome. and beware:sn:
I was planning on using four of these fans:
TT Thunderblade 120mm

I know there are better/more quiet fans out there, but the core will be mounted on the side of the case, and I want the fans I mod into the side panel window to look good.

I don't know much about parallel lines in WCing, but if it's anything like parallel circuits, something like this should work, right?:

wcap5.jpg


Or am I totally wrong about that?

Btw: Anyone like my 1337 paint skills? :rolleyes:
 
That looks good. Those fans will do some serious blowing and they look cool. :cool:
Just make shure to use very large tubing, I'd say to use 1 inch, and .5" for the parallel lines... and try to find some Y connectors that actually are 1" splitting into .5" those would ensure smooth flow.
I have no complaints about that setup, are you going to use a T-line or a reservoir?

MS Paint FTW.
scott d said:
@ Shell, actually, the w/c gurus around here argue that the order of the loop doesn't matter, as the water temp only varies by 1-2 degrees at any point.
I'd say 1-2 degrees is enough to care about.
Doesn't matter?
orly175c7edlz6.jpg
 
Shell said:
That looks good. Those fans will do some serious blowing and they look cool. :cool:
Just make shure to use very large tubing, I'd say to use 1 inch, and .5" for the parallel lines... and try to find some Y connectors that actually are 1" splitting into .5" those would ensure even flow.
I have no complaints about that setup, are you going to use a T-line or a reservoir?

MS Paint FTW.
Well, I had wanted to divert more of the coolant flow to the CPU than the GPU+NB line...but seeing how I have no experience in these matters, you're probably right. :beer:
Where could I find 1in tubing/connectors? (couldn't find anything on Petra, Vouyer, etc).

I haven't decided on whether I will put a reservoir in an empty 5.25" drive bay, or use a t-line and make a mini-TEC cooled insulated compartment in the top 2 drive bays (cold Mountain Dew only an arms length away... :santa:).
 
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I have the Thunderblade fans in my case, unless you max them out they wont produce that much air. So make sure you have a fan controller. I would personally just go with some high cfm panaflows or something similar.
 
Shell said:
That looks good. Those fans will do some serious blowing and they look cool. :cool:
Just make shure to use very large tubing, I'd say to use 1 inch, and .5" for the parallel lines... and try to find some Y connectors that actually are 1" splitting into .5" those would ensure smooth flow.
I have no complaints about that setup, are you going to use a T-line or a reservoir?

MS Paint FTW.

I'd say 1-2 degrees is enough to care about.
Doesn't matter?
orly175c7edlz6.jpg


I would NOT run the lines in parallel. Running them in series will be easier, and it won't drop any performance, provided your pump is strong.

Running with a D5 or a DDC+, you should be good to go running that rad, an apogee, maze4/MCW-60, and some sort of NB block. All in series.

And order does not matter in a WC loop. The temperature varies at max 1C.
 
Alright, the pump might not cut it...
I just don't want to lay out $75 for an overpriced pump marketed towards people companies know are willing to pay top $$$ for high end stuff (a.k.a. the enthusiast)

So far, my updated setup would be:

Laguna Statuary Pump 3 ($35) (5.5ft head @ up to 6.8GPM)
2x B'Ville Heater Core w/o AC ($40) (easier to fit in my case, and 60% cheaper than one 4x120mm rad)
MCW30 ($30)
DD Maze4 GPU ($45)
White Water - LE ($35)
4x SILVERSTONE FM121-B ($60) (110 CFM @ <40 dBA each)
Fluid and tubing/connectors ($20)


System would run like this:

........... /Radiator1>CPU>---\
Pump-<................................ >Pump
........... \Radiator2>GPU>NB/
 
Any specific reason to wye the radiators? Running it pump->rad->rad->cpu->gpu->pump (depending on your case layout) would work just as well. Also, both of those blocks are good choices, as are the cores.

And the D5 isn't really overpriced...
 
SolidxSnake said:
And the D5 isn't really overpriced...
Compared to non-PC water pumps it is...
A quick eBay search led me to this:
225 GPH @ 17 Feet Pond Pump for only $15.

I'm not saying I'm going to slap a 1200GPH pump in my computer, but if something that powerful is that cheap, why would something less powerfull be more expensive?
 
Don't go through all of this and then skimp on the pump. Get the D5 or the DDC+. If you pick up a cheap pump you will regret it later and realize you wasted money.
 
Point blank- going parallel is not the way to go. You will significantly hurt your performance, especially with the crappy pumps you have mentioned. You need to read a bit before you follow recommendations like that. It is a proven fact that most setups will only have .5c difference in temps across the system running in series. You get what you pay for. The money you pay for a DDC 18w or D5 is not a matter of being overpriced. They are very high quality pumps. If you want to spend a bit less, go with an Eheim 1250, or find a slightly used D5 in the classifieds. It is not a matter of just the flow and head rating, it is also a matter of the PQ curve and how the pump actually works under restriction.

You would be better off performance wise going with a Thermochill than a heatercore. The Thermochill is optimized for our purposes and performs better than anything else on the market currently.
 
MCP655: 10' head; 317 GPM and IIRC it's rated for 50000 hours of operation. The last one is the crux. A $20 pump off eBay IMO has a 0 reliability rating. Consider the cost of replacing your components if the pump fails.

The PC radiator may perform better but a heater core is darn cheap, comparatively. And considering the design pressure/temperature of a heater core it probably has a higher reliability rating than the PC rad - though I've never heard of either failing ...
 
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