My cooling towers(pics), not finished.

[jamesavery22]

you dont need pressure in the config he has . you need velocity . there is verly little resistance in the setup he put there due to the fin spacing so even low pressure fans would work but the faster the air travels the better

Eh I dunno if I agree with that. There is good spacing between the fins but from going to holding the tube in my hand and nothing obstructing it to puting the cooler into the tube the air flow drops a good deal. Course my most accurate and calibrated instrument for measuring this is the few unburnt hairs on the back of my hand so I dont exactly have hard data to back up my claim

But the fins arent that long so the amount of space air can actually travel through is reduced a good deal.

 

[ZachM]

I saw some of those coolers at a car show/swap meet a while back. Immediately ideas started running through my head for a WC setup. Heh.

Nice job. They look swank. I'm looking forward to seeing the temps.

 

[JokerF15]

Nice, similar to a project I was working on a while ago. I've used these Street Rod Coolers in a couple cars, they work decent, they can handle WC setup's no problem, just get the Air to them right. Also similar to one of the products we were working on, but no details on that .

-JokerF15

 

[Alacritan]

I hope it performs as well as it looks. If it beats the Reserator for a fraction of the price it'll be completely worth it.

 

[greenman100]

you dont need pressure in the config he has . you need velocity . there is verly little resistance in the setup he put there due to the fin spacing so even low pressure fans would work but the faster the air travels the better

spacing is bigger, but restriction is longer

check out some research on Black Ice radiators vs. heatercores of a similar size with axial fans

you should knowbetter

 

[greenman100]

also awesoem idea, I'd have done it if glavanic corrosion wasn't an issue

 

[thorilan]

take a good look at the amount of distance and surface area he is covering with the tubes .not even the full length of the coolers. i would geustimate about 60% of the length .
that spacing and any that a simple fam of that basic dimention will have no problem exceeding the pressure needed to push through the gigantic open spaces there .


i have seen space age super efficient homes with a nearly identical design to for space heating with much weaker fans
the design was to eliminate asbestos and to heat large open spaces by sucking the air from the top of the room and exhausting it out the bottom of tubes just like that but the fins where not for releasing heat they where for in replacement of insolation and the tubes are visible in the house as aposed to hidding them in the walls .
but then again i have seen 3 cm thick styrofoam sheets used with aluminum foil laminate used instead of fiberglass insulation too

 

[BillHarrison]

You got these for 20$ each? I see them for 40$ each, let me know how you got the sweet deal of 2 for 40!

Thanks

Bill

As for a link where to buy the coolers:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=7927911261&category=46095

Best I could find. There were some cheaper listed but I couldnt see the pics so I wasnt sure. They have dual pass ones so the inlet and outlet are on the same side. I got these because I got them for 20$ a piece which is the cheapest Ive seen em.

 

[jamesavery22]

I finally got the system up and running over the weekend. Ive got new pics but Im at work right now.

The loop consists of the two towers in parrellel, a magdrive3, and a MCW6000a, nothing else.
So the heat load isnt large. The mcw6000 is cooling a barton 2500+ OCed to 2ghz.

Lastnight my ambient was higher than normal, 27-28c. I initially had the fans on full when I hooked everything up. I was affraid the coolers wouldnt cool the barton enough. At a 28c ambient full load temps stabilized at 51c. Stayed there for about 2 hours then I messed with the fans. At first I had them in parrallel then in series with a pot. Then I put everything in series, giving each fan <5v when I turned the pot all the way down. At this speed you cant hear the fans unless you put your ear to them and they are moving little to no air over the coolers...
To my surprise temps rose a whole 1c... I was sitting there watching the temps for another 2 hours waiting for them to go up but it just stayed at 52c. Now mind you this is with the mobos diode so I know temps could go 10c either way but thats usually constant.
Since the fans werent moving much air I thought "heck I'll just turn them off." With fans completely off temps hit 55c and stabilized after an hour.
The room it was in was pretty stuffy and much hotter than the rest of the house. The living room it will be in is always cooler and very open so Im pretty sure IM going passive with this. I have a eheim 1048 coming in the mail because I think the mag3 is putting too much heat into the loop. I'll see how my temps do with the 1048 with the current fan setup. If there isnt much change I'll go fanless.

Either way IM very happy with it. if I go fanless I'll feel I wasted the effort with making that shroud and fan mount but ho hum.

And one note to myself for being an idiot I routed the tubes to pump water up a tube then down into the coolers. Tons of air gets trapped that way. I should have pumped the water up the coolers then out those top tubes you can see in the pics that are connected via a wye fitting by the fans.

 

[greenman100]

that shroud may be helping more than you think

see cathar's posts on procooling about thermal chimneys

 

[jamesavery22]

that shroud may be helping more than you think

see cathar's posts on procooling about thermal chimneys

Yeah Im a moron, completely forgot about that... I should try not just turning the fans off but removing them from the shroud. before I just left them there blocking air (real smart).

Makes me feel a little better. Spending 20$ on that pipe wasnt a waste after all But the 12v ac/dc adapter in the box is a waste other than powering the stupid blue led in the power switch.

Unfortunately I cant get a true chimney. I cant have a tube long enough to have the radiators midway. That would just be too tall, thing is already close to 2 1/2 feet high. Not sure if having the tubes go close to the bottom would improve the chimney effect or not though... Probably would. Either way temps are good so Im happy. Not to mention I dont have enough tubing left to make larger ones.

 

[jamesavery22]

Well a mag3 was definitely a bad solution for me. Passive temps are now 49-50c as opposed to 55-56c. With the fans on full I got 51c witht he mag3. That thing just dumped too much heat into my loop. Im running a 1048 right now.

Also learned I need more cooling on my NB. With no fans in the case other than the vid card (gonna have to start a thread on that too =( ) and PSU my NB was hotter than my CPU and actually heating up the rest of the mobo. Putting a slow 60mm fan on the nb (has that large blue passive zalman) dropped the NB temp to 31c from 52c... Plus the CPU diode dropped from 49c to 42c. So my temps are great right now but I have a fan blowing on the NB that I want to get rid of...

Whats the lowest pressure drop NB block? the DD maze4 one? That brass top one costs more than my mcw6000... any cheaper solutions that perform just as well? Guessing not but I gotta ask.