Blackice Extreme vs. Heater core

[Ugmore Baggage]

My guess is it's a porous surface. Then it would act as turbulator and to increase surface area. At first glance, a heat sink is an insulator too, but then you realise that air passing over the fins will cool the chip.

Black is not a problem in the dark. Think of it this way, do you want heat to reflect back into the radiator? (it's black on both sides)

The thickness and composition of the paint is probably engineered into the product.

 

[Aesik]

The only way that I could ever see painting as an advantage is *IF* corrosion would even be and issue and *IF* the corrosion itself could eventually be worse than the paint. I just don't see this as the case in PC cooling. Now perhaps off-road performance racing is a different case.

If someone really wants to test it thoroghly, they'd have to setup up and extensive set of tests to be done overtime to see the effects. Tossing in a radiator, testing it for a bit then painting and testing again isn't really going to do alot of good nor net much of useful results.

 

[Avatar28]

This thread got me to email HW Labs. Here's a exact transcript of the conversation (except that I left off his sig with all his contact info). M=Me, H=HW Labs.


M: Can you tell me if this radiator is painted black or anodized in black? There's currently some discussion going on about it at the overclockers.com forums.

H: Hi there.

They are painted black.

http://www.hwlabs.com

And blue.

Cheers,
Willie

M: How does the paint affect the performance? It seems that adding the paint would insulate the radiator somewhat and make it less efficient. Is this the case?

H: Hi there.

The coat on the core is very very light. You can coat the tanks with as much paint as you want as long as you don't insulate the fins. That would be tantamount to poisoning your rad.

Cheers,
Willie


M: So just the tubes are painted and not the fins, correct?

H: There is a light coat on the fins just for aesthetic purposes.

 

[rivercom9]

So someone painting their own radiator would not be a good idea? Seems like there can be some performance gains by not painting a BlackIceXtreme. How much? Thats debateable, but I would guess that it would only be about a degree or two, maybe even less, unless the paint is on a little too think.

 

[The Highlander]

I think 0.5C is the difference between stability and unstability... With the change of AS2 to AS3 I got about 1C to 0.5C less and that made me go 25more MHz with the same voltage...

 

[killersushi]

I think 0.5C is the difference between stability and unstability... With the change of AS2 to AS3 I got about 1C to 0.5C less and that made me go 25more MHz with the same voltage...

Hehe... aww c'mon, there's no way you can say that in general. This will hardly ever happen

 

[The Highlander]

It has happened to me quite a few times...

Ive changed heatsinks and only gotten 1C difference... and I always get a bit more out of my cpu...

My gain in temp over the swiftech MCX462 vs the MCW462(watercooling) was 2C... and I got so much more in performance...

 

[rivercom9]

So whadya do with the MCX? Wait Im confused, did you go from the MCX to the MCW or the other way around. Anyways, the root of my question is what did you do with the cooler that you stopped using?

 

[The Highlander]

I went form the MCX which is powered by the delta 80mm fan to the MCW462 with 1/2" fittings...

The other heatsink I lend it to a friend... to whom I sold a KG7 with a PC2700 256mb and XP1700+ for $300.00.

The HSF is still mine, but I just lent it to him. If I need another system well I all take it back...

Ok... Here is what happened on my earlier upgrade...

I hade a Thermalright sk6 with the xp1700+ I could only overclock to 1595 @1.85v I went to the swiftech and I was totally dissapointed because my temps dropped 0.5C. However I was able to overclock to 1650 at the same voltage...

The only noticeable change sas 0.5C in temp...

But sometimes I think that same temps on different heatsinks do not mean the same stability. I thought that i was stabler because the swiftech was a lot bigger and heavier(more mass) and therefore it could absorb more of what the cpu was radiating.

The more mass the more heat it can absorb...

 

[rivercom9]

Yeah, you just have to look at the materials that was used in its manufacture and how efficiently that it can dissipate the heat into the air.

 

[DodgeViper]

I think that the Black Ice Extreme is limited do to its design. The size is not what is limiting this core, but the way the fans are mounted are causing the problems. If you mount the fans directly to the core the center of the core is not getting air to pass over the coils. A better solution would to be to install shrouds and have the fans stand off about 1”. I would bet that those that have used the BIX mounted the fans directly to the core and may have not got the results they were looking for. The Chevy Chevette is over kill and the size limits the use in many applications. Currently my system has a push/pull arrangement in the bottom of my case exhausting air from the H/C into the case.

Don’t get me wrong, I have been a big supporter for the Chevy Chevette core as I have built a few push/pull rads with my custom shrouds, but my new system I am building, I am going to try out a BIX with shrouds. With the BIX being only 5.9 x 5.0 this will work in my new Cheiftec case. I plan to mount the rad above the P/S ducting the air out the back and supplying air from the top of the case while insulating this area so the P/S does not add any heat to the H/C.

Oh, I will strip the black paint and expose the copper/brass core so it can be seen as in my current setup.

 

[Paxmax]

Rads, paint, heat

Well, the painting is a tradeoff.

Yes, when you paint a radiator you'll be loosing a bit of (convection) cooling.
Yes, when sun shines on a black surface it will get hotter.
Yes, painting it makes it look better than discolored copper.
Yes, black anodization is a better solution.
Yes, it is hard to anodizate copper, but not impossible.

No, by painting it your cooling might not necessarily get worse, the black paint increases the dissipation by radiation.
Painting a cooler gives it larger surface area
Very important to make the coat as thin as possible. Thats where anodization has a big advantage, it'll be as thin as possible.

 

[FIZZ3]

Hehe... well, the BlackIceXtreme is highly engineered, honestly I don't think they would paint it without reason.

For looks?